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“It’s not the same. The VrK as we know it shifts the molecular structure of a carbon-based—” Reese shook his head. “No, for there to be that drastic of a change, the entire assembly of the VrK serum—what we know about it at least—has to have been altered.”
“And what makes you think the VrK used to create these recent Anubis wasn’t?”
“If there’s that much of a difference, then whatever serum used to create them isn’t the one we’ve seen. That means a different lab, a different formula….” It meant someone else could have utilized Echols’s research to create their own version of an Anubis.
“Maybe it’s deteriorated. There were thousands of vials made. They’ve been out there for a while. That’s plenty of time for them to degrade, especially if they weren’t kept in a climate-controlled environment.”
“They could have lied about it being defective,” Reese said. “They lied about everything else.” They’d even murdered to forward their project. “Or maybe they made a variation. Or two variations?”
Or more.
“What would they gain from it?” Harrington said.
“What did they gain from the rest of the shit storm they stirred up?” Super soldiers and pharmaceutical advances were no longer enough.Ifthat was the goal to begin with. If it was, why did they collect so much data on genomes carrying those transposons? “The point is—” Reese pushed his glasses higher on his nose, leaving a fingerprint on the lens. “—the Anubis we found at the motel, and the car crash, purged ichor because it was the basis for the VrK. But the dead Anubis in my kitchen didn’t purge and—”
“Dead Anubis in your kitchen?”
Reese froze with his mouth open, then slowly closed it.
Harrington’s keen gaze threatened to drag Reese’s secrets to the surface.
Even in plain clothes, the Colonel exuded the same air of authority he had in uniform. “Dr. Dante, I need you to tell me exactly what happened tonight. Everything you did, you saw.”
“I told you on the phone it came through the window. I got cut up a little—”
Harrington’s stare gained weight. No wonder he commanded hardened soldiers.
“I—I was working. Doing those reports, looking at the new data from Ms. Phillips. And one of them came through the window.”
“Reese….”
If he told him what was in those reports, he’d tell Phillips, and for no particular reason, Reese didn’t want her to know. It just felt like it would bedangerousif she did.
“There’s nothing else to say.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Is there any tea left in the cup?”
“Reese.”
“Please, I could really use it right now.”
Harrington handed him the cup, and he drank the tea so he wouldn’t have to look at the Colonel.
When it was empty, Harrington took the mug from Reese’s hand. Their fingers brushed together, and Reese couldn’t help but think he should have experienced something.
Probably better that he didn’t since the Colonel was married.
That nurse in the hospital was right. All the good ones were taken. But it didn’t matter how good-looking a man was, how they seemed to care, or even if they made it clear they were attracted to Reese; he felt the same blank nothing for them.
No matter how much he wanted it to be more.
Reese swallowed several times. “What do you want me to tell you?”
“Start with the reports.”
“Why?”
