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.
* * *
