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“Had anyone serviced it?”
“No. There is no record of Maintenance opening the panel.”
“When was it last inspected?”
“The Thursday before the intrusion into Dr. Rossi’s office. It passed the inspection.”
“Two days before someone was inside Aurora.”
“Yes.”
“Can they establish when the connection was loosened?”
“No.”
The connection between the intrusion and the fire had been circumstantial. Now it was harder to dismiss. Someone had entered the laboratory on Saturday. The panel had been functioning normally two days earlier. By Tuesday, the lab was burning.
Until now, I had believed Victoria had returned only because of Aurora. The call changed that. She had not asked to speak with someone from the project. She had asked for Emilia.
She had stood in the opera house and watched me ask Emilia to marry me. Whatever Victoria wanted from Blackwood, I could no longer assume it ended with the work.
She hadn’t come back for one thing. She had come back for everything.
* * *
Marcus went through the options.
Increase Emilia’s protection. Continue varying her routine. Eliminate outside meetings entirely. Restrict movement beyond the perimeter without escort.
“Suspend Aurora. Temporarily,” I said. “Close the wing. The team can be sent home until Victoria is no longer a threat.”
“Suspending Aurora changes the problem,” Marcus said. “It doesn’t remove it. If the laboratory is no longer operating, she may concentrate her attention on Dr. Rossi.”
“I know. But I won’t leave Emilia and the rest of the team inside something we now have reason to believe is a target.”
“Show her the evidence. She’ll close Aurora herself.”
“I know she will.”
Marcus held my gaze. “Then why not let her?”
“Because every minute we wait to secure the laboratory is a minute I’m choosing procedure over their safety. I won’t do it.”
Marcus waited.
“The suspension is effective immediately. The laboratory remains inaccessible and untouched. Dr. Rossi hears this from me, and no one else.”
Marcus inclined his head.
Then he left.
* * *
Emilia
I knew something was wrong before I reached the lab, though I could not have said why.
Blackwood was quiet at that hour. It always was. The café had just opened, deliveries were just beginning to arrive, and my walk to the Research Pavilion was mostly in solitude.
