Harvey Bennett Mysteries Box Set 3 Read online

  Harvey Bennett Mysteries

  Books 7-9

  Nick Thacker

  Contents

  The Book of Bones

  1. Ben

  2. Lars

  3. Dietrich

  4. Ben

  5. Elias

  6. Ben

  7. Ben

  8. Dietrich

  9. Ben

  10. Elias

  11. Ben

  12. Ben

  13. Eliza

  14. Dietrich

  15. Ben

  16. Ben

  17. Alina

  18. Ben

  19. Ben

  20. Eliza

  21. Lars

  22. Ben

  23. Elias

  24. Ben

  25. Eliza

  26. Eliza

  27. Ben

  28. Ben

  29. Ben

  30. Ben

  31. Ben

  32. Dietrich

  33. Ben

  34. Ben

  35. Ben

  36. Ben

  37. Ben

  38. Ben

  39. Ben

  40. Ben

  41. Ben

  42. Eliza

  43. Ben

  44. Ben

  45. Ben

  46. Ben

  47. Ben

  48. Ben

  49. Eliza

  50. Eliza

  51. Ben

  52. Ben

  53. Ben

  54. Eliza

  55. Eliza

  56. Ben

  57. Lars

  58. Ben

  59. Lars

  60. Ben

  61. Ben

  62. Ben

  63. Eliza

  64. Ben

  The Cain Conspiracy

  I. Act 1

  1. Derrick

  2. Ben

  3. Julie

  4. Cisco

  5. Ben

  6. Ben

  7. Garza

  8. Julie

  9. Ben

  10. Edmund

  11. Ben

  12. Garza

  13. Julie

  14. Ben

  II. Act 2

  15. Garza

  16. Edmund

  17. Ben

  18. Edmund

  19. Garza

  20. Ben

  21. Ben

  22. Julie

  23. Ben

  24. Ben

  25. Ben

  26. Julie

  27. Ben

  28. Garza

  29. Julie

  30. Julie

  31. Garza

  32. Ben

  33. Ben

  34. Julie

  35. Ben

  36. Ben

  III. Act 3

  37. Ben

  38. Julie

  39. Ben

  40. Ben

  41. Garza

  42. Ben

  43. Edmund

  44. Julie

  45. Ben

  46. Ben

  47. Edmund

  48. Julie

  49. Ben

  50. Edmund

  51. Julie

  52. Julie

  53. Ben

  54. Julie

  IV. Act 4

  55. Edmund

  56. Ben

  57. Julie

  58. Julie

  59. Garza

  60. Ben

  61. Ben

  62. Ben

  63. Julie

  64. Garza

  65. Julie

  66. Edmund

  67. Garza

  68. Ben

  69. Ben

  70. Julie

  71. Julie

  72. Ben

  73. Julie

  74. Ben

  75. Ben

  76. Ben

  77. Julie

  The Mendel Paradox

  1. Prologue

  2. Ben

  3. Lars

  4. Dietrich

  5. Ben

  6. Elias

  7. Ben

  8. Ben

  9. Dietrich

  10. Ben

  11. Elias

  12. Ben

  13. Ben

  14. Eliza

  15. Dietrich

  16. Ben

  17. Ben

  18. Alina

  19. Ben

  20. Ben

  21. Eliza

  22. Lars

  23. Ben

  24. Elias

  25. Ben

  26. Eliza

  27. Eliza

  28. Ben

  29. Ben

  30. Ben

  31. Ben

  32. Ben

  33. Dietrich

  34. Ben

  35. Ben

  36. Ben

  37. Ben

  38. Ben

  39. Ben

  40. Ben

  41. Ben

  42. Ben

  43. Eliza

  44. Ben

  45. Ben

  46. Ben

  47. Ben

  48. Ben

  49. Ben

  50. Eliza

  51. Eliza

  52. Ben

  53. Ben

  54. Ben

  55. Eliza

  56. Eliza

  57. Ben

  58. Lars

  59. Ben

  60. Lars

  61. Ben

  62. Ben

  63. Ben

  64. Eliza

  65. Ben

  66. Ben

  Afterword

  Also by Nick Thacker

  About the Author

  Want free books?

  The Book of Bones

  1

  Ben

  Three Days Ago

  Anchorage, Alaska

  Ben held up the package of hand warmers, wondering if the people who had designed them had ever truly experienced cold. He sighed, then mumbled under his breath. “Five dollars for a pack of these things?”

  He tossed the orange pack of hand warmers back into the bin on the shelf and moved on. He needed a few more supplies, mostly small items and refills for his first-aid kit, to fill out his ‘bug-out bag,’ a precaution in case he had to leave the cabin quickly and a ready-to-go survival pack.

  He liked to keep it full and prepared for anything, but he really enjoyed the process of shopping for the items he kept inside it. He was in Anchorage, at one of the big-box sports and outdoor stores, and he’d just been wandering through the single aisle of clearance items, hoping to find something useful that he didn’t have yet.

  So far, it had been a bust.

  He’d stocked up on first-aid gear and more gauze, finding his supply dwindling, especially after a surprise rescue mission had taken him on snowmobile up into the mountains behind his land. He’d had to rescue the pilot of a downed plane, treat his injuries, then help him retrieve data from the crash site.

  His kit and gear had performed well, but he had left the mountains short on some critical supplies.

  Harvey "Ben" Bennett, the leader of the newly formed Civilian Special Operations, was a bear of a man. Tall and thick, with brown hair and brown eyes, he looked like an enlarged version of an average American man. He kept the hair short enough not to have to worry about it, and he wore clothes that allowed him comfort and utility, which fit in well in the backwoods of Alaska.

  The lingering winter was still pressing down on the area, so today he had on a wool base layer underneath a red and brown plaid long-sleeved shirt. A heavier coat rested on the passenger-side front seat of his SUV, but the early afternoon sun had warmed him enough that he’d gone into the store without it.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket. He kept it on silent, and there were only three callers that he allowe
d through to actually vibrate the phone’s ringer. One was Julie, the caller now.

  “Hey,” he said, bringing the phone up his ear.

  “You still shopping?”

  “About to head out. They didn’t really have anything here — I’ll just order online. What’s up?”

  Julie paused, and Ben could hear her clicking around on her laptop. His wife was one of the CSO members, and she'd recently taken a role as a sort of intelligence and information technology officer. She had a degree in computer science and had worked for the CDC as a computer information systems researcher, where she had excelled before meeting Ben.

  “New job,” she finally said. “Just came in, Mr. E vetted it. Looks legit to me.”

  “What is it?” Ben asked, switching his phone to his other hand as he pushed his near-empty cart toward the checkout area.

  “Apparently we’re being asked to meet with a woman, Eliza Earnhardt, who claims she has information on a company that’s doing some… how did she put it? ‘Questionable research.’”

  “‘Questionable research,’ huh?” Ben said. “Sounds fun. What sort of questionable research?”

  Ben could almost hear Julie shaking her head. “Didn’t say.”

  “They never do. Must be legit — no one ever shows their cards on the first hand.”

  “It would make them a poor poker player,” Julie said.

  “Anyway, what’s the plan? Is there a meeting set up?”

  “Mrs. E is working on it; I’ll have more for you when you get back.”

  Mrs. E was another member of the CSO, the wife of the man who had brought them all together. She and her husband had run a massive communications conglomerate and had invested heavily in satellite communications and technology earlier in the decade. Now, with Mr. E's health issues and reclusiveness preventing him from participating in the day-to-day dealings of his company, they had turned their sights on more philanthropic efforts.

  "Okay, well I'm checking out, then I'll be heading home. Give me an hour."

  “You got it — I’ll send Reggie a text; I think he’s somewhere in the lower forty-eight.”

  “Sounds good, Jules. Thanks.”

  He hung up and pushed the cart toward the counter. The young blonde-haired girl behind the counter looked to be no older than fourteen, and she gave him a wide, braces-covered toothy smile as he neared the register. He’d seen her here before. Nice girl, probably working part-time on weekends and in the summer.

  “Find everything okay?” she asked.

  “Not really,” Ben said. “I think you guys are out of milk and cheese.”

  The grin faded and was replaced by a mix of confusion and terror. “Uh, sir… this is a sports store. We sell outdoor products.”

  Ben nodded slowly, looking up at the ceiling and really trying to sell the ruse. “Ah, that must be why. Okay, thanks.”

  He held back a smile as she passed the two items he was purchasing over the conveyer belt, but she did a poor job of hiding her eye roll.

  2

  Lars

  Three Days Ago

  Grindelwald, Switzerland

  Lars slammed the receiver down onto its cradle. It was a satisfying experience; pressing the ‘END’ button on a cellphone lacked the impactful tactile feedback of smashing a mechanical device into another one.

  He’d had the old-school phone installed here for personal reasons. His team and the contractors who’d built his office in this brand-new building didn’t know what that reason was, and he had no interest in telling them. The office was his, and he’d put it together his way.

  But that way — the way he’d set up the space — wasn’t just his way. It was his grandfather’s office, or at least an exact replica of it. Down to the type of now-ancient telephone he’d purchased from an antiques collector in Prague, everything matched his recollection of his grandfather’s study from when Lars was a boy.

  His grandfather’s own office had morphed over the years into a more modern, more practical suite, from which he ran his EKG empire. Baden Tennyson, the ‘Baron of Biology,’ was a man exceptionally gifted in not just the pursuit of science but also in the art of building empires. Baden Tennyson had grown his company into a worldwide powerhouse of research and development in the biological sciences, and he had formed strong alliances with multinational pharmaceutical companies that paid him and his company attractive dividends.

  Lars, the 'golden boy' of the family and longtime expected successor to his grandfather's throne, had spent his formative years as an Army doctor, then transitioned into medical research. Finally, recently he had been deemed by his grandfather old enough to lead an entire division of EKG. That age — thirty-four — was far later than Lars would have wanted, but he wasn't going to argue with his grandfather. It had taken a lifetime, but Lars finally had gotten the coveted position of Director and Lead Researcher at the brand-new division of his grandfather's company.

  Lars had been involved with every aspect of the growth process of the new division, from selecting a proper secluded location to hiring each of the employees and security team members. Lars was a perfectionist, and he now had the blank check and blessing from his idol to build exactly what he wanted. This division was Lars’ pride and joy, and he fully intended to make it his grandfather’s as well.

  Everything about this room needed to reflect his passion for his job and his desire to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He had no desktop computer in here — though he carried a laptop with him wherever he went — and most of the modernized equipment he needed for the more mundane aspects of his job he kept in his assistant’s office next door. He took notes on a yellow legal pad, using a replica of a 1959 fountain pen he’d once seen his grandfather use. He’d even had a doorbell-like intercom system put in, but it was rarely used.

  Lars Tennyson stood and stretched. He needed a break, but now was not the time. There was work to be done, and that work was now reaching the point of no return. If they stopped the research, they couldn’t resume it later. It was all or nothing, now or never.

  He strode through the office, admiring the way his shoes sunk into the soft, plush orange carpet — so unlike the shiny tiled floor throughout the rest of the building — and knocked on the door of his assistant’s office.

  He didn’t wait for a response. Lars flung the door open to find his plump, round assistant, Roger Dietrich, panting and surprised, the cheap big-box store-purchased desk speaking volumes about the man sitting behind it. Efficient, practical, savvy.

  “Lars — what’s up?”

  “We need to move to the next phase of research. Today. Now.”

  “Wait, wait,” Roger said. “It’s too early — I mean, Dr. Canavero was supposed to have a scheduled call —“

  "I was just on the phone with him," Lars snapped. "He informed me that there have been delays and that he is choosing to hesitate instead of choosing to push forward."

  “And you told him —“

  “I told him nothing,” Lars said, recalling how he’d hung up on his head physician in mid-sentence. “But as I recall, I’m in charge of this research. I’m responsible for its success.”

  “Yes, but —“

  “I need you to explain to Canavero how important this test is. How crucial it is to our success. Without a successful trial this week, our research is thrown back months. Potentially years.”