Possibly he could convince Oliver to keep quiet. He'd return the remaining TPD and swear he'd done nothing to the president. He'd say he'd suffered through a period of aberrant behavior but he was better now, and he was going into therapy. He'd profess to know nothing of Gin's condition, and swear again that he'd gone looking for her last night but had been unable to find her. Oliver would suspect, but he couldn't know. After all, Gin had removed the implant, Oliver had seen it himself. And if Duncan could convince him that he was on the straight and narrow from now on, that they should put all this behind them, Oliver might go along.
Probably.
Hopefully.
After all, if the affair were made public, Duncan's opprobrium would attach to Oliver, and to Oliver's implants. His invention would be forever tainted by its misuse with harmful intent. The FDA might even hold up its approval.
Oliver will keep his peace, Duncan told himself. What harms me harms his implants. And he knows the good they can do will far outweigh the harm I've done.
He unlocked the private entrance and walked inside. He went to the keypad to disable the alarm and found it already off. Damn it.
Barbara had forgotten again to set it before she left. If she weren't such a good secretary . . .
He'd deal with her next week. Right now he had other concerns. The advance team from the Secret Service would be arriving in about half an hour to secure the building.
Plenty of time to fill an implant with TPD.
He turned on the inside hall lights and outside spots, then went to his office. He froze when he turned on his office lights and saw the books, journals, and papers scattered across the floor. The office was a shambles. Someone had broken in and torn it apart. Why? What could they be looking for?
The TPD?
He leapt to his desk. He groaned when he saw the splintered drawer.
It looked as if someone had taken a hammer to it and smashed it open.
He rifled through the contents. The TPD vial was gone. So was the trocar.
No!
His heart tore into overdrive. He hurried back into the hall and stood looking up and down its length. Somebody had found the TPD and stolen it.
But who? Oliver was locked up and Gin was in an emergency room somewhere. Who else knew about, ?
Duncan whirled as he heard a faint noise, like a chair being moved. It had come from down the hall. He saw that the door to the lower level was open.
From downstairs? Who would be down in the records room or, Oliver's lab!
Moving as quietly as possible, Duncan hurried along the hall and tiptoed down the stairs. At the bottom he saw light flooding out from the open door to Oliver's lab. And noises from within. Oliver must have escaped'from the basement. Gin had told him where the TPD was hidden and now he was here disposing of it.
Discarding all caution, Duncan raced forward to the door.
"Oh, ! " The word clogged in his throat, shutting off his air. He couldn't breathe.
A pale, disheveled woman in a swearer and sweatpants, with wild-looking dark hair, stood at the counter, the vial of TPD in her hand. She looked up. Her wide, shocked eyes spit dark fire at him.
He found his voice. "Gin! " As she raised her arm to hurl the vial at him, Duncan lunged for her, catching her arm before she completed the motion. She screamed, scratching his face with her nails and beating at him with her free hand as he tried to pry the vial from her fingers.
Lord, she was strong, like an angry tigress, but he fended her off and finally managed to get the vial away from her. And then she attacked him with both hands, screeching incoherently through her clenched teeth. She was a banshee, a female berserker. Was this what the TPD had done to her?
And then she broke away from him and darted toward the door. He caught her arm and swung her around against the counter, then slammed the door closed and leaned his back against it.
He faced her, staring at her as she stared at him, both panting.
"You bastard! " she screamed, as tears started in her eyes. "You rotten filthy son of a bitch! How could you do that to . . .
me? With that, she folded her arms on the counter, lowered her head onto them, and began to sob.
Duncan was dumbfounded. She seemed sane now. Upset, yes, but completely rational. But the implant . . . the TPD. Could the transducer have failed to dissolve it?
That had to be it. Low power, interference, whatever the reason, the ultrasound had failed.
Good Lord. What did he do now?
One thing was certain, He needed time to think. He turned to the door, found the lock, and twisted it. If nothing else that would slow her up if she tried to, He cried out as a cold, sharp stab of pain pierced The back of his thigh. He clutched at the spot and turned.
Gin stood directly behind him, facing him, the trocar clutched in her hand like a dagger.
Duncan's blood froze. He snatched the trocar from her.
"No! You didn't! Gin, you didn't " She nodded slowly, her eyes wild, a slow smile spreading across her face.
Over her shoulder Duncan spotted a tray on the counter with three implants and a syringe. He touched the back of his leg again and checked his lingers.
Blood.
His sick fear was overcome by a flash of anger. But as he stepped toward Gin she raised her other hand. Her fingers were wrapped around the transducer handle of the tabletop ultrasound Oliver used in his experiments on the membranes.
Duncan slammed himself back against the door.
"No, Gin! " He'd wanted to shout the words but they came out in a hoarse whisper. "Please . . . don't! " "Why not? " she said, still smiling crazily.
The wild look in her eyes terrified him to the very core of his being.
She was teetering on the edge. One wrong word, one wrong move, and she'd slip completely out of control.
"Why trot? " she repeated. "You wanted to do it to me." '"No, Gin.
That was the last thing I wanted. I had no choice. I, " "Spare me the lies! " she said, jabbing the transducer at him. "I passed out last night because I was sick and scared and weak. But you thought it was the TPD hitting my system. You tried to fry my brain last night, Duncan. And you came damn close. If my fingertip hadn't happened to brush against that second implant while I was digging out the first, I'd be in the lockup ward at D. C. General right now. As it was, I came to and got out of my apartment just before the ambulance arrived.
" "That should be proof that I didn't want to harm you. I called that ambulance." '"Right. After you gave me an ultrasonic zap." She moved closer and Duncan edged away to his right. He didn't dare make a grab for the handle. Her thumb was on the power button. A little pressure on that and the implant in his leg would dissolve, after which his mind would quickly follow suit. He had to keep her talking.
"You don't understand, " he said, continuing to edge away. "Oliver told me you'd removed both. I only came, " '"Oliver didn't know that!
He only saw the one in the bottle, the second one. The first one fell into the tub and - broke and washed down the drain." , , He kept moving, inches at a time He would have loved to put the counter between them, but she was following his every move, waving that transducer at him.
"Gin . . . " "How could you do that to me, Duncan? How could you try to ruin my life like that? You might as well have put a gun to my head. I trusted you, Duncan! " His heart started hammering as he saw the fury begin to mount in her eyes. He looked around for a weapon, a way out, anything, but he was trapped. He'd have to stop backing away and go after her, have to risk grappling with her.