The Adamas Blueprint

“Sure, anything.”

“I didn’t want to tell Nick this to shame him into calling me, but I have cancer. Lung cancer. I guess I didn’t give up cigarettes soon enough.”

“What’s the prognosis?”

“Oh, I’ve probably got a year left at least. But you have to promise not to tell him. I don’t want his pity. Just try and get him to call me. I have my friends and the business, but he’s my only family.”

Erica saw sincerity in his wide hazel eyes.

“I’ll do my best.”

“I knew you would. You seem like a fine match for Nick. Don’t let him lose you.”

“We’re just friends.”

“No you aren’t. I can tell. It’s in the way you take care of him. If you’re not together now, it’s just a matter of time.” He winked.

“Goodbye, Murray.”

Erica shook his hand and climbed out of the truck. She smiled and waved to him as he drove back toward the freeway. Then she went to look for Kevin.

Like most Texas buildings during the summer, the LuminOptics offices were chilly from the air conditioning. A receptionist’s desk stood in the first room. Through the doorway, she could see a hall with open offices on either side. She headed to the only one that still had its light on.

When she entered the office, the sales rep nodded and then returned his attention to Kevin, who was examining a piece of equipment. It looked like a telescope, about three feet long and six inches in diameter, cradled in a receptacle.

“Is he gone?” Kevin said without looking up.

“Yes. Is this what we need?”

The sales rep chimed in. “I believe so. The model XXP-2400 blue light laser. The most reliable in the industry.”

“Yeah, it looks okay,” Kevin said. “Do you have the check?”

Erica pulled the cashier’s check out of her purse and handed it to the sales rep, who examined it as closely as Kevin had studied the laser.

“I’ll just need to make a call and verify this.”

After the sales rep left the room, Kevin began boxing up the laser.

“Why’d you have to be so hard on him?”

“What are you talking about?”

“He seemed like he was trying to make amends with you.”

“Oh, you mean my dad.”

“Who else would I mean?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve been bottling up everything for so long, it had to come out somehow.”

“Then you don’t hate him?”

“I never hated him,” Kevin said.

“You could’ve fooled me.”

“Well, maybe I did. Now, I just try not to think about him. But seeing him brings up all these memories. It’s more painful than anything else.”

“Then you’ll call him?”

“I don’t know. We’ll see. Right now, we’ve got to call a cab.”

While Kevin finished repacking the laser tightly in its box, Erica used the yellow pages and telephone on the desk. She gave the address to the cab company and hung up.

“They said it’ll be twenty to thirty minutes,” she said as the sales rep returned with a large smile on his face.

“The check cleared with no problem,” he said. “Is everything to your satisfaction?”

“Yes, thanks.”

The sales rep put on his coat and escorted them to the front door, helping Kevin carry the laser. They placed it gently on the cement outside the building under the awning to protect the laser from the rain, which was now coming down in sheets. The sales rep locked the door.

“I’m sorry I can’t let you wait inside,” he said.

“That’s all right,” Erica said. “You’ve done enough already. Our cab will be here soon.”

The sales rep looked curious and then shrugged. The circumstances were rather strange, Erica thought. But the money seemed to quiet him, and he climbed into his car.

A minute after the sales rep drove away, a Taurus turned onto Greenmont. Erica didn’t pay much attention to it; it was probably an employee returning from dinner for some late night work at one of the other offices on the block. She was about to ask Kevin where they were going to go when the Taurus suddenly veered into the LuminOptics parking lot.

“Oh shit!” Kevin said almost under his breath. The next word was shouted. “Run!”

Erica’s stomach dropped when she realized Kevin’s terror. Kevin grabbed her hand and sprinted toward the far end of the parking lot, the downpour drenching them almost immediately. The Taurus drove straight at them as if it were going to run them down. Kevin and Erica tried angling away from the chain link fence separating them from the parking lot next door, but the Taurus skidded to a stop ten feet in front of them, blocking the only way out of the enclosed lot.

A smiling man with perfectly coiffed black hair lowered the passenger window. In the driver’s seat sat a beefy younger man with a crewcut. Her focus left the black-haired man’s grinning face when he lifted a pistol above the window sill.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Hamilton,” he said. “You can’t know how happy I am to see you.”

CHAPTER 23

Kevin couldn’t believe he was seeing them again. But his eyes weren’t deceiving him. In the car before him were Barnett and Kaplan, the fake policemen from Houston.

“I can tell you are surprised, Mr. Hamilton,” Barnett said. “We will have plenty of time to answer your questions.” His gaze shifted to Erica. “And I’m glad I finally get to meet Miss Jensen. You know, you both had us worried for a while. The trick with your credit cards was quite ingenious. I will be interested to find out whose idea that was. Now, please open the back door slowly and climb in.”

Kevin looked at Erica with dismay. If he tried something stupid, like charging them, he’d only get shot. He was about to tell Erica to do what the man said when an engine roared from his left.

He turned in time to see his dad’s truck hurtling toward the Taurus from behind. In the next second, as he and Erica scrambled to get back, the pickup smashed into the Taurus, collapsing its trunk and catapulting it into the chain link fence twenty feet to their right. The Taurus hit the fence straight on and careened backward, coming to rest about five feet from the fence, its engine stalled.

They wasted no time and ran to the truck. Even with such a heavy impact, only minor damage showed on the truck’s front bumper. Murray was already opening the passenger door.

“Hurry!” he yelled.

Erica got in first, then Kevin.

“Nick, the glove compartment! My gun!”

Kevin opened it and found a Glock 17 in a leather holster. He hesitated and then saw groggy movement behind the Taurus’ limp airbags. Quickly, he unsnapped the holster and drew the Glock. His dad was heading toward the parking lot exit.

“Wait! The laser! Dad, we need to go back!”

His dad threw him a surprised glance. “What are you talking about?”

“The company entrance. We have to go back.” When he saw that his dad wasn’t turning the wheel, he yelled. “Go back!”