“Yes.”
“Fuck off, I don’t even know who you are.”
“Come, or don’t come, but the clock is ticking either way. And a word of advice, Luca. Don’t tell anyone. We’ll know.”
My phone chimes, and I look to see that the call has ended and there’s a text with an address I don’t recognize.
I sit for a beat, feeling anger rise like steam in my chest. Fuck these papers and fuck whatever was happening between us when I had them drawn up. I love Emery. I love the woman she isnow. That’s all that matters. I stand from the chair and slip my phone into my pocket. It’s one thing to threaten me; it’s another to threaten my wife. God help these people if anything happens to her.
Reaching for my keys, I kiss Honey on the head, make sure she has food and water, and head for the door.
40EMERY
With sleek, aerodynamic lines, glass walls (I always wondered if they were bulletproof), and a modern aesthetic that feels more spaceship than corporate office, the waiting area outside the Innovation Suite looks nothing like a holding cell, but it might as well be. There are guards stationed at the door.Guards. And not the harmless kind like sweet Carl or Michelle with her giant Stanley mug. Real ones, with guns.
On the plus side, I’m pretty sure I remember one of them wearing a Santa hat and tossing back more than a few Mistletoe Margaritas at the company Christmas party.
Even so, I’m experiencing a sensation that is becoming all too frequent: the feeling that I might throw up. I have no idea what’s waiting for me in there.
I startle when the outer door opens and a wide-eyed Annie is escorted inside. “Oh my God,” I say, rushing toward her and wrapping her in a hug. “I am so sorry. I hope this isn’t about Luca. I shouldn’t have gotten you involved in this.”
Annie doesn’t reply until the door is closed and we’re alone again. She sits in the chair next to mine.
“Careful,” she says under her breath and glances pointedly around the room. And I understand: We have no idea who could be listening. “And shut the fuck up with all of that. I wanted to save him, too. I easily could have left.” Sitting back, she smooths a hand down the fabric of her skirt. “Did they happen to tell you what this is about?”
“Just that Leonard needed to see me today. Shandra was very clear about that.”
“Same,” Annie says with a sigh.
“And they took my phone.”
“Yeah. Mine, too.”
My internal doomscrolling kicks into overdrive. Is this a good meeting or a bad meeting? It definitely feels bad. Maybe they’re continuing the BioVIVE but taking me off the project. Maybe they gave it to Vince. Maybe Annie was right, and they’re terminating it altogether. All of those options are terrible, but there’s one that’s even worse. My heart rockets up to my throat: Maybe they know about Luca. My gut says no. The data log is gone, and if they somehow did find something, they’d probably do a lot worse than call me into the principal’s office… with armed guards.
Shit shit shit.
I’m about to throw myself off the proverbial mental cliff when the conference room door opens and Shandra steps out.
“They’ll see you both now,” she says, and my brain snags on a single word.
“?‘They’?”
I follow Annie inside, and that’s when I realize the situation isn’t as bad as I feared. It’s much, much worse.
Conversation stops and twelve pairs of eyes swivel to us from around the enormous rectangular conference table: theentireBioNEX board. Whatever is happening right now is so big that people with more money and power than I can even fathom just flew thousands of miles to be here in person rather than conference in virtually. If I wasn’t ready to throw up before, I really am now.
“Dr. Martín,” Leonard says. “Dr. Rodriguez. Please take a seat.” He motions to two empty chairs—the only chairs on this side of the giant table.
Quietly, we sit down. I tuck my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking. Leonard nods to a man I recognize as the head of security.
The man, Jeffrey Lopez—whom I’ve known for years and who joins me for lunch at least once a week in the break room—taps a few keys on a laptop before clearing his throat. “During routine decontamination and disinfection of Labs One, Two, and Three on Wednesday, July twenty-second, a member of the cleaning crew found a cellular phone near the wall under one of the workstations.”
Oh God. They have Luca’s phone. How stupid can I be? I must have dropped it in all the commotion of moving him into the BioVIVE.
Lopez gives me an apologetic smile before confirming: “The battery had been crushed, but when we were able to power the device on, we verified that it belonged to Luca Martín.”
I try to breathe and tell myself that if I go to prison it will have been worth it because Luca is alive. I wanted to save someone from having to watch the person they love die, and that’s exactly what I did. The science is sound and BioNEX will continue to work on BioVIVE and Compound Y and eventually make it available to the masses, even if I’m not around to see it. It will save millions of people. There’s nothing to regret about that.
