Chapter 45 Emery
I parked far enough away that if someone inside is monitoring the security cameras, they won’t see me until I’m directly in front of the entrance. And they must be, because as soon as I’m standing facing a tinted glass door, an automated lock clicks loudly, allowing me to pull it open.
Propping the door open for any future rescuing I may require, I take a deep breath and step into the darkened front office.
It feels like a space that’s seldom occupied.
In front of me is a single desk, a metal filing cabinet, and nothing on the walls.
To the right is a bathroom, and directly ahead is a door.
Without any directions, I assume I’m meant to go through it.
With a glance behind me, I clutch everything to my chest and move forward.
The doorway opens to an enormous warehouse with cement floors and exposed beams. Again, there isn’t much light, but it doesn’t strike me as a place that runs as a business day-to-day. The majority of the shelves are empty, and there are no boxes or identifiable products of any kind.
“Did you bring it?”
I squint into the darkness at the sound of a Vince’s voice. “Yes.”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
There’s a click in the far corner, and lights overhead illuminate one after the other.
It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, but when they do, I see Luca in a chair, alive and relatively unharmed.
There’s tape over his mouth and his hands appear to be tied behind his back. Standing next to him is Vince.
At the sight of my husband, it seems insane that the first thought I have isn’t We’re gonna make it out of this!
The first thought I have is If we make it out of this, you can leave me, and I won’t try to stop you.
I don’t even blame him. I want to assure him that I didn’t know about the lawyer or that he was unhappy enough to contact one.
But that’s not exactly true. I didn’t know he’d seen a lawyer or was contemplating divorce, and I may be able to claim obliviousness, but I’m not dumb.
On some level, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew he wasn’t happy.
I just chose not to acknowledge it. I’d do better tomorrow.
And then the tomorrow after that, until one day, tomorrow didn’t come. Life really is short.
But instead of saying any of that, what comes out is a shaky “I’m sorry.”
Eyes wide and urgent, Luca shakes his head and tries to gesture behind his shoulder. I expected to see Vince, but I don’t expect the figure who steps out of the shadows.
My pulse skips, my fingers flush cold. I can’t be seeing this right.
“Claire?”
In the dim light, her smile is unlike one I’ve ever seen on her before.
Gone is the calm, kind, and attentive assistant I’ve known for two years.
This woman is looking at me with disgust…
and has a gun pointed directly at my chest. “What I think your husband would like to say is he’s glad you’re smarter than you look.
” She gestures with the gun. “Now, please, Emery. The compound. Set it on the floor and back up. Your phone, too.”
“What the hell is happening here? Claire, if Vince is forcing you to do something—”
She laughs. “Be serious. Does it look like Vince is in charge?” She lifts her chin. “Your phone and the compound.”
My head is spinning. Claire came on board at BioNEX just over two years ago as Leonard’s assistant, but he quickly realized that I needed more help than I had and transferred her to my team.
She’s been nothing but amazing: diligent, efficient, professional.
She’s seen me agonize over unexpected data and cry over animals we were unable to save early on.
She’s celebrated victories with me and Annie and Tom and stayed long hours writing reports.
But to realize she’s working with Vince?
My heart sinks. Fuck Vince, but this one hurts.
“Emery,” she prompts, dragging me from my mental spiral.
I pull my phone and notes out of my pocket and set them with the box of compound on the cement floor.
“Okay,” I say, slowly straightening and backing away, “I’m just—just reeling right now.”
“I’m sure,” she says, and gestures for Vince to retrieve my things from the floor.
“We’ve worked together, Claire. I trusted you. I knew Vince was a weasel, but I—I didn’t expect this from you.”
Vince has the nerve to look offended.
“I can see the gears turning from here,” she says, stepping around him. “Trying to piece together my motivations.” Claire tilts her head from side to side. “You’re wondering: Is it business or personal?”
“I cannot fathom either,” I say honestly.
Claire laughs. “Do you know your problem, Emery?” She pauses, brows raised as if I might actually answer.
When I don’t, she says, “I’ll tell you. You are so single-mindedly focused on your goal that you never see what’s going on around you.
” She tilts her head toward Luca. “I’m sure your husband would agree. ”
Luca tugs against his restraints; his eyes blaze, and I can read his thoughts as if he’s spoken them aloud: This bitch had better hope I don’t get loose.
“I’m sorry I had to drag him into this,” she says, gesturing with the gun to my husband. “But Vince was taking so damn long, I had to speed things up a little.” Laughing, she adds, “No pun intended.”
At first I think she means getting me to bring the compound tonight. But then her true meaning lands, and I feel a heavy wave of nausea roll through me.
“You hit Luca. You actually hit him with your fucking car.”
“I sure did. Well, not my car, I’m not that stupid. But a big one, heavy, with protruding parts for maximum damage.”
My mind fills with the image of him on the street, blood everywhere, and rage rises hot and electric in me. “Why on earth would you do that?”
She straightens and looks directly at me. “Because I already have the specs for the BioVIVE and I’m being paid a truly disgusting sum to procure the compound.”
“This is about money?”
“How are you surprised?” she asks. “Of anyone, you know how incredible this technology is. Russia could never. China is years behind. No government in the world has access to this.” Lifting the lid, she grins when she sees vials of the compound safely inside.
“And let me tell you, these international companies have some hefty checkbooks.”
I look over at Vince. “Were you in on this from the beginning? You act like such a holier-than-thou scientist and then you pull some shit like this?”
“I am a scientist,” he says, his voice thin and anxious. “But I—”
I cut him off. “So what about the BioSCAN? That was your innovation. You’re just going to abandon it?”
“Where did it get me?” he asks. “I spent fifteen years perfecting the technology. It hasn’t even hit the market yet and the board is already treating it like it’s obsolete. You’re the golden child. Everyone has already moved on to the shiny new thing.”
“Grow the fuck up, Vince! That’s called progress. We all have to just keep innovating and pushing forward.”
“While the guys at the top are the ones who get rich. Not me, not you. I’ll get my name in a few publications and a nice bonus. Leonard will buy another yacht.” He shakes his head, disgusted. “No, thank you.”
“It was wonderfully easy to get Vince on board,” Claire says. “His ego is so fragile.”
“Fuck off, Claire,” Vince mutters, but she ignores him.
“I have connections to buyers through my history in politics, of course,” she says casually, “but I needed a scientist to help communicate with the scientists on the other side of the transaction. I just wish I’d have found someone better at subversion so we didn’t have to resort to murdering your husband. ”
I suddenly realize that Claire wasn’t lecturing Vince on my behalf the day I overheard them at the office. She was lecturing him for being an incompetent idiot. Vince was never smart enough to derail my research, and I was never smart enough to realize who was truly trying to undermine me.
“I see you struggling, Emery,” Claire says with feigned sympathy. “So, let’s talk it through: I knew if you saw your husband hit by a car, you wouldn’t call an ambulance. Not with your tragic backstory.”
I clench my jaw, staring at her with such hatred I’m shaking.
“An ambulance couldn’t save your parents—so no, you wouldn’t trust it to get there in time.
I gambled that you’d inject him with the compound—just like you did—and put him in the BioVIVE.
” She smiles smugly. “Then it’s a win-win for me: If he dies, I have the backup AISS footage showing that you conducted an unauthorized experiment on a human, who did not come out of the pod alive.
The board would immediately terminate the project, declassifying the protocol in-house for full review, and I would get access to the Compound Y structure.
Or Luca is successfully resurrected, proving the protocol works, and I’m able to negotiate for far more money.
Especially now that the US government wants in on the game.
” She spreads her arms. “And voilà. I’m thrilled with how this has turned out. Well, at least for me.”
I look over at Luca, who is staring at me with wild eyes. They’re filled with such terror that it hits me as if he’s said it out loud: She’s told us too much.