Exo: A Novel (Jumper) Read Online Free PDF Page B

nodded. “He was going to pack up his lab.”
    I raised my eyebrows expectantly.
    She said, “Oh. You don’t know where his lab is?”
    I nodded.
    “Keep going, turn the corner, and it’s on the left. Still had his name on it at lunch.”
    “Thanks.”
    She went back to her music and I moved on around the basement. As I turned the first corner, the sound of raised voices emerged from the general background roar of the HVAC plant’s ventilation fans.
    I reached a short cul-de-sac off the main hall in time to hear: “—prototype isn’t university property! Its funding was not tied to the school at all!”
    The man speaking had his back to me. He wore jeans, a polo shirt, and had a small bald spot in blond hair shot with gray. Beyond him, a man in an expensive suit and a female and male police officers stood in front of a closed door labeled “Lab 16” and “Dr. Cory Matoska” below a small rectangular window with wire-reinforced glass.
    The man in the suit said, “That is yet to be determined. Our standard engineering-faculty agreement is pretty clear about intellectual property on work done here.”
    “And if I’d signed that awful piece of verbiage, you would be right, Hannum, but your predecessor agreed that it would not be appropriate, given my funding, and we deleted that entire section.”
    The female campus police officer frowned and shifted, turning so she could see Hannum—the man in the suit—as he responded to this.
    “I’ll be happy to review your contract with university legal, but if you think I’m going to let you cart off university property before I do that, you’re insane!”
    The man with the bald spot turned toward the police and pulled out his cell phone. He held it up and a flash went off.
    The male police office said, “What are you doing?”
    Dr. Matoska—it had to be Matoska—said “Dr. Hannum has been trying to get his hands on my research as long as I’ve been here. If you two help him, you’ll be named in the criminal charges.” He looked back at Hannum. “I have a complete video inventory of the lab.”
    I saw Hannum glance at the cell phone still in Dr. Matoska’s hand with a look of speculation.
    “The video’s in the cloud, Hannum.”
    Matoska stepped to the side and looked directly at the female officer. “Officer—he leaned forward and looked at the name badge pinned to her uniform. “Ah, Deputy Chief Mendez, are you going to let me into my lab or not?”
    Hannum said loudly, “It’s not his lab. Not anymore.”
    Matoska clenched his fists. “Are you going to give me access to my property , then?”
    Mendez said, “I hate to say it, but this looks like a job for the lawyers, Dr. Matoska.”
    “And will you also guarantee that this asshole won’t be looting my equipment?”
    “Are you seriously concerned about that?”
    “It’s not the first time Dr. Hannum has tried. Why do you think I was fired? I refused to collaborate on my research or give him a byline on my last paper.”
    “That’s slander ! Your contract wasn’t renewed for performance reasons, Matoska.”
    “Slander, that’s the spoken one, right? Have you seen the standby lists for my six-thirty seminars? Have you seen my students’ surveys? Who’s slandering now? You were all glowing compliments when you were trying to worm your way onto my last paper. What was that about fast-tracking a tenured position?”
    “You’re delusional,” Hannum said, blushing.
    Deputy Chief Mendez intervened. “We’ll padlock the door then and put an evidence seal on it. It’s Tuesday. You have three business days to come to an agreement with the university or to get an injunction. If we don’t hear anything by Monday, we’ll unseal it.”
    Dr. Hannum’s eyes narrowed and his face went still and I knew that Dr. Matoska was right. Dr. Hannum was after the prototype. I didn’t know if Matoska was legally in the right or if Hannum was but I didn’t really care.
    Because I was after it, too.
    Dr.