The Case of the Mad Scientist novel Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Break In and Break Out

Blaze was back to her old self after the shower. She dressed while I lay on the bed, calming down after watching her spend so long struggling. It didn’t help much that she calmly walked out into the room, toweling her damp, gorgeous, naked body down, then proceeded to don a fresh pair of panties and a bra that might have supported her some but was almost as transparent as that cling wrap stuff you buy in the store. From her suitcase, she pulled the kind of clothing you’d wear on a commando raid: black pants, black pull-over turtleneck and even black running shoes. I expected her to add a black ski mask with only eyeholes, and maybe a pair of black leather gloves, but I was disappointed.

Hell, I was disappointed to see that fine body disappear under all that clothing!

Anyway, we went down for dinner as the sun was nearing the mountains to the west. Blaze vetoed my suggestion of the American hamburger place across the street and picked instead an Italian restaurant not far off and in the direction of Koriyama Pharmaceutics. Have you ever tried pizza made by a Japanese chef? Don’t. The sight of sushi pizza almost put me off my feed.

Summer rains are not at all uncommon in Japan, and it looked as if we were in for some that evening to judge from the clouds that covered up the last of the sunset. The breeze had turned a bit cool, also. Well, a little bad weather doesn’t faze a hardboiled Private Dick like me. We walked down the street, noticing that most of the office building seemed to be closing down for the evening. A few bars were just beginning to wake up, but most of the taller buildings showed very little light. Which was fine with me. When we went in, I would be perfectly happy to find no one around.

The first few drops began as we neared the Koriyama Pharmaceutics building. I led Blaze down an alley and around to the back. There was a delivery dock and some windows, but no one in sight. Good.

I was looking at a window wondering how best to breach it, when the door on the loading dock opened and out came a security type uniform. At first he did not see us, which was good because it gave me time to step over to where he was about to close the door behind him. Suddenly he realized someone was approaching and looked at me. His face was just beginning to register surprise when I slugged him. His head snapped back and he went down like a wet noodle.

I grabbed the door to keep it from closing, and then dragged him inside. When all three of us were through the door, I let it close. Our guard looked like he was out for the count, but to make sure I took the pair of handcuffs off his belt and locked his arms around a pipe. I was sure he had the key on him someplace, but with his arms pulled up like that, I didn’t think he could reach it.

Blaze was smiling to beat the band. “That was great!” she gushed. “One punch and he’s out!”

“Yeah, that’s the way it usually is,” I told her.

I pulled the guard’s weapon from its holster. It was some kind of 9mm brand I didn’t recognize. I handed it to Blaze. “Know how to shoot this?” I asked.

Her grin widened. “Yes, I can shoot pretty well.”

“Only use it if you have to,” I suggested.

The first floor was pretty much like any office building, except, of course, that all the signs were in those funny Japanese characters. After the first floor, we took out our flashlights and continued searching without turning on the room lights. On the third floor we hit pay dirt. There were several chemical laboratories, each filled with funny looking jars and pipes and small electronic instruments and stuff, none of which made any sense to me.

“How are we going to tell if Sorren has been here?” I asked as we went into the fourth lab.

“So far, there is no sign of him,” she said as she quickly looked through the room. “I have not seen any DNA sequencing equipment. They told me he would have to have that for his research.”

“And how would you know this kind of equipment?” I asked. Blaze, I knew, was not a research scientist.

“They showed me photos of the main types of sequencers. I haven’t seen one yet.”

We finished with that floor and then went up to the next. Two rooms were labs, the rest just office space with small cubicles and computer terminals.