“But I have lots of pictures of Angus and other things on my old computer I don’t want to lose,” she said.
Kevin smiled. “Let me have the computer for a couple of hours and I can copy and transfer all of your personal things onto a new computer, along with the fake data you’ve prepared for BioTech, and then I’ll remove the old hard drive and destroy it completely.” He hesitated and then looked at Ramsey. “I’ll do the same for you, Burton, if you wish.”
He shook his head. “I don’t really have any personal shit on my computer, but I would appreciate it if you could transfer all of the fake data I’ve had Dottie put in about my experiments. All that New Age tech stuff is Greek to me.”
He looked from Kevin to Kat. “So, we’re agreed that from now on, nothing is written down about the formulae or our experiments? We’re gonna have to keep it all in our heads.”
They both nodded.
He then took several bundles of hundreds from the briefcase and stuffed them in his jacket pockets. “Good, then I’m off to get our lab equipped. I’ll leave my laptop with you, Kevin, and you can run by Best Buy and pick up a couple of cheap laptops for us to carry around with the false data on them in case BioTech wants to see them or in case your uncle’s patient’s thugs manage to get their hands on them.”
“I’ve just about got the new proportions figured out for our human experiment, and I’ll memorize them so Kevin can destroy those computations, as well, when he gets rid of my laptop.”
“I just thought of something else,” Kevin said. “Maybe I’m being too paranoid, but I think I’ll pick up a couple of burner phones for us to use when we need to talk to one another. Regular cell phones can be listened to very easily, so we can use our normal cells for everyday calls and save the burner phones for communication between ourselves.”
“Can’t they listen to these . . . what did you call them, ‘burner phones’?” Kat asked.
“Not if they don’t know the phone numbers, and not if we don’t use any names when we talk. There would be no way for them to pick our conversations out of the hundreds that are going on all around us, as long as we’re careful and don’t let them see us using the new phones instead of our regular ones.”
“Do you really think all this is necessary?” Kat asked. “I feel like I’m in a spy movie or something.”
“Kat, if it is not necessary, then we’ve spent a few hundred dollars and been put to some minor inconveniences for nothing. On the other hand, if it protects our formulae or even, God forbid, our lives from unscrupulous characters, then it will be worth it,” Ramsey said.
“Oh, one other thing, guys,” Kevin said, snapping his fingers. “I almost forgot the best part.”
“What’s that?” Kat asked.
“I told my uncle that the price for the use of the formula is five hundred million dollars.”
“What?” Ramsey almost screamed. “He’ll never go for that, you idiot! You’ve probably blown the whole deal.”
Kevin smiled and shook his head. “No, Dr. Ramsey, he agreed to it without hesitation.”
“Are you kidding me?” Kat hollered and threw her arms around Kevin. “We’re gonna be rich!” she sang.
Ramsey just laughed and said, “Smart-ass! I’ll see you two later.”
As Ramsey left the office to head out to get the new lab fitted out, Kevin picked up their laptops, stuck them under his arm, and threw the briefcase strap over his shoulder.
“I’ll go on over to my apartment and get to work on these, and I’ll see you in the morning, Kat.”
She stood and moved over to him, then leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You take care, Secret Agent Man,” she said with a smile. “If Ramsey won’t say it, I will: You done good!”
He blushed. “Uh . . . okay.”
He turned and rushed out of the lab without another glance back.
Kat stood and watched him for a moment, thinking, Hmmm, perhaps I’d better be careful with the kisses.... I wouldn’t want to give the kid any wrong ideas.
She heard a soft woof, and looked back over her shoulder at Angus, who was lying in his bed with what was left of the rawhide bone between his paws.
As she stared at him, she could swear he grinned at her.
CHAPTER 20
Things went smoothly for the next ten days, with the trio getting used to using their burner phones and watching what they said in public. Ramsey had already given BioTech his notice and had packed up his lab, given Dottie a month’s severance pay, and copied all of his false data off his new computer and turned it in to Captain Sohenshine.
Sohenshine said he was disappointed in Ramsey’s failure and sorry to see such a distinguished scientist leave their employ, but Ramsey could tell the man was more relieved than chagrined.
Since then, Ramsey had been spending almost all of his time shuttling back and forth between Conroe and Houston, spending most nights with Sheila, which had greatly improved his general disposition.
While this was going on, Kevin and Kat had been continuing to fake their research on rats, with little to no positive results to show for it. Sohenshine was getting increasingly strident with Kat that he expected some progress or he was going to have to take it up with the board at the next meeting, letting her know that her funding was at risk of being terminated.
Kat was discussing with Kevin the timing of her telling the man she had a family emergency back east when the very object of their discussion walked into the lab, again without knocking.
His face was full of thunderclouds when he pointed at Kevin and said in a no-nonsense voice, “You! Out!”
Kevin opened his mouth to reply, but Kat touched his arm and shook her head.
With a glare at Sohenshine, he stomped out. Curiously, he didn’t slam the door but rather eased it almost shut, leaving it open a small crack.
When Sohenshine walked around Kat’s desk, he again trailed his fingertips along her shoulders.
Biting her lip to keep from jumping up and decking him, she instead pushed a button on her phone, turning on the video function. Before he turned back to face her, she propped the phone against her coffee cup so the screen faced him.
“What can I do for you, Captain Sohenshine?” she asked, her voice as sweet as honey.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and stuck his chest out. “Well, I’d say it’s more what I can do for you, Dr. Williams.”
“And just what is that, Captain?”
He pulled a computer thumb drive out of his pocket and held it up. “A couple of weeks ago, I came into possession of this record of the data on your computer, Kat,” he said, using her nickname for the first time.
She looked at him aghast. “And just how did you happen to come into possession of data off of my private computer, Captain Sohenshine?”
His lips curled in a nasty grin. “That is not what is concerning here, Kat. What is concerning is that the data on your computer a couple of weeks ago is completely different from the data that you have been turning in recently.”
She shrugged. “That is because that data there was premature. It was more of a theory of what I hoped our experiments would show. As it turns out, the experiments showed something completely different from our theories.”
“Bullshit!” he growled, approaching her desk. “I think you have been deliberately falsifying your data so that you and that bastard Ramsey can take whatever you’ve discovered and market it on your own.”
She smiled sweetly and leaned back, crossing her arms under her breasts, pushing them up.
His beady little eyes went immediately to her chest, and he grinned maliciously.
He put his hands on the front of her desk and leaned down, his face inches from hers. “Of course, if you were to be a little bit nicer to me, I might be persuaded to forget all about what I discovered on your computer.”
“Oh, so it was you who broke in to my lab and stole information off of my private computer?”
He stuck a thumb in
his chest. “No! This is not your lab, Kat, it is my lab. I am the director of this corporation, and therefore every lab in this building belongs to me, and every bit of information is mine!”
“And all I have to do to stay on your good side is ‘be nice to you’? Just what does that mean?”
“Well,” he began, his lips curling into another sickly grin, “perhaps we could go out for a nice dinner, followed by a few drinks at my apartment.”
“And then you’d forget all about my supposed treason to BioTech—if I allowed you to have your way with me?”
“Now, I wouldn’t put it quite that way . . .”
Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder, whirling him around.
Kevin pulled his fist back and smashed Sohenshine full in the face, flattening his nose and knocking out two of his teeth.
He went limp and toppled to the floor.
Kevin bent over him, pulled the thumb drive from his pocket, and held it up to Kat. “I told you that bastard had been in your computer.”
She shook her head and reached over to turn off the phone video. “Yes, and I got him recorded not only sexually harassing me, but offering to ignore supposed wrongdoing at the same time.”
She took her phone and looked up Sohenshine’s cell number in her contact list, typed out a message to him, and attached the video file to it.
Looking up at Kevin, she said, “Kevin, would you please drag that piece of shit out into the corridor and dump him in the corner? Then, if you would, please wake him and tell him to heed the message I sent him or the next message will be sent to the Houston Chronicle.”
Kevin gave her a mock salute, “Yes, ma’am,” he said before doing just that.
* * *
An hour later, Ramsey walked into the lab, a worried look on his face.
“What’s the matter, Burton?” Kevin asked. “Having trouble getting the lab outfitted?”
“No, as a matter of fact, I was coming here to tell y’all it’s all done. I even outfitted two small rooms as bedrooms, one for one of us and the other for our human patient if we ever get one.”
“Then, what is the problem, Burton?” Kat asked. “You look like someone pissed in your Post Toasties.”
Kevin burst out laughing. “Why, Kat! I didn’t know you had such a colorful vocabulary.”
She winked at him. ‘You’d be surprised at what you don’t know about me, Kev.”
While they were jawing back and forth, Ramsey fixed himself a cup of coffee, added a generous dollop of whiskey he had started keeping in Kat’s bottom desk drawer, and drank it all down in two quick gulps, wincing as it burned his tongue.
“Okay, now I know something is wrong, Burton,” Kat said. “Just what is going on?”
He took a deep breath. “On the way through the parking lot, I happened to glance at a car parked well away from the building, thinking there were plenty of closer spaces, so why would someone park way out there and have to walk two hundred yards to the offices? Then I noticed a pile of cigarette butts next to the driver’s-side door, like someone had been sitting in the car for hours just waiting around.”
“Was anyone in the car?” Kevin asked, a concerned look on his face.
“I didn’t think so at first,” Ramsey said. “But after I pulled up into the parking garage and parked on the third floor, where I usually do, I snuck over to the window and peeked over the wall. What did I see but two figures now sitting in the car? They must have ducked down when they saw me drive into the lot.”
“Do you think they’re watching us?” Kat asked.
Ramsey shrugged. “Well, yeah, unless there are some other scientists on the BioTech payroll who’ve discovered a half-billion-dollar formula.”
Kevin thought for a moment, then he snapped his fingers. “You two stay put, I’ve got an idea.” He went to the briefcase and took out a stack of bills. “You say you parked on the third floor of the parking garage?” he asked.
When Ramsey nodded, Kevin waved the bills at them and trotted out the lab door.
“What do you think he’s up to?” Ramsey asked, a puzzled look on his face.
“I don’t know,” Kat answered, “but in case you haven’t noticed, he is really good at this secret agent stuff.”
Kat got up and called to Angus, “Time to potty, big guy?”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ramsey asked.
“I’m gonna take my dog for a walk,” she said with a wink, “and while I’m out there, I’m gonna take a look around and see if our watchdogs are still sitting in the parking lot.”
“Kat,” Ramsey said, “be careful. For all we know, these guys are just waiting for a chance to kidnap one of us.”
“Don’t worry, Burton. I’ve got my guard dog along to protect me.”
Ramsey laughed and pointed at Angus. “You mean him?”
Angus squared around, lowered his head, bared his teeth, and gave a terrifying, low, rumbling growl.
“Holy shit!” Ramsey said, stepping back and holding up his hands.
Then Angus turned off the growl, gave a happy yip, and wagged his tail at Ramsey.
Kat laughed and pointed at Ramsey. “See, I told you he could be a good guard dog if he wanted to. As you can now see, he was just showing you his bad boy act.”
Ramsey nodded, an uncertain grin on his face. “Well, he sure fooled me.”
Kat bent over and snapped a leash on Angus’s collar. “I know you don’t need this, big guy, but we need to keep up appearances for all the other people in the office building.”
While she was gone, Ramsey refilled his coffee cup, only this time he left out the coffee and just added whiskey
He was just getting up to go to the cafeteria, when she reappeared at the door.
“Well, what did you see?” he asked.
She shook her head, a worried look on her face. “They’re still there. I was careful not to let them see me glance their way, but they still ducked down as if they were afraid I might see them.”
“Did they make any move to come after you?”
“No. Like I said, they were careful not to be too obvious about being there. I think what they’re going to do is wait until you take off again and try to follow you to the other lab so they can find out where it is. I really don’t see them making a play for the formula until after we’ve treated their boss, whom I assume is Kevin’s uncle’s patient.”
Ramsey drained his cup. “Unless it is Kevin’s uncle himself.”
Kat disagreed. “No, I think Kevin’s uncle is so close to him and his mother that if he wanted in on our formula, he would work through them to do it instead of hiring a couple of tough guys.”
Just then, Kevin walked in, a satisfied look on his face.
“You look like the cat who swallowed the canary,” Kat said.
He tossed them both a set of car keys.
Ramsey looked at his. “What is this?”
“It is our way of moving around without our friends being able to tail us. I took some of the money and bought a five-year-old Honda Accord, the most common vehicle and color on the road. I parked it in slot fifty on the top floor of the parking garage at the Galleria Mall next to Macy’s. I also put in the backseat a woman’s overcoat, a long, blond wig, and a pair of oversized sunglasses.”
“What the hell . . . ?” Ramsey started to say.
Kevin held up his hand. “When you leave here to go to the lab, just head over to the mall and pull into the spot next to the Accord, switch cars, put on the coat, the wig, and the sunglasses, pull up the collar of the coat, and when you drive back down out of the garage, our two friends will be waiting for you to reappear in your car and will never notice you as you drive right by them.”
“What if they go up there and check out my car?”
Kevin shrugged. “I’m sure they will, and, in fact, I’d be surprised if they don’t plant a GPS device under the wheel well or bumper so they can track you without having to get too close. If they don’t do tha
t, then they are too dumb to worry about anyway.”
“What will they think when I come back out of the garage in my car and go home to Sheila with nothing to show for my ‘shopping’ trip?”
“I thought of that. I put a bunch of empty boxes from Macy’s and some other stores’ bags in the trunk of the Accord. Just take them with you and they’ll think you went shopping for presents for Sheila.”
Ramsey’s face relaxed, and he smiled and looked over at Kat. “Damn, you were right. He is excellent at this secret agent shit.”
“Yeah, and over the next few days, you can let me know when you’re gonna be heading to the lab and I can arrange to leave the Accord in different parking garages so we won’t be going back to the same place over and over again.”
“Burton, when you get home to Sheila today, ask her if she’s had any luck finding a human subject. Tomorrow I’m going to tell Sohenshine I have a family emergency back east and am going to have to take a couple of weeks off.”
“You think he’ll get suspicious with your leaving so soon after me?”
Kat glanced at Kevin and grinned. “No, actually I think he’ll be glad to see Kevin and I go.”
Kevin snorted to keep from laughing and said, “I’ll start getting things ready so we can leave first thing in the morning and head to the lab in Conroe.”
“How will you get to the Conroe lab without our tails out in the parking lot following you?” Ramsey asked.
She thought for a moment. “I’ll wait for you to come by the lab, and after a while, when you leave, Kevin will check to make sure they follow you and then we’ll head on out to Conroe in the Honda. If we see anyone else following us, just in case there is another team in place, we’ll abort and figure out some other way to get there unobserved.”
“Okay. Tonight is Sheila’s night at the Ben Taub Clinic, and I’ll remind her to keep an eye out for someone we can use.”
* * *
The snow mixed with sleet shot out of the darkness in a horizontal wall, coating the windshield with ice and making the wipers useless. Jordan Stone leaned over the wheel and wiped at the glass with his hand, smearing the fog and making his visibility even worse.
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