“No, you don’t,” she said.
Penny’s staff did not realize her involvement in the protection of the Tesla Experiment. It was a secret only known to the few people who funded it, attempted it and designed the means to put it into practice. Penny was part of the funding side over the years leading up to its fruition.
When she came to the door of the store room she roughly converted to Sam’s holding cell she took a last look around to make sure nobody at the Cornwall Institute’s local branch saw her. That was fortunate for Sam too, because there were no witnesses to see him jerk her inside the moment she opened the door.
“What is this about, Penny? I did not kill anybody. I did not even know that Tägtgren was dead! He sent me a threatening message, that I leaked his involvement and I cost him his job.” Sam revealed, holding his hand over her mouth. He had Penny in a bear hug from behind to restrain her movement and he kicked the door shut. Penny said something into his hand.
“If you scream I will hurt you, I swear,” he said, and she nodded.
Slowly he lifted his hand. “Who else knows about you filming there?”
“Just Healy and a friend of mine, David Purdue, but he is…” Sam cut the rest short, since explaining Purdue’s whereabouts would take way too long.
“Then Healy could be the killer. He had no problem handing you over,” she speculated. “What did you do with the real footage, Sam?”
“I don’t have time to explain now,” Sam said. “Give me your car keys.”
“No.”
“Penny, give me your car keys,” he repeated, pulling her hair to manipulate her movement.
“I will not! You have no choice but to…”
Sam punched her lights out. Penny’s body fell limply against him.
“I’m sorry, old girl,” he whispered. “I just don’t have time to listen to you shite right now.”
He left Penny in the room and latched the door on the outside. Christian Foster would be on his way back by now, so Sam slipped through the rest room to another door that led past Penny’s office. There Foster stood, talking on the phone. Sam’s phone was probably still in Foster’s possession. Keeping an eye on the huge man in the office, Sam entered the open laboratory and scanned the place for a suitable weapon. An iron bar holding up a makeshift shelf against the wall looked ideal. Gently lowering the shelf, Sam removed the bar and stole back to the hallway.
He stood next to the doorway, waiting for Foster to come through it. Sam’s hands tightened around the bar as he sank to his haunches to be just about the height of Foster’s knees. Holding his breath, he listened for the footsteps of his target drawing nearer as his heart pounded wildly in anticipation. With all his might Sam swung the bar against the assassin’s legs, sending Foster howling in pain, writhing on the floor. With another blow to his head, Sam incapacitated him. He searched Foster and retrieved his cell phone.
With time to call for help Sam quietly passed through the hallways of the building, past employees and filing clerks. He tried to look as natural as possible, considering he sported a few bruises and nursed a headache from hell. Finally he made it to the lobby, dialing the only person he knew in this part of the planet.
Within ten minutes Sam was rescued by Professor Westdijk. It was a matter of luck that Sam recalled the old man telling him he would be taking a few days off in Bourgoin-Jallieu until the end of the month. His only friend at CERN collected Sam to take him back to Jenner Manor. Two blocks into his escape Sam noticed that they were being followed by a red Mercedes that quickly caught up with them. It was difficult to outrun the red car in traffic, and Sam could see that it was Foster sitting behind them. As soon as they were on the highway the chase continued at high speed.
Sam was impressed with Prof. Westdijk’s driving. He kept Foster at bay for a good 10km further. A call came through on his cell phone.
“Are you alright, Sam?” Nina asked. “Where are you?”
“Nina, don’t trust Healy! Don’t open the gates for anyone! I’ll explain later,” Sam told her urgently. “We’ll be there shortly.”
“We?” Nina asked. But Sam had hung up already.
“Where are they?” Lydia asked.
“Sam sounds frantic,” Nina said. Her voice was fraught with worry. “I know that tone of his, Lydia. It is not something to take lightly. He says we mustn’t trust Healy.”
“Bullshit. Healy would never do anything to hurt me,” Lydia disagreed.
“Think about it!” Nina forced. “Healy stays away for the first time in how many years to catch up with a friend… just about the time that you send Purdue back? Just before you plan to finally get the Tesla schematics?”
Lydia had to concede. The time frames would coincide. Healy did change slightly when Purdue agreed to help with the experiment, although she did not think he was at all concerned about her work. In fact, Lydia reckoned Healy was a little jealous of the attention she got from Purdue and that was the reason for his slightly cooler behavior. Then again, Healy was not a warm, fuzzy man to begin with and it was difficult to tell how he felt most of the time anyway.
“Nobody knows that you are still alive, right? Those who knew you were working on the theories, Lydia, did they know you came back at all?” Nina asked.
“No. They had no idea that I survived the CERN accident,” Lydia said after some thought.
“There you go. Healy waited until you started getting messages from Purdue, to make sure that the experiment was successful!” Nina reasoned, and Lydia’s eyes betrayed her exact deduction too. “Now he had the perfect opportunity to reveal that you were still alive! Obviously the highest bidder would want to get your whereabouts from Healy and I think Sam just discovered who he gave it to.”
Lydia looked at Nina with an ashen expression. She finally realized that she truly was in danger and she knew that at least four other people knew about the Tesla Experiment. Any of those could be showing up at her door at any moment.
“Nina, get that skinny ass of yours behind my chair and wheel me to the second floor! Now! We have some time to prepare to dig in here at the chamber in case Purdue makes contact, so let’s make it count!”
Chapter 27
The entire region of Haute-Vienne suffered a night of tense anticipation as the dreadful news spread through the small towns. Oradour-sur-Glane reeked of burning flesh, ammunition and scorched agricultural produce stored in barns that were now reduced to ash. The German regiment responsible decided to stay for the night to enjoy the spoils of their exploits, but the commanders did elect to send out scouts to comb the surrounding farms and communes to flush out whomever could be holding Kämpfe.
Being wounded by a falling beam under one of the structures earlier had Sturmbannführer Diekmann incapacitated. The medical officer had administered morphine to still his pain, putting him to sleep for the night. Purdue used the opportunity to slip away behind the back of the only structure that was practically ignored, save for being used as sleeping quarters for the night. The young girl had followed Purdue’s advice reluctantly, but she knew that any man who killed one of the Germans to save her had to be someone she could trust. She had no choice otherwise.
The clumps of pea brushes populated most of the next kilometer of land off the boundary of the obliterated town. There were trees and the odd brook running through the terrain which was pivotal to her survival, and she found a place by the water to hide until morning. Her body was weary, exhausted from the emotional devastation of what had happened to the people she knew so well but the water soothed her skin and burning eyes in the coolness of night.
She heard a rustling somewhere in the pea brushes. The fair haired man from earlier was stumbling through the dense foliage, having no idea where he was going. It was good to see him, yet she was afraid to show herself. He collapsed to his knees in the water, gulping up handfuls of it and washing his face. For a long while he just sat there in the faint light of the moon while she scrutinized him.