night?”
“What is your name, sir?” The voice was curt.
There was a pause. “Uh, my name’s Kevin Hamilton, one of Dr. Ward’s students. He sent me e-mail telling me that the same men who had killed Stein were after him. It seemed suspicious, so I thought I’d better let you know.”
“I don’t know who this Ward guy is, but Stein is Guy Robley’s case.”
There was another pause, this time longer. “You mean, there really is someone named Stein?”
MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT
51
“Herbert Stein was found Saturday morning in a vacant lot near the Astrodome. Shot twice and loaded into a dumpster. Look, Detective Robley isn’t here right now, but he should be back in about twenty minutes. Can he call you back then?”
“Wow. Okay. I’ll stay here.” He gave her the number. “Please have him call me as soon as he gets in.”
“All right.” Two clicks could be heard. Bern began to speak, but Lobec lifted his hand as another number was dialed. The LCD panel in front of him displayed the number of the girl named Erica Jensen, who they had already identified with their caller ID unit. The line was busy, and Hamilton hung up the phone. He tried twice more and then seemed to give up.
Finally, Lobec lowered his hand, and Bern spoke.
“We can’t let him talk to the cops.”
“You are correct. It’s unfortunate that we did not know of Hamilton’s involvement in NV117
previously.” Lobec pulled out his SIG Sauer P230, a compact weapon easily concealed and modified to accommodate a silencer. He chambered a round and replaced it in his shoulder holster. “It would have been so much easier.”
“We going now?” Bern checked his badge and identification and grimaced again when he saw his alias.
“No, that would be unrealistic. The police would never arrive so quickly. Even so, we don’t have much time. We will wait ten minutes. If anyone calls in that time, we will need to surprise him. Otherwise, we can introduce ourselves to him in the usual fashion.”
MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT
52
CHAPTER 7
After shaving and changing into more presentable clothes, Kevin tried calling Erica again.
Busy. He laid the receiver in the cradle, put his slippers back on, and walked back to the living room, plopping himself on the couch. Headline News was into the next half hour, but he switched it to the local channel to see if he could find out anything about this Stein. Damn, he wished he got the paper.
Kevin was still confused by the events of the last two hours, and he played them over in his mind to see if any of it made sense, to try to put it together into some rational explanation. No.
First, he needed to start with the facts. One, his professor and the professor’s wife were dead, supposedly from a house fire. Two, he received e-mail from Dr. Ward claiming--wait, change that--from Dr. Ward’s e-mail address claiming that someone was trying to kill him, and that same someone had already killed a man named Herbert Stein. Not only that, but they wanted to kill him for an experiment that was a failure, and one of these people was named Clay. Three, Herbert Stein, a person he had never heard of until today, was murdered.
Which left him with what? He looked at the printout again. He wished he could believe that this was all an elaborate hoax, that somebody owed him for a joke he had pulled at one time, but MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT
53
he was too much of a realist to believe it. Even the nerds in his chemistry department wouldn’t stoop to something like this.
That left a high probability that the message really was from Dr. Ward. Three dead people.
Maybe all of them murdered. He was glad he had called the police.
A sharp knock on the door startled him, and Kevin accidentally tore the printout in half. He stuffed the pieces of paper into his pocket as he rose and walked over to the front door.
Normally, during the day he would just open the door, although at night he always checked who it
“What is your name, sir?” The voice was curt.
There was a pause. “Uh, my name’s Kevin Hamilton, one of Dr. Ward’s students. He sent me e-mail telling me that the same men who had killed Stein were after him. It seemed suspicious, so I thought I’d better let you know.”
“I don’t know who this Ward guy is, but Stein is Guy Robley’s case.”
There was another pause, this time longer. “You mean, there really is someone named Stein?”
MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT
51
“Herbert Stein was found Saturday morning in a vacant lot near the Astrodome. Shot twice and loaded into a dumpster. Look, Detective Robley isn’t here right now, but he should be back in about twenty minutes. Can he call you back then?”
“Wow. Okay. I’ll stay here.” He gave her the number. “Please have him call me as soon as he gets in.”
“All right.” Two clicks could be heard. Bern began to speak, but Lobec lifted his hand as another number was dialed. The LCD panel in front of him displayed the number of the girl named Erica Jensen, who they had already identified with their caller ID unit. The line was busy, and Hamilton hung up the phone. He tried twice more and then seemed to give up.
Finally, Lobec lowered his hand, and Bern spoke.
“We can’t let him talk to the cops.”
“You are correct. It’s unfortunate that we did not know of Hamilton’s involvement in NV117
previously.” Lobec pulled out his SIG Sauer P230, a compact weapon easily concealed and modified to accommodate a silencer. He chambered a round and replaced it in his shoulder holster. “It would have been so much easier.”
“We going now?” Bern checked his badge and identification and grimaced again when he saw his alias.
“No, that would be unrealistic. The police would never arrive so quickly. Even so, we don’t have much time. We will wait ten minutes. If anyone calls in that time, we will need to surprise him. Otherwise, we can introduce ourselves to him in the usual fashion.”
MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT
52
CHAPTER 7
After shaving and changing into more presentable clothes, Kevin tried calling Erica again.
Busy. He laid the receiver in the cradle, put his slippers back on, and walked back to the living room, plopping himself on the couch. Headline News was into the next half hour, but he switched it to the local channel to see if he could find out anything about this Stein. Damn, he wished he got the paper.
Kevin was still confused by the events of the last two hours, and he played them over in his mind to see if any of it made sense, to try to put it together into some rational explanation. No.
First, he needed to start with the facts. One, his professor and the professor’s wife were dead, supposedly from a house fire. Two, he received e-mail from Dr. Ward claiming--wait, change that--from Dr. Ward’s e-mail address claiming that someone was trying to kill him, and that same someone had already killed a man named Herbert Stein. Not only that, but they wanted to kill him for an experiment that was a failure, and one of these people was named Clay. Three, Herbert Stein, a person he had never heard of until today, was murdered.
Which left him with what? He looked at the printout again. He wished he could believe that this was all an elaborate hoax, that somebody owed him for a joke he had pulled at one time, but MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT
53
he was too much of a realist to believe it. Even the nerds in his chemistry department wouldn’t stoop to something like this.
That left a high probability that the message really was from Dr. Ward. Three dead people.
Maybe all of them murdered. He was glad he had called the police.
A sharp knock on the door startled him, and Kevin accidentally tore the printout in half. He stuffed the pieces of paper into his pocket as he rose and walked over to the front door.
Normally, during the day he would just open the door, although at night he always checked who it
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