that looked like a CT scanner.
Teddy shone his flashlight beam around. In addition to shelves of tubes and beakers, crates and cages lined the walls. There were no animals in them, but water bowls indicated there had been.
Teddy bypassed all the equipment. He sat at the doctor’s desk and switched on his computer. He opened the network folders and scanned the files. None seemed relevant. A global file search for the name Rocky came up empty.
Teddy got up from the desk and searched for hard copies. A file cabinet looked like it hadn’t been used in years. He checked it anyway. It hadn’t. None of the papers in it were current.
Teddy struck pay dirt in the coat closet. He pushed the lab coats aside and discovered a safe.
The safe was a formidable-looking affair, but still no match for Teddy’s skill. A few minutes of work and he had the door open.
In the safe were several file folders. Most were of no interest to him, but one was labeled VIRUS X.
Teddy flipped it open. Virus X was a new strain of virus X759C4743P, discovered in the lab by Dr. von Heinrich himself. While the virus was not touted as a biological weapon, its attributes were listed. It was a highly contagious and fatal airborne pathogen.
A subfolder dealt with the surgical procedure on the dog, the insertion of the vial into his stomach, and the sutures anchoring it in place. The removal of the vial was described in detail, with emphasis on maintaining its integrity to ensure against the slightest leak.
Teddy went through the files from top to bottom. Nothing in them implicated Rene Darjon.
Teddy took the files over to the desk. He skimmed through them again, looking for an appropriate page. He selected one, and fed it into the doctor’s scanner. He converted it to a Word document he could edit. After the phrase, “conducted by Dr. Stephan von Heinrich,” he added, “under the authorization of Rene Darjon.” He printed it out and compared it to the original. It was perfect.
Teddy stuck the original page in his pocket, replaced it with the altered page, and copied the whole document. He put the original back in the file folder labeled VIRUS X, returned it to the safe, and locked it. He put the full-document photocopy in a blank file folder and took that file with him.
84.
R & D ENTERPRISES WAS much easier to break into than Kelso Labs. The only trick was timing the rounds of the night watchman to be able to get in and out without being seen. The lock on the front door was a joke, the alarms were turned off because of the watchman, and the security-camera controls were conveniently located behind the reception desk.
Rene Darjon’s offices took up the whole ninth floor. His reception area could have serviced the entire company. It boasted three couches and two large chairs. They weren’t the least bit worn. Teddy doubted if they were used much. Reception struck him as the first line of defense. Only the elite few were allowed into the office of his personal secretary.
Rene Darjon’s office was what one would expect of a CEO, from the wooden bar to the flat-screen TV. The desk was a massive oak affair, at once classic and modern. The walls were wood-paneled. The chairs in front of the desk were leather. The lone framed picture behind the desk featured Rene Darjon receiving an award from the prime minister.
The desk had few drawers, two on the left and one on the right. They held nothing of interest, with the exception of an address book. None of the addresses were of business associates. His secretary doubtless kept track of those. Most of the names seemed to be of young women.
Unfortunately, the desk was not the type of place where Rene Darjon would have kept anything important. Nor was there any such place in the bar. It would appear that all important papers were kept in the outer office, which was arguably not in his possession, or even under his direct supervision.
Teddy looked at the picture on the wall. An accolade from the prime minister was certainly an honor, but the Silver Fox had undoubtedly received more than his fair share. What was so special about this one?
Teddy had long since learned to follow his hunches. He lifted the painting off the wall, revealing a safe. It was not nearly as good a safe as the one in Dr. von Heinrich’s lab, but a