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“Come on, Dr. Standridge. Let’s be a big boy about this,” Gabe said.
“Who are you?” He looked back and forth between Gabe and Grace, obviously confused.
“Seriously? Are you really so dumb as to think a woman like her would want you? I thought you were supposed to be brilliant.”
“I don’t have any money,” Standridge stuttered. “You can look. Take whatever you want.”
“I will, thanks,” Gabe said. “Let’s talk about the Passover Project.”
Standridge’s eyes grew big and round in their sockets. The scent of fear wafted from his skin along with the urine that ran down his leg and soaked his clothes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Standridge closed his eyes, and Grace couldn’t tell what prayer he was muttering under his breath.
Gabe let his fist fly into Standridge’s stomach with a meatythwap, and Standridge’s crying turned to all-out sobbing. Gabe grabbed the doctor’s face and held it still between his hands.
“Open your eyes and look at me,” Gabe ordered. Standridge didn’t have any choice but to obey. “You’re not a nice man, Dr. Standridge. And if you don’t tell me what I want to know, then I’m going to kill you. The world will be a better place without you. So let’s try this again. I’m going to ask questions, and you’re going to answer.”
“No, I won’t talk. I’m dead either way.”
“You’re right. Looks like you’re pretty smart after all. Are the Passover Project files here or at your lab?”
Standridge stayed silent, and Grace’s estimation of the man went up a notch. Gabe was a scary guy.
“You can either die easy or die hard. The choice is up to you.” Gabe grabbed the chair by each arm and lifted it back into a sitting position. Grace appreciated the sight of muscles and the impressive show of strength. Gabe pulled his 9mm from the small of his back and checked the magazine. He pulled a silencer out of his jacket pocket and screwed it on. Grace moved to stand behind Gabe so she was out of the blood spatter range.
“You’ve got a lot of extra fat on you, Dr. Standridge,” Gabe said. “There are plenty of places I can shoot that won’t come near any major organs. You ever been shot?”
Standridge shook his head no, his eyes wide as he stared down the barrel of the gun.
“It hurts. Like liquid fire is flowing in your blood and your flesh is being stabbed with a hot iron poker.”
Standridge’s pasty complexion paled even further.
“Where are the files?” Gabe asked again.
Dr. Standridge took a shaky breath and swallowed. “Most of them are at the lab. I bring what I need home with me every evening.”
“Good. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Where do you put them once you get here?”
“Everything I have is on my desk. Just take it and leave.”
Gabe barely took the time to aim as he pulled the trigger. The smell of cordite and a blood-curdling scream filled the air. Blood welled from a tiny hole in Standridge’s right calf.
“Don’t lie to me, Doctor. I’m not a fool. There’s no way you’d take the chance of anyone discovering what you were working on. I’ll bet as soon as my associate rang your doorbell you put all of your top-secret papers in a safe. Tell me where it is, or you’ll have a matching bullet in your other leg.”
Standridge leaned to the side of the chair as far as he could and vomited on the floor. His head hung down on his chest for several minutes before he answered.
“There’s a safe behind the mirror over the fireplace.”
Grace moved quickly and lifted the mirror from the wall. A thick metal door, no bigger than a foot long and wide, sat behind it.
“What’s the combination?” she asked.
“Even if you steal all of my research, you won’t be able to re-create the Passover Project,” Standridge said. “There’s not another scientist in the world who has the genius to restore it to its original form. If the price is right, I’ll finish it for you.”
The wheedling sound of his voice was getting on Grace’s nerves. She was an assassin, for Pete’s sake. She’d killed some of the most terrible people in the world. But here she was, stuck with a man who was a combination of Jack Black and Baby Huey. It was degrading.
“Nice try, Doc,” Grace said. “You know as well as I do that you’re not the only one who is capable of re-creating the formula. The list is short, but it still exists.”
