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“We’re not finished yet, but I’m not letting you go again,” he says, drawing his gun and his phone. “Sit back. We have to be sure we weren’t followed.”
He loads up a video feed of vehicles in motion.
“Don’t turn around to look out the back, in case we’re being watched,” says Ingram, showing me the phone. “This is our rear camera.”
I stay quiet, letting Ingram and Eyal keep watch and drive, but after we exit the New Jersey Turnpike it becomes clear no one’s following us. We drive through the city suburbs of North Jersey, heading west until we reach rural farmlands. Ingram scans me once more to ensure my trackers are off, then Eyal pulls off the road and drives us up to a barn. As we roll up the dirt path, the doors open up before us and we continue inside.
In truth, I’ve never gotten within miles of a farm or a barn, so I don’t really know what to expect. Hay? Cows? Bags of seed and grains? Certainly not an operating table and a surgeon wearing scrubs. Stanislaw and Henrik are there too, watching banks of monitors. They nod when they see us, but then turn back to their work.
“Is this a good idea?” I ask. “Anton could turn the trackers back on at any moment.”
“Yes, we have to act fast,” says Ingram. “Get undressed. Don’t worry, Dr. Grenoble can do this quickly.”
Grenoble? That name rings a bell.
“It’s good to meet you,” she says. “I appreciate what you tried to do for Peter.”
The medical examiner? Then I notice the silver hair and the wrinkles around her bright eyes.
Oh wow!
“I’m sorry we couldn’t have done more for him,” I reply.
“Come along, lie down. I’ll be injecting you with Novocaine, which will take time to go into effect.”
“If time is of the essence, I can handle the pain.”
“No,” Grenoble says, shaking her head. “That shouldn’t be necessary.”
“We have the area under surveillance,” adds Ingram as he helps me pull off my top. “We’ll know if anyone tries to come after us. And, if they do…” He points to a rack of guns and what looks like small missiles. “We have more men stationed all around to intercept anything incoming. And we shouldn’t need more than twenty minutes.”
“Eyal, you run the scanner,” says Grenoble. “Ingram, you keep the cases ready. We treat the implants as though they’re online. Even if they’re not transmitting, the tampering detection systems could be active.”
“Understood,” the men say in unison.
“What cases?” I ask as I climb onto the exam table.
Ingram points to a series of boxes.
“These will fool the implants into thinking they’re still inside you.”
My eyes widen at the prospect. We could remove them and be gone long before Anton catches up!
“Are you sure they work?”
Ingram and Eyal laugh.
“We tested them out with Timo and Lincoln. They worked,” says Eyal.
Of course. Just like that, their plan comes into focus.
“We’ve been working this for a long time,” Ingram says. “Or we would have come for you much sooner.”
“I know,” I reply. “I don’t blame you for how long it’s been. I know you came as fast as you could.”
Ingram kisses me.
“We’ll make up for lost time soon.”
