Oh, he’s gonna die. I will not leave this place without his head in my handbag.
She nods, looking at the door as if she’s waiting for him to burst through it. She could be making this up as a pressure tactic. But after last night, I have enough reasonable doubt to stand up unsteadily and wobble into the bathroom.
“There you are!” Hugo greets me in the lab, arms spread out like last night. “Cat, you look lovely.”
“Dinnae call me that.” It bursts out of me, sharp and furious.
“You don’t like it?”
“No one calls me that,” I say.
No one but Lucas.
“Very well,” he says, looking disappointed. “You handled last night’s challenge rather well. I’m quite impressed.”
“Lovely.” I smile around my gritted teeth. “Your turn next time.”
He laughs, insisting on showing me aroundthe lab and explaining his research. Damn him, thisisfascinating. “The compound is designed to break down within ten minutes of being released, you see,” he says. “This prevents an unintended spread. Some clients can be so clumsy.” He clicks his tongue disapprovingly.
“What is this called?”
“I’m not one for fanciful names,” he says. “It is C-1161, because that is the trial that finally worked as it should.”
“You’ve added in the comparative toxicity to the agent,” I murmur, following the computer model as it combines the elements. “The regular predictors of severity wouldn’t work here because the PSS classification is already at four.”
“Oui,” he smiles modestly. “No room for error. Always fatal.”
“I would never have thought of combining the proteins,” I marvel, watching the molecular chain spiral on the monitor. “That’s very clever.”
Hugo preens a bit as he taps out a cigarette and puts it to his lips.
“Wait! Are ye mad?”
He pulls the cancer stick from his mouth and looks at it.“Oui,it is a filthy habit. I am attempting to quit” He pulls up his shirt sleeve to show a nicotine patch. “You see?”
Not to mention lighting up in a lab full of volatile compounds,I think irritably. He’s certainly welcome to blow himself to bits, but I’d prefer not to be in the room when it happens.
“Not that I dinnae appreciate the elegance of your design,” I say, because I really do, damn him. “But why am I here?”
“Because, we both know that a poison cannot be used in any useful way unless an antidote has already been created,oui?”His face falls. “I’ve had no trouble in the composition of the formula, but my efforts to create the corresponding antidote have reached a bit of a roadblock. I am missing something in the steps.” he angrily tosses his cigarette pack into the garbage. “You,mon petit chou, my little cabbage, I know you will find the answer.”
Leaning against a lab table and folding my arms, I stare at him incredulously. “You’re expecting me to help you with something that could kill an incalculable amount of people? For feckingmoney?Ye dinnae need any more money, for feck’s sake! Why are ye doing this, then?”
Hugo chuckles fondly. “It is not about the money; it hasn’t been for decades.” He leans closer, his eyes glittering. “It is about control. Power. The ability to have what others need, and they will do anything to get it.”
I must look horrified because he sniffs contemptuously. “Do not pretend, my little Mafia princess, that your family does not run the massive machine of your empire for mere money any longer, the cogs and wheels slick with blood. The MacTavishes want the same thing as I do.”
“We MacTavishes do not create resources to kill people in new and exceptionally vicious ways!”
Well, except for Uncle Lachlan.
“It takes a special brand of sociopathy to take pleasure in this kind of destruction,” I say.
“It is your choice,mon cher.Would you rather I sell C-1161without a way to stop it?” He’s eyeing me closely. “I think not. Think about this,oui?We’ll speak in the morning. I know you think your family will come charging to your rescue, guns blazing, but this place?”
Hugo clicks his tongue, “This place is impenetrable. It is off most maps; there is no record of my ownership. Even a satellite would not track activity here. I cannot force you. Your brilliant mind mustwantto create this antidote. But you will be here for a very long time. Goodnight.”
Calling for two of the guards, he tells them to return me to my suite, my opulent, gilded prison.
