Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Zach shrugged. “He called me after he called the cops, and that’s when I used a friend’s login to follow Miss Magenta’s tracker.”
“But I thought he was using something to negate our trackers,” Tim pointed out. “I’ve been trying to find a solution because if I can’t keep up with Ben in the field, I’m useless.”
Lou waved her hand. “I already solved it. I’ll send you some specs.”
Smart Lou. Tricky Lou. “I am eternally grateful for your genius.”
“And I’m happy that at least one of you listened to me,” Lou admitted. “Everyone else was super freaked that Huisman would turn off Kara’s tracker. I had explained it to them, but did they listen? Nope.”
“I did, babe,” TJ said encouragingly. “And the nanites are going to be even cooler. Lou’s programmed some tiny machines to organize themselves as clothes. And if you get mustard on your shirt, they clean it up for you.”
“Yes, and sometimes they decide for themselves what the operative should be wearing,” Kala added with a long-suffering sigh. “I’ll stick to cotton, thank you. It doesn’t decide it’s too hot and shift to a string bikini in the middle of a restaurant patio.”
“I told you it was because of the big fountain. They thought you were going swimming,” Lou argued.
“I like my clothes to not think, Lou,” Kala replied.
“Oh, I’m excited to play with those.” Devi practically clapped her hands together like a young girl who got to visit the castle with all the princesses.
Lou gave her a grin. “I can’t wait to see some designs.”
“We’re getting off track.” Henry seemed determined to deal with the actual problems at hand. “What do we know about Ray White?”
“I can send you the dossier I’ve put together on him,” Tim offered. “He was a small-time drug dealer in Southern California when he met Shannon Reed.”
“My mother.” Zach wanted to control some of this. After all, it was his history. “She was a chemistry student at Stanford, and she decided the best way to start her career was by designing new drugs. They were more potent and cheaper, and my dad connected himself to a cartel, basically pimping out my mother’s skills.”
“Shannon Reed, by all accounts, was brilliant,” Parker said softly, more of that sympathy easing out.
“She is brilliant,” Tim corrected. “I’ve studied what we have on her bombs, and the construction is revolutionary.”
“They kill people,” Zach pointed out. “In easy to cover ways.”
“But there are other uses for the things she’s creating.” Lou looked his way. “Almost everything humans create can be used for both good and evil. Your mother has created a structure that can be used in bombs, but also potentially in engines.”
“Have we thought about the applications when it comes to potential cold fusion?” Tim asked.
Lou nodded. “I dream about it at night. I would love to get my hands on one that didn’t explode. So far I’ve only gotten to inspect the remains. I would love schematics.”
“I can help you with that. I might have some of her early designs,” Zach admitted. He would feel comfortable giving them to Lou. He wasn’t sure about anyone else.
“That would help enormously,” Lou agreed. “But I meant what I said. All technological advances have a dark side. This one might someday give us the key to limitless clean energy.”
He couldn’t imagine a world where the corporations allowed that. He worried his mother’s genius would always be about crime, but this wasn’t some philosophical exercise. Devi’s hand came over and rubbed against his forearm, and suddenly it didn’t seem so terrible to be here. “I’m glad to hear that, Lou. As for my parents, they were kind of the match made in hell. My mom did her first stint in prison after I was born. My aunt quit the military so I would have a stable place to live since my father was also in prison. She got out and everything was fine until his time was up and he came looking for her.”
“And he was involved with a Mexican cartel, right?” Tim asked, looking at his notes.
“Mexican and then Honduran. My father tried to play the two off each other, and it’s what led to my mom deciding the heat was too much. After her last prison stint she came home for a couple of years, but he showed up again, and that was when she hit the road.” He’d been young at the time and hadn’t known that his brother had been born during one of those prison sentences. Born and then adopted by Alex and Eve McKay, who had no idea how the baby they were going to raise was related to Alex’s best friend Ian Taggart. Zach’s aunt Joyce had worked with him in the military and thought someone in Ian’s orbit would be the best guardian for the nephew she would never be able to claim. “Honestly, I know very little about what he’s been doing since the last time he tried to intimidate my aunt into telling him where Mom went. I was sixteen, and he set me on my ass for trying to protect her. He should see how I plan to protect the women in my life now.”