There was a pause and then the tone in Ted’s voice sobered. “What can I do?” There was nothing more Kevin needed to do to convince him. Their relationship had been like that for the last three years, providing help whenever it was needed, no questions asked.
Still, Kevin held his breath before continuing, hoping Ted would have faith in him.
“Some men are trying to kill us.”
“What?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. We have something they want.”
“Have you gone to the police?”
“We’ve tried, but they aren’t going to help us. Ted, listen. Believe me when I tell you that the less you know the better. You might not believe it anyway. We need a favor.”
“Name it. Anything.”
“I want to use your lab for a few days.”
The other end of the line was silent. Kevin waited. Finally, he couldn’t stand it.
“Ted? Are you still there?”
“Kevin, I don’t know. I’m just an assistant professor, for God’s sake. I’ve only been here two months…”
“I know it’s a lot to ask, Ted, but this is our only shot. If you don’t help us, we are going to die.”
There were another few seconds of hesitation. Erica gave Kevin a questioning look and he shrugged.
“When can you get here?”
Kevin sighed with relief. “Tomorrow. We’re in Erica’s car.”
Ted gave Kevin directions to his house, and Kevin relayed them to Erica so she could write them down. “What kind of equipment do you need?” Ted said when he was finished with the directions.
From memory, Kevin went down the list of items he’d need. “An infrared spectrometer, a turbo-molecular pump, a blue-light laser, a liquid nitrogen cryostat….” He named a dozen other items.
“There’s a problem. The lab has everything you just named except one. We had a catastrophic failure in our laser last month. It’s totally shot.”
“What’s wrong with it? Can it be fixed?”
“No way. We’re getting a new one, but there’s a buying freeze for the next two weeks.”
Kevin’s heart sank. “You couldn’t bend the rules and get it any sooner, could you?”
“Kevin, I just started working here. I’m going out on a limb letting you use the lab in the first place. I’ll try to get it sooner, but there are no guarantees.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“Don’t worry, man. You can hang low here until we get the laser. In the meantime, it’ll be just like last year.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Ted. You’re a lifesaver. Literally.”
“Just make sure you get here tomorrow. We leave at 6:00 Wednesday morning for Minneapolis.”
“Right, the conference. Don’t worry. We’ll be there.”
“Drive safely.”
Kevin hung up.
“It sounded like he was willing to help us,” Erica said.
Someone was waiting for the phone so they began walking toward the car.
“He is. He’ll let me run the process in his lab.”
“You don’t look too happy about it.”
“Their laser is broken, and they won’t be able to replace it for at least two weeks. Without it, we can’t make any diamonds.”
“Two weeks! They might find us by then.”
“I know. But what other choice do we have? He’s the only person I know who could and would do this for us.”
“What if you had this laser? How long would it take to make enough diamond?”
“Probably three days, depending on how much we want.”
“Do you know where we could get one?”
“I think so, but it doesn’t matter. Those lasers cost about $10,000.”
“And we could buy one ourselves?”
“Buy one ourselves?” Kevin asked incredulously. “I just told you they are ten thousand dollars.”
“I heard you. Just tell me if we could buy one ourselves today if we had the money.”
“Probably. There’s a warehouse in Dallas. I ordered one from there last year. The only problem was, it took three weeks to get what I ordered.”
“Then we’ll have to go there in person,” Erica said. “Can you find it or should we call first?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t think they’ll let us put a $10,000 laser on a credit card.”
Erica steered Kevin to a bench in the middle of the mall. She sat, and Kevin followed suit. She had an earnest look on her face, and Kevin had no idea what to expect. He waited while she searched for words.
“Remember when I told you that I missed the party Friday because of some personal business?” she finally said.
Kevin nodded, looking into her eyes. They seemed tortured somehow.
She hesitated again.
“This is harder than I thought it would be. I haven’t told anyone this in…”—she looked up, thinking—”four years, I guess.”
Kevin kept silent, not wanting to interrupt what was obviously difficult for her to say.
“About ten years ago, when I was a senior in high school, I was on the varsity diving team. I was pretty good, enough that I won some of the meets, and my parents were big fans. They would come to almost every meet, even if it was 20 miles away like some of them were.
“The last meet of the year was at Jefferson high school 15 miles outside of Kansas City. It was a big meet because Jefferson was one of the best teams, and if we beat them, we were going to the district championships. I rode the bus with the other girls, but I saw my parents in the audience just before I went up for my first dive. They were sitting in the front row like they always were, clapping and yelling as my name was read off.
“We ended up beating Jefferson that night. I don’t remember what the score was, but it was very close, and we didn’t know until the last dive who would win. Naturally we were ecstatic, screaming that teenage girl squeal, jumping around like lunatics. My parents wanted to take me out to celebrate, but I was so excited I wanted to ride the bus with the other girls and get pizza with them.
“They understood, and I still remember watching them as the bus pulled away. My dad was still wearing his gray suit pants and white dress shirt from work, but he had on the baseball cap that I’d given him two years earlier which had our team name, the Brookside High Blazers. And my mom usually wore something that matched the red and white school colors. That night it was a red blouse with white slacks. My mom was waving a school banner, and my dad gave me a thumbs up as we left. We must have been a sight, sticking our heads out of the bus windows, yelling, waving our arms. Everyone else was already talking about the district meet, but the only thing I was thinking at that moment was how proud I was that they had been there to see me. Of course, five seconds later I was screaming again with the other girls.”
Erica smiled as she said it, but her eyes began to glisten with tears.
“It was a Friday, and of course we stayed out late partying. My friend Amy didn’t drop me off at home until two in the morning, way past my curfew. I tiptoed straight to my room, hoping I wouldn’t wake my parents.
“About an hour later, I heard a banging at the front door. It went on for a while, and I started to wonder why my father wasn’t answering it. I got up and looked in my parents room, but nobody was there. The bed hadn’t even been slept in. Then I heard my name being called, and I ran downstairs thinking that my parents had locked themselves out somehow. I was so sleepy that it didn’t occur to me to wonder why they were still out at that hour.
“When I opened the door, I was surprised to see a sheriff’s deputy standing on the porch. He told me that my parents had been in an accident and that I should put some clothes on so that we could go to the hospital. I asked if they were all right. The deputy said they’d be OK, but I knew he was lying. He kept telling me to hurry, and when I tried to call my grandparents, he said there wasn’t enough time.