“I don’t want to hear any more about how you screwed up, Senders. I want you to get the money back.”
The sweat on Senders’ balding pate grew even more profuse. “I can’t. It was transferred to an account in the Bahamas and then out of that account. That’s all we know. The money could be anywhere by now.”
“Fly to the Bahamas and talk to the bank…”
“It’s no good. We may have had some influence in ZurBank because of our holdings, but we’ll never get any help from the Bahamas. They’d laugh in our face. Unless we can find some information from Ward’s files, the money is gone.”
“You’d better damn well hope Mitch finds something in the files Lobec downloaded from Ward’s computer. I’m stretched thin as it is with this Forrestal deal. You know the balance sheet.” Tarnwell had already signed the contract and given it to the lawyers to finalize the deal. He had more important matters to tend to. He’d wine and dine the Forrestal board later.
Senders risked a tentative smile. “Now that we have the loan, the deal with Forrestal won’t be a problem, even without the ten million. And once we announce the patent on the Adamas process, our stock will triple. We’ll be able to pay off the loan the next day.”
Senders’ cellular phone rang.
“It’s probably Harris. I told him to call when the Forrestal board signed the contract.” Senders clicked the phone on.
Select people within the company like Senders knew about Adamas, but besides Lobec and Bern, no one knew the true origin of the process. Senders and the lawyers thought the research staff had come up with it, and the research staff thought it had been bought from an individual inventor. That’s why Tarnwell discouraged Senders from venturing into the research labs.
Tarnwell inserted an ID card into a wall reader. A light next to it turned from red to green, and the door swung inward.
Tarnwell said to Senders, “Wait here for me,” and went through. Just before the door shut, a hand shot through.
“I thought I told you to wait…” Tarnwell stopped when he saw Lobec open the door.
“Oh good, David, come in. Good news I hope.”
“No, the news is rather disturbing,” Lobec said without inflection, and then quieted as a short, pudgy man wearing a white lab coat approached them. His name was Dr. Bruno Lefler, the chief scientist in charge of the Adamas project. Since they had obtained Michael Ward’s notes the previous week, the staff had worked around the clock to set up the proper equipment and validate the process. They had to make sure it worked before the patent submission was complete. Tarnwell knew it was only a formality.
He was annoyed to the see Dr. Lefler frowning and carrying a three ring binder.
“Mr. Tarnwell,” Lefler said, pushing one of his sleeves up, “I didn’t know you were coming here. I was just about to call you. We have a problem.”
“Lefler, this is top priority. If you don’t have some equipment you need, get it. Don’t worry about the cost this time.”
“No, Mr. Tarnwell, we have everything we need to validate the process. It works exactly as it is described in this notebook you gave me.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Lefler looked uneasily at Lobec, whom he’d never met. Tarnwell noticed his hesitation.
“Lefler, this is David Lobec, my chief of security. He knows all about Adamas. Now go ahead.”
“As I was saying, the process works exactly as it is described. But we have produced only graphite, no diamond whatsoever, industrial-grade or gem quality.”
Tarnwell turned to Lobec. “Is he joking? Did I hear him right? He has to be joking.”
“Dr. Lefler appears to be serious, Mr. Tarnwell,” Lobec said.
“Fuck!” Tarnwell glowered at Lefler. “Explain.”
“I don’t know if I can. I do know that key elements of the process have been left out. On the surface, I understand the direction that has been taken to alter the structure of the carbon-60 to produce diamond, but after a certain point, these notes revert to a description of graphite synthesis that has been published in the literature for several years now and already has a patent pending. It almost looks as if someone plagiarized a journal article from that point on.”
“But I saw the process myself,” said Tarnwell. “I didn’t learn all of the details, but I remember enough from my chemistry degree to know that the overall idea was sound. I inspected the chamber before and after the experiment. It did produce diamond. The Adamas process worked.”
Tarnwell had even perused the copy of the notebook when Lobec recovered it to make sure it was the right one. Everything Ward had showed him was described in the notebook. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t work.
“Perhaps it did work when you saw it. But this,” Lefler said, waving the binder, “is not that process. You were duped.”
“That son of a bitch!” Tarnwell stared at Lobec. “Ward planted a fake notebook. That means he was telling the truth about hiding it. Maybe about the videotape too.”
Lefler looked at Tarnwell with a puzzled expression.
“Is this notebook worthless?” Tarnwell said to Lefler.
“No, not at all. It provides great insight into the general nature of the research. With a few years of experimentation, we might be able to develop the process ourselves.”
“A few years!”
“Perhaps two if we are very lucky and focus all of our resources…”
“Doctor,” Tarnwell said, “we don’t have even one month. We have a huge buyout that is dependent on Adamas being submitted for patent protection next week. If we don’t get it, this company’s credit won’t be worth squat.”
“Then I suggest you don’t make the buyout.”
Lefler was right. The entire pitch to First Texas was based on Adamas. If he made the buyout and Adamas was a failure or delayed, he’d have no way to make the payments on the loan. He’d be insolvent almost immediately. Bankrupt. Which meant he had to stop the deal.
Senders! Maybe he could catch him before the contract was signed and tell him to withdraw it. Tarnwell raced back to the door and yanked it open.
Senders was replacing the cellular phone in his pocket. Tarnwell’s stomach sank when he saw Senders’ huge smile.
“Good news, Clay.”
CHAPTER 17
“Diamonds?” Erica said. She wanted to know exactly what Kevin was talking about before they went to the police. She pulled into a parking spot along University Drive five blocks from the bank. A Kinko’s copy center was in front of them. “As in ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ diamonds?”
“Yes, this notebook tells you how to make real, honest-to-god diamonds. It also tells you how to coat any object with a diamond film.”
Erica shook her head. “How could you run an experiment for your professor without knowing you were making diamonds?”
“Because I wasn’t,” Kevin said. “The experiment we were working on the day I was fired was an investigation into high-temperature superconductors. The diamonds were made by mistake.”
She must have look as confused as she felt.
“Here,” Kevin said. “Let me read this to you.”
He opened the notebook to the first page and began reading aloud.
“‘Adamas — Greek for an impenetrably hard stone. To whom it may concern: Adamas is also the name of the process I’ve described in this notebook. Since you are reading this notebook, I have abandoned hope of claiming the Adamas process for myself. The Adamas Blueprint is my insurance, if you will. My lawyer, Herbert Stein, has been instructed to publish these notes on the Internet in the event of my death.’”