Everyone was waiting for President Lucian to speak. The silence in the boardroom was absolutely heavy enough to crush the lungs of anyone with a guilty conscience.
A man stood at the front, his neat suit suddenly feeling three sizes too small. His glasses glinted under the LED lights, failing to hide the nervousness on his face.
He cleared his throat, sounding like sandpaper on glass.
At the head of the table, Lucian leaned back partly present, partly waiting for the reply from Thomas.
"The marketing team has drafted a... streamlined launch for the new PCOS medication," he began thinly. "I've consulted the manufacturers. They're eager to proceed with a direct-to-human phase. If we bypass the standard delays and offer free samples for 'private testing,' we'll save millions in overhead."
Lucian's sharp eyes refused to leave the man's face. "You want to use the public as a laboratory for unvetted chemicals?"
