40

ALTHOUGH HER HANDS were still in cuffs, that didn’t stop Addy from barking at the DHS agents, insisting that she be taken to Quinn. The Santa Clara sheriff had his hand held out, trying to calm Addy while he attempted to explain to a group of federal agents why Addy was so upset.

As Peele entered the tunnel, she noticed at least two cameras rolling, while several bystanders had their mobile phones raised, capturing the historic moment. In a matter of minutes, this confrontation would be all over YouTube.

Peele pushed her way through the circle of agents. “Okay, everyone stand down. DOJ is taking over. She’s in my custody.”

“Somebody please help,” Addy insisted. “Quinn, he’s being held hostage. They’ll kill him if you don’t do something now.”

“Everything is going to be okay,” Peele said in a calm voice as she approached Addy. “Quinn is alive, and he’s in route to the hospital. If you’ll consent to remaining in my custody, I’ll escort you to the Medical Center. Agent Jesse Long will probably beat us there. He has plenty of questions for you.”

“Let’s hurry,” Addy sobbed.

Peele waved to one of the agents. “Can you please get these cuffs off?”

While the handcuffs were being removed, Addy remembered her offer to show Hindy after the game.

Addy rubbed her wrists and looked up to Peele. “What about Hindy? I promised to show everyone.”

Peele glanced sideways to see if any cameras were still capturing their conversation. Then she looked over at the car that was now surrounded by a team of federal agents. “We’ve got a string of homicides we’re investigating, and that car is a crucial piece of evidence. As much as I would love you to show the world what’s under that hood, that car isn’t going anywhere until we’ve completed our investigation.”

“Okay, let’s go. I’ve got to see him.”

* * *

Addy rushed through the emergency room doors with Peele right on her heels.

“Jesse’s already got us a private waiting room,” Peele said.

The intake administrator stood when she saw the two women and directed them to room 207 on the second floor. The pair exited the elevator and turned left, then down a hall until they reached the waiting room.

Peele pushed open the door. Long was already standing, his shoulder resting on the back wall. He flipped off the television that was blaring coverage of the day’s sensational events.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said, tossing the remote onto the couch.

“I didn’t come here for a lecture. I want to know about Quinn,” Addy wished her voice wasn’t wobbling.

“What’s the latest?” Peele asked calmly.

“Quinn’s still in surgery. The back of his skull has a small fracture, and he almost certainly has a concussion, but they think he’s going to be okay. They are doing surgery for the gunshot wound on his shoulder. It may be tomorrow before you can see him.”

Peele waited a few minutes, letting the news sink in.

“I want to stay here until I can speak to him. I’m not leaving,” Addy announced.

Long glared at Peele, figuring the duty would fall on him.

“That’s fine, but you can’t be alone,” Peele said. “We’ll need an agent to stay with you.”

“We might as well get comfortable,” Long said. “We have a lot to go over. Let’s start with me telling you that you have a right to have an attorney present.”

Addy took a deep breath and pressed down her grief. “You forget what happened to my attorney,” she said abruptly. “Let’s get this over with so I can go see Quinn.”

Peele led Addy to the couch and both women sat. Long paced back and forth with his arms folded, deep in thought. Finally he stopped and looked at Addy.

“I think you need to understand our predicament. We had this crazy inventor who was convinced Quinn stole his idea. He made such a stink that Peele had to formally investigate his claims. Right in the middle of our investigation, you come along, and your login credentials are used to access the Department of Energy’s patent applications. We wanted to keep all of this out of the public eye until we could sort out the allegations. Not to mention there are certain political reasons that we’ve been asked to look into this. But now the cat is out of the bag and we can’t put it back in.”

Addy raised her eyebrows and looked steadily at Peele.

“Unfortunately, Long is right. Your stunt is going to put a lot of people on the hot seat, including me,” Peele said. “How did you possibly think that public opinion could prove your innocence?”

“What about the fact that you were suppressing Quinn’s patents?”

“Just to make sure they didn’t contain stolen technology,” Peele said.

“But they didn’t.”

“If you believe Quinn,” Long added.

“What about the information from his patents that ended up with the Department of Energy?”

“That’s what he claims,” Long continued.

“I believe him, for some strange reason. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I do. And you know what ultimately convinced me?”

Long shrugged.

“When Quinn jumped down from the semi and single-handedly took on those assholes.”

Long raised his brows.

“You know who they are, don’t you?” Addy probed.

“I shouldn’t tell, but I suppose it will be on the news soon enough.”

“Well?”

“The mastermind behind your attacks is a man named Jerry Wilcox. I’ve mentioned him before.”

Addy remembered the name. He was the crazed inventor who claimed that Quinn stole his ideas while Quinn was working for HydroGen. Wilcox was the fourth assailant from of the black Suburban. She’d nearly struck him and the woman when she crashed her way out of the barricade.

“Where is he?” Addy said.

“Probably in the morgue.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re looking at the agent who shot him.”

“Wait, you’re the one who saved Quinn?”

“Yes, I got there just in time. Your taxi driver happened to recognize you. And good thing I live close, otherwise I would have never made it in time.”

“Well, I guess I should thank you for that,” Addy conceded. “But you need to know that Quinn didn’t steal his idea. Wilcox doesn’t even have any patents. He couldn’t make the technology work. That’s why the patent office was looking at Quinn’s patent applications—because Quinn was the one who figured it out.”

“That will all be part of the investigation,” Long said.

“And Wilcox went rogue when you couldn’t stop him and decided to do it himself.”

“Quinn didn’t help his case when he hired you to hack into Wilcox’s patents,” Long reminded her.

“Sung-soo,” she corrected him. “It was Sung-soo who used my login.”

“You can see my dilemma. I have two inventors who claimed to have invented the same thing. And one of them thinks the other stole it. Add to all this a government who isn’t ready for the next big thing. Oil is big business.”

This time Peele glared at Long.

“And in the meantime, nobody gets the technology,” Addy said.

“You see the issue.”

“And now you can see why I revealed the secret to the biggest audience possible.”

Peele put her hand on Addy’s knee. “We’re not getting anywhere with this. Why don’t we all take a deep breath and relax for a bit?”

Addy wasn’t ready to relax. “What about the other terrorists? The man with the tattoo? Did he kill Perry and Johnston?”

Long held up his hands. “Slow down a bit. I can tell you that his neck was broken. He won’t hurt you again.”

Addy remembered the image of the man flying through the air when she’d crashed the semi into the Suburban. “Serves him right. Did he kill Perry?”

“That’s what we’re going with right now. Wilcox may well have hired him and a team of terrorists to make sure you and Quinn didn’t succeed.”

“Well, they didn’t manage it.”

Partially satisfied with their explanations and completely exhausted, Addy allowed herself to fall back into the soft embrace of the couch. She could feel herself fading.

“Now maybe we can all work together,” she said as her eyes closed.