The Burning Wire (Lincoln Rhyme 9)

"I hardly blame him."

Logan continued, "But whoever this Sommers is, he's not part of the plan."

"But you sent Algonquin a third demand letter. That meant you had to kill somebody else. You don't have a trap at the convention center?" Rhyme looked confused.

"No."

Then he nodded with understanding. "Of course . . . me. I'm the next victim."

Logan paused, the wire taut in his hands. "That's right."

"You took on this whole assignment because of me."

"I get a lot of calls. But I've been waiting for a job that would bring me back to New York." Logan lowered his head. "You nearly caught me when I was here a few years ago--and you ruined that assignment. It was the first time that anyone's ever stopped me from fulfilling a contract. I had to return the fee. . . . It wasn't the cash; it was the embarrassment. Shameful. And then you nearly caught me in England too. Next time . . . you might get lucky. That's why I took the job when Cavanaugh called me. I needed to get close to you."

Logan wondered why he'd chosen those words. He pushed the thought away, finished affixing the ground wire. He rose. "Sorry. But I have to do this," he apologized. Then poured water onto Rhyme's chest, soaking his shirt. It was undignified but he didn't have a choice. "Conductivity."

"And Justice For the Earth? Nothing to do with you either?"

"No. I never heard of them."

Rhyme was watching him. "So that remote control switch you've made? It's rigged downstairs in my circuit breaker panel?"

"Yes."

Rhyme mused, "Electricity . . . I've learned a lot about it in the past few days."

"I've been studying it for months."

"Galt taught you the Algonquin computer controls?"

"No, that was Cavanaugh. He got me the pass codes to the system."

"Ah, sure."

Logan said, "But I also took a course in SCADA and the Algonquin system in particular."

"Of course, you would have."

Logan continued, "I was surprised how fascinated I've become. I always belittled electricity."

"Because of your watchmaking?"

"Exactly. A battery and a mass-produced chip can equal the capability of the finest handmade watches."

Rhyme nodded with understanding. "Electrical clocks seemed cheap to you. Somehow using battery power lessened the beauty of a watch. Lessened the art."

Logan felt excitement coursing through him. To engage in a conversation like this was enthralling; there were so few people who were his equal. And the criminalist actually knew what he was feeling! "Yes, yes, exactly. But then, working on this job, my opinion changed. Why is a watch that tells time by an oscillator regulated by a quartz crystal any less astonishing than one run by gears and levers and springs? In the end, it all comes down to physics. As a man of science, you'd appreciate that. . . . Oh, and complications? You know what complications are."

Rhyme said, "All the bells and whistles they build into watches. The date, the phases of the moon, the equinox, chimes."

Logan was surprised. Rhyme added, "Oh, I've studied watchmaking too."

Close to you . . .

"Electronic watches duplicate all of those functions and a hundred more. The Timex Data Link. You know it?"

"No," Rhyme said.