need to find Paul. And we need to get to Jericho.” “We have no idea where he is,

and we have nothing on Jericho.” Before he could answer his phone rang. It was

his brother. He put it on speaker and laid the phone between them so Knox could

hear.

 

Puller took a minute to fill his brother in on what had just happened. Robert

listened in silence that he let linger for a few moments after Puller was

finished speaking. “Things are coming to a head, John.” “Yeah, that I get. I

just don’t know whose head is going to be left on their shoulders.” “The guy you

saw with Helen Myers is Anton Charpentier.” “Is he a spy?” “No, he’s a

businessman. He’s not the big force behind all this.

 

That’s my best estimate, anyway. But he is wired into some fairly substantial

global business interests, and not all of them are allies of this country.”

“Shepard told us that some of the things Atalanta Group was working on have

enormous commercial applications. Billions, maybe trillions.” “They do. And

which Atalanta Group is barred from exploiting.

 

They don’t have the rights to do so.” “She says it comes down to who holds the

patents.” “Shepard was exactly right. And the person who holds all those

particular patents is Chris Ballard.” “Ballard!” exclaimed Puller. “But he’s

retired now.” “But he locked up all the patents for years. In fact, they were

issued personally to him as the inventor. Now, I doubt he was, at least for all

of them, but the lawyers probably papered it that way.