Lexington Park, Maryland, Wednesday…

Pages and pages of information were flying across the screen as Bouncer directed the computer with skill. In addition to his usual wires, he also wore a headset, the earphones catching bits and pieces of audio output that had no corresponding video. His subvocal instructions expertly directed the search for data, unheard by Jay. Finally he turned to her.

"I've got nothing connecting Williams, Sweeney, and Johnson to Richter. Kalidas is right - Richter was heavily involved in the cloning business, although everything recent must be classified. I'm not quite good enough to hack into government systems. Besides, they're all on their own intranets - no connection to the outside world."

"Not even a partial connection? Johnson and Richter, for example?"

"Nope. There is one thing, though. Kalidas' old company and Richter were connected."

"Dalton Biomedicine? How so?"

"I don't exactly know what he did for them. He was a consultant." He flashed several pages of text on the screen. "There's a steady payout to him over a period of fifteen years."

"What are the dates?"

"From about sixteen years ago to the present, that is, three weeks ago. Just a minute." Bouncer made a quick calculation. "It's a considerable sum. On a year by year basis, I'd bet it was a lot more than he made as a professor at Stanford, and he probably was not making peanuts there, since he was a full professor."