“I meant emotionally, how do you feel?”
Kevin said nothing, prompting Erica to wonder if she had done the right thing by prodding him. She was surprised when he finally spoke.
“I feel a lot different than when my mother died. My mother was great. She’s the one who always encouraged me to keep up with school, even when I was depressed about being different than some of the more popular kids. I remember one time when I came home crying because Barney Williams and his buddies beat me up for being a teacher’s pet. She told me that being smart was nothing to be ashamed of, that it was the other kids who should be ashamed for not trying their hardest to do well.
“I remember that because my father was in the room and the next thing he said was ‘Nick, if you don’t stand up for yourself like a real man, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. You’re still a wimp, and wimps don’t get any respect.’ I guess in his own macho way he was just trying to make me stronger, but it made me feel like a loser at the time. The only time I really liked him was when we went hunting together by ourselves. Around my mom or his friends, he always had to act tough, but when we were alone, he was actually kind of a funny guy.” Kevin paused. “If we had only left the LuminOptics parking lot instead of going back for the laser, I might have found out how much he’d really changed. Maybe I should have told him to keep driving instead of turning around.”
“You’re not blaming yourself for that, are you?”
“Maybe I am a little. There’s no reason to, but it’s hard not feel that way. I know we needed the laser, and looking back on it I probably would have done the same thing. It’s just hard to make yourself really believe that. You probably think I’m heartless.”
“For what?”
“For not crying or grieving like a son should.”
“It sounds to me like you are.”
Kevin didn’t answer, instead going silent again. Erica thought she should keep up the conversation, so she brought up something they hadn’t discussed yet.
“What are we going to do with the diamond when it’s finished?” she asked.
“The one we’re going to make at Virginia Tech? I suppose we’ll give it to the authorities.”
“Which authorities? You mean the police? We haven’t had much luck with them so far.”
“You’re right. I hadn’t thought about it. We need someone who will believe us and give us protection. And I don’t think the police are going to believe two poor twentysomethings with a big diamond. They’ll probably lock us up for theft and then try to find out where we got it. Hell, we still don’t even know who’s after us.”
Erica had an idea. “What about the Washington Post? This story is so strange, they might believe it.”
“And by the time the full story comes out, we’ll be dead. They’ll start checking facts and the next thing you know, Barnett and his buddy will be all over us. No, we need someone powerful, someone who has the ability to protect us, and we need the evidence confirmed at the same time.” Suddenly, Kevin’s face lit up brighter than it had been in days. “I’ve got it.”
“What?”
“The Washington Post.”
“You just said that was a bad idea.”
“Right, but we are going to be close to Washington.”
“So?”
“Do you know who Frederick Sutter is?”
“The name’s familiar.”
“You still vote in Kansas, don’t you?”
Erica nodded, completely missing what he was getting at.
“Frederick Sutter is the new congressman for the Fourth District in Texas. I met him at an STU awards banquet about five months ago. Apparently, he’s on the Board of Trustees for the university. I sat next to him and we had a nice conversation. He told me to visit him if I was ever in Washington.”
“You want to tell this story to a congressman?”
“Why not? He seemed honest for a politician. Together, I’m sure we can convince him, and if we do, he’d probably be able to get help from the FBI to protect us.”
Erica furrowed her eyebrows. It seemed like an awfully long shot.
“Erica, we are going to get only one chance at this. Once we go to the authorities, these people are going to know where to find us. Our luck has been crappy so far, and I don’t think it’ll be getting any better.”
She digested what he proposed. After several miles, she said, “There’s only one problem with your plan. If we do get in to see Congressman Sutter, how do we convince him that we’re not holding a big piece of glass? I know I wouldn’t be able to tell a real diamond just by looking at it.”
A smile curled the corner of Kevin’s lip. “You know what else is in Washington?”
“What?”
“The Smithsonian.”
Two hours later, Kevin was carrying the laser through the fifth floor of Jacobson Hall at Virginia Tech with the help of his friend, Ted Ishio. Ted, whose father was Japanese and mother was Irish, had an exotic look strangers found hard to place. He was half a head shorter than Kevin and wore a wind-breaker over a polo-style shirt, the tail of which hung over his jeans.
“I wish I’d thought about getting the cart,” Ted said. “I’m starting to sweat like I was OJ on the witness stand.”
“It’s your fault,” Kevin said, knowing that Ted, who was in great shape, was exaggerating. “I’ve never heard of anybody wearing a jacket in September.”
“I didn’t either when I was in Texas. I’d never been north of Oklahoma until I came here. But they say it’s like this all summer.”
Actually, Kevin had been grateful when they’d stepped out of the truck into the cool mountain air. Blacksburg was nestled about 2000 feet high in the Appalachians of southwest Virginia and was protected from the blistering summer heat by the mountains. When they’d arrived at Ted’s house at 10:00, Kevin and Erica hadn’t been out of the truck since Knoxville, Tennessee, where the temperature had been 95, so they were surprised by the 60 degree evening.
Since Ted and Janice would be leaving early the next morning, Kevin had wanted to start getting the lab set up before they left. At the very least, he had to make sure he had the correct keys for everything and that he knew any idiosyncrasies with the rest of the equipment. Erica, who’d been exhausted from driving, decided to turn in for the night.
“Are you sure you didn’t get the extra heavy model?” Ted asked with exaggerated huffing.
“Oh, quit your whining. You told me it wasn’t far.”
“It’s not.” Ted slowed, pulling a key chain from his pocket. “Here we are.”
They put the package with the laser down, and Ted unlocked a heavy metal door, then opened it and flicked on a light switch. He propped it open with his leg while they picked up the package.
Once inside, Kevin could see why Ted had been so excited about the assistant professor position at Virginia Tech. A huge laboratory, probably 40 feet by 60 feet, housed an impressive array of shiny new equipment. At one end, a row of three Silicon Graphics workstations lined a wall. Normally, the wall and desks would be festooned with all sorts of personal artifacts by the grad students using the lab. Except for a few scattered papers and instruction manuals, the surfaces were empty.
“Nice, huh?” Ted said. “I told you they had only the best stuff here.”
“No students yet?”
“The semester just started this week. All my students are new, and I didn’t want them around the lab until I got back. I wish I wasn’t going, but my paper got accepted at the conference before I ever got the job.”
“Chomping at the bit?”
“That and the fact that Miami is playing here this weekend. Janice wanted to visit her parents while we were in Minneapolis, so we’re staying there until Sunday. Hey, the faculty gets discount season tickets to the football games. Since we won’t be using ours, do you want them? It’s been sold out for months.”