InkBound
patreon
CH121 | DI
🕑 Added 2025-05-26 12:45:01 +0000 UTCAs Ha Si-heon left the room, a gentle smile spread across the directors’ faces.
Kissinger was the first to speak.
“I thought all young people these days only cared about their own interests, but it’s fortunate to see someone with such a strong sense of responsibility toward the world.”
The other directors nodded in agreement.
While Holmes quietly clenched her fist, Kissinger spoke to her softly.
“Introducing this to the field is a great opportunity. Hasn’t Theranos slowed down in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors?”
“That’s true…”
The medical market, especially hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, was a core sector that Theranos had to target.
However, the strict technical verification standards in the medical field acted as a high barrier, and the company had yet to find a breakthrough.
As a result, Theranos repeatedly failed to secure contracts in key areas and was barely maintaining sales through alternative distribution channels.
In this situation, the clinical trial partnership proposed by Ha Si-heon was undeniably an attractive card.
But.
‘What is he thinking?’
The problem was that Ha Si-heon did not trust Theranos’ technology.
And yet, he was willing to invest a fortune in a technology he didn’t believe in?
‘Suspicious.’
Therefore, his investment proposal had to be rejected.
However.
A new problem had arisen from their recent meeting.
If she suddenly claimed that Ha Si-heon had withdrawn from the deal, the directors would undoubtedly question why.
It was best to start planting an excuse for his withdrawal now.
“Of course, if it’s a good opportunity, we shouldn’t miss it. But… I have some doubts about whether they are a reliable partner.”
“Reliable?”
“I heard that RP Solutions is a newly established company. It’s small, its market position is still uncertain, and forming a partnership with them seems a bit premature…”
She tried to imply that the company was too inexperienced to be worth collaborating with, but some of the directors looked at her curiously.
One of them asked gently.
“Isn’t Theranos also a startup?”
It was a pointed remark.
Holmes hurriedly corrected herself.
“That’s true… But that’s precisely why we need a more solid partner. Our future is already uncertain, so if our partner is also unstable, the risk burden would be too high, wouldn’t it?”
The directors hesitated for a moment, then nodded in understanding.
After all, Holmes had a strong track record of securing partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies and large distribution chains.
“Of course, your past achievements are impressive. But those were exceptional cases—generally, collaboration with small companies is more common.”
Questioning RP Solutions’ qualifications wasn’t working.
In that case, she had to raise doubts about Ha Si-heon himself.
“Besides, I still find his intentions suspicious. There’s always a chance he was sent by a competitor to spy on our technology.”
Holmes genuinely believed that.
She suspected that one of the two major companies dominating the medical diagnostic device market might have sent Ha Si-heon to steal Theranos’ ideas.
‘I can’t let them take it.’
For Theranos, ideas were everything.
‘Diagnosing hundreds of diseases early with just a few drops of blood from a fingertip and expanding distribution so that people could get tested outside of hospitals.’
This visionary innovation alone had propelled the company to rapid growth.
Of course, they had yet to perfect the technology to fully realize this vision.
But that was merely a matter of funding.
With enough capital, they could overcome any technological hurdle.
There was nothing in this world that money couldn’t solve.
That’s why her anxiety only grew stronger.
What if the world found out their technology was incomplete?
What if a company with far greater financial power than Theranos stepped in upon learning this?
That would be a crisis that could determine the company’s very survival.
She wanted to emphasize the gravity of the situation, but—
“Haha, but isn’t he from Goldman? Even if a competitor wanted to steal information, they wouldn’t use Goldman to do it, so you don’t need to worry.”
The directors dismissed the idea of Ha Si-heon being a spy simply because he was associated with Goldman.
Holmes barely swallowed the words, ‘How can you be so sure?’
She had learned from painful experience that openly voicing too many concerns about competitors could backfire.
…
Although not widely known, about six years ago, Holmes had faced the risk of being ousted from her CEO position.
At the time, employees had raised concerns to the board about several of her policies and decisions.
Holmes had defended them as “protective measures against competitors,” but the board was unconvinced.
They criticized her for poor management and even considered bringing in a professional executive to replace her.
In the end, after two hours of desperate persuasion, Holmes barely managed to keep her position.
However, she had to make a firm promise to disclose all matters transparently and strictly follow the board’s advice in the future.
“You’re not overly conscious of competitors again, are you, Elizabeth?”
“Of course not, I promised. It’s just… I have a bad feeling about him.”
“A feeling…”
The directors smiled gently.
“Elizabeth, you can’t always work with people who think the same way as you. Sometimes, disagreements and adjustments are necessary. That’s how we grow, so why not take this as an opportunity and do your best?”
Holmes subtly clenched her fist.
‘Words aren’t enough.’
The board’s favorability toward Ha Si-heon was unexpectedly high.
It wasn’t just because they were moved by his touching story—there were also clear advantages to introducing the technology to the field.
A simple ‘bad feeling’ wasn’t persuasive enough.
At this rate… if she wanted to reject Ha Si-heon’s investment, she might have to convince the board first.
‘It’s fine. There’s still tomorrow.’
Tomorrow was the final day of due diligence.
It also included a tour of the lab and Newton’s demonstration.
Ha Si-heon would undoubtedly try to find faults again.
After all, he didn’t trust Theranos’ technology.
Holmes intended to capture that moment vividly.
If he displayed a two-faced attitude—praising Theranos in front of the board while relentlessly pointing out flaws during the actual evaluation…
Then, she could firmly declare that collaboration with such an untrustworthy person was impossible.
Yes, that was all she needed to do.
It was a perfect plan.
The next morning, before the due diligence, Holmes discreetly completed her preparations.
A small pen slipped into her jacket pocket.
It looked ordinary, but it had a hidden function to record all conversations.
She planned to use it to expose Ha Si-heon’s true intentions.
However, things did not unfold as expected.
“How did you resolve the hemolysis issue?”
A sharp question about Newton’s technology was raised—but the person asking wasn’t Ha Si-heon.
It was the expert accompanying him.
“That’s…”
“The details are proprietary technology, so we can’t disclose them.”
Just as Holmes was about to answer, Ha Si-heon swiftly interrupted.
With a gentle smile, he added,
“It’s an inevitable measure to protect the company’s core competitive advantage. I ask for your understanding.”
He spoke as if he were representing Theranos.
And yet, he was the one who had brought this expert.
“What is the exact dilution ratio?”
The expert did not stop and continued with sharp questions.
In chemiluminescent immunoassays, blood had to be diluted once to filter out pigments that interfered with the light signal.
However, Newton’s dilution process had several challenges.
“If the blood sample is this small, excessive dilution would make it difficult to measure the light signal accurately. How did you solve this issue?”
“That part is also proprietary technology, so we cannot provide details.”
“Even portable diagnostic devices on the market can run dozens of tests with three to four drops of blood, but exceeding 200 is impossible due to blood volume limitations. How did you solve this problem with even less blood? Is it related to the dilution process you mentioned earlier?”
“That, too, is proprietary technology, so we cannot provide specific details.”
As such responses kept repeating, the expert’s face showed signs of frustration.
“If you can’t disclose even this much information, it’s difficult to provide a professional evaluation.”
At that moment, Ha Si-heon intervened again.
“We would appreciate any opinions you can provide based on the information available.”
“How can we possibly…”
“Isn’t this what proprietary technology is all about?”
Ha Si-heon’s counterquestion made the expert scoff sarcastically.
“No. I’ve consulted for dozens of startups, but I’ve never seen a case where a company restricts information this much while asking for advice.”
Holmes clenched her fist again as she listened to the conversation.
That last question…
It was clearly a calculated move by Ha Si-heon.
He had deliberately led the expert to say, ‘Even startups aren’t this secretive about their proprietary technology.’
The following questions continued in the same vein, and in the end, Holmes gained nothing from the conversation.
The recording file was filled with content highlighting Theranos’ lack of transparency rather than Ha Si-heon’s suspicious behavior.
There was no way she could present this to the board.
“Then, shall we conclude the due diligence here?”
A sly smile appeared on Ha Si-heon’s lips.
“I’ll inform you of the final decision in a few days, but you can consider the investment virtually confirmed.”
Despite the expert’s unfavorable evaluation, he was pushing ahead with the investment.
Suspicious.
A strong instinct told her that this investment should never be accepted.
However, if she wanted to reject it, she needed a valid reason.
The secret recording she had taken held nothing useful.
‘What should I do…?’
She had to find a new breakthrough.
As Holmes was growing anxious, another puzzling scene unfolded before her.
“Huh? Emily?”
“Sean? Why are you here…?”
“I’m here for the due diligence.”
As she was leaving the lab, she caught sight of Ha Si-heon exchanging a particularly familiar greeting with an employee.
Holmes furrowed her brows.
‘No way… Could Ha Si-heon have colluded with an insider?’
Was his firm suspicion toward Theranos’ technology because…
Holmes clenched her fist tightly.
She vividly recalled how, six years ago, she had nearly lost her CEO position due to whistleblowing from employees.
“Then, I’ll be in touch soon.”
Ha Si-heon still had that insufferable smile as he bid farewell and left.
The moment he disappeared, Holmes quickly pulled out her phone.
The person on the other end of the call was a private investigator regularly employed by her lawyer.
“Report his movements and contacts in real time. Send photo evidence immediately as well.”
After ordering surveillance on Ha Si-heon, Holmes immediately summoned the head of the research lab to ask about the “problematic employee.”
Had this employee ever raised suspicions in the past?
How loyal was she?
As expected, the employee’s loyalty was questionable.
‘She must have leaked something…’
While waiting anxiously, the first report from the investigator arrived.
<He is currently meeting with a Caucasian man at the hotel lounge.>
The moment Holmes saw the attached photo in the email, her heart froze.
Jonathan Kurtz.
A journalist from the Wall Street Times who had been relentlessly probing into Theranos.
He had investigated countless health centers where Theranos’ devices were installed, highlighting error rates and focusing on patient damages.
He persistently pursued both current and former employees of Theranos.
And now… he was meeting with Ha Si-heon?
Holmes bit her fingernails hard.
<What are they talking about?>
<Just chatting about the weather.>
That couldn’t be true.
If those two were meeting…
Just as she was about to press for more detailed information—
Buzzz!
Her phone rang.
The caller was none other than Kissinger.
[Today’s due diligence is over, and I was curious about how it went, so I thought I’d call.]
Only then did she realize.
She should have reported first.
But she had been so preoccupied with her suspicions about Ha Si-heon that she had completely forgotten.
“Actually, he kept pointing out too many flaws in our technology again today…”
[Haha, that’s expected for field implementation. Even the pharmaceutical companies did the same before. Don’t take it as distrust—see it as thoroughness.]
She had intended to express how distrustful Ha Si-heon had been during the evaluation, but Kissinger brushed it off.
Holmes forced a smile and accepted the advice.
As the conversation neared its end, she hesitated before speaking again.
“But actually, there’s something that’s been bothering me…”
[What is it?]
“I’m not sure if I should say this.”
After a moment of dramatic hesitation, she finally spoke.
“Actually, I happened to see him while passing by. And… he was meeting with that journalist I mentioned before…”
She informed him that Ha Si-heon had met with a Wall Street Times reporter.
Holmes had already warned the board about this journalist.
A man who made a fuss over a mere 1% error rate.
A journalist who might have been bribed by a competitor to sabotage Theranos’ launch.
“Isn’t it strange that Ha Si-heon is meeting with such a journalist? If he truly trusted Theranos, that meeting shouldn’t be happening, right?”
She tried to present the situation as blatantly suspicious.
However, the response she received was unexpectedly indifferent.
[Even if they met, the journalist probably approached him first.]
“But if he really believed in us, why would he even listen to a journalist like that?”
[If it’s about the error rate, it might be worth hearing him out—considering he aims for field implementation.]
Strangely, Kissinger wasn’t concerned about the meeting at all.
Even though she had made it clear what kind of journalist he was…
“But that journalist’s character is questionable. He even hinted at wanting something in return for not writing negative articles about us.”
[A Wall Street Times journalist? That’s hard to believe.]
He sounded as if he trusted the Wall Street Times’ reputation more than her words.
Holmes instinctively raised her voice.
“I’m telling you, it’s true!”
She flinched at her own outburst.
Silence lingered on the other end of the call.
Kissinger hesitated briefly before responding in a soft tone.
[Don’t worry too much. Even if what you say is true and the journalist is a problem, it won’t be a big deal.]
“How could it not be a problem?”
[No matter how much they try to slander us, in the end, the truth always prevails. There’s no way all your hard work until now will crumble overnight. Have faith.]
