The call ended before she could snap back at him. “Dammit.” Alice pulled up the contact for her assistant, Bailey, and punched the call button. Bailey answered on the first ring.
“Boss?” the younger woman said.
“I have to go out of town immediately. It’s a family emergency.” Alice didn’t mention anything about working on a top-secret project involving vampires and werewolves. Some things are better left unsaid. Her father might have lost his marbles, but Alice didn’t want anyone to think she had inherited the crazy gene. “I need you to meet me at the base airport ASAP with my overnight bag.” Thankfully Bailey lived in the same condo complex, saving Alice the time of going home and being late to the plane—something her father would find unacceptable. Alice wasn’t about to risk the funding he’d offered by not showing up on time.
“Is everything okay?” Alice heard rustling and knew her assistant was already on the move.
“I honestly don’t know.” Alice sighed. “I’ll keep you posted.” She paused. “And Bailey…”
“Yeah?”
“If I call you later and start babbling some nonsense that makes me sound crazy”—Alice blew out a breath, puffing out her cheeks.—”just go with it, okay? No matter what I say.”
“You got it. See you in a few.”
Alice slipped the phone into her back pocket, grabbed her purse, and jogged to her car. The entire drive to the airbase, she mentally debated whether she was going to regret humoring her father.
* * *
Growing up with the colonel,Alice was used to the presence of black SUVs. So when one picked her up, its driver informing her she would be driven to a top-secret research facility and that she was to keep everything she saw or heard completely confidential, it didn’t dawn on Alice to be nervous. But after driving almost an hour through the desert, the stalwart scientist began to experience a twinge of anxiety. And when the SUV slowed to a stop at a gated facility, and Alice saw the large white sign on the fence of the facility bearing the words “Area 51” in giant red letters, her palms began to sweat, and she couldn’t keep a slight tremble from her hands.
“No effing way,” she whispered. A soldier wielding an assault rifle stepped out of the gatehouse. Alice’s driver rolled down his window and presented the man his identification.
“You should have one passenger. A missus Alice Douglas, is that correct?”
Alice bristled a little at the monikermissus.What business was her marital status to this meathead?
Her driver nodded. “Correct.”
The guard nodded in return, gave the man back his identification, and stepped back into his guard shack. A second later, the gate opened, and they drove through. Alice’s head swiveled around, and she watched the gate close with stomach-dropping finality. Her mind, of course, jumped to every movie, documentary, or article she’d ever seen concerning the famous military base, and Alice couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever be allowed to leave the super-secret government facility. Surely her dad wouldn’t put her into a situation where her safety might be compromised. But, after their last conversation, she was pretty sure the colonel had sniffed one too many cans of tear gas.
She picked at the nail polish on her fingers, a habit she loathed and could usually control, except in very stressful situations. The position in which she now found herself was definitely worthy of some serious nail polish picking. The SUV drove down a slight hill, and Alice saw rows and rows of enormous gray warehouses. She didn’t see any markers to distinguish one from another, but the driver seemed to know where he was headed. After passing several buildings, the SUV approached one, driving up to a large roll-up bay door. It began raising even as they approached. Alice noticed the door was gigantic, and she thought it was probably large enough to admit a skyscraper laid on its side. The door, however, raised only high enough to admit their vehicle and began closing again as soon as they passed through. Lights ran along the walls on either side of the warehouse’s interior, giving the vast space an eerie glow.
“Do you guys purposely make this place creepy just to keep up the mystique?” she asked her driver.
He chuckled. “It’s just an old facility. As far as I know, the exterior has never been upgraded. The inside, though, is a different story.”
They parked, exited the vehicle, and she followed the agent across a large concrete tarmac. Eventually they came to a solid wall with a single metal door. He opened the door and made a sweeping gesture for her to enter. When she did, Alice almost gasped. She walked into a state-of-the-art laboratory that made the one she had back at her university look like a child’s first chemistry set. It was a scientific researcher’s wet dream.
They walked through the lab, and Alice had to force her mouth to stay closed. The equipment was cutting edge; some of it she couldn’t even identify. They eventually came to another door. “This will be your home for the next,”—he paused and shrugged—“I guess however long they need your expertise.”
Alice gave him a tentative smile. “What do you mean?”
“It’s your lab.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks … I guess.”
He gave her a nod and then strode off back the way they’d come.
Alice opened the door without bothering to knock. If this was going to beherlab, then there was no reason to. As she stepped inside, Alice heard someone humming. She turned to see a man on the other side of the room. He was staring down into a microscope. Several tables covered in test tubes, microscopes, rubber tubing, burners, conical flasks, and other equipment stood in between them.
Alice cleared her throat, but the man didn’t acknowledge her. He turned slightly, and she saw he wore earbuds. He was young, probably in his early twenties, which meant he couldn’t be the lead scientist on this … whatever the hell this was. Despite her father’s assurances, and the fact that someone had put a ton of money into the endeavor, Alice was far from ready to admit this was actually a legitimate project.
As she walked toward the young man, she looked around the room. She saw several petri dishes labeleddormant one,dormant two,and even one that readvamp virus.She stopped to stare at the words as her heart sped up. A knot formed in Alice’s throat. Her father was convinced this nonsense was true, but there was just no way. Things like vampires didnotexist.
There was a yelp, and Alice jumped. She looked back at the man, who was now staring at her.
“Dude, don’t sneak up on a guy like that. Especially when we’ve got wolves and vamps traipsing around this place.”
