Polar Quest

45

‘Hello, New York,’ Tao said warmly, breaking the silence that had accompanied their departure from the Vielogic facility and the circuitous drive back to Manhattan.

‘If you see an all-night pharmacy, pull over,’ Kilkenny requested.

Tao turned around to look at Kilkenny. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Fine. I just need something.’

‘There’s one at the end of this block,’ Tao said, pulling the car alongside the curb.

Kilkenny started to move for his door.

‘Stay here,’ Tao said. ‘In that outfit, you look like an extra from a Mad Max movie. I’ll go.’

Kilkenny arched an eyebrow. ‘And you think you’ll just blend right in?’

‘A woman in a skintight black cat suit in New York at this time of night on a weekend?’ Tao asked sarcastically. ‘I won’t even get a second glance. What do you need?’

‘An emetic.’

Tao looked at Kilkenny and he appeared to be fine. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

After Tao completed the errand, they parked the car in a nearby garage and returned to the loft. Inside, Kilkenny stripped off the top of his suit and walked directly to the kitchen sink.

‘What are you doing?’ Grin asked. Tao stood beside him looking concerned.

‘Retrieving evidence.’

Kilkenny peeled the safety wrapper off the syrup of ipecac, read the directions, and took a swallow from the bottle. He leaned over the sink, waiting for the emetic to take hold. He didn’t wait long. Grin and Tao turned away as Kilkenny vomited, heaving the contents of his stomach into the sink. Slowly, the spasms subsided and Kilkenny’s bout was over.

Tao moved beside Kilkenny and reached for the faucet. The stench was overwhelming.

‘Don’t,’ Kilkenny said, panting heavily. ‘There’s a metal capsule in here. We need to find it.’

‘Sit,’ Tao ordered, moving Kilkenny next to a window she’d opened.

The cool night air refreshed him and lessened the intensity of the foul smell from the sink. Using the hose sprayer, Tao diluted the thick vomit and quickly found the metal capsule.

‘This it?’ Tao asked, her hands dripping with water.

‘Yeah,’ Kilkenny replied hoarsely.

‘Good.’ Tao opened the drain and rinsed out the sink. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yeah. I haven’t puked my guts out like that since I left the navy. At least this time I won’t have the hangover.’

‘What is that?’ Grin asked.

‘A sample container from the Ice Pick probe. I found the probe in the Level Four lab. Most of the samples had already been removed, but one’s enough to tie Vielogic to the raid.’

Grin pulled a can of ginger ale from the refrigerator and handed it to Kilkenny. ‘Here, this will settle your stomach.’

‘Thanks,’ Kilkenny said, accepting the drink. ‘Until I actually stood in front of the probe, I had my doubts that a company would launch a military raid, but there’s the proof. And if Vielogic sent Duroc to raid LV Station, then I think it’s quite possible they had him attack UGene as well.’

‘But how’d they do it?’ Grin asked. ‘The cops have a DNA match on Eames. This whole thing just sounds so unreal.’

Kilkenny looked at the metal capsule in his hand. ‘It only takes a bit of hard evidence to prove that something unreal is true.’