“HANNAH HAWKINS, IF I’M NOT MISTAKEN?” DOCTOR BINGHAM SAYS.
The president of Amino Corp knows my name? I don’t find this comforting.
I tuck my cell phone into my pocket. “You’re Doctor Bingham aren’t you? I’ve seen you on the news.”
“Not the best news recently, I’m afraid,” he says. “But it will all be resolved. I’m sure of it.”
According to the news, they’re going to either can Doctor Bingham, or the entire company is going to tank. He’s pretty upbeat for either of these options.
“What am I doing here?” I ask.
He opens his hands wide. “Why don’t you tell me?”
My heart speeds up, but I force my face to stay calm. “Well, I’m here helping my friend in the coffee shop. And I was trying to find a bathroom. But then your guards brought me here. I really need to get back to the coffee shop.”
“How’s your uncle doing?” Doctor Bingham asks.
I have no clue why he would care.
“Fine,” I say. “Why? Do you know him?”
“Oh, we go way back,” Doctor Bingham says. “Did you know that he worked for me for a while?”
“My uncle worked at Amino Corp?” Uncle Randall had never mentioned that.
“Just as a consultant.”
“Doing what?” Maybe I shouldn’t be prolonging the conversation, but curiosity gets the better of me. Uncle Randall is a linguist, not a scientist, and as far as I know, the two fields don’t have much in common.
Doctor Bingham’s smile never falters. “Projects here and there.”
It’s so obvious that he’s being intentionally vague. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I’m curious or that it matters. My jaw is clenched. My muscles are tight. I need to get out of here.
“Can I go?” I ask.
He puts up a hand to stop me. “Do you remember an artifact from around Easton Estate?”
My heartbeat quickens.
I put on a silly grin. “We have lots of artifacts around Easton Estate. We have an entire room of Egyptian stuff. Even a sarcophagus.”
He holds his hands about a foot apart and makes a circular motion with them. “About this big across and round. With symbols carved into it.”
Oh my god. He is seriously asking about the Deluge Segment. But not the piece he has here. Which means that there must be multiple pieces. He’s asking about the piece that Mom made the rubbing of.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t sound familiar.”
“You’re sure?” he says. He’s trying to hold his face calm, but the muscle below his left eye twitches the smallest amount.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Do you think there are any pictures of it?” he asks.
Okay, this is just plain weird. Why would he care about this piece now?
“Not that I’ve ever seen,” I say.
Doctor Bingham lets a smile fall onto his face. “Too bad. Tell you what, Hannah. If you happen to find anything like that around Easton Estate, will you let me know?” He hands me a business card. It’s green with gold metallic lettering on it.
“Um, yeah, sure,” I say aloud, but inside, all I want to do is scream. Something big is going on. Something way out of my control.
I stand. “Can I go now?”
Doctor Bingham stands and walks to the door, opening it for me. “Of course. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Oh, and say hello to your uncle for me. Please tell him that if he ever wants a job …”
No way am I telling Uncle Randall any of that. I’d rather be destitute than have him work for a company like Amino Corp.
I step out into the hallway and act like I’m lost. “Which way is the coffee shop?”
Doctor Bingham points to the left. “That way. Don’t get lost again.”
My skin crawls as I walk away, almost like I can feel his eyes on my back. But I don’t turn to check. Instead, I go right to the coffee shop. Lucas is halfway done with the chalkboard when I get there. His eyes widen when he sees me.
“Hannah, you’re alive.”
I tuck the business card into my pocket and hold up my phone. “Mission accomplished.”
Barely, I think. That had been too close.
As Lucas finishes up, I tell him everything that happened, including meeting both Ethan Oliver and Doctor Bingham.
“You didn’t mention my name?” he says.
I shake my head. “I didn’t mention your name.”
“And why was this Ethan guy looking at the thing? That’s a little strange. Do you think his dad knows?”
I think about the way Ethan had run out of the room and the way he’d hidden the badge from the guards. “I doubt it. He didn’t want to get caught any more than I did.”
But why would he care about the Deluge Segment that much in the first place? Simple linguistics interest isn’t enough to sneak around giant pharma. There has to be more to Ethan Oliver’s interest.
“I don’t know, Lucas.” I study the picture, but I don’t remember the other ones enough to know if it’s the same as the picture from Peru. I’ll have to compare it when I get home.
It’s after six when Lucas finishes both coffee shops and drops me back at Easton Estate. Uncle Randall still isn’t back from his trip yet. I stop by the kitchen to grab a protein bar and a bottle of iced tea, then head right for my lab. First, I release Castor and Pollux from their habitat. They scramble up onto my shoulders and pull at my ponytails. I feed the sugar gliders and Sonic, take a bite of the protein bar, and then pull up the photo on my phone.
I take the rubbing that Mom had hidden away and place it next to the phone. Side by side I can see how similar they are. I didn’t measure the Amino Corp piece, but from what I remember, they’re about the same size, about twelve inches across and circular. Both artifacts have a pattern of five notches near the edge which are similar but not exact. I don’t think they’re in the same place. Covering both artifacts are symbols and markings. These aren’t exactly the same either. These are definitely different pieces of the Deluge Segment.
I snag the photo of Dad, Mr. Oliver, Uncle Randall, and the other guy in Peru from the box of photos and compare the piece in the photo with the other two pieces. The one in the Peru photo also has the five notches along the edges like these two, but even with the horrible quality of the photo, I can tell they aren’t the same. None of the markings look exact. There has to be a third piece of the artifact, just like in the sketch Uncle Randall had been drawing.
Ethan Oliver had been interested in the piece, both during the lecture and at Amino Corp. He’d taken a picture today, just like I had. And his dad is in the Peru picture holding the thing. If there is a third piece, which I’d wager next month’s allowance on, then I’m willing to bet there is an excellent chance that the Olivers are in possession of it. I need to see it.