Chapter 34

Stone and Danders headed back to their offices. They wanted to make more contact lenses to give to people who, unlike McGowan, would use them for the good of mankind. They wanted to find a way to make them more quickly. While they wouldn’t be mass-produced, there would be enough of them to ruin McGowan’s plans to monopolize the thought-reading market and rule the world. Rule the world sounded melodramatic and unbelievable, they knew, but there was no more accurate way to inform people of his power and intentions.

Stone showed Danders how he’d made the first lens; they made a second pair together, then Danders made three more. None included the step where the display was hidden with the application of a dye to cover the iris and pupil area. It was an unnecessary and exacting step.

While Danders worked, Stone prepared a list of organizations and people who would receive the lenses and the appropriate training. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Maryland (part of the National Institutes of Health) was one, as well as The Brain Foundation in Australia; both worked with locked-in syndrome. No cure for this condition exists, but giving its sufferers the ability to quickly communicate with their caregivers would surely make their days brighter.

The United States Armed Forces were another. In this case, however, in addition to the hardware, it would also get the source code for both the thought-receiving and contact lens software. Stone and Danders had trepidations about not having a check and balance on the armed forces but that wouldn’t stop them from giving it to them.

Without question, they wanted no politician to have the same power.

They were wrapped up in their work, and it wasn’t until two hours after their arrival that they checked the outside cameras. A nondescript sedan was parked in the lot with three men inside. They knew McGowan sent these men to watch them, in spite of his having released them. Stone wanted to confront them while Danders didn’t, thinking that McGowan might harm their friends. Ultimately, Stone convinced Danders to take a walk outside, exiting from the side of the building to perhaps catch them off guard. Their intention was to send McGowan a message to leave well enough alone.

Playing video games on one’s phone is becoming more common, but doing so while being paid to keep an eye on someone is a career-shortening move, especially when working for McGowan. Stone and Danders got close enough to the sedan before McGowan’s men spotted them that they were able to open the doors, pull them out, and throw them face-first against the side of the car. While Stone pointed a gun at them, Danders bound their wrists, and forced them into the back seat.

With Stone following in his truck, Danders drove to McGowan’s estate, where the gated fence was opened upon sight of the sedan. Irv, the guard at the gate, wore a priceless look of disbelief upon seeing Danders get out of the driver’s seat; what happened next changed the look to one of terror.

Stone drove in through the open gate, got out of his truck, and ran over and took Irv’s supply of paper towels. He and Danders pulled the guards out of the sedan; Danders then doused the paper towels in gasoline from a can kept in the back of the truck, put them in the gas filler pipe of the sedan, and lit them on fire. Irv needed no prompting to haul ass away from the sedan. A moment later the sedan was on fire and seconds later it blew up, knocking the windows out of the guardhouse and setting it on fire. The debris thrown by the explosion harmed the three tied-up guards.

McGowan watched on camera as Stone and Danders drove away. The frown on his brow reflected his renewed concern about Stone’s destructive capabilities. Yes, he could harm Stone’s friends, but Stone was capable of harming his as well, despite the fact that he was Evan McGowan, the most powerful man in the world. But he sensed that there was something more to be gleaned from the image of the burning sedan; McGowan was not able to figure out what it was.

He decided that a change of venue was in the best interests of his project. Moving to a location unknown to Stone was smart—no possible interference from his competition, and, therefore, quicker development of the changes to the invention that he required. He ordered some of his staff and all his so-called guests to be ready to leave in thirty minutes. Cueball was put in charge of the Milford estate. McGowan told him to get the injured guards treated, and then fire them. Then he wondered why he was being so humane.