happening.
Ben Roberts was making an entrance, accompanied by a large crew of cameramen and assistants.
The two women turned to look. Kelly grabbed Diane's arm, beaming. 'Plan A has arrived!
Ben is here.' And Diane looked up and said softly, 'Thank you, Richard.' Kelly said, 'What?' She suddenly realized what Diane meant. She said cynically,
'Right. Come on.
Ben is waiting for us.'
TANNER WAS WATCHING the scene, his face stiff. He called out, 'Excuse me. I'm sorry, Mr. Roberts. This is a private memorial ceremony. I will have to ask you and your crew to leave.' Ben Roberts said, 'Good morning, Mr. Kingsley. My show is doing a television segment with Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Stevens at the studio, but while we were here, I thought you might like to have us do a piece on the memorial service.' Tanner shook his head. 'No, I can't permit you to stay here.' 'Too bad. Then I'll just take Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Stevens over to the studio now.' 'You can't,' Tanner said harshly.
Ben looked at him. 'I can't what?' Tanner was almost trembling with fury. 'I-I mean-you— nothing.' The women had reached Ben.
He said softly, 'Sorry I'm late. There was a breaking news story about a murder and-' 'There was almost a breaking news story about two more,' Kelly said. 'Let's get out of here.' Tanner watched, frustrated, as Kelly, Diane, Ben Roberts, and his crew pushed past Tanner's men and walked out of the park.
Harry Flint looked over to Tanner for instructions. As Tanner slowly shook his head no, he was thinking, It's not over yet, bitches.
DIANE AND KELLY got into the car with Ben Roberts. His crew was following in two vans.
Roberts looked at Kelly. 'Now, can you tell me what that was all about?' 'I wish I could, Ben. But not yet. I will when I know what I'm talking about. I promise.' 'Kelly, I'm a reporter. I need to know-' 'Today you came as a friend.' Roberts sighed. 'Right. Where would you like me to take you?' Diane said, 'Would you drop us off at Forty-second Street and Times Square?' 'You ve got it.'
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Kelly and Diane were getting out of the car.
Kelly kissed Ben Roberts on the cheek. 'Thanks, Ben. I won't forget this. We'll stay in touch.' 'Be safe.' They turned to wave as they walked away.
Kelly said, 'I feel naked.'
'Why?' 'Diane, we don't have any weapons. Nothing. I wish we had a gun.' 'We have our brains.' 'I wish we had a gun. Why are we here? What are we going to do now?' 'We're going to stop running. From now on, we're on the offensive.
Kelly looked at her curiously. 'What does that mean?' 'It means I'm sick and tired of us being the target of the day. We're going after them, Kelly.' Kelly looked at Diane a moment. 'We're going after KIG?' 'That's right.' 'You've been reading too many mysteries. How do you think the two of us can bring down the biggest think tank in the world?' 'We're going to start by getting the names of all their employees who have died in the past few weeks.' 'What makes you think there were more than Mark and Richard?' 'Because the newspaper announcement said all their employees, so there were more than two people.' 'Oh. And who's going to give us those names?' 'I'll show you,' Diane said.
THE EASY ACCESS Internet Cafe was a vast computer hall containing more than a dozen rows of cubicles equipped with four hundred personal computers, nearly all of them in use. It was part of a chain that was springing up all over the world.
When they walked in, Diane went to the card vending machine, to purchase an hour of Internet access.
When she came back, Kelly said, 'Where do we start?' 'Let's ask the computer.' They found an empty cubicle and sat down.
Kelly watched as Diane logged on to the Internet. 'What happens now?' 'First we do a Google search to find the names of the other victims who were employees of KIG.' Diane typed 'www.google.com' and then typed in her search criteria: 'obituary' and 'KIG.' A long list of search hits appeared. Diane looked specifically for items in newspapers that were available online and found several. She clicked on those links, which led her to a series of recent obituaries and other articles. One article led her to KIG Berlin, and she accessed its Web site.
'This is interesting… Franz Verbrugge.'
'Who's he?' 'The question is, where is he? He seems to have disappeared. He worked for KIG in Berlin, and his wife, Sonja, died mysteriously.' Diane clicked onto another link. She hesitated and looked up at Kelly. 'In France-Mark Harris.' Kelly took a deep breath and nodded. 'Go on.' Diane pressed more keys. 'Denver, Gary Reynolds, and in Manhattan'-Diane's voice broke-'Richard.' Diane stood up.
'That's it.'
Kelly said, 'What now?' 'We're going to figure out how to put all this together. Let's go.'
HALFWAY DOWN THE block, Kelly and Diane passed a computer store.
'Just a minute,' Kelly said.
Diane followed as Kelly walked into the store and approached the manager.
'Excuse me. My name is Kelly Harris. I'm Tanner Kingsley's assistant. We need three dozen of your very best and most expensive computers by this afternoon. Is that possible?' The manager beamed. 'Why-why certainly, Mrs. Harris. For Mr. Kingsley, anything.
We don't have them all here, of course, but we'll get them from our warehouses. I'll take care of it personally.
Will that be cash or charge?'
'COD,' Kelly said.
As the manager hurried away, Diane said, 'I wish I had thought of that.' Kelly grinned. 'You will.'
'I THOUGHT YOU would like to see these, Mr. Kingsley.' Kathy Ordonez handed him several newspapers. The headlines told the story:
AUSTRALIA HAS FREAK TORNADO
THE FIRST TORNADO TO EVER HIT AUSTRALIA HAS
DESTROYED A DOZEN VILLAGES. DEATH TOLL IS UNKNOWN.
METEOROLOGISTS ARE BAFFLED BY NEW
WORLD WEATHER PATTERNS. OZONE LAYER BLAMED.
Tanner said, 'Send these to Senator Van Luven with a note: 'Dear Senator Van Luven, I think time is running out. Best wishes, Tanner Kingsley.' 'Yes, sir.' Tanner looked up at a computer screen when he heard the sound telling him he had received an alert from the security division of his Information Technology department.
