The 6th Extinction by James Rollins Page B

life might exist in secret. We believe his interest in this area came about after some NASA scientists found bacteria in Mono Lake that could be trained to live on arsenic.”
    Jenna understood. “So that’s why Dr. Hess chose this location.”
    Crowe nodded. “Perhaps to continue that line of research, or even take it a step farther. We believe he might have been trying to engineer something new, something that never existed on this planet.”
    “And it got loose.”
    “That’s what we believe, but we don’t know if it was an industrial accident, lab error, or something more malicious.”
    Jenna rubbed Nikko. He remained calm and relaxed at her side, showing no tension. He plainly felt no wariness in the presence of these strangers. Over the years, she had grown to trust her partner’s judgment of character. Along with that, she sensed no subterfuge in the trio’s manner and appreciated their willingness to share information.
    Taking a chance, she opened herself up a bit. “I don’t believe it was an accident, Director Crowe.”
    “Painter is fine, but why do you think that?”
    “I saw a helicopter leaving the base between the time the mayday was sent out and when everything went to hell. It was the same helicopter that offloaded a squad of mercenaries atop that hill. They must have spotted me fleeing from the toxic cloud.”
    “And went after you to eliminate the only witness.”
    She nodded. “They came darned close to accomplishing that.”
    “Can you describe the helicopter? Did you note any insignia or numbers?”
    She shook her head. “But I did get a photo of it.”
    She took a small measure of enjoyment at his shocked expression. As she pulled out her cell phone, she related what had happened at the ghost town, going into as exacting detail as she could. She also called up the camera roll on her phone and went through the pictures. She stopped at the photo of the giant carrying a flamethrower.
    “This guy seemed to be the leader of the assault team.”
    Painter took her phone and zoomed in on his features. “You caught a clear shot of him. Good job.”
    She felt a flush of pride. “Hopefully he’s in some database.”
    “I hope so, too. We’ll definitely run him through facial recognition software, both here and abroad. We’ll also get the photo of the helicopter into law enforcement bulletins across the Southwest. They can’t have gotten too far.”
    “They also have a prisoner,” she warned. “One of the scientists. Or at least the man was wearing a white lab coat. He tried to escape, but that guy with the flamethrower recaptured him, dragged him back to the helicopter and took off.”
    Painter looked up from the phone. “Did you get a picture of their prisoner?”
    “’Fraid not. By that time I had already hid my phone with Nikko.” She patted the husky’s side.
    Painter studied her closer, then spoke as if reading her mind. “Let me guess. You hoped that once they killed you, the enemy would leave. Then later someone would find Nikko and your phone.”
    She was impressed. She had mentioned none of that, but the man had figured it all out anyway.
    Lisa spoke up. “If they kidnapped someone, I’d lay money on it being Dr. Hess. He would be the highest-value target at that base.”
    Painter turned to Jenna.
    She shrugged. “I couldn’t say if it was him. It all happened so fast, and I never got a good look at his face. But it could have been Dr. Hess. Still, there’s one other thing. Whoever it was, he was trying to run into that toxic cloud before he was recaptured, like he would rather die than be taken away.”
    “Which suggests the prisoner must have secrets he didn’t want the enemy knowing.” Painter sounded darkly worried.
    “Secrets about what?” she asked.
    “That’s what we need to find out.”
    “I’d like to help.”
    Painter studied her for a long moment. “I’ll admit we could use your eyes during this initial investigation. There may have been some