fellow gave way and turned as Michael entered.
'Your name is Nemus, right?'
'Right. It's Nemus.'
'Nemus, you were telling Grady whether you signed in.'
'I think perhaps I didn't. I know the girl at the front there.'
'Did she see you walk past without signing in?' Grady asked.
'Well, let's see she might have. But… ah, she probably didn't.'
'So, she doesn't know you went in?'
'Well, I don't know. Like I said, she knows me.'
'Did you say hi to your friend?'
'Well, I don't think so.'
'You mean you don't know?'
'I didn't say hi.'
'How did you get there?'
'I borrowed my friend's truck.'
'Which door did you use to leave the building?'
'Well, there are only three, I think.'
'Nemus I don't recall Grady asking you how many doors there are. I think you stole my journals.'
'That's crazy. Why would I do that?'
'Because they're worth a lot of money,' Grady picked it up again. 'The United States government wants them. The French want them. Terrorists want them. And Nemus they're all gonna know you have them. Michael's life's work.'
'You're not scaring me.'
'You have to deny your fear only because you're guilty,' Michael said.
Nemus looked as if the blood in his face had drained to his feet. Plainly he was unused to crime.
'I don't have to talk to you.'
'Think about how that's going to sound to the graduate school.' Michael continued. 'What kind of a man says I don't have to talk to you, to a fellow scientist who has lost his life's work? What would you think of such a man Nemus?'
'I'd think he was busy.'
'Will they think you're busy Nemus?' Grady's voice was subdued but full of incredulity. 'Is that what Professor Lyman will think, or the chair of the department, or the President of the University? When the U.S. government is bearing down, when French agents are crawling all over the place? They'll think you're too busy?'
Michael walked over to a bookcase and began pulling volumes out. Grady went to the nearest closet and began rummaging.
'You can't search my house.'
'Any minute the people you were going to sell to will be arriving,' Grady explained. 'They'll have guns. And they'll search your house. They'll take the journals and murder you. You better get those journals out of here before they come or you're a dead man.'
'You are crazy. They wouldn't…'
'What wouldn't they do Nemus? They tried to kill us. They murdered Michael's wife and killed a woman named Marita. Raped her sister. Killed her child. Tell us about these people Nemus if you're such an expert,' Grady urged.
'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Call the police Nemus,' Grady said. 'Tell them you're in danger. Tell them about the people who bought the journals.'
'You're not scaring me.'
'It's possible we'll have found the journals by the time they get here. We'll turn them over to the police and send the academic community a full report. I'm sure they'll lay awake nights worried about your legal rights.'
'Get out of my house now.'
'We're exposing you Nemus,' Michael began. 'Ending your world as you know it. You'll be ruined forever in academia. Scientists the world over will spurn you. They'll get sick in the guts when you walk in the room. A petty thief. A fraud. A man who can't do his own work. What are you becoming Nemus?'
'I'm becoming nothing. Get out of here. Get out!'
Nemus was trembling.
Grady started in on the kitchen cupboards.
'Grady call the government man. Tell him we want the U.S. government. The CIA in here.'
'They have no jurisdiction, you fool,' Nemus said.
'Tell them that when you're full of drugs and they're pump ing you for information about the foreign agents you're trying to sell to,' Grady said. 'Write a long letter to the director of Homeland Security and the appropriate Senate committee. After you look it up.'
'Nemus concentrate on this,' Michael took over. 'Your whole life hangs in the balance. If you give me the journals and you leave Cornell we'll call it a misunderstanding and tell no one. If you don't a man who goes by Girard is going to take them and kill you. And if you escape that I'll probably find them in the next ten minutes or so and then you're career is dead forever. You got that?'
Nemus was thinking.
Michael headed toward the bedroom.
Nemus ran to him and grabbed his wrist but he was a small man and Michael merely glared at him and yanked his wrist away.
'Oh my God,' Grady said. A man in a suit with a gun was plainly visible in the backyard. Nemus looked and moved back in the house as if to hide.
Grady pulled her Dessert Eagle. 357 out of her purse. And stood out of sight.
'Here's the first one of Gerard's men Nemus.'
Then a second man jumped the fence.
'We could call it a misunderstanding?' Nemus said.
'They're in the bedroom,' Grady said. 'His voice rose an octave when you headed that way. Or maybe they are on the way to the bedroom.'
The window seat was in the hallway covered with cush ions.
'In two minutes Nemus we're gonna be shooting at people. Now we need to negotiate with these people and give them the journals if we're going to get out alive.'
Michael grabbed for the cushions to explore the window seat and Nemus sprinted to block him.
'Nemus this is your moment,' Michael said almost in a whisper. 'Your whole life hangs in the balance. If you give me my journals and tell us everything, I'll sacrifice my jour nals to get us out alive. I'll walk away and tell only Professor Lyman. You could still work for a corporation. No arrest. No public humiliation.'
The men had now disappeared on either side of the front windows.
'You promise?'
'I promise.'
Grady walked back to the window seat and opened it.
'Well look what we have here,' Grady said revealing two full rows of binders. While Michael pulled them out she put her gun away, walked to the front door and stuck her head out.
'You can come in now gentlemen.' Then she turned to Michael. 'We have a deal Nemus but only if you come clean. So tell us about the copies, if you want to stay out of jail.'
'I copied 1998. They gave me thirty grand and I sent the original out for copying.'
'Where is it now?' Michael asked.
'I gave it to FedEx and threw the address away. They're coming anytime with one hundred grand to collect copies of the other volumes. They are just copying them and leaving the originals with me to return. I swear it.'
'You copied these?' Michael said. 'You bastard. You copied these volumes.'
'I only copied the 1998 volume so far.'
