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CHAPTER 052

Six attorneyssat at the long table, all shuffling through papers. It sounded like a windstorm. Rick Diehl waited impatiently, biting his lip. Finally Albert Rodriguez, his head attorney, looked up.

“The situation is this,” Rodriguez said. “You have good reason-sufficient reason, anyway-to believe that Frank Burnet conspired to destroy the cell lines in your possession, so that he could sell them again to some other company.”

“Right,” Rick said. “Fucking right.”

“Three courts have ruled that Burnet’s cells are your property. You therefore have a right to take them.”

“You mean, take themagain. ”

“Correct.”

“Except the guy has gone into hiding.”

“That is inconvenient. But it does not change the material facts of the situation. You are the owner of the Burnet cell line,” Rodriguez said. “Wherever those cells may occur.”

“Meaning…”

“His children. His grandchildren. They probably have the same cells.”

“You mean, I can take cells from the kids?”

“The cells are your property,” Rodriguez said.

“What if the kids don’t agree to let me take them?”

“They may very well not agree. But since the cells are your property, the children don’t have any say in the matter.”

“We’re talking punch biopsies of liver and spleen, here,” Diehl said. “They’re not exactly minor procedures.”

“They’re not exactly major, either,” Rodriguez said. “I believe they are ordinary outpatient procedures. Of course, you would have a duty to make sure that the cell extractions were performed by a competent physician. I assume you would.”

Diehl frowned. “Let me see if I understand. You’re telling me I can just grab his kids off the street and haul them to a doctor and remove their cells? Whether they like it or not?”

“I am. Yes.”

“And how,” Rick Diehl said, “can that be legal?”

“Because they are walking around with cells that are legally yours, hence with stolen property. That’s felony two. Under the law, if you witness a felony being committed, you are entitled to perform a citizen’s arrest, and take the offender into custody. So if you were to see Burnet’s children walking on the street, you could legally arrest them.”

“Me, personally?”

“No, no,” Rodriguez said. “In these circumstances one avails oneself of a trained professional-a fugitive-recovery agent.”

“You mean a bounty hunter?”

“They don’t like that term, and neither do we.”

“All right. Do you know of a good fugitive-recovery agent?”

“We do,” Rodriguez said.

“Then get him on the phone,” Diehl said. “Right now.”