Polar Quest

36

Kilkenny and Tao holed up in an airport hotel for the remainder of the night. In the morning, an agency representative arrived to handle their discreet departure from the island. Higher-level contacts between the U.S. and Cayman governments provided Kilkenny and Tao with a set of encrypted data disks retrieved from a fire safe hidden in Harley’s home. It was understood that any criminal evidence recovered from the disks would be shared. By late afternoon, Kilkenny and Tao were brought to Jackson Barnett’s office.

‘Please take a seat,’ Barnett said as he picked up a legal pad and a file from his desk. ‘You two have been working together for barely two weeks and already someone has tried to kill you? I never expected such a productive start to this collaboration.’

‘It wasn’t what we set out to do,’ Tao replied.

‘No, but it shows you’re onto something. Operationally, I’m turning this investigation over to you, Roxanne. So far, you and Nolan have provided the only real leads, and I’m inclined to play a hot hand when I have one.’ Barnett pulled a photograph out of the file and handed it to Kilkenny. ‘Is this the man you saw in Antarctica?’

Kilkenny studied the photo carefully, comparing details to those recorded in his memory. ‘Yes.’

‘This is Sumner Duroc,’ Barnett announced. ‘At the time that was taken, he was a senior officer in the Operations Division of the DGSE.’

‘French Special Forces?’ Kilkenny asked.

Barnett nodded. ‘DGSE is the French counterpart of the CIA. Their Operations Division includes a special forces-counterterrorism unit. Duroc was a major when he left the service in ‘ninety-seven. He received numerous awards and citations during his years of service and even trained with our Rangers and Delta Force.’

‘Nice résumé. What’s he up to now?’ Kilkenny asked.

‘He started a company based in Paris called Cerberus Sécurité.’

‘Cerberus?’ Tao repeated. ‘As in the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hell?’

‘I believe that’s the image Duroc is trying to project,’ Barnett said. ‘His company consults on security matters and trains bodyguards for CEOs and other VIPs.’

‘Based on what I saw at LV Station, he’s doing more than playing secret service to the rich and powerful,’ Kilkenny offered. ‘He’s playing mercenary on the side.’

‘But for whom?’ Tao asked.

‘We ran some checks on Cerberus and found that they have an American subsidiary. Based on their tax filings in both Europe and the U.S., we’ve pieced together their client list, and it’s a short one. Their primary source of revenue comes from a large French pharmaceutical firm, Vielogic. Cerberus handles corporate security for the company as well as personal security for its founder and CEO, Charles Lafitte.’

‘Why would a drug company want the Ice Pick probe?’ Tao asked.

‘I was just thinking the same thing,’ Kilkenny said, ‘but if a drug company is behind the attack, then I was wrong about what the raiders were after.’

‘If not the probe, then what?’ Tao asked.

‘The samples from Lake Vostok.’

‘Didn’t you tell me the value of those samples is unknown?’ Tao asked.

‘It is,’ Kilkenny replied. ‘The DNA in those samples might be similar to microbial life found elsewhere in the world, or they might be wildly different. If Lake Vostok turns out to be a kettle of new and unique DNA, then biotech companies looking for the next Epogen or Viagra would pay millions to get in on it.’

‘But that raid must’ve cost millions,’ Tao said. ‘Isn’t that a lot of money to spend on a crapshoot?’

‘That depends on how you define the risks. They might get nothing for their trouble, or they might find a billion-dollar-a-year wonder drug that cures cancer or stops aging.’

‘The pharmaceutical industry spends billions on R&D every year, and a lot of that research never becomes a marketable product,’ Barnett added. ‘For a company like Vielogic, the cost of stealing those samples is less than what they spend each year on Washington lobbyists. Now, I’d like to hear about this Cayman trip. How does it fit in with your investigation?’

‘We’re still not sure that it does,’ Tao replied, ‘but we have strong reason to believe that Duroc tried to kill us because of a stock transaction and not our investigation into the attack in Antarctica.’

‘A stock transaction?’ Barnett asked.

‘It has to do with a small biotech company I’m involved with,’ Kilkenny said, before explaining the curious short on UGene stock that he’d discovered. ‘We brought back a set of disks that we hope contain evidence linking Duroc to the trades.’

‘And what will that tell you?’ Barnett asked.

‘Either Duroc is psychic when it comes to playing the market, or he had something to do with a couple of murders in Ann Arbor.’

Barnett scrawled a few notes on his pad. ‘Based on the evidence you’ve uncovered so far, I think Vielogic warrants a further investigation.’