“I’d rather lose everything than to be responsible for the deaths of so many,” Thomas said softly.
“Then let me tell you how you can help stop the people who want to eliminate entire communities by infecting them with a deadly virus,” Crusher said.
For the next hour, Crusher and Phantom told Thomas how he could help them stop what Helvetic and a non-profit had planned and how he could help free the two women they were holding hostage.
By the end, they secured Thomas’s promise to keep his mouth shut, deliver a message to the ladies, and go on as if nothing else were out of the ordinary. When it came time to extract the women, they had Thomas’s promise to help them.
He hoped Thomas would deliver the message to Marta and Cate and that they would have a chance to respond. Either way, in two days, Crusher had to go in and bring Marta out—with or without Thomas’s help. Marta was the key to the antiviral. If she came out empty-handed, Crusher wouldn’t worry. He’d get her to another lab where she could work her magic and develop the antiviral that would save the world—if they had enough time left to make that happen. Otherwise, they were all screwed.
Chapter 17
Marta and Cate worked in the lab late into the night, finally asking the guard to escort them back to their rooms after midnight.
Knowing she had only two days left to complete the antiviral, Marta slept a few hours and showered in the bathroom down the hallway from her room. Determined to make every minute count, she dried off quickly, brushed her hair, dressed, and hurried back to her room, keeping an eye out for the janitor. She wasn’t sure how she’d speak with him alone, since a guard was always posted outside whichever door she was behind, whether it was her bedroom or the lab. She and Cate weren’t allowed to go anywhere in the facility without an escort.
That morning, she and Cate would have to find a way to corner the janitor to see whether he could be persuaded to deliver a message outside the facility. Unfortunately, she didn’t see him in the hallway on the way to or from the bathroom. When she returned to her room, she noticed that the dinner tray from the night before had been collected and the bed had been made.
Disappointment tightened her chest. She’d missed her chance to corner the janitor. Marta sat on the edge of the bed and dragged the brush through her damp hair, retracing the corridors in her mind, still unfamiliar with the floor plan and unable to find the exits. She twisted the strands into a French braid and opened the small nightstand beside the bed to stow the brush. With her hand hovering over the drawer, ready to drop the brush inside, she froze. Something white caught her eye. Something that hadn’t been there when she’d taken the brush out earlier.
Her hand shook as she reached for what appeared to be a folded scrap of paper.
When she unfolded the note, her heart skipped several beats and then raced so fast she could barely breathe. It was a handwritten note.
cmg4u@48h. b#rdy
C
He’d found her.
Tears welled in her eyes, and her chest flooded with warmth.
Apparently, he had a plan to get her out. If anyone could do it, Crusher could and would.
He understood the tight timeframe and the need to get her to Vienna before the summit began.
It also meant he’d enlisted the janitor to pass along information to her. Having nothing to write with, she did the only thing she could think of, tearing the blank corner of the note paper into the shape of a heart and placing it back in the drawer, tucking the rest of the note into her bra.
Marta knocked twice on the wall between her room and Cate’s, their agreed-on signal that they were ready to go to work.
The guard escorted them to the lab where they suited up in their PPE and went to work. Once they were in the BSL-3 lab and out of earshot of anyone else, Marta told Cate of the note and Crusher’s plan to get her out.
“Does he know I’m here, too?”
“Not that I know of.” Marta’s eyes narrowed. “But we won’t leave without you.”
Cate touched Marta’s arm. “Thanks.”
“First, we have to finish what we started and be ready when he comes to get us,” Marta said. “I’ll be ready to blow this joint.”
Cate grinned. “Listen to you sounding all badass.”
As they worked, Marta appreciated how quickly Cate caught on and anticipated her needs. “Have you ever considered being a scientist?”
Cate laughed. “No. I like what I do.”
“I’m sorry,” Marta turned to Cate, “I’ve been so focused, I haven’t asked you what you do for a living.”
Cate shook her head. “Understandable. We haven’t really had time to get to know each other when the priority is saving the world.” She handed Marta blank slides. “I’m a private investigator.”
