Polar Quest

47

Kilkenny took three cold beers from his refrigerator as Grin set a box containing a deep-dish pizza on the dining table.

‘Quite a place,’ Tao said as she accepted a bottle from Kilkenny.

‘It’s just an old barn, but I call it home.’

‘I received word from Barnett,’ Tao said. ‘He sends his congratulations at proving Vielogic was behind the raid in Antarctica.’

‘I’m sure they’re quite relieved this wasn’t an act of war against the U.S.’

‘So, where do we go from here?’ Grin asked. ‘Are they going to send in the cops?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Tao replied. ‘The capsule we stole is the fruit of a highly illegal search. Even if the police were sent in, they wouldn’t find anything — the probe is gone by now. This has turned into a delicate investigation against a major international corporation. The justice department will need a lot more evidence before they take Vielogic to court.’

Kilkenny pulled a slice of pizza out of the box. ‘Tomorrow, I’m going to show Eames the capsule, then I’ll take it over to UGene so his people can take a look at what’s inside. If the life we found in Lake Vostok is genetically unique, we’ve got a tool we can use against Vielogic.’

‘What do you mean?’ Grin asked.

‘If the samples collected by the probe contain DNA that could only have come from Lake Vostok, and we know what to look for, we can prevent Vielogic from patenting any of the valuable sequences.’

‘Or we could blackmail them,’ Tao added.

‘By we, I assume you’re speaking of the U.S. government,’ Kilkenny said, ‘and not us personally.’

‘Of course,’ Tao replied in a way that left Kilkenny wondering.

‘I can see the value of the Vostok samples,’ Grin said, ‘but what does Vielogic get out of framing Eames for murder?’

‘They’re after UGene,’ Kilkenny replied. ‘The CEO of Vielogic put out a feeler just before the murders, and Oz turned him down.’

‘With what we know already, can’t we get Eames out of jail?’ Grin asked.

‘No,’ Kilkenny said matter-of-factly. ‘Duroc’s short trade and his ties to Vielogic aren’t enough to prove a conspiracy. All the evidence still points to Oz as the murderer. That’s the thing about both of these incidents — they were laid out to be perfectly explainable. An accidental plane crash and a jealousy-induced double homicide. Now that we’ve proven Vielogic was behind one, I’m even more convinced they’re responsible for the other. Trouble is, I don’t have a clue what to look for in order to prove that Eames is innocent. Hopefully, he can help me out with that.’

Duroc sat in the passenger seat of the gray Chevy Blazer carefully listening to the conversation taking place inside Kilkenny’s home. The truck was parked in the new subdivision across the road from the Kilkenny family farm, with a clear line of sight to Kilkenny’s home.

One of three men he’d brought with him stood in the open attic of a rough-framed house firing a low-intensity laser beam at the picture window in the barn’s loft. The coherent beam of light struck the smooth glass and absorbed the minute vibrations caused by the sounds created inside the barn before being reflected back across the road to the receiver.

The driver pulled his headset off and turned to Duroc. ‘Kilkenny and Tao are both there and they have the capsule. Do we move in to take it?’

‘It’s foolish to move against this man in his own home. Kilkenny has given us the information we need to retrieve the capsule with a minimum of force.’