"The Transgenic Falcon"

It is amazing what having a burden lifted from your mind can do for your attitude. I hit the Gen-Tech front door the next morning with my head held high, a smile on my lips and a spring in my step. Either the bruise to my eye wasn’t as bad as I had thought the night before or my new mood had sped its healing. I was leaning towards the latter. It was just a dark line under the eye and a little bit of swelling. All in all I thought I looked rather rakish with that and the other wounds showing, ready to tell people who saw me that they should have seen the other guy, or crowd as the case may be.

Part of the mood was the fact that I didn’t have to run the gamut of protesters as I climbed out of my cab. Johnny Round really had booted them off the property. There were a few dispirited god-botherers out beyond the wall, but none of the transhuman fetishists in sight. It couldn’t possibly last, but I didn’t plan to come back here any time soon so I enjoyed it to the fullest.

Also new today were the obvious police presence in the lobby. Two uniform officers were hanging around near the front door. They saw me and both of them glanced over to where Virginia was sitting. She gave them a nod and they let me slide right by.

I tried to keep the swagger out of my step as I walked up to her desk. I might have succeeded, but probably not. I was feeling pretty good right now.

Virginia gave me a smile along with an appraising look.

“For someone last seen disappearing under a pile of attackers, you don’t look too bad, Mr. Hunt.”

“Clean living, darlin’. Clean living,” I said in my best bad Irish accent.

“I see you couldn’t escape the ugly shirt though.”

Even this couldn’t faze me. Besides I knew this shirt wasn’t ugly. Blue with a darker blue pattern and on the side with the buttons a panel of bamboo in green. For me its practically a shirt and tie.

“Gotta give the public what they want. Or at least expect. Speaking of expectations, I kind of assumed you’d be part of the team saving my bacon from the mob of fools. What happened?”

Her face clouded with anger and frustration. “I was just about to after the tide swept over you, but some of the clown-posse came in to the building. I couldn’t leave my post until they were taken care of. By the time that was done, you’d pulled your Houdini act.”

“Well, it’s the thought that counts.”

“I have something for you,” Virginia said, pulling out a long envelop and handing it too me. “Money?”

“Sure is, and well earned at that.”

“Congratulations!” She pulled out a handheld and offered it to me. “I just need you to read and sign this, and you can be off to spend it.”

I took the handheld and scanned through the document. It was another and tighter non-disclosure agreement, this one insisting on all claims being handled by arbitration. Johnson hadn’t achieved his position by leaving out details. Too bad for him.

“I’m sorry I can’t sign that. I think you’d better get Belinda Morris down here to talk about it.”

Virginia’s smile vanished again. It was replaced by a combination of firmness and regret. Not a great look on such a stunning woman. She shook her head.

“I am sorry sir, but Ms. Morris left specific instructions that she was not to be bothered on this matter anymore.”

Yikes! Now that sliced through my good mood, a little, still it wasn’t completely unexpected.

“In that case, why don’t you get Johnny Round down here instead?”

She gave me another regretful shake of the head.

“Ah, orders, eh?”

She nodded and shrugged.

“It’s okay, I understand. But I wonder if you might get a message to Chief Round for me?”

“That I can and will do”

“Great. Tell him that he’s trying to frame the wrong guy. I know who the killer was, I know how it was done and if he doesn’t come down to talk to me in the next twenty minutes my next stop is going to be Channel 11, followed by the Chronicle, to tell them about Dr. Cho’s death and what led to it.”

While I spoke Virginia lost all her professional reserve. Her eyes got big and I could see the whites all the way around by the time that I finished. Apparently she wasn’t far enough up in the security food chain to know about Cho’s death. Plus, I bet she didn’t relish the idea of relaying a threat like that to her overall boss.

I’d put her in a hard spot, no doubt. Even so, I needed to get this show moving before Round went to the HPD, and this was the fastest way to do it. I looked at my watch.

“I have 8:20am; I’ll be over on that bench until 8:40. If Johnny hasn’t arrived by then, it’s off to TV Land and my fifteen minutes of fame.” I gave her a two-fingered Boy Scout salute and sauntered off to the bench I’d mentioned.

Sitting down I could feel the folded up check in my back pocket. I wondered if it would still be cashable in a few hours. Then Hector showed up. He landed next to me on the bench, flicked his ball into my lap and gave out a cry. I put aside thoughts and had a nice game of fetch while I waited.

Johnny took almost all the allotted time. A superstitious glance at my watch showed it was 8:38 when he came out of the elevator.

I kept playing with Hector as he made his way over to me. He wasn’t visibly angry, which could be good or bad. I’d know in a few seconds.

“Eamon, I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but you really have poor Virginia in a tizzy.”

His dark features were open and friendly looking. The tone was one of an old friend trying to talk someone down from a ledge, but I wasn’t fooled. I’d seen this strategy from cops, when they wanted to keep things calm before the hammer came down on some poor schmuck. Even if I hadn’t, the hard glint in his eyes betrayed his easy pose.

“Sorry about Virginia, she’s a good kid; I don’t want to get her in trouble. But really, would you have come down for anything else?”

I lofted the ball for Hector and watch him snag it and return.

“Okay, fine, I’m here. It still doesn’t change anything. We’re going public with Cho’s death and Taylor as the killer at noon. Whatever you think you know, it won’t matter.”

“What I know is whole story, who, how, why and with what. I’m telling someone today. It could be Otho, or it could be the press. It doesn’t make a big difference to me. It might to him and Gen-Tech. I bet I get a free trip to Washington to testify, if this story gets out.”

Johnny stood and glared at me while I threw the ball a couple of more times. Then I made a show of checking my watch.

“Just look at the time! Last throw, Hector,” I told the bird. I wound up and threw the ball, but Rounds big, thick hand was there like a shot and caught it. Hector went a little way into the lobby looking for the ball, then came back and circled us, all the time making high pitched calls of rage.

“Terrell, call that damned bird!” Round told Virginia without looking away from me. She gave out a complex whistle and Hector flew off to his perch on the desk. “Have it your way, Hunt. But if you can’t back up your claims, bet your ass Johnson is going to bury you. And I’ll be the one he sends to do it.”

“Johnny, I have to say I am only slightly less worried about that then I am about getting Herpes.”

“All right then, let’s go see Johnson and get this over with.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that easy, Johnny-me-lad; we’re going to need a conference room, and a few other folks.” I pulled a list of people out of the pocket of my tan pants. “I figure it will take a little while to get everyone there, but it is a non-negotiable condition.” There was no way in hell I was simply going to walk off somewhere with Round by himself. Not at the stakes we were playing for.

“You are not in any position to make demands, Hunt.”

“Hmm, maybe. Do you think that Channel 13 is a better choice than 11? I mean they are the top ranked affiliate here, but 11 being second would run with the scoop harder, don’t you think?”

Round is a professional, so he didn’t show his frustration by clenching a fist or grinding his teeth. Still every muscle in his body was tensed; it made him suddenly look a little bigger and more dangerous. I’d have to remember that trick for the future.

“There is no way in hell I am putting the CEO of this company in the same room as a murder suspect. You can’t have Taylor there, even if his lawyer would agree, which I strongly doubt.”

“C’mon Johnny! You and I both know Taylor is innocent so there’s no danger to Otho. As far as his attorney, just tell Mick that I say I know who really killed Cho. He’ll show up.”

Round gave me a glare that should have reduced me to a pile of gently steaming ashes. When that failed, he turned and walked a few feet away and pulled out his handheld. I turned away to give him a little privacy.

Looking around the lobby I was struck again at how amazing it was. There was something sad about the fact that it could not have existed without a huge profit upside. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no bleeding heart democratic socialist, but it did cheapen the beauty of the place to know it was all for sale. Wouldn’t humanity be better if we could make these things for the sheer scientific joy of doing so?

Probably, but then if that were our normal way of doing things we wouldn’t be humans would we? I made a silent wish for a pony for everyone. If you’re going to long for things you can’t have, you might as well include a pony for everyone while you’re at it.

I heard Round signing off with whoever he was talking to, probably Johnson, and turned back to him.

“You got your meeting. Thirty minutes from now, Conference room A, fifth floor. Virginia can tell you how to get there.”

With that he turned and walked briskly away.

“Hey! Johnny!” I shouted to be heard, “Better lay on some refreshments! People might need a cup of coffee or a snack!”

He didn’t turn; instead he raised one hand with his middle finger sticking straight up. I grinned. Who says you can’t have fun on a serious job?

I had been yanking on Round’s chain when I’d asked for refreshments, but when I came into the conference room, sure enough, there was a spread laid out. There was coffee, tea, muffins, fruit; even some little single serve boxes of yogurt were available. Maybe it’s always kept that way in this high-powered conference room.

The room was fifty or sixty feet long and at least twenty wide. A real wood table dominated the center, with leather chairs for twenty spaced evenly around the perimeter. Blotters and little note pads with the G-T logo had been set at each place. There were even a couple of semi-concealed power and data jacks. Everything a Master of the Universe might need in a meeting.

I decided to avail myself of the coffee. It was almost certainly the last time I’d have G-T’s hospitality, and they do make an excellent cup of coffee in this joint. Someone came up in my peripheral vision as I stirred some cream into the dark roast. I looked up and saw who it was.

“Good morning, Belinda.”

She looked a lot better than last night, all her corporate image was in perfect order, though there might have been a little something around the eyes, if one looked closely.

“Eamon,” she replied, reaching for a mug of her own. “What is going on?”

I gave her a toothy smile.

“I told you I’d solve this case. This is where I make it happen”

“If you know who the killer is, why are you having this scene? Why not just give Round the information and be done with it?”

I took a sip of the coffee. It was perfect, of course. “Well, a couple of reasons. First off I don’t trust Round any further than I can see him.”

“And the second reason?”

My smile faded a little, this was the crux of the whole thing.

“Well, I know who the killer is, but it would be very hard to make it all stick if I don’t get a confession. This is the best way I can do that.”

Simone and Dr. Simpson, the Medical Examiner came in, bickering about something and made a bee-line to the coffee station. I walked away, not wanting to talk to them yet, and Belinda followed.

I set my coffee down at one end of the long table. I was sure that Johnson would take one end, and I needed to be the center of attention, so I staked my claim on the end deepest into the room. Belinda was standing silently next to me.

I gave her a quizzical look and she sighed and looked away, then back. She obviously had something to say, so I gave her the space she needed. Eventually she spoke.

“I, I… I wanted to tell you that I thought about what you said last night. About how living and working at Gen-Tech changes people?”

Her eyes were wide and a little liquid, like she was holding back tears. I nodded my understanding, but kept silent. This was her conversation, I’d let her do it in her time.

“I think you’re right. I don’t like who I am becoming here. I think I haven’t liked it for quiet a while, but had been ignoring it until you said something.” She looked down and away. “I’m going to be leaving Gen-Tech, no matter what happens here today. I just wanted you to know.”

She was still looking down, but I wanted her see my eyes.

“Belinda,” I said gently. Her head came up and she saw my smile. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that.”

“You are?”

“Of course I am. I’ve always wanted the best for my Angel.”

Her breath caught and her eyes brimmed, but there was a smile on her face. “You haven’t called me that since college.”

“No, but I’ve always thought it.” Now my eyes were starting to fill. Not the look I needed for what was to come. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t we talk about it later? I’ve have a lot to focus on right now.”

She took a long breath in through her nose, and the smile cranked up to mega-watt levels, the tears blinked away. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot” She put a hand on my upper arm, “Be careful Eamon.” Then she turned and walked to a seat in the middle of the long table and sat down.

I took my own deep breath and turned my mind to the task at hand. Belinda didn’t know it, but by telling me she was going to quit G-T she’d simplified my task, a lot. Now it was only daunting, instead of terrifying.

While I’d been dealing with old personal business the others had arrived. Lynn Delfore was sitting next to Dr. Simpson; Simone Ferguson was across the table from them with a stern expression on her face.

Johnson, Round and Johnson’s security/secretary were all at the far end of the table, standing and talking in low voices. Lynn Delfore was sitting next to Tara O’Neil, a couple of chairs between them and Ferguson. The conference at the end of the table broke up. Otho and Johnny took their seats with the gorilla standing behind them. Everyone was looking at me. It was show time.

“Before we get started I need to ask anyone not specifically invited to leave. That means assistants and lawyers, I’m afraid.”

Johnson’s gorilla looked to his boss who didn’t even look back, but just nodded. With that permission the Great Ape left. Taylor’s mouth-piece was not so willing.

“My client is about to be charged with a serious crime. If you have evidence that exonerates him, I should be here to hear it.”

“Sorry counselor, but that won’t work.” I looked to his client, “Mick, nothing happens while he’s sitting there.”

“Its fine, Thomas. I’m willing to listen without you in the room” Taylor said. There was a quick whispered conversation that ended with Law-Boy huffily putting his pad into his briefcase and all but stomping out of the room. At least he closed the door behind himself.

“Now to the matter at hand,” I began. “I was hired to find the person or persons who killed Dr. Cho and the Eolin-I in his lab. After three days here I have to say that I have never been in a place that seemed to concentrate cheating and rule breaking like Gen-Tech. In fact everyone in this room has committed several crimes or infractions.”

I expected the outburst that came from that, and even paused to let them talk over each other with their assertions of innocence. Lynn Delfore even shot me a “who me?” look, but I ignored it.

“If you called this meeting to insult us, I’m done” Otho Johnson’s commanding voice overrode everyone else.

“Don’t worry; it wasn’t just to insult you,” I replied. Yeah, it wasn’t politic but I was pretty much done with being politic with anyone here. “The point I’m trying to make is that all the other crimes had a way of obscuring the killer’s actions. Too many threads to follow in too short a time.”

“But we already know it was Mick Taylor! He hasn’t even denied it,” Dr. O’Neil said.

“Do we know its Mick? Let’s see if we can go at this logically, okay?” I asked and waited until she settled back in her chair. “There are three parts to proving a murder; motive, means and opportunity. Anyone who’s watch a procedural drama in the last fifty years knows that much.

“Mick did some things that made him look very guilty. Running away, hiding from the security cameras and such. In the course of the investigation we also found out he had a gambling problem, thanks to Lynn here.” I gave her a nod.

“That gave us a motive. We assumed opportunity because he worked with Dr. Cho, but without the murder method we can’t be sure.”

“If he didn’t do it, then why did he run?” Round asked.

“Well, just because he didn’t kill Dr. Cho doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved in something illegal.”

“And what would that be?” Johnson wanted to know.

“That takes a little explaining. See, there was an even earlier crime that Dr. Cho was involved in, namely the viral vector cure for Goodnights”

Being a detective doesn’t have a lot of perks, but getting to hear an entire room gasp at the same time is one of them. Johnson’s face was getting ruddy, and his eyes were mere slits. That kind of anger is bad for his health, and probably mine, if I didn’t fix it right away.

“No one should worry; I haven’t let the cat out of the bag. Everyone here already knows. Isn’t that right Lynn? Johnny? Belinda? Dr. Simpson?”

They all nodded; dumbfounded that I knew they knew something so secret.

“How the hell did you find out?” Johnson wanted to know.

I shrugged, “I am a detective, that’s why you hired me. It came out in the course of the investigation. It’s a good thing it did, or I’d have never figured this plate of spaghetti out.”

“Fine, I’ll bite, how does this bear on the murder?” said Round

“So glad you asked that!” I replied. “You see, Gen-Tech created the needed technology for viral vectors under Dr. Cho more than five years ago. That’s important because Cho was using it on himself”

“This is bullshit!” Round snapped back.

I turned to Dr. Simpson. “Doc, you found out about the Goodnight’s cure because Johnny Round needed to know that it wasn’t something Cho had accidentally done to himself, right?”

“Uh, yes, that’s correct” Simpson said slowly.

“And tell me Doctor, did you also find an elevated white blood cell count?”

“I did, I think I mentioned it to you.”

“You did. You also said it was probably due to a recent cold or other virus. Tell me in the affected tissue, did you find anything that looked like module binding sites? Even fractured ones?”

“Yes, but I put it down to the breaking of the cells” Simpson said defensively.

“No reason why you should have thought different, Doctor. You see, what Taylor and Cho were up to was experiments in rejuvenation of living systems. It’s too big a job to do all at once, what with the trillions of cells in an adult human. But if you focused on major areas that contribute to aging, well, that simplifies things a lot. Cho had the knowledge to make a working vector, so he had the tool he needed.”

“You have no proof,” Round objected.

I gave him a nasty smile. It shouldn’t have been as much fun as it was. I pulled out Cho’s handheld and showed it to everyone.

“Actually I do. This is Cho’s personal research journal. I’ve looked at it and the records are clear. He and Taylor had been working on it for more than a year. Right, Mick?”

Taylor held out for a second, but he had to have realized that if I had the handheld I knew about Logue, and if I was here to bury him all I would have to do is nothing. He’s a pretty smart guy, when he doesn’t panic.

“Oh, fine, it’s in the handheld; there is no point in denying it.”

“But why were they doing it in secret?” Johnson asked.

“Well, that’s because someone other than you had goaded them into it. You have to admit, overlooking the problem with viral vectors being illegal, having even a partial rejuvenation treatment would be incredibly profitable. In fact, having it be illegal would make it even more profitable, since the people who took it would be open to blackmail for a very long time.”

“That’s why Taylor ran!” Round burst out.

“Exactly, he was the go-between for Cho and whoever was pulling the strings. He knew that eventually the information on the handheld would come out, and whatever he was being paid would evaporate, along with the very real chance of going to jail for a long time. So he snagged it when Tara was having her break-down about Cho. It wasn’t until I started asking after it that he lost his nerve and bolted. Am I still right Mick?”

This time Taylor didn’t answer, he just avoided everyone’s eyes.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I don’t buy it,” put in Simone, “Constantine was a lot of things but he wasn’t a fool. He’d never use himself for his tests.”

“You’re right; he wouldn’t use himself, at least not at first. Instead he had a very good test bed that he had plenty of access to; the Eolin-I. He used them to test his changes. When he was successful there, he started in on himself. What middle-aged man wouldn’t want his eyes to be sharper, his heart to be younger and stronger? Since Cho was also an inveterate ladies man, he also chose to spruce up the old wedding tackle. I suppose for a lothario like Cho, erectile dysfunction would have been a real hit to the ego.”

“That dirty son of a bitch! How dare he use my product for his test bed?” Simone said slamming her hand on the table.

“I told you before, it’s this place. Here a lot of people dare what they shouldn’t. Most of the time it means advancement, so why wouldn’t they?”

“So who is this other party?” Johnson asked.

“That, I can’t say. It was part of the deal that netted me Cho’s handheld. But maybe we should ask the person who was tasked with keeping Cho and Taylor honest? What do you think, Lynn?”

“What?” Delfore said with a look of horror on her face. “You can’t be serious! I’m in HR, not research!”

I gave her a thin smile. Her part in all this was the one that made me feel the dumbest.

“Yes, a known gossip in HR, who better? You were the one who knew about Cho’s affairs; you knew exactly where to look to find dirt on Mick, and you were the one who proposed that he had a gambling problem.”

“That’s outrageous! This is all supposition!” Lynn sputtered as everyone looked at her.

“It might be, but we could always ask Mick. How about it?”

Every eye turned to Taylor whose face told the whole story. He quickly assumed a neutral face, but it was too late, they’d all seen it.

“Then Cho really did kill himself. Something went wrong with the research and it killed him and the Eolin-I,” O’Neil put in.

“Is that true Eamon?” Belinda asked speaking up for the first time.

“No, it’s not. Cho died from a targeted viral vector, but not one he made. You see we have means now, and infecting someone is not that hard, so opportunity is pretty wide open. But we’re without motive.”

“It seem to me lots of folks have motive,” Lynn said, “All those women Cho dated and filmed. Most of them are scientists. Including Dr. Ferguson, and she has the knowledge and ability to figure out what Cho was doing and kill him for it”

“You keep your traitorous mouth shut, you little bitch!” growled Simone.

“Don’t talk to me about ethics; you’re a slut and a dominatrix!”

I wrapped my knuckles hard against the conference table three times. It was just enough distraction to keep the two of them from devolving into a cat fight.

“A nice theory. It even works into the parts of the murder, but no. This is the part that had us all looking the wrong way. Cho’s death wasn’t a premeditated murder, it was manslaughter. He was never the target.”

“I don’t understand,” Round put in and most of the table nodded their agreement.

“It had me fooled too,” I admitted, “You see, the motive in this case was one of the all time greats; love. Cho really was a bastard. He didn’t care what kind of emotional wreckage he left behind him. As soon as a woman who looked like more of a high flyer came along, he’d dump the current one and never give it a second thought.”

“But doesn’t that mean that one of the ex-girlfriends killed him?” asked Belinda.

“That would make sense if the killer wanted Cho dead. She didn’t. What she wanted was her man back. The one she thought was her one-and-only. But she knew how Cho thought. So she planned to wreck the career of her rival, and win her man back. All by having the Eolin-I die mysteriously. Isn’t that so, Dr. O’Neil?”

“What? No!”

“Give it up Tara, you’re found out. You were the third on the Goodnight’s program. Junior to be sure, but you were part of the team, and you know how to make a working viral vector for inserting genetic code.”

“What of it? So was Dr. Chandrakar, she knows just as much as I do,” O’Neil protested.

“That’s true. Thing is we use a three part test for killings, motive, method and opportunity. Dr. Chandrakar has never dated Cho, nor has she been at this facility in the last ten months. I’m not sure what the life span of your vector is, but I’m pretty confident it’s much shorter than that.

“Regardless, I haven’t been around Eolin-I in months either, how could I infect them?”

“That’s where you being really smart comes into the picture. You knew there was a chance that someone would figure out a viral vector was used to kill the ’lin-I. You couldn’t afford to be seen with them. So you decided to use Cho as the method. You arranged to infect him, knowing about his late night visits with poor little janitors. That’s why you had sex with Cho in the full body suit a couple of days before. You rubbed all over him, and had him suck on the material, all good ways to infect him. There was no way you could know that the virus you’d engineered to attack Gen-Tech binding sites would affect him as well.”

O’Neil’s mask held for a few seconds, then she burst into tears.

“I loved Constantine, I never wanted to hurt him! You have to believe me! I just wanted to make her look bad so he’d come back where he belonged!” she said pointing a finger at Simone, then dissolving into incoherent sobs and covering her face.

Other than her sobs there was silence in the room as everyone turned it over in their heads. One by one I could see them finding the same kind of fit I had.

“So, Mr. Johnson, there is your killer. Not a murderer, since the Eolin-I are not covered under that law, but a killer none the less. I think I’ve earned my check, yes?”

“You’ve found the killer, but I hired you to keep Gen-Tech from ruin. If we go to the police with this, that’s exactly what will happen,” Johnson said.

I scratched the back of my head.

“Yeah, that’s a problem I’ve been giving some thought. See, like I said, I find your vision of future corrupt and abhorrent. Nothing would make me happier than to see the whole thing go down in flames, if it weren’t for one thing; the Eolin-I. They are the only completely good and innocent folks I’ve met at Gen-Tech. If you go under, they will surely be put down. I can’t live with them all dying for something that was not their fault.”

“You obviously have a solution, let’s hear it, Mr. Hunt,” Otho said, his CEO style reasserting itself after the shock of the revelations.

“Well, it seems to me that a lot of this problem goes away if Cho wasn’t killed and didn’t die of a viral vector. I figure the only reason you didn’t simply have Doc Simpson certify he died of natural causes and cremate him was you didn’t know how he was killed and you couldn’t be sure the killer wouldn’t use the same method again.”

I paused to see if he would confirm it, but even in a state of upset, Johnson was too in control to make a mistake like that. Oh well.

“Now that you do know the who, the what and how, and know there is no chance of it happening again, there’s no reason not to do just that. Sure, you’ll have to deal with people knowing incriminating things, but you’ve already have a tactic for that. Putting Simpson, Taylor, Delfore and Ferguson on a life-time contract isn’t too big a burden. O’Neil is already on one from the Goodnight’s project and Round you know you can trust or you wouldn’t employ him.”

“Are you really suggesting I keep a killer and two traitors on my staff forever?”

“Yes, I am. You can’t let her near a lab ever again, but O’Neil has proven she’s brilliant; let her teach. Taylor is your in house expert on rejuvenation and it was only ever money that had him looking elsewhere. As long as you let him gamble, and keep him in a nice style, I’m sure he’ll be a good boy. As for Delfore, well, think of the advantage you can gain if you flip her. She can feed your competitor false information for years.”

Otho put an elbow on the table and cupped his mouth with that hand. I could see him thinking it all through, his eyes flicking here and there as different points came to him.

“That might work; we can transfer Taylor and O’Neil to the new acrology we’re building in France, it will keep them out of the way of the law here. And you’re right about Simone and Simpson. We’ll keep this all in-house and nothing gets destroyed. It’s nice and tidy. But we haven’t talked about you and Ms. Morris. I think what is good for everyone else will be good for you two as well.”

I had been afraid of this, but that’s why I thought things through before coming here.

“No, that won’t work at all.”

“Don’t be hasty Mr. Hunt, after all there is going to be a tragic accident for Dr. Cho, who’s to say who else might be involved? It could be anyone at this table.”

“Good point,” I allowed, then pulled out the Fifteen Steps to a Private Investigation and dropped it on the table. “Thing is, in my helpful book there is all kinds of advice about how to protect yourself when you find out things about a client they wouldn’t want to become public. Chapter 14 is all about that, and I follow the advice in this book. Before coming here this morning I set up a few internet caches. If I don’t reset the clock every so often or an obituary of me hits the papers, well, that data goes to newsrooms in London, Paris, New York, D.C. and L.A. I can’t be sure that all of them would run with the story. but given that it includes a copy of Cho’s research, and the sex tapes, I am confident at least one of them would. That’s bye-bye for you and Gen-Tech.”

Johnson leaned back in his chair and looked at me for a while.

“So, you and Ms. Morris walk away and as long as you’re alive and healthy nothing happens. What if you get hit by a truck?”

“Well, we’ll have to hope that doesn’t happen. But after a few years the amount of damage this info can do will shrink somewhat. I only have it because I don’t want to be part of Gen-Tech, not because I want something from you in the future.”

“And you agree to this Belinda?”

She took a deep breath and said, “Yes, I do. I was going to put in my notice anyway.”

I’d forced her hand knowing what she’d told me earlier, but I was still proud as hell of her. She faced down a very powerful man like it happened every day. Based on what she did for a living, it probably did.

“A pity, but if that is the way is must be, then so be it. Still I have a problem, Mr. Hunt. You earned one hundred thousand for solving this case, but you haven’t asked for anything for your silence. I don’t trust that. It would make me uneasy wondering when you’d show up to collect. So what do you want?”

I gave him my best shark-toothed grin. “That’s convenient because there is something I want.” I had been watching Belinda out of the corner of my eye, enjoying the growing look of admiration on her face, but it fell now that I admitted to a price.

“I want the Eolin-I to stop being a product. I want them to become a project in sentience. They have far more potential than you and your teams give them credit for. So my price is their, call it emancipation. They can keep cleaning if they want to, I know they like it, but the push to make them sellable product ends. Fair enough?”

Johnson drummed his fingers on the table a few times. He looked at Simone Fergusson, who shook her head no, and Johnny Round who shrugged.

“Very well, Mr. Hunt, we are closed. But know this, if this leaks from your side, all bets are off, including the Eolin-I.”

“Agreed,” I told him and walked over with my hand out. To his credit Johnson only looked like he’d rather have put his hand in a dung heap instead of shaking it, when I knew he’d really rather throttle me.

We shook and just like that, it was all over.