The Abacus Equation

  Chapter 41

  “So Juergen, this is a behaviour that I really cannot condone,” it sounded severely.

  In disbelief Juergen turned around and looked into the harsh eyes of Ian. Next to him stood Vince. Motionless, he held a gun pointed at Juergen's head.

  “Don't try to do something. Outside there are a bunch of snipers. One move that they don't like and you will follow your two victims into death. Did they really have to die? I can imagine that you were frustrated that Pieter had come so close to the truth, but also Abdi and I had strong suspicions.”

  “Who says that you were not the next ones?” Juergen replied coldly. “Your time will come soon. Nobody is interested in what is happening here.”

  “I am always intersted in a good story,” Abdi said upon entering the bedroom. The officers in his wake disarmed and handcuffed Juergen who did not resist. “Take him to the head office. In Somalia we still have some nice places to stay.”

  Ian looked at the bodies of Jane and Pieter. “Quite a nice couple, don't you think?”

  He bent over Pieter and slapped softly on his cheek. A deep moan came from his mouth and Pieter open slowly in disbelief his eyes, as if he had expected to see someone or something else.

  “What the hell?” He grabbed his painful chest. His breathing squeaked as if someone had put a metal plate and was dancing on it. “Jane? Jane?” He crawled to the edge of the bed and took her in his arms. Also Jane was recovering and smiled painfully. “Hello there, what did you think of my little surprise?” She tried to get up but clasped her belly. “Man it is like I did a thousand sit-ups.” She looked angrily at Ian, “that, you did not tell me!”

  Pieter looked dumb and did not understand the remark.

  “My dear Jane, those polymer armours still require some fine-tuning. They already look good, but the polymerising surface has to be better adapted to the incoming energy so that this kind of side effects can be limited. The blood effect on the other hand is as good as perfect. Very dramatic.”

  “And what is a polymer armourr?” Pieter asked.

  “It is an advanced bullet proof vest. A traditional vest would have been a bit too obvious for Juergen and he would have aimed for your heads. Ironically this was one of Vladimir's pet projects. Juergen was not even aware of it. He was only interested in the offensive technologies, not the defensive ones. As you can see it looks like an ordinary blouse or shirt. But when there is a sudden transfer of energy, like the impact of a bullet, than the fabric polymerizes almost at the speed of light into ultra hard armour. As the energy of the impact disappears, the hardened surface becomes soft again.”

  “And you knew about this?” Pieter asked Jane.

  “Yes, Mister Abdi approached me this morning. He explained me his plan and I didn't hesitate for a moment.”

  Pieter became outraged: “are you people mad? That you use me as a decoy, fine, I can live with that and I am getting used to it. But you cannot involve her.”

  “Be quiet,” Jane responded, insulted. “I can make my own choices. And you don't always have to steal the action.”

  “So what if Juergen knew about these vests? What if he had aimed at our heads? Than you would have two real corpses. Would that make you feel any good?”

  Abdi pointed outside. “Out there are our best sharpshooters. If there was even the slightest chance that he would have lifted the barrel of his gun they would not have hesitated to shoot. Those were my orders. And trust me, he would have been dead. But then he would have become a dead end in the investigation. We needed him for questioning. I am always amazed how they want to explain the reason why they acted like they did. He will talk, eventually. They all do.”

  “Next time, but there will not be a next time, I really would appreciate it if you inform me beforehand of your wicked schemes.”

  Ian gave him a pad on the shoulder, sending a stab of pain into his chest. “But my dear Pieter, you react so much better when you don't know in advance. Let's go, I don't want to be late for my own war-room meeting.”

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