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Ben was waiting for them in the garage by the Crown Vic. “I’m going to drive you to the airport. There’s more, and Zachery needed to get you guys on the plane as soon as possible.”
When Ben eased into traffic, he said, “Now, about the brain implant. I’ve been doing some research. Havelock’s company is the only one I could find that’s close to having patents in this area. He’s really advanced. I mean, this stuff is space-age. There’s nothing like it on the market. The composite material alone being biological in nature is groundbreaking stuff. If Havelock is behind this, he could have eyes on the ground everywhere.”
Nicholas said. “Do you think our MI Five friend, Alex Shepherd, has one?”
“It’s possible, depending on who he’s working for now, what with Mr. Stanford murdered. Like you said, Nicholas, he’s supposed to be on our side, but he certainly hasn’t acted like it. Is he now one of Havelock’s soldiers? Was he all along? I mean, taking Sophie, what’s that all about? I’m hoping when you talk to MI Five, Mike, they can tell you what’s going on now. At the very least, they might know enough to help you guys guard your backs. In any case, we need all the information we can get on those implants.”
“Let me guess,” Nicholas said. “You want me to break into the computers of Havelock’s company.”
“You’re quick, Sir Nick. I didn’t want to mention it in Zachery’s office, but that’s it exactly. If this brain implant is what we think it is, a live feed which can be sent anywhere in the world undetected, maybe there’s a program on his computers to control it. And at the very least, we can find out who he has in the field, and what they’re looking at, specifically.”
“I’ll do my best, Ben, and don’t call me sir. No luck on the German in a coma?”
Ben met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “He had the gall to die an hour ago.”
“I see.” Another man dead at his hands. But he felt not a lick of remorse. Both of those men would have happily dispatched him and Mike, after they’d murdered Allie McGee to get to Adam Pearce.
Mike said. “Yeah, and here I was hoping we’d have a chance to interrogate him. Since neither of the Germans had implants, they were only hired muscle sent over to do a job, probably didn’t know squat. I wonder why Havelock sent some operatives into the field with the brain implants, and some without.”
“That’s a question we need to address,” Ben said. “Were the second set of thugs under Havelock’s orders or someone else’s? We haven’t considered there might be more players in the game.”
Nicholas said, “It’s a good point, Ben, especially if there’s been a leak about what’s in the submarine. Very high stakes, evidently. What we do know is that Adam Pearce is the staked goat in the middle. Everyone would want him.”
Mike said, “Ben, did you see something that made you think there are multiple people with the implants?”
“No, but I have a gut feeling about this.”
“Good enough for me,” Mike said. “We’ll be on our guard, then.” She looked back over the seat at Nicholas. “With any luck, Mr. Computer Whiz here will be able to get into Havelock’s files and we’ll know.”
Ben nodded. “You two be careful.”
And he pulled through the gates at Teterboro.
—
TEN MINUTES LATER, they were wheels up.
Their pilot, who’d flown three different FBI directors, came over the intercom. “Dan Breaker, at your service. We’ll be on the ground in London in five hours. Agent Caine. I’ve turned on the secure communications system. Feel free to plug in. Hit the green button if you need anything. There’s food and drink in the galley, help yourselves. I’m going to be hauling ass across the Atlantic. This lovely beast will do four hundred eighty knots, and it’s windy up here, we have a great tailwind of almost eighty knots. My copilot, Tom Strauss, and I, we’re going to see if we can break a record getting across the pond.”
Mike pressed the green button. “Does the director know you two are speed demons?”
A ghostly laugh from the overhead. “Yep. Who do you think bought us this beautiful baby?”
They didn’t waste any time. Mike headed for the lavatory to clean up and change, and Nicholas opened the loaded laptop Gray had given him and inserted an earwig into his right ear. “Gray, are you awake?”
“I’m here, Nicholas.”
“Good. I’m going to break through Havelock’s firewalls and put a worm into his security system on his website, then see what information I can pull down. It will flow directly to our computer. It’s going to take a while to see any results, but it’s a start.”
“Sounds great. I’ll work the back end for you.” Nicholas watched the computer screen in front of him segment, saw Gray in the upper right corner. Gray started to type, and Nicholas turned to Mike. “Hey, you’re looking good, all clean and polished, and the lovely lavender of a few hours ago has faded to a light pink, with a touch of green to add interest. We’re wired in. Are you all set?”
“Absolutely.” She waved the case file at him. “I have plenty to look at myself, and I’ll make som
e calls, see what I can turn up.”
“If you see me with my eyes glazed and my tongue hanging out, I promise I’m okay; it’s just me off in the code zone.”
Mike wasn’t kidding about the work ahead. Gray had given her a thick case file with everything their researchers had managed to find on both Adam Pearce and Havelock. After a while, she looked up at Nicholas. He was focused on the screen in front of him. It felt oddly reminiscent of their first case together, flying to Europe on the tail of the Fox.
