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“What does that tell us?” Beside me, Tara cut quickly, but smoothly to the point.
“Her family is smart, but they rely more on strength, intimidation, and power to get things done.” Zee paused. “I dug up some old aptitude tests from Amelia’s elementary school. They’re outdated, but they tell us one thing for sure. Her family is smart. Amelia is smarter.”
If Zee was impressed with Amelia’s scores, that meant the TCI gave new meaning to the word genius.
“This wasn’t entirely our fault.” Brooke was sure of that.
“We weren’t given any reason to believe that Amelia had ties to Peyton. If our superiors had suspicions, they didn’t share them, and they underestimated Amelia, too.”
“She found the tracker on her car,” Chloe offered suddenly. “But she didn’t get rid of it. She reprogrammed it. That’s how we lost her. We followed the signal, and the signal lied.”
A supersmart TCI who was deeply involved in the world of organized crime, working for Peyton, Kaufman, and Gray. This could not possibly be a good thing.
At that exact moment, an all-too-familiar pop song started blaring from Brooke’s cell phone, and in response, she tapped the access code into the keypad on her chair’s arm, and the flat-screen television clicked on.
“Good morning, girls.”
Good morning, Uncle Alan.
“As you know, yesterday, Amelia Juarez met with associates at Peyton, Kaufman, and Gray. Unfortunately, they did not conduct this meeting within the typical range of our audio surveillance. We were, however, able to go back over the audio feed and match a recorded sample of Amelia’s voice to trace sounds recorded in the background. As a result, we managed to reconstruct a very small portion of the conversation. While this provided very little new pertinent information, it did allow us to confirm our previous assessment of the situation.
“Amelia has been in contact with an individual who has dangerous technology that the firm considers rightfully theirs. While this individual believes Amelia came to Bayport representing her own interests, she was in fact recruited by the associates at Peyton, Kaufman, and Gray to do two things: acquire the technology and take out the seller.”
Take out? The way Jacob Kann had been “taken out”? We’d suspected Hector Hassan was behind the bombing, because all signs indicated that he’d been the one to plant the bugs we’d discovered on each of the other TCIs. But if Amelia was brought here to take out the seller, what would stop her from taking out other potential buyers?
While I was pondering this question, a picture appeared on the screen: a middle-aged man who practically had the word nerd emblazoned on his forehead.
“Phillip Ross,” the voice informed us. “Ross holds a triple PhD, one each from Harvard, Oxford, and Bayport University.”
Let’s see, I thought, which one of these things does not belong?
“What are his degrees in?” As the resident PhD herself, Zee quickly zeroed in on this question.
“Biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, and genetics.”
I took this entire conversation to mean that Phillip Ross was smart. Smart enough to develop a new kind of biological weapon. The image on the screen changed, and this time, words appeared.
Nanotechnological Advances in the Field of Gene Targeting: A Study of Technobiological Viruses in the Common Mouse (Mus musculus).
“This is the title of Ross’s most recent dissertation, from the University of Bayport—where, incidentally enough, his research and schooling were supported by the prestigious Kaufman Grant for Advances in Science.”
Kaufman. As in Peyton, Kaufman, and Gray.
“So the firm was bankrolling his research,” Brooke concluded.
“Correct,” our contact confirmed.
“And then his research started going really well, and Ross realized that he might get a better offer elsewhere.” That was from Chloe.
“So he starts making subtle inquiries.” Tara.
“Invites the interested parties, or their emissaries, to Bayport.” Brooke again.
“And he figures that if he keeps a low enough profile by only negotiating with people who aren’t normally considered true players in their own right, Peyton won’t find out about it.” Zee provided that bit.
“Except they did find out about it.” Now it was my turn, teamwork at its best. “So they made Amelia an offer, and now they’re counting on her to get the weapon for them.”
There was a brief pause, and then April added in the last piece of the puzzle. “And to make sure that Ross never backstabs them again.”
Even given the seriousness of the situation, some petty part of my mind couldn’t help but think that growing up with Hayley Hoffman as a best friend, April probably knew a lot about backstabbing and retaliation.
“So what do we know about this weapon?” Chloe asked. Our contact wasn’t immediately forthcoming with information, so Chloe started musing on her own. “Whatever he was testing on mice for his dissertation, he must have found a way to apply it to humans. Nanotechnology means we’re dealing with something so small it can’t be seen by the naked eye, but so technologically advanced that it has some sort of computational ability. Gene targeting means we’re talking about DNA. And the fact that the words virus and weapon are used suggests that whatever the nanotechnology does to genes, it ain’t pretty.”
“Very good, Chloe. In generic terms, you’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m afraid we can’t share specifics at this time, but rest assured that the resulting technology is incredibly dangerous. We cannot allow it to fall into enemy hands.”
I stared at Ross’s dissertation title on the screen and memorized it. My dad was a career scientist with a PhD of his own, and I’d absorbed enough physics babble over my lifetime to know that dissertations were usually published—if not in a scientific journal, at least in some kind of university collection or database. Good old Uncle Alan might not be gung ho on giving us specifics, because he was so very good at leaving out important details, but with a little more information on Ross’s dissertation research, we could probably figure it out for ourselves.
While I was staring at it, the image on the screen changed, this time to reveal a picture of a building.
“Ross’s lab is located here,” the voice said. “On the fifth floor. Security is tight, and while we could break in, we need to do so in a way that won’t advertise our presence to Peyton, Kaufman, and Gray. We need to acquire this technology, but if Peyton doesn’t realize we’ve done so, they may proceed with their plans.”
