Had the car’s driver not been speeding, he might have been able to brake to a stop ahead of the runaway earthmover. But his rate of speed, combined with the shock of seeing the big piece of construction equipment bounding down the hill, caused him to overreact. Rather than brake first, he instinctively flicked the steering wheel to the side to escape the mover. He then stood on the brakes.

It was the worst choice. The car skidded twenty feet before the right front fender slammed into a telephone pole. Sitting unbuckled in the passenger seat, the man who had played guard in Heiland’s house flew into the windshield. His neck snapped, and he died instantly.

The driver suffered only a crushed leg, but his reprieve was temporary. He looked up over a now deflating air bag to see the charging yellow monster only inches away.

The prow of the earthmover struck the driver’s door square, knocking the car clear of the telephone pole and driving it sideways. Pitt dropped the mover’s steel blade, slowing the mover as a shower of sparks erupted from the asphalt. It was just enough to halt the momentum of both vehicles. When the passenger side of the car smacked against the Navy Lab’s fence, both jarred to a halt.

Ann was already hobbling toward the scene, followed by a siren-blaring security car racing through the lab’s main gate. She made her way alongside the earthmover as Pitt climbed out of the cab. His left leg was bloody, and he looked pale.

“Your leg,” she said. “Are you all right?”

“It’s not serious,” he said, moving gingerly.

They walked to the mangled car and peered inside. The body of the driver was flung forward, his eyes locked in a lifeless gaze. His bloodied partner, equally frozen in death, sprawled across the passenger-side dashboard.

“You cut them off, all right,” Ann whispered. She took a closer look at their features, noticing details that had gone unseen in the darkness of Heiland’s lab. “Associates of our friends in Tijuana?”

“They might have accessed Heiland’s office in Del Mar and tracked down his cabin here,” Pitt said. He looked again at the gruesome scene in the car as the Navy security car pulled up. “I hope it was worth it.”

Ann limped to the rear of the car and pried open the crash-damaged trunk. Inside was the bin containing Heiland’s documents. She gazed at Pitt with look of grim satisfaction.

“It was.”

PART II: RARE EARTH

PART II

RARE EARTH

Chapter 26

26

THE GULFSTREAM’S WHEELS TOUCHED DOWN WITH a thump, jarring Ann awake. The excitement of the past few days had finally caught up with her, and she had slept since the plane left the ground in Idaho. She yawned and glanced across the aisle at Pitt, who sat engrossed reading a Jeff Edwards novel.

“Home at last,” she said.