“She’s on her way.”
Nik turned to Jesper. “Do you have our identities?”
“Yes.” He handed them a manila folder and a memory stick. “The memory stick has additional details. Look them over.”
They sat and looked over their new identity papers, which included a passport, driver’s license and credit cards.
Emma smiled. “So I’m wolf population biologist, Dr. Jane Walker.”
Nik laughed. “Like Jane Goodall.”
“And who are you?” asked Emma.
“And I’m your guide, Boris Orlov.”
Emma laughed. “Boris fits.”
Nik raised his brow. There she goes again with silly inside joke.
Nik pointed to the screen. “On the map, show me the pack’s last location.”
Jesper displayed the information on the big screen.
“Good. Isolated, far from human populations. We might still have a chance to get there.”
Rylee walked in. “I see you started without me.”
They all bowed to Rylee and then returned to studying the screen.
Emma turned to her. “Ma’am, once our jet lands, how will we get there?”
Nik smiled. “I have helicopter license in Russia.”
“Really?” asked Emma.
“Military helicopter training.”
Rylee nodded. “I’d say the culprits must have a helicopter as well.”
“Actually, I did my homework.” Emma handed Jesper a memory stick. “This is the man I suspect.” She clicked on several pictures.
Rylee raised a brow. “Justin Charles or rather J.C. Bolton, head of Bolton Industries, a huge agri-biotech corporation. He’s one of the richest men in the world and a beloved philanthropist. Are you sure?”
“Great PR. Bolton has been in and out of the shadows. Danny was on his trail when he and the others were killed.”
“By a Russian hitman. A gun for hire who mostly works for arms dealers.” Emma narrowed her gaze at Nik. “Possibly, former army intelligence, in fact.”
If he felt romantic earlier, her suspicious comment about Russians drove that mood away. Nik shook his head. “Why would Bolton be connected to arms dealers?”
“One of his genetically engineered pesticides killed fifty-eight people. They settled out of court with the plaintiffs. His shares plunged. Yet, he didn’t seem the least bit put out. He wrote a three million dollar check for a charity to save old grove forests. And get this, he contributed to research in the wolf genome of Northern European wolf populations. At the time, I thought it was coincidence, but then who else would have the funding to do chimera experiments?”
They stared at Bolton. The forty-something American billionaire sported a lab coat in front of his group of scientists. The words below the magazine photograph read, “Bolton Industries Cures and Feeds the World.”
“Does the memory stick have everything on J.C. Bolton?” Rylee asked.
“Yes. To be honest, Danny was working on connecting him to selling bio weapons, but lost the trail. Bolton has expert fixers. Possible CIA connections.”
“What kind of bio weapons?” Rylee asked.