* * *
Michelle watched Kat leave her office and exhaled a troubled sigh. Truthfully, the drug and its potential ramifications scared the hell out of her—and well it should—but as she’d told Kat, the directive came to her from very high channels. She tapped her fingers lightly on her desk, worried by Kat’s reaction. What had she expected? Kat had suffered grievously at the hands of the drug and she certainly wouldn’t welcome the idea that someone was tinkering with the formula. As much as she didn’t want to, Michelle had to make a phone call.
She dialed the number, heart in her throat. “Dr. Odgers has found out the formula is back in active research,” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. “And she’s very unhappy.”
“That’s unfortunate. Can you persuade her to get on board?”
“Not likely. She has every reason to hate MCX-209 and its potential ramifications.”
“You like her.”
Michelle didn’t bother lying. “I do. She’s a brilliant scientist and a good person.”
“The world has plenty of brilliant scientists. If you value this one in particular, find a way to persuade her to get on board. Otherwise, she’s a liability.” A beat followed before the person on the other end said, “And how exactly did Dr. Odgers find out about this newest development?”
“Two CIA agents are investigating Miko Archangelo’s death. Somehow they connected the dots.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of those two. They’ve been poking around Tessara. Up until now I didn’t think they had anything of interest. Seems I was wrong.”
“I did as you asked,” Michelle said, curling her fingers around the phone. “I held up my end of the bargain.”
“Yes, we are pleased with your cooperation. We will be in touch.”
“My sister...”
“She’s fine for now, but I suspect her health may decline if you aren’t able to persuade Dr. Odgers to be more helpful.”
Sweat gathered along Michelle’s hairline. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“That’s your problem. You’re a smart woman. You’ll figure something out.”
The line went dead, and Michelle replaced the phone with cold, shaking fingers. She was living in a nightmare. How had this happened? Tessara was the epicenter for all evil. She swallowed and willed herself to stop shaking, to think. Her gaze swept her office, knowing that somewhere a bug was nestled, catching her every word, her every movement. Contact had been made four months ago, soon after she’d busted Miles Jogan and Camille Stephens, shutting down their horror show featuring MCX-209. If only Michelle had known that she’d merely poked the dragon. Miles and Camille hadn’t been the ringleaders. No, whoever was really pulling the strings was far more powerful than she’d imagined. And worse, she had no clue who was in charge.
And they had her younger sister as leverage. Michelle, as tough as they came, former marine, was held hostage by fear, weakened by her love for her sister.
Hang tight, Hilary. Just stay alive.
A plan—reckless and razor’s-edge dangerous—took root.
* * *
Kat couldn’t stop pacing. It was something she did out of nervous habit because it helped her think, but tonight her brain was just too filled with chaotic ramblings and frightened gibberish to be calmed by any amount of pacing. “They’re going to do something terrible with that drug—I can feel it,” she told Jake, nearly hysterical. “And you should’ve seen Michelle...cold as ice. I’ve never seen her so distant and mean. I thought we were friends! But she’s using me, just like Miles and Camille did. But this is far worse than what they did because I didn’t like them. I liked Michelle. I believed in her. I believed in what I was doing for the greater good. What a sap I still am, still trying to see the good in people when I know for a fact—having seen the worst—that people can be totally evil.”
“Calm down,” Jake said gently. “Let’s think this through.”
“Calm down? Haven’t you heard a thing I’ve said? MCX-209 is back in active research. That means somewhere in that government facility, someone is putting their hands all over my research in the hopes of finding the magic concoction for that wretched drug.”
“Did she say how long the research has been going on?”
Kat shook her head. “No. I didn’t ask. But what does this mean? She promised me no one would go near that drug or the research without my permission or authorization, and that was a flat-out lie. She lied to you, too!”
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Jake said, furrowing his brow in thought, remaining chill even as Kat was freaking out. Of course, that was one of the many reasons she loved him, but, c’mon, certainly she shouldn’t be the only one jumping up and down in a total meltdown, right? Jake met her gaze and she stopped pacing for a moment. “Michelle isn’t the kind of woman who goes back on her word. I’ve known her for many years. Something else is going on behind the scenes.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’ll bet it has something to do with Holden and Jane poking around.”
Kat nodded. “That’s feasible, though I couldn’t for the life of me tell you how. I mean, they were asking a lot of questions at Tessara, and they found out my old supervisor, Hector, is dead. One thing I’ve learned since hanging out with you and your friends—there’s no such thing as a coincidence, right?”
“Exactly,” Jake agreed, adding, “which is why I asked Holden and Jane to come over tonight.”
Kat blinked. “You did?”
“Yes. I have some questions of my own to ask them, and now that the situation seems to be becoming more and more unstable, it’s better to control the environment we’re in. We have to assume your lab has been compromised, possibly bugged.” Kat gasped and he continued with a nod, “Yeah, more than likely. It’s what I would’ve done if the situation were reversed and I needed information. At least here in our home, we know we can speak freely.”
“Why’s that?”
He crooked a short grin that made her remember why she’d fallen for him in the first place. “Because I have antibug devices planted all over our home. Instant interference. Haven’t you ever wondered why our cells don’t work in the house?”
“D’oh!” she gasped softly as the knowledge sank in. “I just figured we were in a bad reception spot.” She giggled briefly before sobering. “Okay, so what do you hope to find out from Holden and Jane?”
“Not sure, but if we put our heads together we might be able to pinpoint where the threat is originating.”
Her eyes suddenly watered and her lower lip trembled. “I don’t want to go on the run again,” she said as she climbed into his lap. His arms curled around her and she took momentary comfort in the solid feel of his touch. “The last time this happened, I almost lost you. I don’t want to face that again. I would never step foot in another lab again if it meant you and I could live a normal life.”
He chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “What is normal? It’s been so long I don’t remember.”
“Not funny,” she grumbled, pinching him for making jokes about something so serious. “I mean it. I can’t go through this again. It was awful the first time around. I certainly don’t want a repeat performance.”
“Neither do I. I’ve only just started remembering how to tie my own shoes.”
She laughed through the sheen of tears, loving him all the more that he could still joke, but it stung that she’d been the cause of his suffering. “I love you, Jake Isaacs,” Kat said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “Don’t you dare get yourself killed or I’ll never forgive you.”
“I love you more, Kat Isaacs. And I am too attached to living to get myself killed. I promise.”
A shudder traveled through her. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I don’t.”
His solemn answer, devoid of laughter this time, reached into her heart and squeezed hard. She knew he’d do anything to protect her—even thro
w himself in the line of danger if it meant saving her life.
And that was what scared her the most.
Chapter 21
Holden and Jane, both surprised to get the call from Jake, hustled over to his house and were ushered in immediately. Holden shook Jake’s hand and smiled. “You look better than the last time I saw you. At least now you’re not drooling,” he teased.
“I wasn’t drooling,” Jake shot back with mock irritation but broke it with a grin. “You look good, too. How are you doing?”
“Could be better, for sure. Things aren’t exactly copacetic, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Jake agreed with a serious nod.
Holden quickly introduced Jane, and then all three walked into the living room, where a nervous Kat waited, biting her nails and fidgeting. “Good to see you again, Kat.”
She smiled slightly but remained quiet. Jake handled the talking once they were all seated. “All right, unfortunately I didn’t invite you over for board games and pizza. We’ve got a serious situation brewing. I’ve been down this road before and it’s not pretty.”
“So I’ve heard,” Jane said. “You’re pretty lucky to be alive, from what Holden has said.”
“I’m lucky my wife is brilliant. If it weren’t for her, I would be dead. She’s the one who perfected the formula. Otherwise, my life would’ve ended with my brains leaking from my ears.”
“It’s not perfected,” Kat protested, breaking her nervous silence to bounce from her chair and start pacing. “That’s just it. It’s just as dangerous as it ever was. I should’ve flushed everything down the toilet when I had the chance, but I was seduced by the idea of running my own state-of-the-art lab. This is my penance for having too big of an ego. This is karma.”
“Kat, stop,” Jake said gently, pulling her to him and soothing her frantic movements with a soft touch. “This isn’t your fault. You have a gift for science. Okay? Stop berating yourself for something out of your control. We’re going to get this figured out.”
“What’s going on? Something tells me we’re missing a piece of the puzzle,” Holden said.
“A big piece,” Kat answered grimly, glancing at Jake for strength. “After you left, I went to my boss, Michelle, to confront her about the security break. She already knew! In fact, she’d authorized the active research, saying higher channels had given the clearance to bypass my involvement. She said it was out of her hands, but the PTB would like me back on board.”
“Higher channels? Higher than the president?” Jane asked, confused.
“I don’t know,” Kat answered, just as confused. “I’ve never known Michelle to act like this. She was just as adamant as I was that MCX-209 end up locked away forever, but now she’s changed her tune. It gave me a terrible stomachache and I immediately had diarrhea. Sorry for the TMI. When I get nervous I overshare.”
Jake smiled indulgently at his wife and Holden felt a pang of envy for how in tune Kat and Jake were with one another. He stole a glance at Jane, and when he saw her wistful expression, he knew a moment of happiness, which was absurd, but it was there just the same.
Jane broke the silence first. “Is there any chance Michelle is working with someone at Tessara? My first guess is Ulysses Rocha. He gives me a corrupt vibe.”
Kat wrung her hands. “Before today I would’ve said absolutely not, but I don’t know what to think now.”
“First and foremost, we need to figure out what the connection is between Tessara and whoever wants the research reactivated on MCX-209. What would anyone have to gain by restarting the study?”
“At first blush, I’d say world domination,” Kat answered. “I mean, this drug is dangerous for many reasons. And if someone in high places is pushing the research, that must mean they already have something in mind for its use.”
“Which certainly can’t be good,” Jake interjected, and Holden nodded.
A knock at the door startled them all. Everyone except Kat pulled a weapon. Kat laughed nervously. “Wouldn’t we all feel dumb if it was just a pizza guy? Delivering a pizza we haven’t ordered?” she tacked on with an audible gulp. Jane and Holden flanked the doorway while Jake prepared to open the door. He peered through the peephole and then pulled away with a quizzical expression. “It’s Michelle,” he mouthed before slowly opening the door. “Michelle? It’s pretty late...what are you doing here?”
“I know how this looks, but it’s not safe for me to talk outside. Will you invite me in? And act natural. I have eyes on me.”
Jake nodded and ushered her inside, but everyone held their weapons at the ready.
“What are you doing here?” Kat asked. “What’s going on?”
Michelle, dressed in a trench coat, shivered, her gaze sharp. “You were right. Something is going on. I couldn’t say anything at the office. In fact, I haven’t been able to say anything for months, and honestly, I was trying to keep you out of it for as long as possible, but time has run out. Someone blackmailed me into granting authorization for the active research. They have my sister, Hilary, and they’ve threatened her life if I didn’t cover their tracks while they worked on your preliminary formula for the Game Changer.”
“I wish people would stop calling it that,” Kat groused. “Who is threatening you?”
“I haven’t been able to figure that out. I only have a number that I’ve been unable to trace. They have my office and house bugged and I’ve been unable to make a move without them knowing about it. Frankly, I don’t even know if it was safe to come here, except I’m supposed to be talking you into joining the research team. Otherwise, Hilary would be dead right now. For all I know, she already is dead.”
“They haven’t given you proof of life?” Jake asked.
Michelle shook her head. “Not in weeks. I fear the worst.”
“You should’ve told someone,” Holden said.
“I know, but I was afraid. She’s the only family I have left. She’s my kid sister and barely out of college. I never imagined something like this would ever happen. I never saw myself in a position where I couldn’t protect myself or the ones I love. They struck where it hurt, and they knew exactly what to do to get me to cooperate.”
“Sounds like a move Penny would make. If I didn’t already know the bitch was dead, I’d say this was her doing,” Holden said
“So who’s at the heart of all this, then?” Jane asked the question they were all wondering. “Someone higher up in the food chain, for sure.”
“How high are we talking?” Holden asked. “This goes pretty far if they’re able to get to Michelle’s level of clearance.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Jake said. “What do we know so far?”
“Well, it seems Miko was trying to gather enough evidence to bring down someone big, but he was so paranoid he left only cryptic clues. We have a list of ID hits, some connection to Butterfly Bend winery, Tessara Pharm and a really rampant information leak at high levels.” Holden rubbed his jaw. “Now we also have someone wanting research to resume on MCX-209 and using Michelle to get it done. All in all, we’ve got a whole lot of loose ends and no way to tie them together.”
“Not necessarily,” Jane disagreed slowly, and Holden could see her mind working. “We know Penny Winslow was tight with her cousin, the owner of Butterfly Bend, and that Butterfly Bend was chosen for the Presidential Reserve wine, and the wine is being shipped at the end of this month for an executive dinner. We also know Tessara helped create the chemical coating for the cork used by Butterfly Bend. What if—and this is a wild theory—someone is planning to use those wine corks to spike the Presidential Reserve with MCX-209? Butterfly Bend has already been vetted, so it would easily pass the sniff test, putting the most dangerous drug on the planet right at the president’s table.”
“Holy crap,” Holden breathed, his gaze widening at the very idea. “That’s brilliant.”
“But why?” Kat asked.
“Because the best way to take out an enemy is a surprise at
tack,” Jake answered, his mouth tightening to a firm line. “If this is true, we’re all targets, because a plan of this magnitude would’ve taken lots of careful planning and zero tolerance for loose ends. And every single one of us in this room is a loose end.”
“Not again,” Kat wailed, flopping into a chair and gripping her stomach with a groan. “There goes my stomach. Oh! Excuse me...” She ran for the restroom, leaving the rest of the group wrestling with their own nerves.
“We’re in deep trouble,” Jane murmured, glancing at Holden. “No wonder no one wanted this investigation reopened. We’re talking the highest level of treason if you’re right.”
“I know.” Holden knew in his bones they’d stumbled on the right theory, the one that’d cost Miko his life. But how to prove it without losing their own heads? Where to start? How to begin? “Time to put our heads together. We need answers and we need them by first light or else we all better polish up our passports because life in the States will no longer be possible. They’ll find us, and when they do, it’ll be lights out.”
“I’ll start the coffee,” Jake said. “It’s going to be a long night.”
* * *
Several hours into brainstorming leads, Jane stumbled across something they’d missed. “Do you remember when we went to Tessara, we were greeted by that ultraperfect Stepford wife of a secretary, Selena?” When Holden nodded and everyone else was paying attention, she continued, holding up the personnel files they’d taken from Tessara. “It seems Selena has a master’s degree in biochemical science. Doesn’t that seem a little bit of an overqualification for a secretary?”
Holden nodded slowly as Jane handed over the personnel file attached to Penny’s. “Seems Penny personally recruited her from Stanford University two years ago. Why?”
“Good question,” Jake said. “But if Penny had a hand in anything, it was usually for her own benefit. That woman was a sociopath. I don’t trust anyone she would personally handpick as someone trustworthy.”
“She gave me an odd vibe.” Jane recalled the ultrachic woman with impeccable manners. “No one is that nice or perfectly put together.”
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