"Chain Reaction" Power Failure Book I Read online

  Chapter Seven

 

  The Lincoln super-stretch limousine crawled through the congested streets of Boston’s North End, making its way back toward Phillip Temple’s office.

  Inside the warm confines of the giant land yacht, Temple thought about the meeting with Murphy and what it could mean for his company.

  This technology could be very useful indeed. If it works like he said, it would be a discovery of monumental proportions. This could be a really big score…if I play my cards right.

  He scratched his chin for a moment in contemplation.

  How did he get his hands on this anyway? For years the little worm gives me tidbits…then all of a sudden he comes to me looking for five million dollars. What a joke.

  Reaching into his jacket pocket he withdrew a long, thin hand-rolled cigar. A diamond-encrusted lighter flared brightly in the dark car as he puffed the expensive tobacco to life. He watched the thick, aromatic smoke curl from the glowing red tip as the car crawled forward.

  He didn't trust Murphy, only a moron would, but the possible payoff was so huge he couldn't risk being wrong. He knew Ryan from her published research and hearing her lecture. He also knew that she was a brilliant scientist possessing a tremendous intellect. That alone made her dangerous.

  The more he thought about the particle manipulation project, the more that it made sense.

  If anyone could develop a totally new type of power source in such a short time, it’s Ryan.

  He despised her. She was brilliant, respected…everything he was not.

  The woman could fall off a ladder and come up with an anti-gravity device on the way down.

  He considered this woman very dangerous.

  If anyone’s going to bring this to market, it’s going to be me.

  It didn't take long for him to decide what to do. He had to remove her as a threat.

  He tapped the smoked glass between himself and the driver. The chauffeur touched a button on the dash and the partition slowly disappeared into the seatback. The driver’s steely glance met his in the rear-view mirror.

  The enormous black man behind the wheel spoke, the voice deep and gravely. “Yes sir?”

  “Take the expressway…and step on it!”

  “Of course, sir.”

  The driver tromped on the accelerator and cut the wheel hard, banking the huge black automobile into a left turn while the speedometer quickly climbed towards 60 mph.