But, finally, the burden grew until it outweighed the damage the revelation could cause him. The confrontation was in the kitchen, where the confrontations always were in that house. Denials, threats, recriminations. His mother didn't believe him, and in not believing him, she was denying her lost daughter as well. Pierce had not spoken to her since.

Pierce opened his eyes, relieved to leave the haunting memory for the present nightmare.

"You remembered," he said to Zeller. "You remembered and you held it tight and you kept it for the right time. This time."

"It wasn't like that. Something just came up and what I knew fit in. It helped."

"Nice penetration, Cody. You have a picture of me up on the wall with all the logos now?"

"It's not like that, Hank."

"Don't call me that. That's what my stepfather called me. Don't ever call me that again."

"Whatever you want, Henry."

Zeller pulled his folded arms tighter against his body.

"So what's the setup?" Pierce asked. "My guess is you have to deliver the formula to keep your end of the deal. Who gets it?"

Zeller turned his head and looked at him, challenge or defiance in his eyes. Pierce wasn't sure which way to read it.

"I don't know why we're playing this game. The walls are about to come down on you, man, and you don't even know it."

"What walls? Are you talking about Lilly Quinlan?"

"You know I am. There are people who will be contacting you. Soon. You make the deal with them and everything else goes away. You don't make the deal, then God help you.

Everything will come down on you like a ton of bricks. So my advice is, play it cool, make the deal and walk away alive, happy and rich."

"What is the deal?"

"Simple. You give up Proteus. You hand over the patent. You go back to building your molecular memory and computers and make lots of money that way. Stay away from the biologicals."

Pierce nodded. Now he understood. The pharmaceutical industry. One of Zeller's other clients was somehow threatened by Proteus.

"Are you serious?" he said. "A pharmaceutical is behind this? What did you tell them?

Don't you know that Proteus will help them? It's a delivery system. What will it deliver?

Drug therapy. This could be the biggest development in that industry since it began."

"Exactly. It will change everything and they're not ready for it."

"Doesn't matter. There's time. Proteus is just a start -we're a minimum ten years away from any kind of practical application."

"Yeah, ten years. That's still fifteen years closer than it was before Proteus. The formula will excite the research, to use a phrase from one of your own e-mails. It will kick start it.

Maybe you are ten years away and maybe you're five. Maybe you're four. Three.

Doesn't matter. You are a threat, man. To a major industrial complex."

Zeller shook his head in disgust.

"You scientists think the fucking world is your oyster and you can make your discoveries and change whatever you want and everybody will be happy about it. Well, there's a world order and if you think the giants of industry are going to let a little worker ant like you cut them down to size, then you are living in a goddamn dream."

He unfolded his arms and gestured toward one of the framed pages from Horton Hears a Who! Pierce's eyes followed and he saw it was the page that showed Horton being persecuted by the other jungle animals. He could recite the words in his head. Through the high jungle tree tops, the news quickly spread. He talks to a dust speck. He's out of his head!

"I am helping you by doing this, Einstein. You understand? This is your dose of reality.

Because don't expect the semiconductor people to sit around while you cut them down, either. Consider this a fucking heads up."

Pierce almost laughed but it was too pathetic.

"My heads up? Man, that's great. Thank you, Cody Zeller, for setting me straight in the world."

"Don't mention it."

"And what do you get for this great gesture?"

"Me? I get money. Lots of it."

Pierce nodded. Money. The ultimate motivation. The ultimate way of keeping score.

"So what happens?" he asked quietly. "I make the deal and what happens?"

Zeller sat quietly for a moment while he fashioned an answer.

"Do you remember that urban legend about the garage workshop inventor who came up with a form of rubber that was so strong, it would never wear out? It was a fluke. He was trying to invent one thing but came up with this rubber instead."

"He sold it to a tire company so the world would have tires that would never wear out."

"Yeah, that's right. That's the story. The name of the tire company was different depending on who told the story. But the story and the end were always the same. The tire company took the formula and put it in a safe."

"They never made the tires."

"They never made the tires because if they did that, they wouldn't make very many tires anymore, would they? Planned obsolescence, Einstein. It's what makes the world go around. Let me ask you this: How do you know that story is urban legend? I mean, how do you really know it didn't happen?"

Pierce nodded before he spoke.

"They'll bury Proteus. They won't license it. It will never see the light of day."

"Do you know that the pharmaceutical industry invents and studies and tests several hundred different new drugs for every one that eventually comes to market after the FDA is through with it? Do you understand the costs involved? It's a big, huge machine, Henry, and it's got energy and momentum and you can't stop it. They won't let you."

Zeller raised a hand and made some kind of gesture and then dropped it to the armrest of the chair. They both sat silently for a long moment.

"They are going to come to me and take away Proteus."

"They're going to pay you for it. Pay you well. The offer's actually already on the table."

Pierce sprang forward in his seat, the pose of calm completely disappearing. He looked over at Zeller, who was not looking back.

"Are you telling me it's Goddard? Goddard is behind this?"

"Goddard is only the emissary. The front. He calls you tomorrow and you make the deal with him. You give him Proteus. You don't need to know who is behind him. You don't ever need to know that."

"He takes Proteus from me, then holds ten percent of the company and sits as chairman of my fucking board."

"I think they want to make sure you steer clear of internal medicine. They also know a good investment when they see it. They know you're the leader in the field."

Zeller smiled, as if he were throwing in a bonus. Pierce thought about Goddard and the things he had said -confided -during the celebration. About his daughter. About the future. He wondered if it was all sham. If it had all been part of the play.

"What if I don't do it?" Pierce asked. "What if I go ahead and file the patent and say fuck you to them?"

"Then you won't get the chance to file it. And you won't get the chance to work another day in this lab."

"What are they going to do, kill me?"

"If they have to, but they don't have to. Come on, man, you know what's going on. The cops are this close behind you."

Zeller held up his right hand, his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.

"Lilly Quinlan," Pierce said.

Zeller nodded.

"Darling Lilly. They're missing only one thing. They find it and you're history. You do as you're told here and that will all go away. I guarantee it will be taken care of."

"I didn't do it and you know it."

"Doesn't matter. They find the body and it points to you, then it doesn't matter."

"So Lilly is dead."

Zeller nodded.

"Oh, yeah. She's dead."

There was a smile in his voice, if not on his face, when he said it. Pierce looked down. He put his elbows on his knees and put his face in his hands.