So far, Mr Hill was failing to fill me with confidence. All I'd asked him to do was to break into the vaults of a high security auction house and bring back a tiny chip hidden in one of the lots. It was hardly rocket science. Yet, he insisted on complicating matters.
"You assured me he was the best safe man in the business. But at the first sign of adversity Mr Lockhart turns tail and runs straight into the arms of Mutant X," I said.
"Look, if I had a clue," Mr Hill began, gesturing expansively and touching my desk with his hand. I glowered at the offending hand, which was promptly removed. "Zack no longer had the stomach for this."
"That's precisely the clue I'd expect you to have, so I wouldn't be sitting here empty handed," I said.
"Zack just got a case of cold feet."
"Well then for both your sakes, between now and tomorrow night, you'd better figure out how to warm them up."
Mr Hill turned to leave the room.
"Not to mention how we get him back from Adam and his people," I added. Adam would no doubt get the information about the chip out of Mr Lockhart, that was if he was not already aware of it.
I reviewed the auction on Segal's website. Mr Hill was clearly more excited by it than I was. "Oh yeah! The most elaborate and expensive of the Faberge collection," he read from the screen, grinning at me. I gave him a look, and he toned down his smile. "Encrusted with gold, platinum, enlaced with gold diamonds."
"Could be made of lead, cut glass and paste for all I give a damn," I said.
"I will get you your egg, Mr Eckhart, you can count on it."
"Optimism has never been one of my strong suits, Mr Hill," I said. "Do you need Mr Lockhart to complete the mission? I can only presume from your squirming that the answer is yes. Find Mr Lockhart and persuade him, Mr Hill. I do not have the time or patience for prima donnas."
Of course, I wasn't interested in such a pointless, extravagant bauble. This egg had been owned by renowned soviet biogeneticist Sacha Kandinsky. One of the programs he had been working on before his death was an attempt to elucidate a way of controlling free will via genetic manipulation. Sources told of a computer chip that Kandinsky had hidden which contained all of this work. It sounded ludicrous, but so did everything that Genomex had ever worked on, until you saw the results of it with your own eyes. If there was a chance that Kandinsky had made a breakthrough with his research, I had to possess that chip. I didn't trust anyone else to refrain from using the results of that research for nefarious means. It would only be safe with me.
When I didn't hear from Mr Hill, I assumed that was because the plan to get the egg was going well. But I was mistaken.
"Arrested?" I said when he finally contacted me. "Well I take it you're in the market for a good lawyer."
"You could say that."
"Well I'd suggest the yellow pages, starting with A," I said, ending the call.
I would deal with Mr Hill later. He could stew in his cell for a while.
I needed a new plan, and fast. The egg was due to be auctioned tomorrow morning at eleven o' clock. And Adam and his people were already sniffing around. Lord knows what Adam might do if he got hold of that chip. I had been fortunate that he also wanted to destroy the video evidence of new mutants, but I could not afford to be so complacent as to assume he would do the same with this.
I reviewed the current list of GS agents, but I already knew what I would find. I had done the same exercise when Mr Lanchester had given a similarly disappointing performance. This whole situation was like déjà vu. There were no other new mutants we knew of with a power like Zack Lockhart. Useless. There was only one thing for it, to actually bid on that damned egg. Under a false name, naturally.
This plan was expensive, but significantly easier than the previous one. One of my men dutifully brought the egg to my office in a strongbox, laid it on my desk and unlocked the handcuff that attached it to his wrist.
"That will be all," I said, dismissing him and opening the box myself. I took out the egg and opened its secret compartment. I looked around, bewildered. I checked again. No, the disc was definitely not there. Mr Lockhart and Mutant X had got there before us! At least, that's what I hoped had happened. But Adam wasn't stupid, he wouldn't risk using the research.
Would he?
I looked down at the useless egg in my hand and thought of all that government money I had wasted on absolutely nothing.
The egg was fragile. I could almost crush it in my hand. I threw it at the window and it smashed into an almost infinite number of glittering, overpriced shards. It was satisfying, for a moment.