Chapter 17
Marta and Cate worked in the lab late into the night, finally asking the guard to escort them back to their rooms after midnight.
Knowing she had only two days left to complete the antiviral, Marta slept a few hours and showered in the bathroom down the hallway from her room.
Determined to make every minute count, she dried off quickly, brushed her hair, dressed, and hurried back to her room, keeping an eye out for the janitor.
She wasn’t sure how she’d speak with him alone, since a guard was always posted outside whichever door she was behind, whether it was her bedroom or the lab.
She and Cate weren’t allowed to go anywhere in the facility without an escort.
That morning, she and Cate would have to find a way to corner the janitor to see whether he could be persuaded to deliver a message outside the facility.
Unfortunately, she didn’t see him in the hallway on the way to or from the bathroom.
When she returned to her room, she noticed that the dinner tray from the night before had been collected and the bed had been made.
Disappointment tightened her chest. She’d missed her chance to corner the janitor.
Marta sat on the edge of the bed and dragged the brush through her damp hair, retracing the corridors in her mind, still unfamiliar with the floor plan and unable to find the exits.
She twisted the strands into a French braid and opened the small nightstand beside the bed to stow the brush.
With her hand hovering over the drawer, ready to drop the brush inside, she froze.
Something white caught her eye. Something that hadn’t been there when she’d taken the brush out earlier.
Her hand shook as she reached for what appeared to be a folded scrap of paper.
When she unfolded the note, her heart skipped several beats and then raced so fast she could barely breathe. It was a handwritten note.
cmg4u@48h. b#rdy
C
He’d found her.
Tears welled in her eyes, and her chest flooded with warmth.
Apparently, he had a plan to get her out. If anyone could do it, Crusher could and would.
He understood the tight timeframe and the need to get her to Vienna before the summit began.
It also meant he’d enlisted the janitor to pass along information to her. Having nothing to write with, she did the only thing she could think of, tearing the blank corner of the note paper into the shape of a heart and placing it back in the drawer, tucking the rest of the note into her bra.
Marta knocked twice on the wall between her room and Cate’s, their agreed-on signal that they were ready to go to work.
The guard escorted them to the lab where they suited up in their PPE and went to work. Once they were in the BSL-3 lab and out of earshot of anyone else, Marta told Cate of the note and Crusher’s plan to get her out.
“Does he know I’m here, too?”
“Not that I know of.” Marta’s eyes narrowed. “But we won’t leave without you.”
Cate touched Marta’s arm. “Thanks.”
“First, we have to finish what we started and be ready when he comes to get us,” Marta said. “I’ll be ready to blow this joint.”
Cate grinned. “Listen to you sounding all badass.”
As they worked, Marta appreciated how quickly Cate caught on and anticipated her needs. “Have you ever considered being a scientist?”
Cate laughed. “No. I like what I do.”
“I’m sorry,” Marta turned to Cate, “I’ve been so focused, I haven’t asked you what you do for a living.”
Cate shook her head. “Understandable. We haven’t really had time to get to know each other when the priority is saving the world.” She handed Marta blank slides. “I’m a private investigator.”
Marta glanced toward the other woman. “That sounds interesting. Is that like following cheating husbands around and catching them with their mistresses?”
“Sometimes. I was actually on a case in London. When I told you I was looking for a missing friend, I was actually looking for a friend's missing husband. Supposedly, he was swept away in a flood, and his body was never found. My friend thinks he’s still alive.”
Marta worked at the bench, carefully placing a sample of the live virus on a slide and placing it beneath the electron microscope. “Do you think he staged his death?”
“I don’t know. My friend thinks he did, but she’s going on gut instinct. He was acting strangely before the storms swept through their part of the state. He’d attempted to drive through a low-water crossing, and his car was swept downstream. They found the car, not him.”
“That’s tragic.”
“I hope I get out of here before too much time has passed and any leads dry up.”
Marta studied the specimen. She hoped they’d get out of the facility alive.
Teuling probably couldn’t let either of them walk away, not knowing what they knew.
If anything, he’d want to keep Marta around to continue altering the virus or to develop another equally potent one to continue his plan to exterminate populations.
They worked well into the night, getting closer but still not close enough to have a viable antiviral.
Marta didn’t have internet access to check on the replacement scientist’s progress.
All she could do was be ready with the antiviral and hope they could reach Vienna before Vasquez released the virus into the summit center’s ventilation system.
No matter how viable the antiviral was, the virus would mutate.
The best-case scenario was to stop Vasquez before the virus was released.
After midnight, Marta lay in her small bed, staring up at the ceiling, determined to get a few hours of sleep. If she had to, she’d work through the following night to complete the antiviral and be ready for when Crusher arrived to break her and Cate out of Helvetic BioSolutions.
She held the note from Crusher pressed against her chest. He’d found her and was coming for her in one and a half days.
At first, Marta had been overjoyed, and she still was, at the thought of being rescued from captivity. As she lay in the dark, she had too much time to think about seeing him again.
Did he still think of her as the asset he felt obligated to protect and deliver to safety?
Asset delivered.
He’d said it as she’d walked away with Devon Marsh. The two words had stung more than they should have. He’d had no responsibility toward her outside of the job he’d been hired to perform.
Then why did it feel like a heavy weight sat squarely on her chest?
She’d been foolish enough to let one night of passion make her feel like she was falling in love. Love was built over more than a few days. They’d barely had any time together. Sure, they’d had great sex, but that was all it was.
Great sex.
Heat washed over her, coiling at her core. Memories flooded her mind of his beard scraping her inner thigh as he kissed a path to her clit.
Really great sex.
He had run after her when Teuling’s men shoved Marsh out of the van.
Probably because he’d failed to protect her, not because he felt anything more than what a protector did toward his client.
Whatever she was to him, she would be happy to see him and work on getting over him when he left her somewhere safe, wherever that might be.
Marta finally drifted off.
Sleep was anything but restful as she fell into a dream.
All her attempts to recreate the antiviral had failed.
Her only hope was to stop Vasquez. Running out of time, she had to get herself out of the facility, fighting guards at every junction in the corridors.
When she made it out, she stole a car and drove to Vienna, arriving too late to stop Vasquez.
He stood at the intake vent with an empty container, laughing maniacally as the virus blew through the ventilation system.
Marta ran to the building's entrance and raced to the room where the summit was being held. Inside the conference room, people screamed and clawed at their faces and arms as the flesh melted away from their bones. Like zombies, they staggered toward the door where she stood, crying out for help.
“I tried,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. As the first person reached Marta, she jerked awake and sat up, eyes wide open. Her hand shook as she pushed her fingers through her hair.
“It was just a dream,” she murmured.
It was a dream for now. All her plans had to fall into place to keep that dream from becoming a nightmare in reality.
Across town, Crusher lay awake, staring at the ceiling of his hotel room, counting the hours and minutes until he could finally take action and do something to free Marta.
Dmytro had left Lucy in charge of gathering internet information.
He’d flown Striker and Alex to Vienna in his private plane, armed with photos of Vasquez and Krauss.
If they saw either of them, they were to call Hammer immediately.
Not all the participants had arrived at the conference center.
They would trickle in over the next thirty-six hours.
After dropping his passengers at the airport in Vienna, armed with communications devices and weapons, Dmytro had turned around and flown back to Zurich. He was on standby, ready to whisk Crusher and Marta to Vienna with the antiviral.
Crusher had met with Thomas, the janitor, earlier, anxious to know if the man had delivered his message.
Not only had he delivered it, but he’d also brought back a piece of the notebook paper torn into the shape of a heart.
Marta had received the message and had returned one of her own.
He figured she hadn’t had anything to write with.
Since she was a prisoner, the people guarding her wouldn’t likely let her have anything that could be used as a weapon.
Tearing the paper into the shape of a heart had been all the message she’d been able to send.
Crusher had accepted the message as a sign that she understood and was happy to know they had a plan to rescue her.
He couldn’t let himself read more into the tiny heart-shaped response.
As he counted the minutes until he saw her again, he reminded himself that she was way out of his league and deserved someone who could match her intelligence and speak her language, the language of science.
Yeah, he had to keep telling himself that or he’d be tempted to keep her once he freed her from Teuling’s lab.
In his meeting with Thomas, they’d laid out a plan to get Crusher inside the facility on extraction day in less than thirty-six hours.
Crusher would go in alone. Phantom, Draco, Marsh, Fearghas and Catya would be his backup should shit go sideways.
They’d be in position to pick off guards, ram the gates or run interference while Crusher got away with Marta and Cate.
Crusher would spend the day studying the facility floor plan until he committed it to memory. He’d gather the weapons and radio equipment he’d need to communicate with the team.
Thomas had shared Marta and Cate’s routine and explained that a guard escorted them everywhere, even to the shower. The only time a guard wasn’t standing over them was when they were in the BSL-3 lab.
Crusher closed his eyes, willing himself to relax and let sleep take him. He needed to be rested and ready to go when he entered Helvetic BioSolutions’ facility the day after tomorrow.
His cell phone chirped with an incoming call.
Instantly awake and alert, he answered the burner phone, “Crusher.”
“It’s Striker,” a voice said. “Vasquez has arrived at the conference center.”
Crusher’s hand tightened around his cell phone. The shit was getting real. “Roger. Any sign of Kraus?”
“Negative,” Striker said. “Vasquez came in with a security detail of four. Alex and I will keep an eye on them and watch for Krauss. The event doesn’t kick off for another day and a half. Swede says the US and Colombian delegates aren’t scheduled to arrive until late tomorrow night.”
“If Vasquez follows through with his plan to release the virus on the summit attendees, you can bet he’ll leave before he’s infected.”
“We’re keeping that in mind,” Striker said. “I’d feel better if we had the antiviral here already.”
“Can’t bank on it. We really need to stop the release before it happens and nail him with the evidence.”
“Roger,” Striker said. “Working it. Let us know your ETA when you have it.”
“Will do. Out here.”
Now that things were happening, the people they’d expected to appear at the Summit had started arriving, and sleep was the furthest thing from Crusher’s mind.
He lay in his bed for another half hour before giving up, then rose and knocked out fifty push-ups and twice as many sit-ups.
That little bit of exercise did little to tire or make him sleepy.
He pulled on a T-shirt and sweatpants Hammer had loaned him, and his running shoes, and headed out into the night and the streets of Zurich for a run.
Marking time was murder. He wanted to make the move now, not burn through another day trying to keep busy.
He ran through the streets with no goal in mind but to expend energy and pass the time.
Eventually, he realized he was on the outskirts of the city near the Helvetic BioSolutions facility.
He slowed and moved closer, clinging to the shadows of nearby buildings until he could see the structure within the chain link fence topped with barbed wire.
Marta was in there. He had the sudden urge to scale the fence, break down the door, find the pretty scientist and take her away.
He fought that urge, knowing she was in the best place for now to complete the antiviral they might be forced to use should Vasquez slip through their hands and follow through on his threat.
“So close,” he murmured from the deepest shadow.
He hated waiting, especially not knowing whether they were treating her right.
His jaw tightened as he remembered finding her bound to the desk in Vasquez’s compound.
If anyone had hurt her here, he would find that person and pound him into the ground.
He stood for the next thirty minutes staring at the building, running various scenarios through his head of how he’d get inside the building, find her and bring her out.
Every scenario ended with her in his arms, him kissing her until they both ran out of air.
And how was that part of his mission?
Oh, fuck it. Who was he trying to kid?
He didn’t care about the mission.
He cared about Marta.
Still fighting the urge to bust through the fence and the door, he backed away, turned, and jogged back to the hotel, where he fell into an exhausted sleep and woke a few hours later with the sun and an intense sense of purpose.
He’d asked Marta to be ready.
He had to be as ready, if not more so. They might have only one chance to make things right. One chance to stop a killer virus from spreading throughout Europe and to the US and other countries.
If they didn’t stop Vasquez’s plan to release the virus before it made it into the ventilation system, they’d have bigger problems.