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“She doesn’t seem the type to back down easily. She’s either been threatened or paid. We need to have a look at her financial records.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Whoever is behind this is working fast to cover his tracks.”
“You meanhertracks.”
“Well, according to Theo, I think we need to have a closer look at Dr. Pallon. Pallon was insistent that he didn’t know where Theo was and that he wasn’t worth finding. But Theo said Pallon got him the job after he caught the doctor trying to get into Sydney’s research.”
“You think Davis and Pallon are in it together?”
“Or it could be just Pallon. Worse-case scenario, we’ve got more than one group after her research.”
“Sir, I’ve got something you need to see.”
Aaron looked at his watch. “I need to catch my plane. We can debrief as soon as I’m back.”
“Sir, we’ve been given access to Davis’s email records.”
“Does she know about this?”
“I didn’t ask. But I think you should look at them.”
“Can you send them through to me? I’ll look them over while I’m in the air.”
Chapter16
Sydney poredover the results from her latest experiment. So far, she’d made no progress. It didn’t matter what she tried, she kept getting the same results.
Clenching her fists, she anchored them close to her side to keep from throwing her computer across the room. “God, why can’t I have help with this? What am I missing?”
She changed some figures on the graph after coming up with an idea, but that made little difference. Every time she made progress, something else set her back. She was going down a rabbit hole and didn’t know which way was up anymore.
After promising to deliver results by the end of the month, Myles wouldn’t let her put him off much longer. Biotech wanted her finished research and right now, she had only a weapon.
Pallon had sworn to her that they knew nothing of the weaponizing possibilities of her current results, but the longer it took, the more helpless she became. The fungus was a literal bomb waiting to go off at any moment. Maybe Aaron was right. Maybe she should destroy it. But she had promised too many things and made too many mistakes to back out now.
But with what she was planning, this was possibly the only breakthrough she’d ever get. She knew prison was a very real outcome waiting for her. She wouldn’t kid herself and pretend she didn’t know the extent of what she was doing.
Now, when she prayed about it, God was silent.
She rubbed her eyes and picked up another vial from the row lined up on the stark white counter. In desperation, she was willing to try anything, and this lab afforded her that opportunity with more advanced tools to use. God may have been silent, but she now had greater opportunity to find the answer.
She carried a vial into the smaller testing room, locking it into the machine she’d been using. As she reset the machine an unusual alarm began trilling.
She looked around to find its source but couldn’t locate it. She’d have to call tech support. Hopefully it wouldn’t be another setback to her work. At least it didn’t seem to be coming from the machine.
After setting the next test in motion, she headed for the door, formulating a plan for the next step if nothing came of these latest results. But first she’d have to find a way to turn off the alarm.
Grabbing the door handle, she tugged, but it wouldn’t budge. She did tend to lock herself in a room, but she didn’t even know how to lock this door.
She tried it again, but it was definitely locked.
The beeping. She must have bumped something that engaged a lock. She scanned the room for anything that would make her escape possible, but there was nothing and after examining the door, she groaned. As far as she could tell, there was no way out.
She took note of the vent high in the ceiling that circulated the air. It was a small comfort. She would be safe enough while stuck, but now even her own lab seemed to be against her. At the very least, an FBI agent would come by sometime tonight to take her home, but it would waste the rest of her day and she didn’t have a moment to spare. She slapped a flat hand on the door.
“Why is this so hard?” A lump formed in her throat, but crying would only be a waste of energy and would solve nothing.
