Calculated Contagion Read online

  Tyler heard Cam over his earpiece. “Show him your badge. We need to know what’s going on before he loses it or finds a weapon.”

  Tyler reached into his cargo pants pocket as Bruce screamed. He rolled his eyes and pulled out the leather wallet that held his identification. Careful not to make any sudden movements, he placed the gun on the table, flipped open the wallet and said, “I’m one of the good guys, Bruce. Seriously, sit down. We need to talk before I make you late to work, and whoever is watching you figures out I’ve been here.”

  “Someone is watching me? Are you serious?”

  Tyler folded his hands on the table. “Bruce, you said you want to help Dani. Do you want to help Dani?”

  Bruce swallowed hard and nodded.

  “I need you to tell me everything, and then I’ll have some questions for you.”

  “And I don’t go to jail?”

  “You won’t go to jail for as long as you would have otherwise. If you don’t help, I’ll make sure you get every charge filed against you as is humanly possible. If you help me, I’ll do my best to get the charges lowered. Now, I think the smart option is for you to tell me what you know, and we’ll see how it goes. I make a much better ally than an enemy. That I can promise you.”

  Bruce told Tyler everything about the phone call that led to him stealing the vial, and despite his certainty that an arrest was in his near future, he seemed grateful to offload his burden. The man was so frightened, so desperate, Tyler was inclined to believe him.

  Before he left, Tyler offered some encouragement to Bruce to continue his daily routine and gave him a number to call if he had trouble. It was easy to see how he had been manipulated. Tyler would push for probation or a tracking device in lieu of jail time if his story checked out. This guy wasn’t going to be a repeat offender. Mission accomplished, he went back to the car where Cam was sitting.

  “Nice work, Eagle.”

  “We’re in deep shit, Watchman.”

  “We’ve been in deeper. At least he didn’t try and shoot you.”

  “Yeah, if he was telling the truth.”

  “It’s easy enough to prove, and we’re working on tracing the phone and bank records to make sure they match up. Now, as long as Bruce doesn’t crack, we’ll be okay.”

  “Big if, Watchman.”

  “Head in the game, Eagle.”

  * * *

  The sun snuck into their temporary room through a crack in the curtains and Ree blinked awake. She threw an arm over Parker, pulling him close. She said into his neck, “Can’t we just stay in today instead of catching bad guys?” Parker pulled back and kissed her forehead. Before he could answer her question, a loud crack rang through the air.

  Parker leapt out of bed, shoved a sheathed knife in the waistband of his shorts and grabbed his gun. He picked up his cellphone, pushed a button, and tossed it to Ree. He sprinted out the door, shouting, “Stay here!” before throwing it closed behind him.

  “Damn it,” Ree said to the closed door. She ran to the nightstand with the phone to her ear. She’d already kept Parker from getting killed once before and wasn’t about to start hiding out until the danger had passed now.

  “FBI emergency. Parker, what’s happening?”

  “This is Ree Ryland. We heard a gunshot. It sounded like it came from Dani Christensen’s apartment, just above us. Parker ran up to check on things.”

  “How many gunshots did you hear?”

  “I only heard one.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “No.”

  “What’s the status of the other personnel?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Stay in position, Dr. Ryland. Help will be there shortly.”

  “Sorry, you’re cutting out.” Ree kept the call active and tucked the cellphone into the large pocket of her loose pajama pants. She pulled open the nightstand drawer and grabbed her gun. Ree slipped into her shoes and peeked into the hallway but saw no one. The stairs to the next floor were in front of their door and she scaled them slowly, looking around the corner into another empty hallway. She swallowed hard, leading with her gun into Dani’s apartment. Her fingers sang when a foot came into contact with her weapon. She shook them out to clear the pain and was relieved to find herself face-to-face with a close friend.

  “Damn it. Ree, sorry about that.” Ree didn’t hear Alexis’s full apology once she noticed the blood pooling above her elbow. While it explained why Alexis kicked the weapon out of her hand, it didn’t explain what was happening. Alexis threw her weight against the door and Ree flicked the lock. Ree scanned the room for clues and saw only a small pile of broken glass by a window hidden by a heavy curtain.

  “Go to the bathroom, Ree. Into the shower. The fiberglass will protect you from most bullets and it’ll free up Parker.”

  “Where’s Mike?”

  “Outside, trying to catch the son of a bitch who shot me.” Ree pulled Alexis’s arm close. A tourniquet was tied above the wound and she held a wadded-up shirt over it.

  “Are you okay?” Alexis only gave a look of exasperation in response and Ree followed orders, grabbing her gun off of the floor before jogging into the bathroom. Dani was crowded into a corner of the shower while Parker stood by the door, trying to stay as far away from her as possible after last night’s panic attack and this morning’s shooting.

  “Trade you,” Ree said, showing her gun to her boyfriend.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Too late. Get out of here. Let me watch Dani so you can help Alex. She’s working with one arm…and her feet.”

  Parker sighed. “I love you. You shouldn’t be here. Be safe.”

  Ree swallowed. It was the first time he’d said that. “I love you too. Don’t get yourself killed out there.” Parker showed a tight smile and ran to take care of their friend.

  “Hey, Dani. Are you okay?” The woman in the shower held her arms tight across her chest, tears running down her cheeks.

  “What happened?” Dani asked.

  “I don’t know. Help is on the way.”

  “Is Alexis okay?”

  “I’m not a doctor, but she was hit on her arm, so I think so.” Their conversation was cut short by the hulking form of Tyler. He rushed into the room, past Ree, and pulled Dani close.

  Over Dani’s head, Tyler said, “Thanks, Ree. For everything.” Before Ree registered what was happening, Dani was gone.

  Ree sprinted to the living room, stopping in the windowless kitchen where she heard new voices. A man and a woman she’d never seen before were talking to Alexis. They wore purple gloves and were holding a syringe. The smell of rubbing alcohol was thick in the air and they had covered part of Alexis’s arm in an orange liquid. Alexis sucked in a deep breath and looked away as the EMT injected the medicine into her arm. They pulled out a scalpel, and Ree’s vision began to blur. Her distaste for open wounds warred with her need to be there for her friend. She felt a hand on her arm as Parker pulled her away.

  “You were supposed to stay in the apartment.”

  “I never agreed to that. How is Alex?”

  “She’ll pull through. She’s pretty mad, so you probably should give her a little space. She told Dani to stay away from the windows and got sniped when she peeked through the big one over there.”

  “Were they aiming at Dani? I mean, through two inches of open curtain, it’s not that easy to tell them apart.”

  “Probably. Mike ran to find them but all he got was the back of a rental car, too far away to get the plates. Makes me think they were after Dani. They’re getting desperate or warning her off.”

  “Where’s Dani?”

  “Gone. The CIA took her somewhere. Cam said he’d be in touch.”

  “Doesn’t it seem like overkill to shoot someone who isn’t even really involved in anything?”

  “Yes. Yes, it does.”

  “Then what’s going on, Parker?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

&nb
sp; 21

  “Cam, what’s happening?” Dani sat in the back of the dark SUV, trying to stop her body from shaking. After Tyler swooped into the bathroom, he’d been guard dogging her ever since. He was too focused on making sure they weren’t being followed to provide answers, but Cam was the one driving the car and should at least know where they were headed. The car was on the highway, but the two men were somewhere else entirely.

  “Don’t know, Dani.”

  “Are you sure you don’t know anything else?” Cam asked. “Do you have any enemies? Adversaries?” Before Dani could answer, Cam’s phone rang. “Watchman. Yes, you heard correctly. No, ma’am. We were not there at the time. We have the witness with us. She’s safe, just scared. Any news on the other scientist? Good. We’ll head there next.” Cam threw his phone on the passenger’s seat and turned off the highway at the next exit.

  “Watchman?” Tyler asked.

  “We need to get Dani somewhere safe, and then we need to talk with Bruce Stevens.”

  Dani looked at Cam in the rearview mirror. “Wait, VacTech’s Bruce Stevens? The lab tech?”

  “That’s the one,” Cam said.

  “How is he involved in all of this? He works for Dr. Fabian, not me.”

  Cam sighed. “He’s the reason the vial is missing.”

  “But he admitted he’d given the vial to them already. Were they trying to make a point? Eliminate anyone with knowledge?” Tyler asked.

  Cam said, “It would explain why Dani’s apartment had a new hole in it this evening.”

  Dani fought for air. “Wait. None of this makes sense. I want to talk to him.”

  “No. Absolutely not,” Tyler said. “It’s not safe.”

  “How is it not safe if he doesn’t know I’m coming?” Dani said. “You guys will be there.”

  Cam rubbed his forehead. “This is a bad idea.”

  Dani said, “No. Letting two vials of highly contagious measles virus go to a random stranger was a bad idea. I want to know why a perfectly nice guy at the office gave up two of them to said random stranger when he knows better. I can ask him questions you can’t. Plus, if I’m there, you can use whatever crazy CIA tricks you have to see if someone is lying, right?”

  “Stay behind me. At all times.” Tyler said.

  “If anything, I mean anything, doesn’t add up,” Cam said. “We get Dani out of there.”

  “I’m right here, guys,” Dani said. “And for what it’s worth, I’m on board with the Dani doesn’t get killed plan.”

  * * *

  Cam pulled the SUV into Bruce’s driveway. Tyler gestured for Dani to stay in the vehicle and pulled out his gun before ringing the doorbell. Bringing her wasn’t ideal, but the SUV had bulletproof windows and there was no sign of anyone else around. Unfortunately, they would just have to make do. Bruce opened the door, and the look on his face was pure bewilderment.

  “Um, hi, again. Why are you back?”

  “We’ve got a problem.”

  “I know, one of your people just stopped by to talk about…about…something. I can’t remember now. But I told him,” Bruce wagged his finger in the air, “that I already talked to the mean nice man in my kitchen, and you were going to help me. I didn’t need anything from them. Anymore.” Bruce swung a hand wildly in the air and Tyler reached out to steady him. He leaned in close and smelled. Faint smell of alcohol and something else. Tyler looked at his face. Bruce’s eyes weren’t quite right.

  “Bruce, we haven’t been back since our first meeting.”

  “No, not you.” Bruce threw his hands up. “The other you. You sound like the angry man. Angry, angry man. No matter what I do. Never happy. I give him water, and he asks for beer. So early. I drink a beer, he’s still angry. Beer should make you happy.” Bruce stumbled backward, and Tyler grabbed his arm. His face had a strange slant to it and his eyes had gone distant.

  “Shit.” Tyler threw the man over his shoulder, frisked him for weapons, and placed him in the back of the vehicle. “Hospital, Cam. Fast.”

  In the end, they hadn’t reached Bruce soon enough. The poison was too strong and they were too late. Cam reached the ER no more than ten minutes after they’d picked him up, but he was already too far gone. Dani wiped away tears in the backseat as they pulled away from the hospital.

  * * *

  “I guess this is goodbye for now.” Ree stood on her tiptoes to give Parker a kiss goodbye. The team had traveled back to Chicago in relative silence. After their close call, the CIA put a hold on the FBI collaboration until the case was solved. They’d thanked the team and then told them they had what they needed. However, the responsibility for the team crashing and burning was felt by everyone. Parker, in particular, was sagging from the weight of the mission failure. He assured Ree that the situation was no one’s fault and he’d get over it. Even after only a few months of dating, it was clear to Ree that Parker meant he’d go back to the paperwork until he found something to make it right.

  Parker nodded. “For now. I’ll be back this weekend or the next, whenever I can swing it.”

  “So, you guys are off the case? That’s it?” Ree crossed her arms.

  “We’ll poke around to see if we can find anything, but yes.”

  “See you later, Alex. Hope you get to feeling better.” Ree hugged Alexis on her good arm and Alexis hugged her back before rolling her eyes.

  “I’m fine. Really. It’s completely, totally fine. These things can happen. To anyone. Like I said, it’s fine.” With each over-enunciated fine, Alexis’s eyes narrowed a little more. It looked like Parker would have some help going through the files.

  “Let me know if you guys need anything when you keep digging on this one,” Ree said, with a knowing look at the agents.

  “We won’t be doing any digging,” Parker said, and Alexis looked away, her mouth set into a firm line.

  “We’ll call you when we find something you can help with,” Mike said. He gave Ree a nod and Alexis a hearty thump on the back. “Come on, guys. I’ve let you lick your wounds long enough.”

  Alexis pulled up her sleeve, showing her bandage to Mike with her eyebrows raised. He winked and said, “Figuratively.”

  While Ree drove home, something niggled at the back of her mind. Sniping someone in their home seemed intensely personal. And objectively, it was overkill. Dani didn’t even know what she’d seen. Why would her kidnappers travel halfway across the world to just clean up? And they’d gone to some trouble to kidnap Dani, in particular. It wasn’t like she was the only expert in the world. Why were they chasing her so hard? And what type of person would target someone like Dani? Unable to find an answer that made sense, Ree tapped her finger on the steering wheel. She’d driven twenty miles, a lot of that in heavy traffic, but still, she had no answer.

  Ree revisited the timeline in her head as she waited to merge onto a new highway. Dani was at a conference. Dani was kidnapped. Dani returned. Nothing. Two vials went missing. Alexis was shot because the shooter thought they were aiming at Dani. Dani went into hiding. Wait. Two vials went missing at different times. Bruce stole them both. Or did they know that? For sure? Ree pulled off on an exit to get coffee from a drive-through, burning her lips by taking a gulp too soon and blindly feeling for her phone at the same time. Instead of leaving the parking lot for the highway, Ree pulled into a parking spot and sent a text to the team. 2 vials missing at diff times. Same thief or different? Ree rummaged in her purse for a small square of chocolate. Unwrapping the foil, she considered, letting the chocolate melt slowly on her tongue as she flipped radio stations to satisfy her need to fiddle with something. She probably wouldn’t get an answer right away but felt compelled to wait a few moments just in case. Her phone buzzed just as she reached for her coffee. Forgoing the coffee, she checked the message from Mike instead. Good catch, Professor.

  22

  “What’s next, guys? I can’t just sit in your hotel room forever.” Dani settled on the end of the unmade bed and then rose to straighte
n the sheets. The large room felt too small with three people in it, but despite her impatience, she hadn’t felt this safe since before…everything. She was confident she’d slept better than Tyler, who had slept on the tiny couch in the room the past two nights and woken up with dark circles under his eyes this morning. Still, he hadn’t strayed more than a few feet from her since breakfast. Cam sat at the small desk in the room in sweatpants. He leaned over his computer and typed until it began to beep.

  A woman wearing a navy suit jacket, with perfectly styled short hair and no-nonsense expression appeared. Cam perked up. “Morgan. Tell me some good news.”

  “Would love to, Cam, but there isn’t a lot of it to go around. We’re checking on the poison that killed Bruce Stevens, but it won’t be easy to trace it back to his killer.” Dani grimaced. “How is your witness?”

  “Good. She’s right here.” Dani moved to stand behind Cam, in the line of sight of the intimidating Morgan Grady. Dani ran a hand through her greasy hair and winced. Showering had taken a backseat to staying alive and eagerly waiting for more information.

  “Hello,” Dani said, barely above a whisper.

  “Ms. Christensen. It’s nice to meet you. As you probably know already, I’m Morgan Grady. We’ve made arrangements to get you into witness protection. You will be out of danger soon.”

  “Wait, what does that mean?”

  “We have personnel ready to take you to an undisclosed location until this all blows over. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long that will be, but we will do our best to have you back to normal inside of six months.”

  “Six months! I have work to do!”

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Christensen, but that is the very unfortunate and uncertain nature of our work. You may not contact your family or friends. It’s outside of protocol, but as a courtesy to you, we will discreetly inform your parents that you are alive. For now, you need to disappear. We are still determining an appropriate location but expect to have a decision on your final whereabouts in the next few days.”