“Perfect spot for an ambush, secluded with a minimal shoulder.” Billy regarded the woods straddling the narrow road with a frown before studying Ethan. “The call came in as a victim found in the ditch with no ID. Who called it in?”
“Dunno. It came from dispatch and I found him already stiff. He’d been here awhile. When the wagon took him away, these two charged out of the woods like rabid animals.”
“Where’s your partner?” Matt groaned when he had to steady Ethan in his bid to stand.
“Larrick’s girlfriend was in an accident. He’s at the hospital with her.” Ethan shook off his older brother’s hand. “I’m fine, damn it. Just a little banged up.”
“Where were you, Billy?” Matt’s unspoken accusation hit its mark.
“I thought Larrick was with him. The captain had me spend most of the day sifting through paper work from town utilities.” Billy’s lips firmed to a thin line as he also studied his injured sibling. “At least eight hours.”
The answer to Matt’s unasked question induced lightheadedness and instant nausea. Judging by Billy’s close inspection, the same suspicion ran through them both.
“Was the body Kilregard?” Matt yanked his cell from its case. Megan had installed some pictures to be used for simple visual memory tests, a coarse indicator of microchipping side effects.
“No, but it could’ve been his partner. We’ll have to wait till Lexi hacks the files to know.” Ethan stared in the distance and rubbed his jaw. “If it is, the feds will keep it quiet. One of us needs to go to the morgue and snap a pic for her.”
Matt hesitated before asking, “Why didn’t you get one when you first arrived?”
“Because I had too much company. Would’ve looked strange for a homicide cop to send pics from a personal phone at a crime scene, don’t ya think?” You hear from Lucas or Megan yet?” Ethan studied the scene again as if trying to put vague puzzle pieces together.
“No, but it’s early yet.” Billy cleared his throat, an impatient gesture to proceed.
“Okay, Ethan. I’m gonna show you some pictures. You’re going to tell me as much about them as you can.” Matt held his phone up for Ethan to see.
“Jesus, guys. I’m not infected or chipped, or whatever.” With two of his older brothers glaring, Ethan described what he saw then put parts of a puzzle together to form a picture. “Happy, now?”
“No,” they both said in unison.
“This place is gonna be swarming with cops for half the night after an officer-involved shooting.” Matt nodded toward the mobile crime lab’s return, stopping a short distance away. Two unmarked cars parked on the other side of the road. “Ethan, they’ll put you on leave until IA clears you, so park your ass ’til I’m done. Billy, you head to the morgue for the photo when the van leaves. Call Caden and have him shadow your movements. We’ll meet you guys and Lexi afterward, then go from there.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Megan pulled the shade while Lucas cuffed Reinhardt’s wrists behind him. Flashes of Jackie at their graduation darted through her thoughts and squelched any reservations about the heinous, illegal procedure she prepared to implement.
“Bet you never thought you’d be cuffed to your own dining room chair.” Luc’s feral smile widened as his prey glowered.
The bond shared between Luc and Millner was the basic building block of their partnership. Each had depended on the other in a most fundamental and primitive fashion.
Understanding the depth of controlled rage stemming from Luc’s unresolved issues, Megan knew displacement of those raw emotions would end with Reinhardt’s death if she didn’t intervene. Despite their short time together, she knew Luc well enough to realize a moment’s loss of control would forever haunt his dreams until spilling over into his waking moments and permeating his soul.
“Hey, guys. I hate to interrupt your stare down, but I have some questions, if I might intervene?” Megan nudged Luc aside to stand over Reinhardt. “It seems you’ve been a very bad boy.” The bruise blooming under the bastard’s left eye would prove advantageous in the coming days.
“And you’ve been very busy for a fed.” The sneer died quickly when Megan deposited her medical bag on the table, the metallic clinks alluding to its contents.
Circling behind his prey, Luc grabbed a handhold of Reinhardt’s hair and jerked his head back. “First, you don’t speak unless answering a question. Second, for every query you don’t answer straight away, you lose some teeth. Got it?”
Fear spread like a cloak to enfold the bound prey. The visible bob of his Adam’s apple coincided with an audible gulp.
Luc’s transformation scared her, too. “Partner, do you mind retrieving his computer and seeing what else he might have brought home from work?”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Grinning at Reinhardt, he whispered in a deadly deceptive tone, “Where’s your safe? I want information and I won’t ask twice.” To prove his point, Luc stretched his hand out, placing his palm on the bound man’s forehead and his fingers over eyes closed tight.
Another gulp and thin mewl demonstrated fear, but capitulation couldn’t stir a trifling dram of Megan’s pity considering the bastard’s intentions.
Lucas applied light pressure with his fingertips. “I can scoop these out in less than ten. Wanna see how long you can count before pain makes you scream?”
Megan held her breath. As much as they needed the information, she had no stomach for torture and maiming.
“All right. I’ll give you everything.” Short panting breaths and sweat trickling down his temple coincided with increased pallor and a broken resolve.
“I never realized fear had such a distinct odor. Tell me, asshole, do you keep any chips or nanos here?” Again, Luc’s fingertip tap produced a whimper.
A slight hesitation, then, “Yes. There’s a special safe in the den. I’ve got three vials of each, but they have to be kept at specific temperatures or the nanos die.” Reinhardt gulped a deep breath when Lucas stepped back.
“Combination and alarms. If you screw up, you’ll be dead before anyone gets to your driveway.”
Though she couldn’t pull off her partner’s attitude, Megan did appreciate the quick results. With the numbers rattled off, Lucas strode away.
“What are you going to do with me? I didn’t want to hurt anybody, I just wanted a looser overseas trade agreement, less taxes.”
“Regardless, you did enter into a lives-for-money agreement. Right now, you have other things to worry about. Tell me how to dissolve the chip after insertion.”
Reinhardt briefly clenched his eyes tight when a soft “yes” from another room declared success. Defeat registered in the gaze that had darted from the front door to each window as resignation halted his search for avenues of escape. Once his defection became known, vast resources would surface to find and eliminate the traitor.
“Other than surgically firing it with a burst of cold air, you’d have to inject the dilutant into the sinus and it will dissolve the chip. But there’s no need, once the nanos inside are gone, it’ll dissolve anyway.”
“You have a bio solvent for the chip. Good to know. How about the nanos themselves?”
“There’s a distillate, an antidote that kills them. It can be injected into a vein. Or, once the body gets cold enough, they die. They’re not as durable as normal cells.” Reinhardt licked his lips before continuing. “I don’t have the solution to kill the nanos, only Schmidt does. He’s damn paranoid with his work.”
Reinhardt blinked in quick succession, his face scrunching in fear when Lucas strolled back into the room bearing a small box.
“I’ve got six vials here. Shall we experiment and find out what they do?”
“N-no! I’ll explain. Just listen.” Horror blossomed in faltering words through an attempt to clarify facts.
Megan retrieved her tablet from her knapsack to record the conversation. “Slow down and enunciate, as our tech on the other end of the conversation will nee
d to be specific.”
“And don’t forget that leaving out any details will prove fatal.” Luc’s expression declared it a likely scenario.
“What’s your internet password?” Before Reinhardt could answer her question, Megan’s skype window chimed. “Damn, our techie is good, yes?” By prior agreement, neither gave Lexi’s name.
“Yeah, quite a handy person to know.” Lucas pulled up a seat beside the CEO.
Reinhardt’s jaw dropped. “It’s supposed to be impenetrable.”
“Just like your alarm system?” Luc smirked as he rested one ankle over the other knee. “Now, since you don’t need your eyes to talk, I’ll remove one for each hesitation or suspected wrong answer. And please note, I did say suspected wrong answer. I’m not a patient man.” Luc took hold of Reinhardt’s wrist, his finger pads searching for the pulse. “Then we’ll go for other body parts.” A nod to the CEOs groin conveyed his meaning.
“Let’s hear the grand plan first.” Megan set her tablet on the table and grabbed her medical bag. When the hypodermic, glass drug vial, and tourniquet came into view, Reinhardt dry heaved.
“Clear the table then roll up his sleeve, if you don’t mind, Luc. I need to change into surgical gloves.”
A crystal vase shattered on the hardwood, bedecking the far side of the floor while an array of decorative candles and fresh flowers added color to the chaos. A single place setting of fine china soon followed.
With Reinhardt’s hands bound behind his back, struggle was futile but inevitable. “What the hell? I’ll tell you everything.”
“Of course you will. I just want you to understand the consequences of failure to comply with our instructions once we’ve left.” Megan smiled before starting on her list of specific questions.
The conversation marked the CEO’s solid grasp on the intricacies of the twisted plan and how much he’d studied to understand the procedures performed on the pushers, homeless, and marginalized quarry. The official victims selected were key figures in government and society as a whole. His demeanor closed off when detailing how ClickChip had been constructed to Delaware’s exact specifications and materials.
“You really think you could chip a United States Congressman without anyone taking notice of a problem?”
“These guys from Dover have a solid network in place to see that through. The congressman is scheduled to combine Thanksgiving with a three-day vacation.”
“This list is quite remarkable. We’ll discuss it later.” Lucas nodded for Megan to proceed.
“What happened to Kilregard?” Megan didn’t even know the fed’s real identity.
“I have no idea. Morfran took that responsibility. He doesn’t tolerate questions or discuss corporate plans unless it suits him. I had to go snooping to learn what I do know.”
“Am I correct that you can insert the nanos into the bloodstream without chipping people? If so, what’s the point?”
“Alone, the nanos can target specific organs of the body but can’t cross the blood-brain barrier, though that’s something they’re working on. The chip, once inserted at the base of the brain through the sinus cavity, circumvents that problem and can stimulate specific areas, the pituitary and hypothalamus. It can also send nanos to the optic chasm.”
“You mean the optic chiasm? Why?” Lucas kept his voice soft, threatening.”
“You did listen to the lecture,” Megan murmured. “You’re planning on using those chips to spy on key personnel, aren’t you?” Megan had fit the puzzle pieces together but had difficulty reconciling thought and action. “If they don’t play the way you want, you can release some of your miniature robots and create havoc in their body.”
“The ultimate spy.” Lucas whistled low. “On paper, it sounded like fiction, but you assholes are really doing it.”
“Yes, hypervigilance, impulsive behavior, hyperarousal, all kinds of things.”
“You killed Jackie Milburn.” The flat edge to her voice should’ve been a warning.
“No. I had nothing to do with any deaths. I don’t determine the actions in the grand scheme of things. They just see me as the chip maker who wants a bigger slice of the marketing pie.” Spittle dotted the mark’s chin.
“Let’s talk about this electronic net you’re creating around the city.” Luc redirected their prey’s thoughts.
Details of the workers installing transceivers in strategic locations gave rise to more questions about distance of transmission.
“I’m thinking you’ve studied and are preparing your own agenda. Does your barn have a lab?” Megan wondered what other horrors the bastard had planned.
“Yes. Yes, but it’s not active. It’s in the process of development. The current chips have such a limited range. I’m trying to figure out how to extend it without increasing the size of the chip.”
“I suggest you direct your thoughts elsewhere, like survival.” Lucas had moved to stand beside Megan. “Speaking of thoughts, there’s no way to control them, is there?” A flash of uncertainty crossed his features.
“This isn’t futuristic bullshit. Just a marriage of science and medicine already being practiced. If you do your homework, you’ll see that both sides of the plan have been around for years, studied at various institutes both here and in England. We just happen to be the first to pair them for a grander purpose.” Pride and arrogance puffed out the CEO’s chest until Lucas edged closer.
“I think we have what we need. You set on the other end?” Megan opened the video component of her skype window but kept the screen facing away from Reinhardt.
“Yep, this combined with the information already attained, we can control, at least well enough, whatever you decide to insert into the prick’s head.” Lexi’s voice held the confidence she’d displayed in her hacking abilities. “If not, it’ll kill him.”
Megan chuckled as she shrugged her shoulders.
“What?” Reinhardt used his feet to push his chair back, scraping the legs against the hardwood. “I gave you all the information I had. You can’t do that—you’re cops, or feds, or whatever.”
“Wrong on both counts, asshole. I’m a doctor, and my partner is retired.” Megan retrieved a long tube-like instrument with a small light and camera.
“W-what are you doing with an endoscope?”
“What do you think, dirtball?” Lucas chuckled before turning to Megan. “Someone’s been studying medicine.”
“I don’t have MRI testing or an image-guidance system, so I’ll just have to wing it. Let’s call it trial number one, kinda like the work they’ve done on the homeless and veterans in Dover.”
Choking, sputtering pleas erupted with a constant flow of panicked denials. A slight ammonia odor accompanied Reinhardt’s loss of bladder control.
Megan retrieved a sterile pack, sterile gloves, and several instruments. “Hold his arm so I can sedate him. Then we’ll pop him up on the table.”
“You can’t operate on me, not here! I-it’s not sterile. You can’t be qualified. Oh, God. I told you everything! Why are you doing this?”
“You’re the ambitious, genius startup CEO. You figure it out.” Megan drew up two cc of drug that would subdue the furious but futile struggle against metal cuffs. She wondered if Jackie had fought before her procedure or if someone had slipped her a roofie.
“When you wake up, you’re gonna have one hell of a headache and a bit of a shiner.” Lucas smirked while holding the man’s arm still for the first injection.
“By the way, if you do anything—anything we don’t like—we’ll wreak havoc on your body. Got it?” Turning to Megan, Lucas added, “Can you insert two of these chips up there?”
Megan smiled. “You know what they say. There’s always room for more.”
Desolation collapsed Reinhardt’s shaking shoulders after receiving the injection, his arms slack with chin dropping to chest. “This wasn’t the way it was s’posed to happen.”
“Hey, asshole. I’m thinking you have your own ring of thugs
at your command, loyal to only you. Am I right?” Lucas asked.
“Yes. Morfran doesn’t know about them. At least, I don’t think he does.”
“Good. Then know this. If anything happens to a member of my family or those I care about—you will die slowly, with as much pain and anguish as I can provide. Got it?”
“Yes. But I don’t know who you are.”
Whether it was a last-ditch attempt to gather information, or just fear talking, Megan couldn’t be sure.
“Then you’d best not let your men sabotage any strategy to shut you down.” With Megan’s last words, Reinhardt’s head bobbed, and eyes fluttered closed. “Give him another minute before you uncuff him and stretch him out flat.”
Megan laid out the rest of her instruments on the sterile towel. Her work on dogs was a hell of a lot less stressful what she’d now attempt. Understanding principle and performing the procedure were vastly different.
Minutes passed as she shed the exam gloves in favor of sterile. Once Lucas maneuvered their quarry supine on the flat surface, she adjusted her patient’s position to suit her needs.
“You think he’ll believe he’s had sinus surgery?” Lucas asked, skepticism riding his furrowed brow.
“Yeah, it might help if he had both eyes blackened. The rest is just a bit of misdirection and ensuring pain. I can muck around his sinuses enough to look authentic and avoid giving him an infection. It’s not like he’s going to ask someone to insert an endoscope for a look-see. He’ll be too scared of what we’ll do.”
“I’ll gladly provide him with a little more color. He does look a bit pale.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lucas rubbed his thigh to reduce the pain spanning his knee and firing down his calf. The rehab therapist told him rest promoted healing. Guess that doesn’t include repeated hikes through the mountains. He and Megan crested the final slope as morning sunlight washed over the cabin’s ridgeline to cast the porch in shadows.
McAllister Justice Series Box Set Volume Two Page 17