"What are you doing?" Ann demanded. "Why are you making up those prescriptions? You're not a pharmacist. You're not even using the scales, so how can these measurements be accurate? Do you understand how dangerous that is?"
She took a step closer to the counter. "You're a criminal. No better than a murderer!"
She turned from Alex to yell at Sophie. "And you, don't you feel any responsibility for what your assistant is doing? Don't you know that the slightest mistake in making up a medicine could kill someone?"
Alex stood calmly, waiting for Ann to finish her rant. The only sign of his displeasure was the narrowing of his eyes.
Sophie didn't know how to respond. She stood there silently as the space in front of the counter filled with people who had heard Ann shouting. They started anxiously asking questions, talking over each other.
"What? He didn't weigh the medicine?"
"That's awful. He's going to kill someone!"
"Fortunately, Dr. Glover found it in time, otherwise this patient might be in serious trouble."
"I have no grudge against you. Why would you want to hurt me?"
"Can someone check my medicine? What if mine is wrong, too?"
"I demand compensation!" The patient whose medicine had caused the fuss was even angrier than Ann. He slammed his hand on the counter and demanded Alex redo the prescription.
The other doctors sneered at Alex, waiting for him and Sophie to try to talk their way out of the situation.
Sophie glanced at Alex and opened her mouth to explain. But before she could speak, Alex smiled and said, "Dr. Glover, what you prescribed was a beta blocker, right?"
"Yes, that's right," she said, nodding.
"Right. So…" He reeled off a list of ingredients and quantities. "Am I right?"
Ann sniffed. "Well, yes, that's correct. But that doesn't mean you've made the medicine correctly."
Alex took the package of pills and tore it open. Popping out one of the pills, he ground it to a fine dust. Then he picked up the Powder Flow Tester, fed in the powder, and pressed the start button. Moments later, the machine spat out a reading.
"Dr. Glover, would you care to check the composition?" Alex asked.
The room fell silent as Ann read through the list, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Well, I don't know how you managed it, but this shows your measurements were absolutely accurate," she said, frowning. "It must have been a fluke."
Without waiting for further reaction, Alex repeated the process with one medicine after another.
For each medicine he had prepared, the result was the same. There was no difference between the official dispensary listing and that of Alex's prepared medicine.
The crowd was stunned.
"I—I don't believe it," Ann stammered. "That's simply impossible. No one can judge those quantities accurately without using the right equipment. Nobody."
Alex looked out at everyone from behind the counter. "Now, does anyone else think I'm careless about human life?"
"I don't know how you managed this sleight of hand, but you haven't fooled me," Ann snarled at him, regaining her composure. "I say again, the preparation of medicine is a precise science, and you can't just grasp ingredients with your bare hands, and you can't be more accurate than the electronic scale. Every time you make a mistake, you could take a life."
She drew herself up and addressed the crowd. "What we want is for everybody to be safe and secure, not this fancy trickery."
Several heads nodded in agreement, but others stayed quiet.
Alex shook his head with a small smile while he repackaged the medicine for the patient.
Ann continued. "This know-it-all attitude of yours is not suitable for my clinic, so you're fired. Take half a day's salary and get the hell out of here."
Sophie couldn't stop herself from saying, "Dr. Glover, I'm afraid you can't fire him."
Feeling her authority had been challenged, Ann was on the attack. "What? Why can't I sack your assistant? I can fire you as well, Sophie, if you don't watch yourself."
"His name is Alex Ambrose, and he's the new boss of Woodside Clinic," Sophie said, her tone a little smug. "So, tell me, do you still think you can fire him?"
"What? That can't be true!" Ann said, clearly horrified. "I would have known. Isaiah would have told me. I won't believe it."
Everyone was surprised. They had no idea the assistant who was so clever at dispensing medicine was actually the new boss of the Woodside Clinic.
Sophie broke the stunned silence. "Let me formally introduce you. This is Alex Ambrose, our new boss."
The doctors responded more warmly now. "Delighted to meet you, Mr. Ambrose. You will have our full support."
Dozens of people were all looking at Alex, all checking out the new boss and wondering if he would be able to control the clinic.
Alex looked right back at them.
"Alex, this is Dr. Ann Glover, and this is Dr. Jones, Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Franklin and Dr. Tomlin…" Alex shook hands with each of them. "They are all long-standing and highly rated members of our team at Woodside, and my father went to great trouble to get them all on board."
"Hello, everyone," Alex said. "My name is Alex. It's an honor to meet you."
As silence fell, an elderly doctor spoke out. "You look like a kid. What do you know about running a clinic? You should leave us to take care of Woodside."
The other doctors nodded.
Sophie started to speak. "Wait, but you—"
Alex cut her off, stepping forward to stare at the old doctor. "I beg your pardon?"
A middle-aged man said, "It's impossible for you to run this clinic and be in charge of us when you're so young. Wake up. You're just some guy who dispenses medicine. You can't talk to us about medical issues."
He took off his glasses and slowly wiped them on his jacket. "There is another hospital right across town. We could all walk into a job there tomorrow. Now that Dr. Allbrook has quit, we can speak our minds. How much do you intend to pay us?"