Point of Impact (41 page)

The Hammer left him then, all by himself here with this stranger who hit him. The gray closed in on Tad.

Bobby? Is that you, man?

The light in Bershaw's remaining eye flickered as he let go of Michaels's arm and stumbled back a step.

Then the light went out, and Bershaw fell, a puppet with his strings cut.

Michaels turned and saw Toni, a book gripped in her hands, advancing toward them. In that odd interplay that sometimes happened in scary situations, he noticed the title of the book, and he started to laugh.

Toni stopped. "Alex? Are you all right?"

He waved at the book. "You were going to hit him with that?"

Toni looked at it.

It was
How to Win Friends and Influence People.

EPILOGUE:

Washington, D.C.

Michaels's arm itched, and he wanted to tear off the plastic flesh bandage and scratch the cut. The surgical glue was holding the wound closed just fine, and he had pain medicine if he needed it, for the broken wrist that ached dully and the cracked ribs that hurt every time he breathed, but nothing seemed to help with the itching.

He sat in the kitchen nook at the table, looking at Toni as she came back from the fridge with a beer for him.

"Thanks," he said. "You should have let me get that."

"I'm in better shape than you, pregnancy notwithstanding."

He took a sip, put the bottle down on the table.

"So what's the latest from the office?"

"Well. It turned out that Lee and George were working for the drug company, like we thought. Lee is trying to cut a deal, but I don't think he has enough leverage."

"So why'd they kill the chemist?"

"That's the twist. The pharmaceutical house they were in cahoots with--"

"Did you just say, 'in cahoots with'?"

"You want me to tell this story or not?" But he grinned.

"Go ahead."

"It turned out the drug company already had a similar line of research going, upon which they had spent a lot of money, and in which they had a lot of confidence. Not as extensive as Drayne's, but going in the same general direction. They were far enough along that they had already started some testing protocols, gotten some government approvals, and they didn't want somebody stealing their thunder."

"They were trying to
suppress
Drayne's stuff?"

"Yeah. George and Lee had been given big blocks of stock to make sure Drayne's formulas didn't wind up on anybody else's table. If their company reached the market first, they'd be millionaires."

She shook her head. "Huh. Didn't see that one."

"Nobody else did, either."

"What about John Howard?"

Michaels took another sip of his beer. "He says he is gonna retire. Says life is too short, and he wants to be around when his son graduates from school and goes out into the world on his own."

"I don't blame him for that."

"Me neither."

"Jay Gridley still a Buddhist?"

"Mostly lapsed, if there is such a thing. He can't sit and contemplate his navel and stay sharp enough to run with the bad boys on-line, he says. He'll have to work all that out. But he and his girl are going to get married."

"That's great."

"Going to honeymoon in Bali, so he says."

"And what about us?"

"Us? We're fine. I guess I won't be spending much time in the garage until the Chevy gets back from the body shop. Incredible what damage he did."

"Yes, it was. I can see why so many people wanted to get their hands on this drug. If he had been a jock on the stuff, he could have taken the entire house down to the foundations."

He nodded. "Tell you what. If I ever complain about things being slow at work again? I want you to slap me upside the head."

"My pleasure," she said.

They smiled at each other, and despite his aches and itches, Michaels was very happy to be able to do that.

It sure beat the other options.