Polar Quest

49

‘He’s left the jail. Heading south on Carpenter,’ the man tailing Kilkenny reported.

‘Understood.’

Duroc signaled to his men to get into position. The two men stepped out of the Blazer and looked around the parking lot. It was full of vehicles belonging to employees of the firms that leased space in the research park. Duroc’s men expertly popped the locks on two older vehicles — a pickup truck and a Cadillac Sedan de Ville — and began hot-wiring the ignitions.

‘On Ellsworth,’ the tail reported. ‘Approaching the turn. He’s signaling.’

Kilkenny turned his Mercedes ML-320 onto the research park’s private drive and followed the curve around back to UGene’s building. He spotted a few empty spaces in the far corner and headed down the aisle toward them.

The driver of the Cadillac watched as the black SUV cruised toward him. He estimated Kilkenny’s speed at fifteen miles per hour. Counting down the spaces, he waited until the SUV was only ten feet away, then shifted into gear and hit the accelerator. Powered by an ancient 472-cubic-inch V-8, the Cadillac shot out into the aisle.

‘Oh, shit!’ Kilkenny cursed.

He stomped down on the brake, but there wasn’t enough room between the two vehicles to stop. The Mercedes plowed into the passenger side of the Cadillac. Instantly, the plastic cover on the steering wheel flew off as the SUV’s front air bags deployed. Kilkenny’s forward motion was immediately halted by the nylon bag inflating at two hundred miles per hour in the opposite direction.

The driver of the pickup shifted into reverse and rammed the black SUV. Both passenger-side doors buckled inward and the side air bags deployed. Kilkenny was jerked sideways into the door, his head impacting on the glass.

Duroc’s two drivers abandoned their vehicles and ran over to the SUV. They yanked open Kilkenny’s door, cut off his safety belt, and threw him to the ground. He was stunned from the blow to his head. The driver of the Cadillac punched Kilkenny twice in the stomach, then both men quickly frisked him.

The pickup driver said, ‘Got it,’ when he located the capsule.

Duroc pulled the Blazer around and the two men climbed inside. They pulled away just as the first people emerged from the surrounding buildings to investigate the crash.

‘How are you?’ Tao asked as she entered Kilkenny’s private room at University Hospital.

‘I took another whack on the head, but I’ll live. They got the capsule back. We didn’t even have a chance to get the damn thing open.’

‘I’m surprised they didn’t kill you.’

‘I’m not complaining, but we’re running out of time on this.’

Tao shook her head. ‘The probe is scrap by now. There’s no way we’ll find anything that can be identified as part of it. The government will just have to go after them in other ways to make them pay for the raid.’

‘With what, fines and sanctions? Big fucking deal!’

‘You have to be realistic about this.’

‘My sense of what’s realistic disappeared when Duroc blasted my plane out of the sky. Vielogic murdered eight people in Antarctica for business purposes, and, right now, I’d bet the house that they framed Eames for murder in order to take over UGene.’

‘But can you prove it?’

‘At this point, I don’t care if I can prove it in a court of law. We shook them up by breaking into their lab in Jersey. It’s time to take things up a few notches.’

Tao recognized in Kilkenny the same drive that made her want to return to China. She’d left good people behind, people who deserved to be protected. For Kilkenny, Eames was such a person.

‘What’s your plan?’ Tao asked.

‘We’re going to Paris,’ Kilkenny replied, ‘or at least you are, while I’m stuck in here under observation.’