I stared at the dashboard light.

“We are deeply saddened by these developments,” Barbara’s voice played from a recorded clip.

Her voice was smooth, dripping with practiced maternal concern.

“Evelyn is a brilliant young woman, but the pressure of the doctoral program was clearly too much for her.”

“My son, Hunter, discovered significant discrepancies in her recent oncology data.”

“We hope she gets the professional help she needs.”

“But Hayes Industries must protect the scientific truth.”

I turned the radio off.

The silence inside the car was deafening.

My own mother-in-law had just branded me mentally unstable on public radio.

They were not just trying to steal the patent.

They were trying to destroy my credibility so completely that no one would ever believe my side of the story.

If I was discredited, any claim I made to the research would be viewed as the delusions of a failed academic.

I shifted the car into drive and pressed the gas pedal.

I needed my raw data.

The university lab was locked down, but I had one advantage they did not know about.