Williams did not want to waste a single moment. The instant he left the estate, he hurried to the airport with his assistant and bodyguards, then flew straight to New York on his private jet.
The reason Greenwich had been chosen by people like them was simple. It was secluded and secure, yet still close enough to New York, the economic center of the United States.
After getting off the plane, he found himself extremely grateful that he owned a small stake in a certain internationally renowned pharmaceutical group.
It was rather ironic. The reason he had bought into that group a few years ago was because he had heard that they had discovered a side effect in a cardiovascular drug that could be used to treat ED.
But judging by the development process and approval procedures for that drug, which had been named sildenafil, it would still take at least another two years.
So after becoming a shareholder, he had managed to get his hands on the drug early. The effect was decent, but the side effects were obviously too much for an old man like him to bear.
But sometimes things really did line up in absurd ways. Now he had gotten hold of another drug that might have the same effect.
When the time came, whether he used the group's name or built up his own pharmaceutical company, he would have quite a few advantages.
That was also the only edge he had over Felix and the others.
And of course, it was also the reason Tver had chosen him.
As for the exchange of benefits behind all this, as a top-class opportunist, he felt no regret about it at all. If anything, he was more than willing.
After all, with his pharmaceutical connections, even if he had to trade away some of the benefits, it was still far better than working with monsters like Felix and Roby, the kind of financiers who would strip a man to the bone.
"Sir, we are here."
Just as he was indulging in fantasies of a glorious future, his glamorous secretary reminded him from beside him.
Williams snapped back to reality and looked out the window. Before him stood a world class biological laboratory that was not publicly famous, but had long accepted funding from the pharmaceutical group he was tied to.
"Let us go." He tightened his grip on the bottle in his hand.
The whole way there, he had not handed that bottle to anyone. Unless that devil like professor appeared again, no one could possibly have swapped it out.
At the laboratory entrance, the person in charge, who had already received orders, came up to greet him.
"Skip the formalities, Hancock. Take this bottle and analyze its ingredients, along with any possible effects it may have."
Hancock looked in puzzlement at the bottle that had been stuffed into his hand, and at the thick pale blue liquid inside.
Seeing that, Williams had no choice but to make up an excuse.
"I stole this confidential drug from a pharmaceutical company. I need you to figure out what it does and what it is made of."
Hancock immediately understood.
Pharmaceutical companies constantly tried to crack one another's formulas, protect themselves from being cracked, and even plant corporate spies. That was all perfectly normal.
Actually obtaining a sample this directly was rare, but not unheard of.
Watching Hancock lead his team back into the lab, Williams could not suppress his curiosity. After leaving his bodyguards behind, he brought that glamorous secretary with him and followed them inside.
Hancock was used to wealthy backers like this, the sort bursting with curiosity yet unable to understand even a single chemical formula. So he casually handed the bottle to his assistant and had her begin the initial analysis.
"Be careful. That thing is very valuable," Williams could not help reminding him when he saw how casually Hancock was handling it.
"Please rest assured. We researchers know better than you how to handle such things carefully. You only need to wait outside for an hour, and you will have a preliminary report."
Hancock spoke carelessly while putting on his protective gear.
Based on experience, liquid medicine was generally easier to absorb and was a common form in the early stages of drug development. Its chemical composition was usually relatively simple as well.
And its chemical stability tended to be poor, so there usually would not be any useless additives mixed in just to interfere with analysis.
So this sudden assignment should not have been especially difficult.
"Sir, I think you need to come and look at this."
His most capable assistant pointed at the screen in front of her with a face full of disbelief.
...
After being sent outside, Williams could only watch Hancock through an observation window.
He watched as Hancock and his team took one drop from the bottle, tested it, discussed it for a while, frowned, then took another drop and moved to another machine for further testing, then discussed it again.
And then again.
And again.
The cycle kept repeating, and it made Williams's heart ache.
Once he established a real connection with Tver, this potion would not be scarce. But right now, he only had this one bottle.
And now half an hour had already passed. Aside from the increasingly grave look on half of Hancock's face, and the fact that half the bottle had been used up, Williams had not gotten a single useful piece of information.
After a while, he finally allowed his secretary to persuade him to sit down.
"Sir, can that potion really treat ED?"
As his personal secretary, Liz knew very well what problem Williams was dealing with. Naturally, that meant it was also her problem.
Otherwise, she would already have risen to become the lady of the house, or at least one of them.
"I do not know. I do not even know what a potion is. But if Mr. Fawley went to all this trouble, then he cannot just be trying to fool us."
"Besides, Felix had no reason to put on an act with him. It is not as if he is after my estate when I have already drawn up my will."
Williams shook his head.
Tricking one another was common in business, but no one would willingly spend time and effort on something meaningless.
"Mr. Williams, um, may I ask where you got that thing from?"
At that moment, Hancock took off his mask hesitantly and handed a sheet of paper to him.
"For the safety of my people, I cannot tell you."
Williams crossed one leg over the other with deliberate composure and looked down at the report in front of him.
Dense letters, numbers, and symbols filled the page, and he could not understand a single one of them.
"So what is the result?"
Hancock forced a smile onto his face.
He did not say aloud what he had arrogantly thought before, but just remembering it made him feel awkward.
"We... we may need a little more time."
"Then what have you found so far?" Sensing that something was wrong, Williams quickly pressed him.
"Well, the elements inside are all still on the periodic table, but the molecules they form are completely unlike anything we know. In fact, they even violate basic chemical common sense..."
Seeing the confusion on Williams's face, Hancock sighed helplessly, his expression full of doubt toward everything he thought he knew before.
"To put it simply, none of this is scientific."
...