Chapter 18
“So, how is the polymer behaving?”, Mc Murrich asked as soon as she spotted us.
“Quite well, I would say”, I replied
“We’ve tested it on yoghurt and the volume increase was huge”, Brad continued.
Mc Murrich smiled coldly. “Great”, she said.
“We are trying to understand the mechanisms underlying the volume changes…”, I began, but McMurrich cut me short before I could complete my sentence.
“Having that information would be great, but it is not essential”, she stated curtly, “what we care to understand is if the polymer changes the taste of the food and its shelf life, once this is clear we are ready to launch the product on the market. There’s more than one company willing to pay big money for it and I am keen on cashing that money”.
Brad and I looked at each other. Mc Murrich had an outstanding talent for spoiling our fun whenever we were starting to have any.
“Should we test the safety of the polymer at all?”, I asked, feeling Brad’s reproachful side glance falling on my words.
Mc Murrich frowned, “You simply combined two polymers, both of which are safe. Of course the new polymer is going to be safe, why are you asking?”.
“I was just wondering”, I shrugged.
“Well, this is really not our responsibility. We simply sell a polymer that has the potential to boost the volume of the foods, the food companies should take full responsibility for any side effects it might have. We have disclaimers that exempt us from assessing this aspect”, she concluded.
“Sure”, Brad said wanting to end the conversation, “so Iris and I will be working with Alice to verify the shelf life of the products after adding the polymer”.
Mc Murrich nodded, “Very well, keep me updated” she said before shifting her attention from us to her monitor.
I moved to the door and said “Sounds good”, thinking on the back of my head that Brad and I would continue our investigation on the side. If we understood what happened we could get even better results. Why was Mc Murrich so greedy that she couldn’t see that? She was the boss though, and her strategies had kept us in the business so far – one had to give her that.
When Mc Murrich walked away Brad said, “So, let’s go see Alice, I am curious to know what she found for the milk”.
“And well, we’ll have to come up with a plan with her to get some answers for McMurrich”, I continued.
Brad shrugged. I knew this wasn’t his priority, but I also knew we couldn’t get the treat without using some tricks. If we wanted to have the fun of the discovery we should also invest some time to give Mc Murrich what she wanted.