Jeff pointed to Chipper. “That was him.”
Harry grinned. “You got some howl. Anyway, it sounded like it was coming from that old train station.”
“You know about that place?” Emily asked. “I thought it was my secret.”
Harry grinned again. “I found it weeks ago when I was taking one of my nature walks. So I headed that way. About the time I got there I saw those three no-goods coming out, one limping pretty bad. Two of them left in the SUV; the one with the limp headed down this way. I went over, got my van back.”
“You’re a pretty smart guy,” Jeff said admiringly. “You know, I think we should get going.”
“I guess so,” Harry said.
“Can I have five minutes?” Jeff asked. “Chipper and I have something we have to talk about.”
Jeff led Chipper off the dock and down the shoreline about twenty yards, where there was a rock about the size of a crushed car. Jeff climbed up on it, sat down, looking out over the water and the dying fire, and patted the stone next to him so Chipper would sit there.
“You had something you wanted to tell me,” Jeff said, phone in hand.
The dog leaned into him, resting his head against Jeff’s chest, poking his nose up under his chin.
You remember I said some White Coats were mean and some were nice?
“I remember.”
Your mom and dad were the nicest.
“What?” Jeff put some space between them and looked into the dog’s eyes, which Jeff seriously hoped were no longer sending any images back to anybody. “Are you saying my parents worked for this place, where they turned you into some kind of dog computer?”
Yes. Do you know what your parents did?
“I thought they did research for some drug company.” Jeff felt dizzy, like he could tumble off this rock at any moment. “Are you sure about this? I mean, you knew their names?”
Edwin and Patsy. They talked about you all the time! You sounded so great. They told me you had a dog and you loved it so much! When your mom and dad were installing my equipment they told me about Aunt Flo and how she was the only living relative. I knew if something happened to them you would have to go live with her.
“My parents told you all these things about me?”
They enjoyed talking to me. Not just to see if I could understand language but because they liked me. I could tell they loved you very much. You had a very nice family.
It was all starting to come together for Jeff. “So when you escaped, you came looking for me because you knew I’d take care of you. But they must not have told you my aunt hates dogs, that she would never have let me keep you.”
A pause before Chipper said anything.
That was not the only reason why I came looking for you.
“Oh, well, fine — so you didn’t think I’d be a good one to take care of you.”
I wanted to be sure you were safe. I wanted to tell you what I know.
“So now I know,” Jeff said. “My parents lied to me for years. I thought they were figuring out how to make a new and improved aspirin, but instead they were working for some secret government organization that turns puppies into — into I don’t know what!”
There is more!
“More?” Jeff shook his head. He wasn’t sure he could take much more. “Okay, so what else?”
The other White Coats were worried about your parents. Your mom and dad did not like where the research was headed. They thought the White Coats were going to do very bad things!
“What do you mean?”
They did not tell me. But they made their bosses nervous. Madam Director was afraid of what they might say or do.
“Madam what?”
She was afraid your parents would tell the world what The Institute was planning.
“Well, I guess they got lucky when my parents died in that plane accident,” Jeff said. He thought Chipper would have an immediate reply, but nothing came up on the screen. Jeff wondered whether the battery was running low.
But then:
Not an accident!
Jeff felt a chill run the length of his body. “No, no, no. That was an accident. There were like, dozens of people who got killed. It wasn’t just my mom and dad. All kinds of people. Entire families got killed when that plane went down.”
So no one would suspect your parents were the target.
“No way. This is crazy! What you’re saying... what you’re saying is... ”
They killed your mom and dad.
Thirty-Five
The girl in the pink bikini was stretched out on a lounging chair at the end of the dock when she thought she heard some splashing around her. It wasn’t that clear, because she had earbuds tucked into her ears and was listening to music. She had a book on her lap and was working on a tan. If she hadn’t had the earbuds in her ears, she might have heard the explosion further up the lake, and if she had looked up from her book, she might have seen the smoke in the distance.
But the splashing, that she heard.
She closed the book on her finger so as not to lose her place, and looked up.
Coming out of the water was a man in a suit.
Not a rubber wetsuit, like somebody would wear to swim underwater. Not even a swimsuit. It was an actual suit. Black jacket and black pants with a big tear in them. White shirt and tie. Even a pair of sunglasses, perched haphazardly on his nose.
The man was, of course, completely drenched as he emerged from the water. He did not look very happy. He had a gash in his forehead and was bleeding.
The girl took out her earbuds.
“Uh, you okay, mister?”
He eyed her. “Give me your phone.”
“Huh?”
He pointed to the wires that had been dangling from her ears. “Are those hooked up to a phone, or not?”
She reached into her lap and brought a phone out from under the book. She handed it to the man. Standing in the water next to the dock, he took it, disconnected the wire and tossed it back to her.
He entered a series of numbers, put the phone to his ear, and turned away from the girl.
“Madam Director,” he said. “Yes, I’ll hold.”
He stood there several seconds, then said, “It’s Daggert.”
“I’m rather in the middle of something,” Madam Director said.
“This is important. It’s about the boy.”
“You got him? And the animal?”
“No. And no.”
“That’s very disappointing,” said Madam Director.
“The dog was looking for him.”
“Excuse me?”
“The boy. The dog was looking for the boy. The kid’s last name is Conroy.”
A pause at the other end of the line. “Conroy?”
“That’s right.”
“The son of Edwin and Patsy?” Madam Director asked.
“I haven’t confirmed it, but I think so.”
“That’s interesting. That’s very interesting. And it’s also troubling.”
“It is,” Daggert said.
“You’d better get to the bottom of this, hadn’t you, Daggert?” Madam Director said.
“Yes. But I’ve had a setback. And I have to regroup with my people.”
Madam Director snickered.
“What’s so funny?” Daggert asked.
“I am amused,” she said. “That you should have so much more trouble getting rid of the boy than you did his parents.”
“It’ll get done.”
“Oh, I’ve no doubt of that,” she said. “If not by you, then by someone more competent.”