by Pamela Clare
“Shut up.” Thor unlocked his door, grabbed his laptop, and stepped out again.
Segal glared at him. “Am I the only one keeping my dick in my pants?”
Thor locked his door once more. “At least I didn’t keep anyone awake.”
They made their way upstairs to the small conference room, locking the door for privacy. While Segal made coffee, Thor booted up the computer, logged in to the satellite VPN, and found Tower and Shields waiting for him.
Thor took responsibility for their tardiness. “Sorry we’re late. I overslept.”
Segal rolled his eyes, while Jones smirked.
Røvhuller. Assholes.
“I’m glad someone slept.” Shields had dark circles beneath her eyes. “The analyst team—all of us—pulled an all-nighter, going through the notes you sent, reading through transcriptions of your interviews with staff, and finishing background checks on every person there. Based on all of that, we’ve come up with a short list of people for you to question again. I’m emailing it to you now.”
Segal leaned in. “Do we know for certain the murder and the hacked satellite are related? Could Dr. Holcomb’s death have been suicide or an accident?”
Shields spoke in the tone of voice she reserved for idiots. “We assess that the two events are related because of the time they occurred—and because a murder and the satellite hack are both extremely rare events there. Based on what we know about Dr. Holcomb, the probability of suicide is low. She had no history of depression and made it through austral winter last year without any psychological issues. Given that methanol was found in a bottle of commercially produced wine, I doubt it was accidental. Someone had to pour the methanol into that bottle.”
Thor checked his email, opened the file Shields had sent him, and scrolled through the names, his heart giving a kick to see Samantha there. “I got your list.”
It had details for each person and a set of new questions to ask.
“Let’s go through the list one person at a time.” Shields read the first name. “Kazem Hamidi. He certainly has the scientific background and capability to hack a satellite. He’s an Iranian national. The Agency doesn’t show any links between him and the Iranian government or any extremist elements, but that’s not conclusive.”
Thor hadn’t forgotten what Samantha had told him. “He also had an interest in Dr. Holcomb and showed some aggression toward her.”
“True—but there’s more.” Shields glanced at her notes. “He claims he was in the lounge the night she was poisoned, but no one else places him there. Not a single person you interviewed remembered him being there.”
That was suspicious.
“And Bai Zhang Wei?”
“He’s a Chinese national who worked on top-secret Chinese military projects before landing the job at UC-Berkeley researching neutrinos. He says he was in his room asleep the night Dr. Holcomb was poisoned, but Nick Pappas, his research partner, says Wei was still in the IceCube facility when he walked back to the station at midnight.”
“What about Lance Barclay?” Thor didn’t like the guy. “He and Dr. Holcomb were intimate. He’s shown he can be aggressive and controlling.”
“He’s got the necessary computer skills, for sure, and he was the last person to see Dr. Holcomb healthy. He claims he went back to his own room to sleep. But Charli Ortega, the coms manager, remembers seeing him in the computer lab late that night.”
“Kristi Chang, the nurse?”
“What?” Jones’ gaze snapped to Thor’s, disbelief on his face.
“She’s a first-generation American, but her grandparents have ties to the highest levels of Chinese government. That in itself doesn’t mean anything, but we found three bank transfers from her grandfather in Beijing to her account for a total of almost a hundred grand.”
“You’ve got Jason Huger listed.”
“Jason has a juvenile record. We were able to get the details unsealed. When he was a junior in high school, he was arrested for hacking and harassment after he doxxed a girl who turned him down for a date.”
That didn’t surprise Thor at all. “He hasn’t changed much.”
“He’s only twenty-four. High school wasn’t that long ago.”
“And Dr. Park?” Thor fought to keep his expression neutral.
“She’s got the skills, and no one remembers seeing her anywhere after dinner.”
Thor knew that Samantha had spent the night in her room. She was too much of an introvert to hang in the lounge without her best friend. But he didn’t say this.
Shields continued. “The FBI and the Agency have nothing on her. No suspicious bank deposits. No ties to foreign governments. But Lance Barclay says she and Dr. Holcomb argued that night after dinner.”
Thor hadn’t interviewed Barclay, so this was news to him. “She’s also the person who found Dr. Holcomb—found her and got her medical attention.”
“I agree it’s unlikely, but I felt we had to include her.”
Thor let it go—for now. “What about our Russian friends?”
“They might play some role in this. They could have a contact on station. What’s the best thing to do if they’re unsuccessful retrieving the technology from the crash site?”
“They stay with it and wait for a chance to acquire it,” Segal answered.
Shields smiled. “Exactly. My guess? That’s why they’re there.”
Thor wrapped up the meeting. “Thanks for this. Get some rest.”
“Remember that we’re outside the hacker-killer’s game plan.” Tower’s face appeared on the screen again. “This is not how they expected things to go. They certainly didn’t plan on Cobra showing up on the scene. They’re going to get desperate, and desperate people do desperate things.”
Her hair still wet from an extra stolen shower, Samantha stood in front of her mirror, looking at her naked body, trying to make peace with her reflection. Yes, she had small breasts, but they were sensitive. Thor had kissed and caressed them, driving her crazy. He’d called them beautiful, delicate.
She cupped one, ran her thumb around its nipple, remembering how amazing it had been to have Thor’s attention focused entirely on her.
You’re beautiful, Samantha. I mean that. Do you think I’d be standing here, naked, with my cock about to explode, if I didn’t truly want you?
Until last night, she hadn’t known how it felt to be desired. Now she did, and it changed everything.
She knew it was no better to base her opinion of herself on one guy’s positive response than it was to base it on the taunts of high school kids and former lovers. She wouldn’t take it seriously if someone called her stupid. She knew she was intelligent and would laugh in their face. Then why did she let other people’s opinions determine how she felt about her body?
Her gaze moved below her breasts to the curls of her pubic area.
Give me one minute to taste you. Count to sixty. If you’re not into it, I’ll stop.
God in heaven.
Just thinking about how good it had been to have his mouth on her put flutters in her belly and an ache between her thighs. No man had ever made her feel the way Thor had. He hadn’t rushed her. He’d put her pleasure first, taking his time with her. She’d come three times in one night, for God’s sake.
You need to get to work.
It was time to get breakfast and then recycle the SPT fridges again.
Feeling lighter than she had in days, she dressed—long underwear, jeans, T-shirt, sweater, snow pants—and made her way to the galley, where Thor sat with Malik and Lev, the three talking quietly together. He saw her, acknowledged her with a nod, but there was a note of warning in his gaze.
He wanted her to be discreet.
She sat at an empty table on the other side of the galley. She had just stirred sugar and creamer into her coffee when a shadow fell across the table.
“Good morning.” Tray in hand, Vasily sat across from her. “You are without your military guard dog this morning.”
Samantha felt cornered. “They’re not military, and they’re not my guard dogs.”
“The one—that big Dane—he has an eye for you. I see these things. Intuition.”
A few months ago, over drinks at McMurdo, this would have seemed like a friendly conversation. But now that Samantha knew the truth about Vasily, she could tell he was fishing for information.
Samantha picked up her fork, her gaze meeting his. “Did you develop that intuition during your time with the KGB?”
She probably shouldn’t have said that.
Vasily looked taken aback, but his surprise transformed into a grin. “Ah, so they are digging around. Yes, I served with the KGB, but it was dissolved almost thirty years ago, when I was still a young man.”
“Was it truly dissolved—or just renamed?”
His eyes narrowed. “You Americans always ask the straight question. You would get more information by listening, being patient.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Then Thor stood beside her. “Dr. Park, we need to schedule a time to run through some additional questions.”
“Okay. Can I meet you in the small conference room in ten minutes?”
“That works.”
Then Vasily spoke up. “I hear you are digging into me. Be sure to call my first wife and ask her what she thinks of me.”
“Thanks for the tip. We just might do that.” Thor returned to his table, but Samantha knew he was watching out for her.
“See? He is your guard dog.”
“He’s in charge of catching a killer. In case you’ve forgotten, my best friend was murdered by someone here on station. He’s just trying to keep me safe.”
Vasily leaned closer, a hint of alcohol on his breath. “I want you to be safe, too, so I will tell you if I hear anything about Patty’s murder. I will show you that I am still your friend. If I find the killer, I will end him.”
He stood with his tray and went to join his friends, leaving Samantha alone.
She finished her breakfast and went back to her room to brush her teeth, making sure to grab her radio and arm her security camera before heading to the small conference room. She found not just Thor, but Malik and Lev seated around the table, too.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and joined them. “You have more questions?”
It wasn’t Thor who answered but Lev. “We had some people say that you and Patty got into an argument the night she was poisoned. Is that true?”
“What? No. We didn’t argue.” And then it hit her. “I’m a suspect?”
“Everyone who was on station that night is a suspect.” Lev spoke as if she were a stranger, not someone who’d shared a perilous mission with him. “We have witnesses who said the two of you argued.”
She looked to Thor, but he said nothing. His silence cut her. “No, she and I didn’t argue. We had dinner with Lance and Kristi and then I…”
Then she remembered.
“Oh, Lance is such an idiot!” He must be the witness. “After dinner, Patty wanted me to ask Ryan McClain, the firefighter, to grab some popcorn and watch a movie with me. I didn’t want to do it, but she kept pushing. She was always trying to hook me up with someone. We were whispering until finally, I said, ‘No!’ loudly. But it wasn’t a fight. I was irritated, but I wasn’t truly angry with her.”
Lev then asked all the same questions they’d asked her yesterday, pushing her. Where was she when Patty was poisoned? What time did she leave the galley? Did anyone see her enter her room? Did she use methanol in her work?
Then he threw a new one at her.
“Were you jealous of Patty—her relationships with men, her accomplishments?”
Still, Thor remained silent.
“No, not at all.” Samantha swallowed the lump in her throat, got to her feet, lacerated by Thor’s indifference. “Patty and I balanced each other out. She was my best friend. I loved her. I would gladly trade places with her and be the one who died if it meant she could live. I need to get to the lab. If you have any more questions, you can find me there.”
Thor got to his feet. “I’ll escort you over.”
She’d spent the night with him. She’d had the most mind-blowing sex of her life with him. Three hours ago, they’d been naked together in her bed. And yet he’d sat there and said nothing while Lev had interrogated her.
“No, don’t. Work on finding Patty’s killer. If you consider me a suspect, you’ve got a long way to go.” She walked out of the room and down the main hallway toward the coatroom, fighting tears.
Thor hurried to catch up with Samantha. He told himself he was just making sure she made it safely to the Dark Sector Lab, but he knew that was bullshit. In truth, he wanted to explain, to take away the distress he’d caused her.
This is what you get for taking your dick out of your pants on a mission.
Yeah. Right. Thanks. He knew that. But knowing it changed nothing.
He hadn’t meant for her to get hurt by this. “Samantha!”
She disappeared into the coatroom.
Fuck.
The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
He followed her inside, found his parka and boots, and began to dress for the cold. Because there were others in the room, he waited until they were outside and away from the building before he spoke.
“I’m sorry about that, Samantha, but we had to ask.”
“You had to ask.” She walked with fast, angry strides. “Okay, well, you asked—or, rather, you let Lev ask while you sat there and said nothing.”
“Segal and Jones know you and I were together. They were waiting at my door when I went downstairs. Because of that, I had to step aside and let Segal handle the questions, or someone might think I wasn’t objective. That’s the price both of us pay for last night. I didn’t like it any more than you did.”
She looked over at him, her expression hidden behind her mask. “So, that was just you recusing yourself because of our … involvement?”
“Yes, and it could happen again. I know you didn’t kill Patty.”
“I’m happy to hear you say that. What kind of a man would sleep with someone he suspected of murder? And, for the record, I didn’t like being interrogated.”
He couldn’t blame her—not when she was already dealing with grief. “I’m sorry, Samantha. I’m in command of this mission, but I don’t get to call all of the shots.”
He explained how all of Cobra’s resources were being thrown at this investigation and how the analyst team used the interviews to come up with a short list of people for them to question a second time. “They don’t know that you and I are involved, and they can’t find out. I shouldn’t have crossed the line with you, but I did.”
She stopped still. “You’re saying you regret last night.”
“Not at all.” Maybe he should, but he didn’t. “I have no regrets—not one. Last night was perfect. But I’m walking a tightrope here, duty on the one hand, desire on the other. Try at least to understand that.”
She started walking again but said nothing.
For helvede. Damn it.
They reached the Dark Sector Lab and walked up the stairs and indoors. Thor probably ought to have gone back to the station, but he wanted to make this right. So, he stripped out of his cold-weather gear, needing to talk to her without the masks.
She hung up her hat and mask and looked up at him, the hurt in her eyes mingled with grief. “You mean it when you say you don’t regret last night?”
“Yes.” But words were cheap, so he decided to prove it to her. “Come here.”
He drew her against him and kissed her. He meant only to reassure her, but the moment his lips touched hers, he wanted more than that.
He drew back, searched her face for any sign that she understood his situation. “I’m sorry you’re caught in this awful mess.”
She looked up at him, fragile hope in her eyes. “Duty versus desire?”
“That’s it.”
&n
bsp; “And you still desire me?” Her lips curved in a teasing smile.
“So damned much that I’d be fired if my bosses knew what was running through my head right now.” He lowered his mouth to hers and—
The alarm went off on both of their phones at the same time.
“Shit.” He drew his phone out of the pocket of his snow pants, turned off the alarm. “Well, look at that son of a bitch.”
She took her phone out, too, stared. “Lance? What the hell is he doing?”
“It looks like he’s searching your room for something.” Thor grabbed his radio. “Jones, Segal, this is Isaksen. You two seeing this?”
“Isaksen, Jones here. Affirmative, we see him. We’re on our way there now.”
“I just got Dr. Park to the Dark Sector Lab and am heading back to the station. Detain him. Remember, you’re deputies. You have arrest authority. I’ll alert Hardin.”
Thor grabbed his parka, his hat, and his mask, and got ready for the trek back. “You stay here, lock the door, and don’t open it for anyone but me, Jones, or Segal. I’ll let you know what’s going on. You just focus on your work.”
“To hell with that.” She grabbed her parka. “I’m coming with you.”
14
Samantha followed Thor up the stairs, into the station, and down the hallway toward the A1 berthing area, where she could see a small crowd gathered.
She stripped off her hat, gloves, and mask. “Why would Lance break into my room? Does he think you hid the… uh… package there?”
“I’ve got a few ideas about that, but we’re going to find out.”
She heard Lance shouting before they reached the A1 pod.
“Get off me! You stupid bastards! You don’t understand!”
“Dude, you’re going to have lots of time to explain it to us.” That was Malik.
Thor rested a hand in the middle of her back as they grew closer, the brief contact reassuring. People moved aside for him, letting them through. And there on the floor, hands zip-tied behind his back, was Lance, Malik holding his feet while Lev had a knee in the middle of his back.
