Calculated Contagion Read online

  “I see. You’re moving me…somewhere. I trust you will have the details ironed out shortly.” Dani’s back went straight and stiff even as her tone remained polite. Tyler moved to stand behind her.

  “Ms. Christensen, we’ve been working for the past forty-eight hours on a plan. Please be assured that we are doing the best we can.”

  “That’s wonderful. Thank you for the work of your agency and for getting me out of this situation.”

  “You’re welcome, Ms. Christensen.”

  “It’s also wonderful you know who attempted to kill me.”

  “I’m afraid we are still working on confirming that.”

  “Oh, then you must have located the vials of highly contagious measles virus as well as secured a trusted specialist to help contain them.” Dani clasped her hands in front of her and waited for an answer. A long pause was her only response. “Or at a minimum, you know how they might be used and on whom, in the event they were taken to be used a bioweapon.”

  “We are researching several promising leads.”

  “And you’ve completed a full impact assessment and determined probable targets based on how quickly the disease might spread.”

  “The CDC has been informed.”

  “These people aren’t trying to hunt the CDC. They aren’t going to stop by the CDC to review their plans. For some reason, they’re trying to get me out of the way–we can use that.”

  “Ms. Christensen, I cannot condone using you as bait.”

  “Let me help.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Ms. Christensen. We can’t guarantee your safety.” Tyler took a step closer to Dani, and Cam turned to watch her, letting the exchange play out.

  “I appreciate your honesty. I do. But I would like to decline witness protection. Just give me the same information you’re feeding these guys and let me know how I can help. I know every single person in my lab. My coworker was killed and I was kidnapped. Who’s to say that when I leave, they won’t just target someone else? How am I supposed to walk away from that just to save myself?”

  Cam held up a hand. “Morgan, we need to talk about things here, form a plan. How about this? Give us twenty-four hours, and if we don’t come up with something new, we’ll do it your way.”

  “Cameron, we can’t take the chance.”

  “Ma’am, you hired me because you trust me. Give us twenty-four hours.”

  Morgan sighed. “You keep her safe, Cameron.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Tyler and Cam answered in unison, and the screen went blank. Cam’s phone rang and he waved it at Tyler and Dani.

  “I’m going outside to take this. I’ll be just outside the door.”

  The pair watched Cam grab his gun before leaving the room. They stood frozen until the door shut and Dani leaned back into Tyler. Underneath the fear, Dani had bone-deep determination, sharpened by years of feeling just a little different from what people considered average. She’d answered, “Turkey, doncha’ know,” in a perfect northerner accent when people asked what she ate for Thanksgiving. Dani explained patiently to adults who asked the more direct question of what country she was from that she had been born in the US despite her skin color looking a little darker than the average Minnesotan. A minority in her field, she proved her abilities on a constant basis, to the point where she expected to be underestimated and was proud it had never made her bitter. She was unquestionably strong, but she wasn’t invincible. Dani had made it a habit not to depend on anyone, but she had grown wise enough to realize that even the strongest people can use a friend to lean on the worst of times. Tyler was fast becoming a dependable friend. A rock, strong and steady.

  Dani whispered, “Please don’t make me go to someone else I’ve never met. I’m keeping it together, but it’s taking everything I have. It might be the thing that finally breaks me.”

  Tyler put his hands on her arms. He said quietly, “You can’t stay with us just because you’re afraid not to.”

  Dani turned to face him and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Yes, I’m afraid. I’m not going to stop being afraid until we catch these people. I can’t outrun them, but I think we can outsmart them.” Tears formed at the edges of Dani’s eyes and she tried to look away, but couldn’t. Tyler’s wrapped his arms around her back, and she leaned her head against his chest. Scooting them both back to the hotel bed, he sat on the end and scooped her into his lap. They held one another until Dani regained her courage, and Tyler was gracious enough to ignore the damp spot that appeared on his white t-shirt in the process.

  Tyler’s eyes met hers and her thoughts slipped away. Slow seconds passed with neither of them able to break contact. Dani’s heart pounded as she closed her eyes and leaned in to press a soft kiss to his cheek. Tyler froze and took in an uneven breath in response. His stubble was rough on her lips and she kissed his cheek again, unable to come up with a reason not to. Later she might say her control impulses had been impacted by stress, but the truth was that sometimes love isn’t convenient. Moving her kisses towards his mouth, warmth and comfort mixed with temptation, and they met softly at first before they both lost themselves in the moment. A sound at the door made them jump apart and Tyler stood up, patting his waist for his gun. Cam entered seconds later and eyed them both.

  “If we are good for a little bit, I’m going to jump in the shower,” Dani said, wiping her hands on her pants and forcing her voice to sound normal.

  “Yeah, I think we’re fine for a while,” Tyler said, crossing his arms.

  * * *

  “Eagle?” Cam’s eyes narrowed and Tyler turned, suddenly interested in a notebook lying on the hotel desk.

  “Yeah?”

  “Want to explain what I just walked in on? Cause I feel like a parent walking in on his teenage son putting the moves on his girlfriend. And that kind of tension could cause be dangerous on an operation that has enough complications already.”

  “There’s no problem, Watchman.”

  “Gonna stand by that, Eagle?”

  “Done talking about it, Watchman.”

  “Don’t let this affect the operation, Eagle.”

  “Yes, sir. Speaking of the operation, do you have news?”

  Cam glared at Tyler. Cam would bet his favorite knife that Tyler had been making out with their witness, who was flushed as she retreated to the bathroom after Cam returned. Eagle had a good head on his shoulders and Cam had never known him to get involved with anyone on the job. In fact, Tyler hadn’t been involved with anyone off the job for a long while. If the timing didn’t suck, he might even be happy for him.

  “I do. Morgan just wanted to ream my ass while Dani wasn’t listening.”

  “Did she change her mind?”

  “No. Just gave me a piece of it. She’s got our back, but she’s not happy about it. Don’t screw it up and all of that.” Cam tucked his phone back in his pocket. “Also, Parker and his team did some digging when he got back.”

  “So, stubborn runs in the family?”

  Cam grinned. “You could say that. He thinks the initial events in Romania and the disappearance of the first vial are connected. He also believes they may have had two separate vial thieves. They don’t keep video on that room indefinitely, and the surveillance footage from the first theft has been deleted already. The only people with access keys to the secure lab are Dr. Fabian and Dani. Which tells us Dr. Fabian was involved or had his key stolen, like when Bruce went in.”

  “We going to chase that?”

  “We aren’t, but the CIA sent an ally from the CDC to swap out the measles vials for water vials with trackers on them after hours, just in case they get any more ideas. And added a few more cameras to the room so we can monitor them in real-time in case anything else walks out.”

  “Good plan. What else do we have?” Cam held up a finger and walked over to his laptop, pulling up records. Tyler turned when Dani exited the bathroom, rubbing a fluffy white towel against her wet hair. Cam cleared his throat, and Tyler b
ecame very busy studying the case file over Cam’s shoulder.

  “What’s going on?” Dani asked.

  Tyler pointed to the screen. “The guys from the camp Cam was investigating were brought to a hospital close by. Our people found out the hospital staff sent off some samples for analysis, but the request was canceled. We were able to intercept one sample and the CDC told us what test to run. It was positive for measles.”

  “What strain was it?” Dani asked.

  “I just told you. Measles.”

  “Right, but did you get the subtype?”

  “I’m not sure what that means.”

  Dani began waving her hands and pacing the room. “You’d have to do a separate genetic analysis to determine the subtype, but it’s done all the time. The vials that were taken were from a US strain, which has an identifiable subtype. If the Romanians came down with the local version, it’d be easy enough to tell the difference.”

  “And I could tell all of that just by looking at the test results?”

  “You’d have to run a different test, but if you have the sample and the CDC at your disposal, it’s not difficult. Grown men don’t come down with measles every day when there isn’t a known outbreak. They had to have not been exposed as children, be in an area that doesn’t get reached by current vaccine programs, and had direct exposure.”

  Tyler nodded. “I flew over that area. It’s extremely remote. If Stanislav recruited locals, it’s all possible. I doubt he offers a comprehensive employee health plan.”

  “It’s a start.” Cam typed the information in an email and sent it to Morgan. Dani returned to the bathroom to dry her hair. An idea began to form and Cam picked up the phone to call his brother.

  * * *

  Parker leaned on his hand. His elbow was starting to go numb from resting on the desk while he read the same information on the overly bright computer screen for the third time. Mercifully, his reverie was interrupted by a knock on the edge of his desk. Mikey’s wife and resident FBI profiler, Scarlett, plopped down into his faded vinyl guest chair.

  “Want to hear the psychologist’s opinion?”

  “Not especially,” Parker answered dryly before looking up from the file.

  “Mike said you aren’t sleeping.” Parker raised his eyebrows in disbelief and Scarlett raised her hands. “Okay, fine. I asked him if you were sleeping and he said,” Scarlett raised her fingers in air quotes, “‘Probably not, he looks like shit.’”

  Parker laughed and leaned back in his chair. “See what I get for being friends with a profiler? A man can’t even be miserable in peace.”

  “Your partner got shot and you got pulled off an important job because it went sideways. Want to talk about it?”

  “Nope. I want to solve this case.”

  “That makes two of us,” Alexis said, walking over from her desk to join them. She leaned down to give Scarlett a kiss on the cheek. Her arm was in a sling and the purple under her eyes mirrored Parker’s. “Got anything new, P?”

  Before he could answer, Parker’s cell phone rang and he saw his brother’s number. Parker gestured to an empty office, they followed him in.

  “Hey Cam. What’s up?”

  “Hey P. You got a minute?”

  “Sure. I have Alexis and Scarlett in the room with me now if it’s about business.”

  “It is. Who’s Scarlett?”

  “Mikey’s wife.”

  “The profiler?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let her stay.”

  Parker put the call on speaker. Scarlett leaned into the phone. “Hi, Cam!”

  “Nice to meet you, Scarlett. Stick around, we may want your opinion. You up to speed?”

  Scarlett put her hands on her hips. “Not on the finer points, but I did a little digging on my own when my friend came home with a hole in her arm.” There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

  “Yeah, we’re not happy about that either. Look, we’ve been working on an angle up here and I think we finally made a breakthrough. Your professor made a good observation and it’s got us looking at old evidence a little differently. I think we have a new thread to pull on.”

  Parker crossed his arms. “Glad you’re making progress, but that’s not why you’re calling.”

  “You’re right. Two vials were stolen from the secure lab, and we agree with your assessment that more than one person may have been involved. The only employees with access are Dr. Fabian and Dani. We implicated the coworker in the second theft, but he borrowed Dr. Fabian’s keycard. He was murdered the same day Alexis was shot. Someone is trying to clean up their mess. And we can’t confirm we don’t have any more bad guys back at the lab.”

  “Does Dani need to come back here with us?” Alexis asked.

  “No, I think she’s most comfortable here. Plus, she’s had some good insights and wants to keep helping if she can. We’re sticking with that plan for now.”

  Parker leaned in closer. “So, what can we help with?”

  “Something’s happening in Minnesota, and we may need to skip across the ocean to follow the trail back to the camp. We need another set of eyes chasing this loose end, and I don’t want new faces in the building raising suspicions. Are you willing to get back into this?”

  “Yes,” Alexis answered before Parker could.

  “I don’t want to tip our hand, guys. That means it needs to be limited to your team. And I want a psych eval on Dr. Fabian and the other people most likely to get into the lab since Dr. Fabian may just be lazy about where he puts his access card. Scarlett, you willing to chip in on this one? I hear you’re one of the best.”

  “Absolutely. Do you want me there in person?”

  “Yes, but no one else gets shot or the FBI and CIA are never going to let us play nice again.”

  “Deal.” Parker grinned. They were back in the game.

  * * *

  Tyler waited until Cam hung up the phone and crossed his arms. “We’ve got more help but no answers. I hate playing from behind, Watchman.”

  “Yeah. That makes two of us. CDC is running those samples with the new test. It’s a start.”

  “Any sign of the man who kidnapped Dani?”

  “Andrei? Not a trace since he ended up in Minnesota. We can probably assume he had something to do with the hole in Dani’s apartment and Bruce’s murder.”

  Tyler ran a hand down his face. “He could still be close. Our people are watching the borders. And the airports. Not much else we can do.”

  “He might have slipped through already. There are plenty of places you can walk over to Canada up here. Or canoe. It’s not that difficult for someone used to being invisible.”

  “If he’s given up on chasing Dani, we can’t afford to worry about him right now.”

  Dani returned from the bathroom, her hair now dry, and Tyler made a point to focus on the notes on his laptop. He pulled out a sheet of paper and began mapping out what they knew, along a timeline. It all had to be connected, but how? Dani sat beside Tyler on the bed, crossing her legs so that her knee touched his. He focused on his notes to prevent himself from getting up and finding something hard to bang his head into. What was he thinking, kissing a witness? He wasn’t thinking. That was the plain and simple truth. She was strong, still fighting despite her circumstances, but she also wanted him close and he had buckled, his self-control going AWOL. He couldn’t quite get to feeling sorry about it, but he also couldn’t afford any complications right now. He would not encourage anything else from the woman he was assigned to protect. Even if she was extraordinary.

  “Figure it out yet?” she said softly. He fought the urge to pull her close and work through it together. Cam glaring at him from across the room helped throw cold water on that very bad idea.

  “Not yet. It has to be connected. See, it all started here at the camp. The first vial went missing, nearest we can figure, a couple of weeks before some of their men fell sick. Or at least that’s what the FBI thinks based on Dr. Fabi
an’s keycard data.”

  Dani said, “So, it’s possible the vial made its way there and it was mishandled. It’s not hard to do. It’s terribly contagious, even before symptoms show up.”

  “But why didn’t everyone get sick?” Tyler asked. “It’s pretty close quarters. Seems like a contagious virus would spread like wildfire.”

  “They may have had it contained,” Dani offered. “Limited access? They could have isolated the people working on it.”

  “The white building,” Cam said into his computer. The map of the camp was up and the building stuck out like a sore thumb. He pointed to it. “Would this work as an isolation unit?”

  Dani shrugged. “Hard to tell without looking inside, but it’s a reasonable assumption.”

  “So, they knew enough to keep it isolated, but not enough to keep from catching it. They got rid of the rest of the virus to keep anyone else from getting sick and covered their tracks at the hospital.” Tyler was guessing out loud, but no one argued.

  “But they needed more measles virus.” Dani snapped her fingers.

  “And some expertise.” Tyler looked at Dani.

  “And I was close enough. It wasn’t so much that I was the right person, I was just handy.”

  “I don’t buy it,” Cam said. “Sure, you’re part of a small number, but you’re hardly the only expert. It has to be related to the stolen vials. Whoever was behind the vial theft seized the opportunity to take a scientist with them.”

  “Dr. Fabian was at the conference too,” Dani said.

  “But he wasn’t as easy of a target.” Dani shot Tyler a look and he raised his hands in surrender. “Not trying to make generalizations, but Dr. Fabian has at least fifty pounds on you. If I had to pick which one to take, I’d take you too.”

  “Or he’s involved. His name keeps coming up,” Cam said, matter of fact.

  “That’s why he wouldn’t be involved,” Dani argued. “Look, he’s a jerk, but he’s not stupid. If he orchestrated my kidnapping, he wouldn’t be on the same continent with me when it happened. He’d be on a beach, drinking umbrella drinks in front of as many witnesses as he could find.”