They looked at each other and then sat at opposite ends of the cot. The scientists wore electronic bracelets that would snap their wrists together if either made a sudden move. As long as they behaved, they had free movement. The moment they didn’t... Well, life would become much more difficult for them.
She dragged the now empty chair towards her and turned it to face the men. Slipping into her Ice Queen armor, she carefully sat, crossing one leg over the other. She tamped down her dislike of being in this enclosed space and channeled icy calm.
“You both know why you’re here, yes?”
She held Vance’s gaze, before moving to Johnson.
Vance opened his mouth and she was sure he was going to argue. “We created an anti-rejection drug as we were directed to do by management.”
So that’s how they wanted to play it. She could work with that.
“I believe what you meant to say was you created an anti-rejection drug that proved to be ineffective and was shut down. You kept making it anyway.”
“That’s what we were told to do,” Vance insisted.
Her pulse thrummed. Finally, she was getting somewhere. “Really? I don’t recall seeing that order in the project files,” she drawled. “Who ordered you to keep making it?” She’d spent the previous evening reviewing every document Ash had provided. As far as the official files were concerned, the project had been shut down as demanded and the scientists assigned to new ones.
The men paused and shared a look. Would they spill or clam up?
“The head of the R&D department,” Johnson finally said.
Dammit.That wasn’t as high level as she’d wanted. “What were your instructions, exactly?”
“To take the drugs to a club and sell them. Then see what happened. Will I get immunity?” Johnson looked at her.
Did they think they were in court? This was an internal company matter. Portia didn’t know what would happen to them yet, but she wasn’t feeling very inclined to give them immunity.
“I’ll need to hear the whole story before I make that decision.” It was as uncommitted a statement as she could make.
Apparently, that was enough for them. Johnson and Vance practically tripped over each other to speak. According to them, they were told to keep an eye on the people who took Vyne and see if they became repeat users. They each were given a burner phone for communication. The initial supply sold out in a matter of weeks and nearly all of the buyers came back for another hit.
Through it all, Portia kept an uninterested expression on her face. It was a struggle—their story made her sick to her stomach.
“And the money?”
They got quiet then. Squirrely. At ease in the silence, she merely watched them. The longer the silence lasted, the more she let the Ice Queen seep into her gaze. Finally, Johnson broke.
“We each got a 10 percent cut of whatever we sold.”
“And the rest?”
“We used the burner phones to transfer it into an unregistered account.”
Portia bit back a curse. Unregistered accounts weren’t impossible to trace, but they were hard enough that it usually wasn’t worth the effort. “Where are these burner phones now?”
“Mine is in my desk,” Johnson admitted. Vance said that it had been in his pocket when they’d been rounded up. She made a note to retrieve both after she completed the interview.
“That was your cut for the initial experiment, right? What’s your current cut?” Ice coated her voice.
“F–forty,” Johnson stammered.
That was a lot of money. “Where did you get the supplies?” Ash’s research had uncovered that the company had paid for them, but she wanted to see what they said.
“We ordered them through the lab.”
Portia closed her eyes. When she opened them, only the Ice Queen remained.
She was merciless as she continued to question them. She pressed them for another thirty minutes, getting more details on the process and how the external lab was related. As far as they knew, the formula hadn’t been sold and distribution was—probably—only through Seattle.
