'Tell you what, Henry, I'm gonna go. I think you've been spending too much time in here. You know, when I used to melt those plastic cars I'd get a really bad headache from that smell. I mean, it can't be good for you. And here you are…'
He gestured toward the wire lab door.
Pierce stood up. His anger felt like a rock the size of a fist stuck in his throat.
'You set me up. I don't know what the play is, but you set me up.'
'You're fucked up, man. I don't know anything about a setup. Yeah, sure, I've been sniffing around. It was the hacker instinct in me. Once in the blood, you know about that.
Yes, I put it on there when I set up the system. Tell you the truth, I mostly forgot about it, the stuff I was seeing at first was so boring. I quit checking that site a couple years ago at least. So that's it, man. I don't know anything about a setup.'
Pierce was undaunted.
'I can guess the connection to Wentz. You probably set up the security on his systems. I mean, I doubt the subject matter would have bothered you. Business is business, right?'
Zeller didn't answer and Pierce wasn't expecting him to. He forged ahead.
'You're Grady Allison.'
Zeller's face showed slight surprise but then he covered it.
'Yeah, I got the mug shots and mob connections. It was all phony, all part of the play.'
Again Zeller was silent and not even looking at Pierce. But Pierce could tell he had his complete attention.
'And the phone number. The number was the key. At first I thought it had to be my assistant, that she had to have requested the number for the scheme to begin. But then I realized it was the other way around. You got my number in the e-mail I sent out. You then turned around and put it on the site. On Lilly's web page. And then it all began.
Some of the calls were probably from people you put up to it. The rest were probably legit -just icing on the cake. But that was why I found no phone records at her house.
And no phone. Because she never had the number. She operated like Robin -with just a cell phone.'
Again he waited for a response and got none.
'But the part I'm having trouble with is my sister. She was part of this. You had to know about her, about the time I found her and let her go. It had to be part of the planning, part of the profile. You had to know that this time I wouldn't let it go. That I would look for Lilly and walk right into the setup.'
Zeller didn't respond. He turned and moved to the door. He turned the knob but the door wouldn't open. The combination had to be entered to come in or go out.
'Open the door, Henry. I want to leave.'
'You're not leaving until I know what the play is. Who are you doing this for? How much are they paying you?'
'All right, fine. I'll do it myself.'
Zeller punched in the combination and sprang the door lock. He pulled the door open and looked back at Pierce.
'Vaya con dios, dude.'
'How'd you know the combination?'
That put a pause in Zeller's step and Pierce almost smiled. His knowing and using the combination was an admission. Not a big one, but it counted.
'Come on. How'd you know the combo? We change it every month -your idea, in fact.
We put it out on e-mail to all the lab rats but you said you haven't checked the sniffer in two years. So how'd you know the combo?'
Pierce turned and gestured to the sniffer. Zeller's eyes followed and landed on the device.
Then the focus of his eyes moved slightly and Pierce saw him register something. He stepped back into the lab and let the mantrap door close behind him with a loud fump.
'Henry, why do you have the monitor off? I see you've got the tower on but the monitor's off.'
Zeller didn't wait for an answer and Pierce didn't give one anyway. Zeller stepped over to the computer station and reached down and pushed the monitor's on/off button.
The screen activated and Zeller bent down, both hands on the desk, to look at it. On the screen was the transcription of their conversation, the last line reading, 'Henry, why do you have the monitor off? I see you've got the tower on but the monitor's off.'
It was a good program, a third-generation high resonance voice-recognition system from SacredSoftware. The researchers in the lab used it routinely to dictate notes from experiments or to describe tests as they were conducted.
Pierce watched as Zeller pulled out the keyboard drawer and typed in commands to kill the program. He then erased the file.
'It will still be recoverable,' Pierce said. 'You know that.'
'That's why I'm taking the drive.'
He squatted down in front of the computer tower and slid it around so he could get to the screws that held the shell in place. He took a folding knife out of his pocket and snapped open a Phillips bit. He pulled out the power cord and began to work on the top screw on the shell.
But then he stopped. He had noticed the phone line jacked into the back of the computer.
He unplugged it and held the line in his hand.
'Now Henry that's unlike you. A paranoid like you. Why would you have the computer jacked?'
'Because I was online. Because I wanted that file you just killed to be sent out as you said the words. It's a SacredSoft program. You recommended it, remember? Each voice receives a recognition code. I set up a file for you. It's as good as a tape recording. If I have to, I'll be able to match your voice to those words.'
Zeller reached up from his crouched position and slapped his tool down hard on the desk.
His back to Pierce, the angle of his head rose, as if he were looking up at the dime taped to the wall behind the computer station.
Slowly he stood up, going into one of his pockets again. He turned around while opening a silver cell phone.
'Well, I know you don't have a computer at home, Henry,' he said. 'Too paranoid. So I'm guessing Nicki. I'm going to have somebody go by and pick up her drive too, if you don't mind.'
A moment of fear seized Pierce but he calmed himself. The threat to Nicole wasn't counted on but it wasn't totally unexpected, either. But the truth was the phone jack was just part of the play. The dictation file had not been sent anywhere.
Zeller waited for his call to go through, but it didn't. He took his phone away from his ear and looked at it as if it had betrayed him.
'Goddamn phone.'
'There's copper in the walls. Remember? Nothing gets in but nothing gets out either.'
'Fine, then I'll be right with you.'
Zeller punched in the door combination again and moved into the mantrap. As soon as the door closed Pierce went over to the computer station. He picked up Zeller's tool and unfolded a blade. He knelt down by the computer tower and picked up the phone line, looped it in his hand and then sliced through it with the knife.
He stood up and put the tool back on the desk along with the cut piece of phone line just as Zeller came back through the mantrap. Zeller was holding the scramble card in one hand and his phone in the other.
'Sorry about that,' Pierce said. 'I had them give you a card that would let you in but not out. You can program them that way.'
Zeller nodded his head and saw the cut phone line on the desk.
'And that was the only line into the lab,' he said.
'That's right.'
Zeller flicked the scramble card at Pierce like he was flipping a baseball card against the curb. It bounced off Pierce's chest and fell to the floor.
'Where's your card?'
'I left it in my car. I had to have the guard bring me down here. We're stuck, Code. No phones, no cameras,
