Free Dr. O by Robert W. Walker Page B

and where Ibi Oliguerri and Elena Hogarth were working on something to do with macro-strings and curls in space, which meant absolutely nothing to Swisher. He thought it sounded something like Chef Boyardee microwave- able spaghetti.
    He had met Oliguerri only briefly, telling the self- assured black man who he was and why he was here, mainly because it was exactly what Thorpe didn't want him to do. Oliguerri wasn't in the least concerned, but Hogarth had become jumpy at the notion the police were in the building. Oliguerri said they had too much work to concern themselves with such nonsense. Dr. Elena Hogarth reminded him of the deaths of their colleagues in Atlanta. Swisher had wondered why Ovierto had targeted these people and asked them if they knew.
    "We can tell you nothing of what goes on in a madman's head," said the African. "It is like the villager who has all good shiny teeth, another villager will want the same teeth, even if he cannot possibly fit them into his head."
    Swisher frowned at the little parable, wondering if that was all there was to it, that Ovierto was simply jealous. "Men seem to be killing one another for less and less these days," he had said.
    Hogarth was shaken by the talk. "If we're going to work, doctor," she said to Oliguerri, "then let's have at it."
    "Is there any other exit from your" lab?" he asked.
    "There is a freight elevator at the back for samples," she said.
    Swisher thought she was pretty, in a pale, fragile way, but not at all his type. She realized he was staring, pushed her glasses up and dropped her own eyes. "Are you alone, or do you have help, officer?"
    "I've got the FBI behind me," he told her as much to reassure himself as her.
    "Then he is coming, isn't he?"
    "Like a train, ma'am, ahh, Doctor."
    "Thank you for your honesty. Until now, no one would answer my calls."
    "What about Donna Thorpe?"
    "I've been unable to get through to her."
    "In Nebraska, you know."
    "No, they said she was here, in Chicago. I thought you knew."
    "Sonofa —sorry, Dr. Hogarth. No, I didn't know." He had had to admit. They then closed their door on him, looking like a pair of animals hiding in a cave.
    And now footsteps were coming toward him, while he pretended to mop the floor, just below the lab where Hogarth and Oliguerri had remained for hours. He looked up, giving his broadest, dumbest smile to the guy in the Commonwealth Edison uniform. The badge said James Early, Electrical Engineer, CEC, but it could just as well be the man of a thousand disguises, Ovierto.
    He watched Early's eyes as he opened his mouth to speak. "You Joe Swisher?"
    "Who wants to know?"
    "Special Agent Jack Harris, FBI—"
    "Jesus."
    "—Chicago Bureau."
    "You guys crawling around the building now, too?"
    "I got a call earlier from a friend of yours."
    "Is that right? Thorpe send you?"
    "No, Thorpe did not send us."
    "Who called you then?"
    "Your partner."
    "Robyn Muro?"
    "That's right. Seems Thorpe isn't telling you everything she knows about Ovierto."
    "Hell, I knew that from the beginning."
    "I mean about the airport incident earlier today."
    "Airport incident?"
    "O'Hara, one security guard killed and a package left in a locker for Thorpe."
    "A package?"
    "Another agent, guy named Bateman. It was his head."
    "Christ. So, we know for sure he's here, in Chicago."
    "Now, I don't think Thorpe's thinking clearly anymore about this maniac, and she's not exactly being... ahhh..."
    "Straight with either of us?" Swisher was trying to determine if this guy was interested in moving up a peg on the old FBI ladder, or if he was for real.
    "That's it as I see it. She thinks this creep's some kinda superman or something, that he can smell us before he sees us. Anyway, there're four of us in the building and we're using these. Take one." He held out a two-way radio. "Just to keep in touch. Big place we have to cover here."
    "You've got to know that he's watching the place, if he's not already inside. He see you come in?"
    "Me and