With one last glance at Bec, still working inside the lab, Iris walked to Walter’s office. It was time to get to the bottom of this so everyone could safely move on with their lives. Well, everyone but Walter.
Chapter Fourteen
Iris stood staring at the giant cherrywood desk that occupied most of the office. The wood gleamed, clearly polished regularly by someone who cared. The top was neat and orderly, with only a blotter, pencil holder and computer monitor. There had to be information somewhere in the behemoth to tell them if Walter and Zafar were in this together. If Walter wanted out from under someone’s control, this plot could be driven by desperation rather than greed. If that was the case, and Walter was behind this, why was Secure Watch on the job? She couldn’t figure out why Walter had allowed Bec to call Secure Watch if he was the mastermind behind this scheme.
Her gaze drifted to the shattered glass next to Walter’s office door, and Iris couldn’t help but wonder if they hadn’t intended to keep Bec alive long enough for it to matter. Walter wouldn’t have a choice but to let Bec attempt to get help to reboot their system, but if they planned to kill her before Secure Watch arrived, then he wouldn’t need to argue with her about it. He could let her make the call, knowing it wouldn’t matter anyway. A shudder racked her at the thought of losing that beautiful woman who was valiantly fighting to save them allfrom being killed by putting herself between them and some deadly bugs.
But if that was his plan, why was she still alive? Had the gunman thought he’d hit her? According to Bec, that was possible since when the glass broke, she fell backward. Maybe they hadn’t stuck around long enough to double-check, which was a mistake on their part, but one Iris was so glad they had made. She walked to his desk and faced off with it, knowing the computer was useless but wondering if he had anything in the drawers to give them a place to start. A name. A phone number. Anything that could give them a lead about where they might be.
She sat in his desk chair and started pulling open desk drawers, which, unfortunately, were ridiculously tidy. Other than office supplies, there weren’t random slips of paper or business cards that didn’t belong. She lifted the blotter, hoping something might be taped to the desk, but again, she was disappointed. There was no point in searching for a hidden drawer in the desk. That was a little too mystery-novelish even for her.
The thought that something might be taped to the desk ran through her mind, and she got down on her hands and knees, searching under the desk drawers for any scrap of paper taped anywhere. Nothing. Undeterred, she searched behind the filing cabinet and inside each drawer before starting on the files. She glanced over her shoulder to check on Bec, who was still working inside the lab.
Iris was determined to search every file, but ten minutes later, she was still empty-handed. He must have kept anything he didn’t want found at home. That was the only answer. She would have to send Cal or one of the otherteam members over to his place to search. The information had to be somewhere unless he was innocent. If he was, that made this a wild-goose chase that ended in Walter dying when the ransom wasn’t paid.
Iris sat on the edge of the desk to rub her face from exhaustion, fear and sadness. One way or the other, the events at the Research Center of the Advancement of Biogenics would be over soon and she would have to return to Secure Inc. with the team, leaving behind the only woman she’d ever cared about in life. That was a tough pill to swallow, made more so by the fact that regardless of how she felt about Bec, there was no way someone like her would ever want to be in a long-term relationship with a woman riddled with anxiety, fear and compulsions.
The thought stood Iris up straight. The anxiety and fear were there, but her compulsions had faded since she arrived. For the first time since the incident, she was functioning without everything being exactly how she thought she needed it. Maybe it was just the situation she was in and nothing more. Her therapist had told her years ago that a change in her routine was necessary if she was going to heal from the past and find any enjoyment in life. Iris hadn’t believed her for a hot second. Her brain was wired differently now, meaning she would always deal with the consequences of that day, right?
As the anxiety medication lessened her fear about facing each day, the intensity of her compulsions slowly lessened, too. She still liked things orderly, but she could handle slightly more chaos in her routine short-term. What she was dealing with here was more than chaos, though. Her anxiety should be through the roof despiteher medication, but she had found a way to remain relatively calm through it. Bec was the reason. She was sure of it. Iris searched her memory for the last time she had done her mental repeating to soothe herself. It was something she’d done since the incident to keep her anxiety lower or at bay. As a child, she was convinced that nothing bad would happen as long as she did it once every hour.
New places aren’t safe. You can’t trust anyone. No one can love you now.
Iris paused at the thought.No one can love you now. She’d been telling herself that for twenty-six years! No wonder it had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When she glanced over her shoulder and laid eyes on Bec, she forced herself to change those inner thoughts.
Some new places aren’t safe. Stay guarded. You can trust the people who have proven themselves to you. You deserve love, and your past doesn’t make you unlovable.
After lowering herself to Walter’s desk chair, she waited. Waited for the feelings of fear to spike and the trembling to begin. While she waited, she focused on Bec in the lab, walking back and forth between the sink and a giant hood that covered half the room. She repeated the phrase aloud this time. “Some new places aren’t safe. Stay guarded. You can trust the people who have proven themselves to you. You deserve love, and your past doesn’t make you unlovable.”
Again, she waited. Her heart rate didn’t rise beyond unacceptable levels, she didn’t start to sweat, and her hands didn’t tremble. She glanced down at them to see they had a slight tremor, but nothing like she was used to.
Iris said the phrases again and then again until thewords came to her as easily as the old ones used to. Was she healed? No. She was still clammy, and her heart raced, but underneath it was a peace she hadn’t felt in twenty-six years. Her gaze strayed to the woman dressed like an astronaut still walking around the lab. Maybe surrounding yourself with the right people was the answer. The only way to know was to keep doing it, but that would be impossible if they didn’t figure out what Walter knew. She pulled the walkie-talkie off her belt and pressed the button. “Secure Watch, India.”
“Secure One, Charlie,” Cal answered.
“I’ve been searching Walter’s office for anything that might tell us what he knows or if he’s behind this,” she said, releasing the button.
“Did you find anything?”
“Nothing, which is also suspicious if you ask me. He has to be keeping it at home or in his car.”
“We’ve checked his car. There was nothing.”
“I think it’s time we check his house. The information we need to save him might be there.”
She released the button and waited for Cal to respond while keeping an eye on Bec. It looked like she was finishing up and decontaminating her suit.
“We were just talking about that,” Cal agreed. “I’ll put together a team and head over there. I don’t have permission to enter the property, but I’ll find a way in.”
“That sounds good. Can you keep me posted?” she asked, releasing the button and waiting for him to respond.
“Will do. We’ll gear up and head over there. Charlie, out.”
Iris set the walkie-talkie down on the desk and sighedas she pulled open a drawer. If she was sending Cal to Walter’s house to look for information, she’d check the desk one more time for completeness as well. Then, if Cal also found nothing, they could say with certainty it was nowhere that they could easily access it.
If she wanted to hide something, she would put it in the biggest drawer, so she pulled it out of the desk and dumped it out, disappointed when the bottom of the drawer was solid. After cleaning up the mess, she slid it back into the desk and pulled out the middle drawer, doing the same thing and earning the same result. There was only one more drawer, so she pulled it out, but when she dumped it, something thunked. Her heart started racing as she realized despite the drawer being empty, it was far heavier than it should be. She set it on its edge on the desk and inspected the bottom panel, surprised when the bottom of the drawer was a different color than the inside top layer. There was no way to know that unless you pulled it out, which told her it was on purpose.
The question was, how did it open? She wiggled the top piece of wood, but it didn’t give. There wasn’t a hole to hook her finger or an indication that it should open. “Because it shouldn’t,” she said, flipping it over so the bottom faced up. There was a hinge halfway down the drawer and a cloth tab. She pulled the tab, and the drawer came open, revealing a laptop nestled between the two pieces of wood. It wasn’t easy, but she wiggled it free of the drawer. Had she found what they were looking for?
