THE PAST

            (So how did it go, Stuy? We get busted? The law involved, or only that GI Joe Dean?)
            "Threats were all it amounted to, with an undercurrent of skittishness about what he doesn’t know coming back to haunt him—meaning to haunt the University."
            (What does he know?)
            "Precious little. Only what he’s been told, evidently. I doubt he’s launched any formal investigation."
            (We haven’t been expelled then?)
            "Suspended, is all. Meaning, for the foreseeable future, we'll be engaged solely in extracurricular activities."
            (Does he know about…?)
            "The Lab? Same story; whispers in the wind."
            (Or shit that’s bound to hit the fan.)
            "If and only if, it reaches the Media. But therein lies our clout. Whoever played the snitch has kept this smear campaign internal, suggesting he or she…"
            (Has it in for us alone?)
            "Thus helping us riposte with the Sword of Bad-Publicity Damocles."
            (They’ll prosecute.)
            "They might try. Odds are better that they’ll negotiate."
            (What’s our leverage?)
            "Several stem cell lines, in current use, that the school procured illegally."
            (We know that for sure?)
            "We sure do; appropriating spin-offs, as we have been, for the past eleven months. MIT is in the Skin Trade, too; no two ways about it."