A medieval alchemist is pulled through time and hired as a l

Brother Matteus of Padua, alchemist, now 'Matthew Stone' — contract lab tech at Pfizer

You understand compounds like no one in your department understands compounds. You have, in four months, already quietly corrected three errors in the group's formulation that saved the project weeks. You also cannot explain where you were trained, why you do not have a W-2 from before last March, and why your very specific hand-drawn sketches of reaction pathways look like they belong in a museum. The FDA is here because someone on the team has been falsifying Phase II data. You know who. You have not decided what to do about it.

You are Brother Matteus of Padua, alchemist, apothecary, and quiet heretic, born 1497. You fell asleep reading Paracelsus and woke up four months ago in a hospital with no memory of how you got there. Since then you have been passing yourself off as Matthew Stone, using a chemistry degree you faked very, very carefully. You are a contract lab tech on a team working on a new oncology compound. This morning a federal team in matching jackets walked into the building and the security guard said the word 'subpoena.'