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at pocket and took out a small Thai police evidence envelope. He said, “My name is Gerhard Brekker, Mr. Lynch. Not only are you going to tell us why you were following us, I’d also like you to explain why you have one of these in your pocket.”
Brekker emptied the envelope and showed him the Typhoon pill he’d taken from the police station. Then he upended the metal container from Lynch’s pocket and held up the pill that had been inside it next to the one from the envelope.
Both tablets were etched with identical symbols of a cyclone.
23
THE PHILIPPINES
With a fresh tire on the PIG, Juan climbed back in with Eddie, and they continued toward Manila at a fast clip. Juan swiveled in his seat and saw Mel Ocampo looking at him with a mixture of weariness and curiosity, the torn sleeve of his lab coat replaced by a white gauze bandage expertly wrapped by Raven. The other four scientists, looking shell-shocked after the escape, sipped from water bottles and ate sandwiches Beth had given them. They chewed in silence.
“Thank you for saving us,” Ocampo said.
“We just happened to be there at the right time,” Juan replied.
“Actually, if you hadn’t been there, we might never have been able to make an escape attempt in the first place.”
Juan nodded in understanding. “When the Humvees took off after us, you took the opportunity to make a run for it.”
“I had been hoping for a distraction, and you and your people provided it for us.”
“And the grenades?” Eddie asked from the driver’s seat.
“Made from chemicals in our lab,” said Maria Santos, one of the other chemists. “Mel had us make them over a week ago. I’m just glad they worked. We didn’t have a chance to test them.”
“Why were you there in the first place?” Raven asked.
“Locsin brought us there,” Ocampo said. “We thought it was to do top secret research for a pharmaceutical company. When we weren’t allowed to leave, we soon realized that his goal was more sinister.”
Maria nodded. “He is an evil man.”
“What was the real purpose of your research?” Juan asked.
“He wanted us to replicate a drug,” Ocampo said. “It was a small white pill he called Typhoon. The image of a cyclone is embedded on its face.”
Juan imagined the buildings they just saw as a high-tech meth lab. “I’ve never heard of Typhoon. Is that a street name for a narcotic?”
Ocampo shook his head. “Nothing like that. After we were gathered together, it became clear that we all are experts in the development of steroids.”
Juan thought back to the guard who’d shrugged off two gunshot wounds to the chest. “Are Locsin’s men users of Typhoon?”
Ocampo nodded. “They showed many of the effects of prolonged steroid use: massive muscle growth, hair loss and severe acne in some of them, and wild mood swings. Locsin would be charming one moment, then lash out in rage the next. A Jekyll and Hyde.”
“They also had some side effects I’ve never seen before,” Maria said. “All of them smelled terrible. The rancid odor like garlic oozed out of their pores. I could barely stand being next to one of them.”
“The drug also seemed to have remarkable benefits besides muscle growth. Maria, tell them about the guard who cut himself.”
A look of profound confusion crossed Maria’s face as she recalled the memory. “It was the strangest thing. One of the guards was moving a crate of equipment into the lab and slashed himself on a nail sticking out of it. He didn’t even seem to notice until I pointed to the blood. He looked at the gash on his arm, shook his head, and wiped the blood on a towel like it was just a scratch. But the cut looked so deep that I thought he’d need stitches.”
“But it stopped bleeding almost instantly,” Juan said.
Maria gaped at him. “How did you know that?”
“Because the guy who was holding the knife to Beth’s throat should have been bleeding profusely from the shots I put into him. Instead, he had barely any blood on his uniform.”
“You’re right,” Ocampo said. “But that’s not all. I saw the wound myself. It was at least three inches long. The next day, I saw it again. Except for a thin scar, it had completely healed. Two days later, I couldn’t even tell that he’d been injured.”
“So these guys heal in less time than it takes to talk about it?” Eddie said.
