Into the Inferno - Earl Emerson [85]
Donovan caught it midway between the desktop and the floor, then put it back, smiling at me. The guy could move fast for someone his size, for someone anyone’s size.
“Stephanie is Mr. Swope’s doctor. She tells me Mr. Swope has three days before he lapses into a coma. They’ve come for information about the incident in Chattanooga three years ago.”
“There were two of us working on it. Me and Hardy.”
“Ah, yes. Hardy. He’s gone now, isn’t he?”
“Been gone awhile.”
“Would you like to fill my niece in?”
Donovan began to talk hesitantly. “There was a fire. Three firefighters got sick. The fire had been in a busy shipping facility, so all together there were hundreds of products that had been exposed during the incident. Plastics, artists’ paints, you name it. I could go dig up the paperwork and my notes, but we came out of it pretty much empty-handed.”
Stephanie said, “We want to know everything you found. What we’ve got here is too close not to be related.”
“Okay. Sure. But we were down there for weeks. I’m not sure I even know where all my notes are.”
“Tell you what,” DiMaggio said, swiveling back and forth in her chair. “I’m going to bring Carpenter in on this.”
“Carpenter?”
“That all right with you, Mr. Donovan?”
“Oh, sure. I think Carpenter’s a good chemist. In fact, I like working with her.”
“Good. Because I’m going to assign you and Carpenter to do the same thing with these people that you did in Tennessee with Hardy.”
Donovan’s voice grew squeaky. “But the Fudderman project.”
“I’m going to loan the two of you to Dr. Riggs. Give her any information she requests and put all of our resources at her disposal.”
“Fudderman needs to be completed by Monday morning, Tuesday at the latest.”
“This will take precedence.”
“Sure. Okay. You know me. I’m just wondering who’s going to pay. This isn’t going to be part of our deal with Tananger, is it?”
“We’ll pay for it. The company will.”
“I just hope the board doesn’t see anything wrong with that.”
“Me, too,” DiMaggio said, humoring him.
“It’s just that Canyon View has certain commitments right now, and after dedicating myself to those commitments for the past six months, it kind of throws me off course when all of a sudden the energy is going somewhere else. I’ll get Carpenter.” He turned to DiMaggio. “Is that what you want?”
“That’s what I said. Bring your notes from Tennessee and give Carpenter an update on the way in here.”
“I can do that.”
“Thank you, Donovan.”
“My pleasure.”
Donovan was one of those men whose faces flushed when they were nonplussed. Even under the tan it had flushed several times during our conversation, usually at the same time his voice got squeaky. It was hard to square up the impressive physique with everything else about him.
After he left the room, DiMaggio said, “He’s a bit of a nervous type, but trust me, he’s probably pound for pound the best chemist on the West Coast. He has an astonishing background. He was in the Army Rangers. He’s a black belt in karate. There’s a picture in his office of him breaking a whole stack of boards with his head. Unbelievable. And Carpenter is nothing less than a genius. Entered college when she was fourteen, got a degree in chemistry by the time she was seventeen, then a master’s in molecular biology. She was halfway through med school when we outbid four other companies for her services. MIT would have held on to her if they could. She doesn’t have much experience, but I think this combination of the savvy in Donovan and intellectual in Carpenter will be just what you need.
“I want you to pull through this, Jim. And I want you, Steph, to find anything you can that will help your sister. Call me. Day or night. I mean that. I’d put the whole company on it if it weren’t for this merger.”
“Thank you, Aunt Marge.”
The room grew quiet. I said, “What is it your company does exactly? Holly told me once, but I’ve forgotten.”
“We’re researching a new type of liquid metal.” She went on but soon was talking about complex helical