Polar Shift (NUMA Files 6)

"I'll wait, but I want to get all the pieces in place so that we can hit the ground running." Margrave turned to Doyle, who had been quietly absorbing the discussion. "What do you think about all this?"

"Hell, I'm just a dumb air jockey from Southie. I go with the flow."

Margrave winked at Barrett. "Spider and I will be busy for a while."

"I got you. I'll grab another beer and go for a walk."

After Doyle left, the two other men huddled over a computer. When they were satisfied their plan had gone as far as it could, they agreed to meet again. Doyle was puttering around the dock when the meeting broke up.

"I appreciate you changing your mind about leaving the project," Margrave said to Barrett. "We've been friends a long time."

"This goes beyond friendship," Barrett said.

They shook hands, and minutes later the plane was skimming across the bay for takeoff. Margrave watched until it became a speck in the sky, then he went back into the lighthouse. He stared out the second-floor window for a moment with a smile on his strange face. Barrett was a genius, but he was unbelievably naive when it came to politics.

Despite his assurances, Margrave had no intention of delaying the project. If ever a time existed when the end justified the means, it was now.

12

Incredible!" Barrett said with a shake of his head.

He sat in the seaplane's passenger seat, his nose buried in the portfolio Margrave had given him.

Doyle looked over. "Good stuff Tris gave you?"

"Good! This material is fantastic!"

Barrett raised his head from the papers he had been engrossed in and glanced out the window. He had paid little attention to the world outside the cockpit and expected to see the same rocky coastline they had followed on the flight to the lighthouse island. There was no sign of the Gulf of Maine. Instead, thick pine forest spread out in every direction.

"Hey, Mickey, did you have one beer too many back there?" Barrett said. "Where's the water? This isn't the way we came in. We're lost."

Doyle grinned as if he'd been caught playing a practical joke. "This is the scenic route. I wanted to show you where I go deer hunting. It will only add a few minutes to the trip. Sounds like there's good stuff in the homework Tris gave you."

"Yeah, it's pretty amazing material," Barrett said. "Tris is right. The subject is arcane, and the author generalizes a lot. And there's a difference between naturally occurring phenomena and the kind of thing we're trying to stir up. But she writes with firsthand knowledge about this so-called antidote. She sounds as if she had talked to Kovacs personally. "

"Good man. Guess that means you're sticking with the project."

"Naw." Barrett shook his head. "There's nothing here that will make me change my mind. Even if we talked to this woman, there's no telling how much she actually knows or how much is simply theoretical. This craziness can't go forward. The, only way to head off a disaster is to go public."

"What do you mean?"

"I've got a friend on the science desk at the Seattle Times. I'm calling him as soon as we land, and I'm going to lay out the whole story."

"Hey, Spider, you can't tell people the skinny on this deal," Doyle said with a vigorous shake of his head. "You sure you want to go public? You could get in one hell of a big mess."

"I'll have to take that chance."

"This will wreck Tris as well as the project. He's your partner."

"I've given it a lot of thought. It will be better for him in the long run."

"I dunno about that."

"I do. He may end up thanking me for scuttling this crazy scheme."

"Why not wait? He said he would hold off until someone talked to Kovacs's granddaughter."

"I've worked with Tris a long time. He only said that to calm me down," Barrett said with a smile. "The world has got to know what we've been hatching, and, unfortunately, I'm the one to spill the beans."