Page 86 of Her Captivated Hero

17

Not even whenshe had been working on her first doctorate had something seemed to take so long as waiting for the thermal cycler to finish. She needed the results. It had been over three hours since she had loaded the sample in the thermal cycler. She flipped through the pages of her notebook, checking her formulas for any kind of flaws or oversights. She moved her microscope again. Some of the paper Wyatt had jammed under the table had come loose, and the table was rocking. Unfortunately, the paper was between the plastic covering the floor and the actual travertine floor. Not good planning.

Dammit.

Finally, she heard the ping announcing it was done. She looked at the machine. What the heck? The light was still red. She heard more noise.

“Riya?”

She looked over her shoulder and saw Wyatt, Aiden and Dalton. She grinned and waved. It was nice to get her mind off of the red light. She saw another one of the modified oxygen tanks in Aiden’s hands and a really strange look on Wyatt’s face. Scratch that, it wasn’t strange.

She crimped her hose. “Wyatt, what’s wrong?”

“You have to come out here to get the new tank, right?” Wyatt asked.

“Yes,” she said the word slowly. “You didn’t answer my question. What’s wrong?”

“Riya, come out here,” Aiden said in a very reassuring tone of voice.

“Sure thing. It’ll take me a few minutes to decontaminate. I’ll be out as quickly as I can.”

Riya went through the first set of plastic doors and sprayed herself with disinfectant. She wiped the suit down. She inspected, cleaned and removed her overshoes, then disconnected the breathing line from her helmet. Not that she really needed that since she was dealing with liquids. When she went back in, she’d do without the hose, but she’d keep the helmet on, since she hadn’t brought goggles or a mask. She zipped up the interior door then unzipped the outer door and took off her helmet and smiled. It was good to breathe fresh air.

“Hi, guys.”

“Riya, we have a problem. We don’t have confirmation yet, but Griff and Hunter are pretty sure that the canister you’ve been examining contains a different toxin than the one used on the Jordanian royals.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Riya, we aren’t one hundred percent sure. But this all makes sense from a political standpoint. We have one of the Saudis who killed his teammate in order to silence him. Then he was going to kill another one, saying that this canister contained a poison to kill them all.”

Time stopped. But it really sped up at lightning speed. How was she possibly going to condense her three lost hours into a minute? Her eyes filled with tears of frustration. That little princess was going to die.

“Give that to me,” she made a grab for the metal tube that Aiden was holding.

“Wait,” Wyatt said. “There’s more.”

“Nothing else matters,” she said fiercely.

“This does. We think that the toxin you’ve been working on is that broad one they talked about in the briefing back in the States,” Wyatt said. “That means it can kill you.”

“No it can’t. It’s in its liquid form. Even if it wasn’t, I’m following all the protocols, I’m protected.”

Dalton went white, and shouldered Aiden aside. “Don’t ever say something like that again, Riya. Never tempt fate.”

“I—”

“Never.” His eyes blazed fiercely. “Do you understand me? Promise me.”

She had never seen him so shaken. This was obviously very important to him. She put her hand on his bicep.

“I promise, Dalton.” Her voice was quiet and fierce.

“Good,” he relaxed a little bit.

“Look, I need that canister. I have to start working on this. I’m not sure I have enough time to save them. There’s a little girl’s life at stake. I promise to be careful.”

Dalton took the oxygen tank from Aiden and held it while she put her helmet back on, then he handed it to her. “Remember your promise.”