Dr. O (35 page)

In her seat, heading for Chicago, Robyn Muro thought about what Sam Boas had told her, and she wondered if it was the truth —as unbelievable as it was —or if it was meant to simply keep her from ever talking about Pythagoras again.

Sam had sworn it was the truth when he said, "That project has been a worse drain on the American economy than Star Wars, and has proved just as useless! Pythagoras was scrapped a year ago, but a handful of scientists, Oliguerri the worst of them, wouldn't let it go. They kept hammering at it and talking too much about it in the process."

"What are you saying, Sam? That Pythagoras still does not work, not even with what Oliguerri left?"

"Exactly... all a dream, Robyn, a foolhardy dream."

"A dream to heal people."

"That was Oliguerri's dream, Hogarth's and the others."

"But the Pentagon's dreams were a little skewed toward another kind of end?"

"Those Pentagon dreams are dead as well."

^You wouldn't lie to me, would you, Sam?"

"Not about this."

"What about Ovierto? He doesn't consider it dead, but maybe if you could somehow convince him. Go public with the botched project, the cost to the taxpayers, all of it... then perhaps."

"We've considered all of that. Problem is, and this I support with all that I know about Ovierto... the man doesn't really care about Pythagoras. He had created an idea of himself actually capable of putting it to work for him, but he's like a dog chasing a car. If he caught it, what would he do with it?"

"Then why not give it to him?"

"It would change nothing, don't you see?"

"He'd go on as he has been."

"Without stop."

"Is he right to blame Pythagoras on his own mental state?"

"Yes, there was an accident. Others lost their lives. He... he was considered at the time... lucky."

They had parted on that note, both of them witnesses to Dr. Maurice Ovierto's incredible "luck."

And though they had heard nothing from Ovierto in all this time, Robyn sensed that the silence would not long go undisturbed. She feared not knowing how or when he would come at her again. She feared she had not heard the last from him.

She planned a quick visit to Chicago, to set things right with Chief Noone and the department, put her life there in order, prepare for a move to D.C., where in a month she would become an FBI cadet. With her time in at the police academy, and the time she had logged on the force in Chicago, she had been assured that she would move up in the Agency quickly.

But she knew that "quickly" would not be soon enough, before Dr. O struck again.