Chapter Five
Iris pulled her hands from the keyboard and took her glasses off to rub her eyes.
She’d been working on getting the containment and ventilation systems under Bec’s control again by writing a workaround code for the malware.
Ace still controlled the entire lab system, so she was confused about why they hadn’t received a ransom request yet.
He held all the cards and could demand anything he wanted, so why hadn’t he?
Why had he kidnapped Dr. Hoerman if he didn’t plan to leverage him for money?
Her biggest fear, that he would use him to access the virus, was still a real possibility.
He could demand the virus and open the lab long enough for Bec to get Ignis Cerebri before meeting him with the deadly pathogen.
She had been half convinced that two things were happening until Bec mentioned biometrics was the only way to get inside the facility.
Ace and the kidnapper had to be working together or were one and the same, otherwise the kidnapper would never have gotten inside.
Frustrated, she blew out a breath and tried to refocus.
She had to keep working regardless of what he might do.
“How about a break?” Bec asked, setting a cup of coffee down in front of her. “You’ve been at this for hours.”
Iris greedily picked up the coffee cup and took a long gulp of the hot liquid. “Oh, that’s good,” she said with a sigh. “Thanks. If I don’t finish this workaround soon, I’ll need another gallon.” She took another sip. “Is that caramel?”
“Yep,” Bec said, sitting at her desk with a mug, too. “It’s my guilty pleasure. I have it shipped in from a place in Wisconsin. I had it once at a hotel in Door County and have been a fan ever since.”
“You don’t get out much, do you?” Iris asked, and Bec chuckled. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t meant sarcastically. Like, I meant, you don’t get to go out much while working here, right?”
“I know what you meant,” Bec promised, patting her leg and sending a tendril of heat into Iris’s belly.
She had known Bec less than twelve hours yet somehow, it felt like they’d been intimate partners for years.
Something in Bec’s touch told her she felt the same way.
“And you’re correct. I’ve been working here since May and haven’t left the compound other than for a daily walk. ”
“Five months is a long time to be this secluded,” Iris said. “Is that by choice?”
Bec’s laughter filled the space, and Iris thought it was a lovely sound.
It reminded her of Hannah Grace’s laugh when she was on the swing on a sunny afternoon.
“It’s not a choice in the respect that I can come and go as I please.
I could leave if I had to, but organizing that would be more effort than it was worth for an occasional outing.
It was better to keep working on the vaccine since, as you know, the sooner the better when it comes to this virus. ”
A shudder racked Iris, but it wasn’t from the cold.
“The very idea of it is disconcerting. Especially knowing those systems are still under someone else’s control.
” The idea was too much to bear, so Iris set her mug down and started typing again.
“I keep telling myself he has to know that if he lets this virus go free, he’s dead, too, right? ”
“I’ve been telling myself the same thing, but we can’t know that for certain. That said, he wouldn’t know what we even housed here for viruses unless he hacked our system, which is entirely possible.”
Iris paused her typing to glance at the woman next to her. “That’s not true.”
“What now?” Bec asked, setting the mug down. “What’s not true?”
“That he has no way of knowing what’s here. Have you ever googled this place?”
“I haven’t needed to,” Bec answered defensively.
Iris motioned at her phone with her chin. “Do it.”
Bec reached for the phone, and Iris noticed her fingers shaking. After a few moments, she glanced up from her phone. “There’s very little here other than Walter’s interview with a science journal.”
“Click it,” Iris ordered with her fingers still tapping on her keyboard.
Bec was silent for several minutes before she inhaled sharply. “Nightmares are real, and one resides in my lab.” With a heavy sigh, Bec tossed the phone onto the desk. “What was he thinking? He knows better than that!”
“It was a science journal. Maybe he thought no one else would see it?” Iris asked, her fingers still typing even as she spoke.
“I suppose that’s possible, but he knows everything ends up on the internet. When was that dated?” She grabbed the phone again and checked the date. “April. I got here in May.”
“Was there a head research scientist before you?” Iris asked, and Bec nodded. “Yes, but he didn’t last long. I think he started in February but was gone by April. That was when I was hired.”
“Do you know why he left?”
“I don’t,” she said with a shrug. “It could have been the isolation of the job, inability to work closely with Walter, or fear of the viruses themselves.”
“Or did he get the information he wanted regarding the deadly viruses to leverage against the center?”
“I guess anything is possible,” Bec agreed.
“Do you remember his name?”
“Yes. Samuel Gill.”
Iris nodded as she typed. “When I finish this line of code, I need to call Secure Watch for my midnight check-in. We can give Mina his name, and she can look into him while we keep working.”
Bec reached over and put her hand on Iris’s shoulder. “You have to sleep, Iris.”
“I’ll sleep when this is over,” Iris said, not breaking pace. “Or at least once I get the most important functions under our control again.”
“What if you can’t?”
“Then I’ll die trying.” She stopped looking at the computer long enough to glance at the woman beside her. She read the terror in her eyes and held her gaze longer than anyone she ever had before. “How do you do that?”
“Do what, Iris?”
“Make it so easy for me to make eye contact.”
“I can’t answer that question. Only you can. It might be easier for you to answer this question. Why do you struggle to maintain eye contact with others?”
“Judgment,” she said without hesitation. “I’m always worried they’re going to judge me.”
“Then maybe the answer to your first question is that you aren’t worried I’ll judge you.”
“I’m not,” she agreed immediately. “You already said you wouldn’t.”
“And you believed that without even knowing me.”
“I’m good at reading people. Ever since my accident, I could always tell when someone was silently judging me. Teachers. Friends. Employers.”
“My guess is you don’t feel judged at Secure Watch?”
“Nope,” she agreed. “But I still struggle with eye contact there. It’s easier, but not like with you.”
“Are you worried that your TBI might affect your employment?”
“It’s always a worry. Sometimes, I feel like a burden to Mina and Cal, so I try not to make waves.
That was the only reason I planned to come here when Mina asked.
Until I saw you on the screen for the first time.
You were so beautiful, and when you spoke, your voice calmed my racing heart and helped it beat normally again.
Ugh. Why am I like this? I’m going to stop talking now. ”
Bec chuckled and patted her shoulder. “Never feel like you can’t be honest with me, Iris.
I’m grateful you’re here, no matter how that decision happened.
It’s nice knowing Declan and Zac have my back with security, but knowing I’m not alone inside the lab is everything right now.
I’m terrified and exhausted, but you’re making it easier by being here. ”
Iris smiled but didn’t say anything more as she typed.
Before she replied, she wanted to think about what Bec said to decide how it made her feel.
She’d learned to take time to think over interactions with new people before she said something she couldn’t take back.
Especially in high-stress situations like they were in tonight.
They’d been working for hours, and it was late, but she couldn’t rest until she had some control over the lab.
“Do you know of anyone with a grudge against you, Dr. Hoerman or the center?” Iris asked instead.
“Other than past scientists, no. I wouldn’t know if they had issues with the center since I never met them.”
“Other scientists had grudges against him?” Iris asked, surprise in her tone.
“It’s possible,” Bec said with a shoulder shrug. “None of them lasted long, but I don’t know the circumstances. I was simply saying that I only know the names of the last few scientists who worked here. Anything else was information I didn’t need.”
“Would Dr. Hoerman have information on former employees in his office?”
“I’m sure the names of the past scientists would be in a file somewhere, sure,” Bec answered. “Without him here, I wouldn’t know if they had any issues with the center, though.”
“If you can find their names, Mina could look into them, if nothing else,” Iris said just as her tablet started to ring. “Speaking of Mina.” She tore her hands from the keypad and grabbed the tablet, hitting the answer button.
“Secure Watch, India.”
“Secure Watch, Whiskey,” Mina replied before the camera flipped on. Mina sat at her desk in her private office. “Iris. How are you holding up?”
“Tired, but still working,” she answered, glancing at Bec and motioning her closer. “Have you guys found anything regarding Ace or Dr. Hoerman?”
“Nothing so far,” Mina said. “But Cal just got to a motel at Sinlis Park to set up an outpost station for us about an hour ago.”
“More likely the only motel,” Bec said, and Mina laughed.
“You’re not kidding, but it’s the closest we could get without being obvious. Have you heard anything more from Ace?”
“I would have called you instantly if he’d contacted us,” Iris said. “But Bec did think of something you might be able to help us with.”
“Hit me,” Mina said, grabbing her pen and notebook, so Iris motioned for Bec to fill her in.