While Kang-Dae climbed into the driver’s seat, David went directly to the rear of the vehicle and opened the back. He motioned for Jack to climb into the storage area. “Sorry, but you have to ride back here until we get through security. It’s not far.”
Jack hesitated for a brief moment. Having been just sprung out of one situation of confinement, he wasn’t joyous about climbing into another. But he understood the rationale. With some reluctance, he clambered in, rolling onto his back in the process. David activated the hatchback closing mechanism. A moment later, Jack again found himself in absolute darkness.
The car’s motor started, and the vehicle backed up and then pulled forward. Jack sought something to hold on to in the darkness as he bounced around, but he couldn’t find anything to grasp. Fortunately, it wasn’t a big problem, since the roadway was reasonably smooth. It was only the turns that were mildly difficult to manage. Presently, Jack felt the SUV slow down and stop. There was some conversation in what he assumed was Mandarin, and a moment later they recommenced moving. They didn’t go far before they stopped again. On this occasion, Jack could hear one of the vehicle’s doors open. A moment later the hatchback lifted and the tailgate dropped down.
“Okay, Dr. Stapleton,” David said. “My car is right here behind me. It’s a black Lexus. I’d like you to get out of the Range Rover and get rightin my car. The least amount of time you are exposed, the better it will be. I don’t think anyone is watching us, but one never knows. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Jack said. He then inched his way to the lip of the opened trunk, got to his feet, and then hurried to climb into the black coupe only a few feet from the Range Rover. In the short time he was outside, he could tell that they were parked off in the far end of the Dover Valley Hospital parking area. The brightly illuminated hospital looked like a jewel in the darkness.
A second later, David jumped into the driver’s seat, pulled his door shut, and started the car. Outside, Jack noticed Kang-Dae had already begun driving away. Jack’s escape had been pulled off with commendable efficiency.
“I assume you want to go back to the city,” David said, putting his car in gear and heading after Kang-Dae.
“No, I’d rather go back to the slaughterhouse,” Jack said, already recovered enough to indulge in a bit of sarcasm. “I was just getting comfortable.”
David chuckled. “You are a trip, Dr. Stapleton. I have to say that much about you. Will we be going to your home or the OCME?”
“Home,” Jack said, wondering how he was going to be received.
42
THURSDAY, 9:15 P.M.
Jack turned to catch one more glimpse of GeneRx and then the Dover Valley Hospital before David pulled out onto the county road and gunned the Lexus. Ahead they could see Kang-Dae and the Range Rover. Both vehicles were heading north.
“Okay,” Jack said, facing toward his liberator and beginning to calm down. “This has been one strange day. I suppose I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but I can’t help it. I need to start by asking exactly who you are, David.”
“That is entirely reasonable,” David said. “My name is actually Zhao Daquan.”
“Zhao, like Wei Zhao?” Jack asked.
“Exactly,” David said. “Wei Zhao is my father.”
“Interesting,” Jack said. The catchword had never felt more appropriate. This whole affair, starting with the call from Bart Arnold about the first subway death, had been full of continual surprises. The idea that Jack had been rescued from a potentially calamitous situation by the son of his major antagonist seemed a kind of poetic justice.
“I suppose you want to know what is going on here,” David said.
“Oh, no!” Jack responded. “I love being totally in the dark. It makes life so much more unpredictable.”
David laughed again, this time with true hilarity. “I have to say, I like your humor, Dr. Stapleton. The background check my father had done on you characterized you as someone who liked to pun and use sarcasm. It certainly was on the mark.”
“So you had access to my infamous dossier,” Jack said. “That gives you an unfair advantage.”
“I am happy to tell you whatever you would like to know about me,” David said.
Ahead, Jack noticed that they were rapidly approaching the entrance to Interstate 80 East that would take them back to New York City, if that was their destination. Jack could see that the Range Rover had continued straight, going under the highway, presumably en route to Wei’s home. For a few seconds Jack held his breath, but then at the appropriate moment David steered onto the entrance ramp. Jack secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well?” David questioned. “What do you want to ask me?”
“Were you born here in the USA?”
“No, I was born in Shanghai,” David said.
“You speak flawless American English,” Jack said.
“Thank you for the compliment,” David said. “I came here nine years ago to go to MIT to study biotechnology and microbiology. Now I am finishing my Ph.D. in genetics and bioinformatics at Columbia University’s Systems Biology Center.”
“So your plan is to follow in your father’s footsteps?” Jack asked.
