Road Less Traveled (9 page)

Carter leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up
on his desk. “So what you're saying is—”

“—we've got no leads,” Jo finished, pacing the space between his desk and hers. “None at all. Nothing from the security logs, nothing from the access panel, nothing from the lab itself. Nothing anywhere.”

“Got it.” He scooped the baseball off his desk and tossed it up in the air, then caught it and tossed it again. “We have no idea who stole the egg, no idea what they want with it, no idea where they are, and no idea if they're caring for it properly or if it might explode into living lightning at any second.”

“Exactly.” Jo reached out, lightning-fast, and snagged the baseball before it could fall back into his waiting hands. “And that might not have been the case if you hadn't saddled me with the world's greatest detective as a sidekick.”

“Oh, come on. He's not that bad, is he?” Carter watched her warily, both her eyes and the hand that was gripping his baseball so tightly her knuckles had gone white. He already knew from the one time they'd played baseball—albeit Eureka's high-tech virtual version—that she had a killer fastball. He really didn't want to be on the receiving end of it, especially not at this close range. And him without a bat.

“He's worse,” his deputy insisted through gritted teeth. “He asks questions about everything I'm doing, stands so close I can hear him breathing, touches things without thinking, throws away valuable potential evidence without a second thought—he's a disaster!”

“Are you sure this isn't just because he's always had a crush on you?” Carter quickly held up his hands, then, because Jo's eyes had flared and her arm had cocked back of its own accord. “Whoa, just kidding, just kidding. No need to go all Wild Thing on me.”

She sighed and tossed him the ball, which he caught after only a minor fumble. “I know. And you know I consider him a friend. It's just that he's annoying enough when we're dealing with him at GD. To have him tagging along while I'm trying to track down leads—it's even worse.”

Carter got serious for a second. “So you don't think he's going to be any help to us at all? Even if we find the egg?”

Jo went totally still. One of the things he really liked about her was that she could be brutally honest, even with herself. “No, I think he could be helpful,” she conceded finally, though he could see she was having a hard time letting those words spill from her mouth. “The only people who know more about the Thunderbird project are Allison, the two researchers in charge, and their lab assistant. We can't ask Allison to take time away from her own work to wander around with us just in case we wind up needing her expertise, and we can't be sure the docs or the assistant weren't in on it. Plus, Fargo knows us, and knows how we work, so in theory he's better at staying out of our way than the others would be. In theory.”

“But of course it's Fargo, so he's right
in
our way half the time,” Carter finished for her. He laughed, but not at her. “Sorry, Jo. I know it wasn't fair to make you drag him around. But I do think we'll need him when we find the thing, and that means keeping him close at hand.”

“So
you
drive around with him for a while,” Jo suggested.

This time he did laugh at her. “Me? Oh, no. He'd drive me crazy!”

He was really glad he'd gotten the ball back before he'd said that.

“Okay, let's talk about our suspects.” He switched gears. “You met Korinko—you think she's capable of stealing her own project?”

Jo didn't even have to think about it. “No. She was genuinely upset when she found out what had happened. Either she's a really good actress or she had no idea. Plus, she wanted to know all about the one that did hatch, which means she wasn't there at the time.”

“Could have had an accomplice,” Carter pointed out. “She gives him the codes, he steals the eggs for her, she's got an ironclad alibi.”

“Possible, but I don't think so,” Jo argued. “She just didn't strike me as the type.”

Carter nodded. He'd learned long ago to trust Jo's instincts. “What about Dr. Boggs?”

“I'm not as sure about him,” Jo admitted. “He was harder to read, and he seemed a little more preoccupied. Like this wasn't his biggest concern, which struck me as weird. They've put the last few years of their lives into this project.”

Carter thought about that. “You met with Dr. Korinko when she arrived, right?” His deputy nodded. “And then went in to inspect the lab?” Another nod. “Did Dr. Boggs arrive before you came back out?”

“Yeah, he was waiting in the hall with Dr. Korinko.” She grimaced. “Which means he'd already heard about the break-in, and about the loss of the eggs . . . ”

“So he might have been preoccupied because he was going over everything in his head so they could reconstruct their notes and all that lost data,” Carter finished. This was one of the many reasons he and Jo made such a good team. They often thought along the same lines, or at least reached the same conclusions even if they started from different places.

“Right. In that case, never mind. His reaction made perfect sense.” Jo sighed. “Besides, he's really tall and really skinny. I didn't get a good look at the thief, but I'd have noticed that.”

“Could have been an accomplice again,” Carter reminded her. “But it sounds like we can rule both of them out, at least for now.” He started to toss up the baseball again, then thought better of it. “That leaves the lab assistant.”

“Andee Wilkerson,” Jo supplied. “She's got the day off and has been out at the lake with her boyfriend. She's not answering her phone.” For just a second, Carter thought he saw a sappy expression cross the face of his tough-as-nails deputy. Was she thinking about picnics like that with Zane? But her face was back in its usual sharp, unforgiving lines now. Maybe he'd just imagined it.

He was one of the few people in town, however, who knew that Jo Lupo did have a sappy romantic side to her. She just kept it under lock and key most of the time.

“Okay, so we'll talk to her when she gets back into town,” Carter said, stating the obvious. “Though if she and her boyfriend are the thieves, spending a day incommunicado at the lake would make for a perfect cover. She could have gone up there with his phone, in fact, so both their signals would match their alibi. Then he could have met her there with the eggs. She'd know exactly how to keep them safe and stable.”

“True, but why do it?” Jo shook her head. “Andee's been a lab tech for eight years, and she's been on the Thunderbird project with Boggs and Korinko since the beginning—she'd worked with Korinko on another project before this one, and they requested her specifically. Why suddenly decide to betray them? And would she really wait all those years for something to steal?”

“She could have needed a lot of money in a hurry,” Carter suggested. “A dying relative, a gambling debt, plans for a big wedding, a baby on the way—there are lots of reasons.” He was tossing the baseball from hand to hand while he thought. “Whoever stole the eggs knew exactly how to get into GD and get past its security. That means either a master thief or a genius who knows GD's security measures.”

“The second one describes just about everyone who works there,” Jo commented.

“I know. But whoever it was also knew how to get past the eggs' containment field. That's got to require a bit more specialized knowledge, right? Do any of the other labs use the same sort of field? Who repairs them when they break down? Who installs them in the first place? Do the maintenance guys check on them along with the lights and the locks, or is that a different department?”

Jo nodded. “Plus, we still need to figure out what the thief plans to do with the egg,” she added. “Is he going to sell it? Who's going to buy this thing? A rival think tank? A corporation? A small country?” She frowned. “If we can figure out who he—or she—is hoping to sell to, we can work out how he's planning to get it out of Eureka, and then we may be able to catch him in the act.”

“Good.” Carter set the baseball back on his desk and stood up. “You take that angle. See if anybody's been asking the same questions, too—if this was an inside job, our thief might not know a good fence for the eggs, in which case he must have asked around before he decided to pull the job. I'll nose around GD, find out about the containment fields. We'll compare notes and see if any of the same names pop up.” That would certainly be nice, though he wasn't counting on it being anywhere near that easy. Things in Eureka almost never were.

Jo glanced at the clock. “You're not going to find out much at this hour.” It was almost six. Carter shook his head. Ever since Zoe had left for college, he'd had a harder time keeping track of the hours. It made a big difference when you no longer had a kid in high school who had to eat a decent dinner at a decent hour.

“You're right. I'll head over there first thing tomorrow morning.” It wasn't like the containment fields were going anywhere, after all. And unlike most problems in Eureka, the missing Thunderbird wasn't so urgent it couldn't wait until morning. He headed for the door. “Got plans for dinner?”

Jo nodded. “Zane and I are going to pick up some food from Vincent, then head out to one of the ridges. There's a meteor shower.”

“Nice.” Carter felt a flash of envy. His first date with Tess had been watching a meteor shower from the hood of his Jeep. He thought of her fiery hair and her sharp tongue and her wicked smile. They'd been good together. But she'd gotten a job in Australia on that new radio-telescope array, and it had been too good to pass up. They'd tried to keep things going long-distance, and he'd even gone out to visit her, but it had proven too hard for them both. She'd been the one to break things off, and though it had hurt at the time, Carter knew she was right to do so. They had separate lives to lead. He still missed her sometimes, though.

“Well, don't let me keep you,” he told Jo as she caught up with him and they headed out together. “You don't want to miss the sights.”

His deputy smiled, though, and kept pace beside him. “The shower's not for another few hours,” she replied. “And it never hurts to keep a guy waiting every once in a while.” Something in her smile and in her eyes, though, told Carter she knew what he was thinking. Jo wasn't delaying to make Zane miss her; she was keeping him company because she'd seen that he was lonely.

Like he'd said, she had a sappy side. And every once in a while he saw glimpses of it.

But he'd never say that out loud. She was still armed, after all.

Instead he just smiled. “In that case, let's take our time.” And together they strolled down the block at a nice, leisurely pace. Neither of them said anything more, and Carter realized that she was another close female friend he could have a comfortable silence with.

By the time they reached Café Diem he was in a good mood, and had already decided to catch up on the other night's baseball game once he got home, followed by some random action movie. Maybe two. S.A.R.A.H. had a whole array of them archived, and he could order up a few beers and some donuts or chips and kick back and watch them as loud as he wanted, as long as he wanted.

There were definite advantages to being a bachelor again. And to having a sentient house, or a “Self-Actuated Residential Automated Habitat.” He might as well make the most of them.

Allison and Dr. Russell both turned to look at him. They sported identical “what the hell are you talking about now?” expressions. Carter squirmed. He enjoyed having two attractive women eyeing him, but not like that!

“Howard the Duck,” he tried again. “Old comic book, made into a movie with Lea Thompson. Ducks in another dimension are like people here.” Their expressions didn't change. “Wow, tough room.”

That got Allison to smile, at least. “Sorry, Carter. Things are a bit hectic right now. In a good way, though.”

“A great way,” Dr. Russell agreed. Gone were any traces of the depression he'd seen the day before. Now she was radiant and enthusiastic, almost vibrating with energy. Amazing what a difference a little thing like a major scientific breakthrough could make!

“Cool, so it's all going well, then?” He edged his way into the lab proper, but stayed up near the observation chairs in back. Russell's techs were swarming around the consoles like worker bees and he didn't want to get in their way. Or get stung.

“It is,” Allison agreed. She rose and moved a little closer, leaving the researcher back by the main console. “Dr. Russell's been cataloging the differences and similarities between our own Eureka and this parallel version. You already noticed several discrepancies, and she's found a few more, but there are far more similarities. Which means that, in the grand scheme of things, we're looking at a dimension very close to our own.”

Carter remembered her explanation of divergent realities the other day. “Because it's like a tree, with each choice leading to two or more branches, and the farther you venture from your own branch, the more different it'll be in every way?”

She beamed at him. “Exactly! We've seen plenty of people we recognize, and plenty of places as well, so this other Eureka has to be on the same major branch we are, and probably only a few choices removed from our own.”

Carter nodded, glancing up at the screen. “Have you found Café Diem yet? Maybe it's just in a different location.”