The Adamas Blueprint (28 page)

Read The Adamas Blueprint Online

Authors: Boyd Morrison

Congressman Sutter hesitated, but after a few seconds relented. To Downs he said, “Can you test to see if this is actually a diamond?”

“Sure. But it’s a waste of time.”

“Then go ahead.”

Downs withdrew a jeweler’s loupe and visually inspected the specimen. After about a minute, he removed the loupe from his eye.

“I can’t see any flaws, but the doesn’t mean anything. I’ve been fooled by cubic zirconia before. Fakes are getting better and better. It’s especially difficult to tell without facets.”

“See!” Tarnwell said. “It’s a fake.”

“I didn’t say I was done,” Downs said. He removed a small scale from the bag and then took out a piece of electronic equipment. He placed the specimen on the scale.

A Capitol policeman appeared in the outer office. Sutter motioned for him to wait.

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“232 carats. Minus, of course, whatever the key weighs.” The electronic equipment was a 4

inch by 6 inch box with a display. Two wire leads came out of the box’s top and ended in metal-tipped probes.

“What’s that?” said Sutter.

“This measures the electrical resistance of any material. Diamond has a unique resistive signature.” Downs pressed a button to turn the unit on and placed the two probes against the specimen’s surface.

He gasped, then touched the probes twice more against different parts of the surface. “Oh my.”

“What is it?” Kevin said.

“I calibrated this instrument an hour ago.” Downs looked at Kevin. “Where did you get this?”

“I made it.”

“Is it real?” Sutter said.

“You made this?” Downs said, holding the specimen as gently as a robin’s egg.

“Dr. Downs,” Sutter said impatiently.

“It’s incredible,” Downs said. “This is as pure a diamond as I’ve ever seen.”

“But it’s huge,” Sutter said. “It must be worth a fortune.”

“With this clarity and color...If it were cut and polished into gemstones, it would be worth over $10,000 per carat.”

“That’s over $2 million,” Erica said.

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“Without the key in it, it would be worth far more. A stone that size hasn’t come on the market in twenty years. It would create a sensation.”

“I guess you were wrong, Clay,” Sutter said. “It looks like he really can make diamonds.”

For a minute, Tarnwell said nothing. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this, Fred. I wanted to keep the process a secret until we had the patent in hand, and I wanted to get this mess resolved without Kevin going to prison. But now it seems like I have no choice. My scientists developed this process over six months ago. Kevin stole it.”

“This is insane!” Kevin yelled. “He is lying.”

“I was trying to settle this some other way, but I see that it just isn’t possible now. Dr.

Michael Ward, a professor at South Texas, was working as a consultant for me. In particular, he was providing me with some important information on how to refine the diamond-making process. Although Michael was careful, I guess Kevin got wind of it somehow and wanted it for himself. He’d been having some financial troubles. I know how people can get desperate when they have no money, but I think we can all see how this has gone too far.”

The eyes of everyone in the room were on Kevin, and none of them seemed to be doubting the story Tarnwell was spinning.

“Unfortunately, he’s drawn Erica into this as well. Now she’s going to be responsible for this along with him.”

The situation was quickly turning sour. Kevin had to do something else. But what?

Erica whispered to him. “What about the tape?”

He whispered back. “That won’t prove anything. The Congressman won’t know one experiment from another.” Then he remembered Van Dyke specifically asking about the tape.

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He’d said Ward had told him something about it, something he might have used against Tarnwell.

Maybe there was a chance.

“Do you have a camcorder here?” Kevin said to the Congressman.

“I’ve had about all I can take. The police...”

“Please, sir. There may be something in a tape I have that will convince you that I really did invent this.” He was taking a huge risk, but there didn’t seem to be anything else to do.

Although the color had returned to Tarnwell’s face, the mention of a videotape turned it ash gray.

“All right,” Sutter said, “but this is it. What kind of camcorder do you need?”

“8mm.”

“Marian! Does anyone around here have an 8mm camcorder?”

“I’ll check, sir,” said Marian.

“Fred,” said Tarnwell, “I really think we shouldn’t waste any more of your time.”

“It’s not every day I see a 200-carat artificial diamond. I think we can take a few more minutes out of my time.”

“Thank you,” said Kevin. He turned to Tarnwell. “Lobec didn’t tell you what was on the tape, did he? Just like he didn’t tell you he was a spy working for the South African government.”

“You’re babbling to get yourself out of this mess you’ve created. David Lobec is my head of company security. He is not South African.”

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“That’s what he led you to believe after he got out of that Mexican prison. I bet he was in there on purpose, just to make your releasing him more realistic. His real name wasn’t even Lobec. It was Van Dyke. Oh, and his brother in California? Doesn’t exist.”

Tarnwell’s face was a mask of pure shock. “How did you know...”

“After he shot Bern, he told us.”

Tarnwell recovered quickly from Kevin’s revelations. “He did tell me that Dr. Ward was attempting to blackmail me, but that he had fabricated some kind of evidence to do so. That must be what your tape is.”

Marian walked in with a camcorder in hand. “Congressman Weaver had one in his office. He uses it to videotape himself shaking hands with constituents so he can show them like home movies back in Nebraska.” She took it over to the TV.

“Thanks,” Kevin said and began attaching the camcorder to the TV. “I’ll tell you what’s on the video. It’s the lab experiment where Ward and I first accidentally discovered the Adamas process. But Van Dyke seemed to think there was something more on it.”

Kevin put in the tape. As it ran, he narrated the experiment in great detail. As he watched, he looked for anything he and Erica might have missed the first time they’d seen it.

As before when they had watched it in the store, the tape went to static after the Kevin on the screen switched off the camcorder. Kevin couldn’t understand. He stared at it, hoping for a revelation about what he’d just seen. But nothing seemed especially significant.

Tarnwell didn’t think so either.

“Is this all you have to show us?” he said. “Because I can tell you that I don’t know what the fuss is about. For all I know, that could have been anything.”

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“If we look closely at the equipment in the tape,” said Kevin, “I think it’s clear that we had the setup described in the notebook.”

“Even if it was the Adamas process,” Tarnwell continued, “how do we know when you made the tape? You could just as easily have stolen the process from me, run the experiment with Ward later, and changed the time stamp on the camcorder. That kind of thing is faked all the time.”

“There’s got to be something.” Kevin went over to the camcorder to rewind it to the beginning and play it back again.

“Really, Fred,” said Tarnwell, “I think one viewing is enough to see that there wasn’t anything there.”

Just as Kevin reached for the camcorder, a new picture flickered into focus on the screen. He stopped and stepped aside to let the others see. It was the lab again, freshly cleaned and the damaged equipment replaced, but this time it was from a different point of view. The tripod was visible across the room. The camera was on the other side of the lab, probably on one of the lab shelves. The picture moved around as adjustments in the camera view were made. Then a voice said “Dammit!” Kevin recognized it immediately and realized why it was cursing. The lab’s camcorder had a broken recording light. It was difficult to tell whether the camcorder was recording unless you looked through the viewfinder. With it on the shelf, the viewfinder was probably difficult to get to.

Finally, the camcorder stopped moving. Michael Ward walked past the camera into the field of view, tinkered with a piece of equipment, and left the room.

“Do we need to see this again?” Tarnwell said.

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Kevin looked at Sutter. “This is something different. I haven’t seen this before.”

“Keep going,” Sutter said.

Nothing was happening on screen, so Kevin hit the fast forward button. After about a minute, the lab door opened. Kevin released the button and watched the screen intently.

Michael Ward walked in and opened the lab’s door wider.

“Come on in,” he said.

Another voice could be heard outside the door.

“David, wait for us out here.” Even muffled, the Texas drawl was unmistakable.

Ward’s guest followed him into the lab. Although Ward was six feet tall, he looked puny next to the massive frame of Clayton Tarnwell.

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CHAPTER 38

“We’ve got about half an hour until my graduate student gets here from his class,” Ward said as he closed the door. The wide-angle lens of the camcorder captured almost the entire lab.

“That’s all right,” the Tarnwell on screen said. “I don’t have much time anyway.” He looked into the test chamber. “Good. Nothing here but the test stand. All right, you can go ahead.”

As Ward began the start-up of the experiment, Tarnwell wandered around the room, casually observing the equipment. When he looked directly at the camcorder, Kevin held his breath, afraid that Tarnwell had seen that it was recording. But after a second Tarnwell continued. Without the camcorder’s recording light, he had not been suspicious.

With a nod, Ward indicated he was ready.

“Let’s see it,” Tarnwell said.

A hum emanated from the TV for a minute or so, then it was quiet. Ward walked over to the test chamber and opened the door. After a few second’s inspection, he turned to Tarnwell.

“Take a look for yourself,” he said.

Tarnwell peered into the chamber. He began to reach in, but Ward grabbed his hand.

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“Be careful. It’s hot. Here.” Ward handed him a pair of tongs. A minute later, Tarnwell held a metal pin in his hand. A target on top glistened.

Tarnwell looked in awe at the diamond coated sample in his hand, then walked over to a lab table and set it down. From a briefcase, he removed a device similar to the one Dr. Downs had used minutes before. Tarnwell placed its sensors on the sample.

“Jesus, Michael,” Tarnwell said when he was done. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

“Incredible, isn’t it?” said Ward. “I’ve been working on perfecting it for three months. I could produce 50 carats a day if I ran it around the clock.”

“Which makes me wonder why I’m here,” Tarnwell said. “Why not just make them yourself?”

“Two reasons. The first is that I have other people in here all the time. Usually, the only time I get work done in here is late at night when no one else is around. That’s why it’s taken me three months to get as far as I have.”

“And the second?”

Ward took the sample from Tarnwell and put it back in the chamber. “It’s difficult, but I can cut sections off the target. I looked into selling some of them, but unpolished stones raised eyebrows. They wanted to know where I got them. After a couple of times and a lot of questions, I stopped. I figured better to sell the whole thing at once rather than keep making them myself. The only catch was to find someone who I trusted that had enough money to make it worthwhile.” Ward smiled. “Of course, the first person I thought of was my old college buddy.”

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“I appreciate that.” Tarnwell repacked the testing equipment. “Of course, you realize that this is highly illegal.”

“Of course.” Ward smiled, and Tarnwell returned it.

“Good. Now that I’ve seen…what did you call this process?”

“Adamas.”

“Now that I have seen and verified Adamas, how about we talk business.”

They walked toward the lab door together.

“I think you can see the value of something like this,” said Ward. “You’ll easily net over a billion dollars in the first year of production.” He stopped at the door.

“So what are you thinking of?” said Tarnwell.

“Let’s start talking about a nice round number. Fifty million.”

Tarnwell didn’t blink. “Why don’t we talk about it over dinner?” He opened the door, and the two of them left. After a few seconds of fast forwarding, it was obvious that the tape would run out recording the empty room. Kevin pressed the STOP button. He looked at Sutter and then Tarnwell.

“What do you have to say for yourself, Clay?” said Congressman Sutter.

Tarnwell didn’t move. He stared at Kevin, his eyes closed to slits, his lips curled in a sneer.

“Van Dyke told us about the merger,” Kevin said. “You bet it all, didn’t you? Without Adamas, your company is nonexistent. And I think it’s safe to say that you’re going to jail for murdering Ward.” He waited a beat, then said, “I’m glad.”

Tarnwell sat seething. Then without warning, he launched himself from the chair. “You little shit!” Kevin was surprised by the move, especially for a man of Tarnwell’s size. Before Kevin MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT

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could react, Tarnwell knocked him to the floor, straddled him, and gripped Kevin’s throat, his meaty thumbs digging into Kevin’s larynx. He had an insane look in his eyes, as if he didn’t give a damn anymore. He probably didn’t, which terrified Kevin. He was a man with nothing to lose.

Tarnwell whispered to him. “You’re gonna die this time. And guess what. I’m going to plead insanity. You’ll be dead and I’ll be out of the asylum by next year.”

Kevin gasped for breath as he tried to pry Tarnwell’s hands off. Then he reached for Tarnwell’s eyes, but his arms were five inches shorter than Tarnwell’s.

He saw the Capitol policeman who had been waiting in the outer office grapple Tarnwell from behind.

“Let him go!” the cop yelled. He had his baton out and was ready to hit Tarnwell with it.

Tarnwell released the grip on one hand and elbowed the cop in the eye. An audible crack issued from the breaking bone, and the cop reeled backward, screaming in pain and dropping the baton to Kevin’s left. Kevin reached for it, but it was just out of reach.

With renewed fury, Tarnwell choked Kevin using both hands. Someone yelled, “Get security!” Kevin’s vision began to tunnel from lack of oxygen to his brain. He felt his eyes bulging. In another few seconds he’d pass out.

Suddenly, Tarnwell released him. As his vision returned, Kevin saw why. Erica had kicked Tarnwell in the lower back, which he was know holding. She was about to do it again when Tarnwell grabbed her leg and twisted it, throwing her to the ground.

Seeing his chance, Kevin leaned over and grabbed the baton. Tarnwell, who was still straddling him, saw what he was doing. He stood and turned. Clawing at the cop’s holstered Smith & Wesson, Tarnwell released the safety catch and drew the gun. With all the strength left MORRISON/THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT

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in him, Kevin pushed himself off the floor. As Tarnwell swung the pistol around, Kevin raised the baton, and brought it down on the back of Tarnwell’s head.

Tarnwell slumped to the floor, the gun tumbling to Kevin’s feet. Erica crawled over to Tarnwell and checked for a pulse.

“He’s all right,” she said. She looked at the Capitol policeman, who was just recovering from the blow. “How about you?”

With his hand to his eye, he nodded. At that point, two more policemen rushed into the room.

The injured policeman pointed at Tarnwell. “Take this guy away. And make sure you cuff him.”

As the two cops struggled to lift Tarnwell, Kevin sat back on his elbows. He looked at Congressman Sutter, who was still wide-eyed at what had just happened. His voice a raspy croak, Kevin said, “Now do you believe us?”

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