Calculated Contagion Read online

  Dani raised an eyebrow. “Healthy guy in his thirties getting hospitalized with a cold? Unlikely. They don’t do medicine that differently over here. Take a picture of that one.” She pulled out the next file.

  Cam squinted at the hand-written file. “Male, thirty-two. Came in the same day as the first guy. Suspected measles. Also stricken out. Came in for a tetanus shot. Quarantined for five days.”

  Tyler narrowed his eyes. “Even I know that takes five minutes, not days.”

  “Can you tell who saw these patients? Is that listed?”

  Cam opened and spread out a number of the files on a large metal table and leaned into them. “Five files with initial diagnoses of measles stricken out. Multiple doctors are listed.”

  “And the handwriting? Is it all the same?”

  Tyler realized what Dani was getting at and looked. “The signature on the crossed-out parts are all the same. Someone was told to change the files. Make it disappear.”

  “And whoever did it was not happy about it,” Dani said, more to herself than the two men.

  “How do you figure?” Cam put a hand on his hip.

  “The diagnoses are comically off. Someone did as they were told, but they weren’t happy about it. Don’t know who it is but someone knows more than they’re letting on.” Dani scribbled down the name of the doctor who signed all the changed records on her notepad.

  “Can’t risk asking,” Tyler said. “Let’s get out of here and regroup.”

  “Let me go to the lab and find this guy. If he speaks English, we’ll talk. Researcher to researcher.” Samples had been produced for testing. Even if someone said they had to be destroyed, labs sometimes operated according to their own rules, and if the person who altered the records wasn’t happy about it, the samples might still be there.

  “No way, Dani. Not by yourself,” Tyler said.

  “It’s going to raise too much suspicion if we bring in a team. I work in a lab. There’s no such thing as a secret in my lab. If I go in, I might be able to figure it out.”

  Cam put the files in a neat stack and returned them to the cabinets. “Dani, someone has already died because they knew too much. Let’s not add you to the list.”

  27

  “Hey, Keith.” Parker gave a solemn head nod at the lanky researcher he’d met the previous day in the hallway. It was their second full day at VacTech and they would follow up with Dr. Fabian shortly. Parker had detoured to the breakroom to try to get information from Keith while Ree waited in a conference room. Keith seemed bored, but a spark of intelligence flashed beneath the surface before he resumed his disinterested expression. Parker had played the game too long not to notice the signs of someone else doing the same thing. The breakroom was empty except for the two men.

  “Hey, man. Don’t remember getting your name.”

  “It’s Parker. My boss let me off the leash long enough to get something to drink.” Parker gestured to the pop machines and Keith chuckled.

  “Know what you mean. You just have to wait for the right opportunity.” Keith made a move to leave.

  “Yeah? You moving out of here?” Parker tried to sound sincere, even as alarm bells went off in his head.

  Scarlett spoke into his earpiece, voice low. “Easy, Parker. Reel him in, nice and steady. Just enough for a search warrant.”

  Keith immediately put his guard up and looked around. “Nah, it’s nothing. Hey, good luck to you.” He left the break room, and when the door closed, Parker leaned on the button for a soda a little too hard and clenched his fist.

  “What next, Scarlett?” Parker said quietly.

  * * *

  Scarlett looked towards Mike and Alexis, who were still reviewing surveillance footage. She took a minute to enjoy the sight of her husband in his natural environment.

  “Gross, Scarlett. I have to work with him every day. You can stop looking at him like he’s a piece of meat,” Alexis said. Alexis scrunched her nose, but her teasing was good-natured.

  Scarlett’s mouth twitched and Mike activated his keenly-developed selective hearing. Parker waited in the breakroom for instructions, and silence from the normally talkative Ree suggested she was waiting too. Keith didn’t need them for anything, and he had no motivation to confide in them.

  “I need him to need you guys,” Scarlett said, more to herself than to her team.

  “Can you break his stuff?” Mike’s preference for subtlety showing as he turned his selective hearing back on.

  “There’s a thought,” Parker said, barely above a whisper.

  “What matters most to him?” Alexis asked.

  “I have an idea. Want me to go talk to him?” Ree, still listening to the conversation from a conference room, chipped in.

  Parker said, “No” at the same time Scarlett said, “Yes.” Scarlett let the silence sit, waiting for her old friend to come around. A few more beats passed and he said, “Go ahead. I’ll move to the conference room, so I’m only a room away when you approach.”

  * * *

  Ree picked up a notebook she’d been studying. She flipped to the test report with Keith’s name on it and pulled it out of the binder. She turned on a heel to leave the room just as Parker entered. He winked at her and she grinned before leaving the conference room. Ree walked through the labs until she found their suspect.

  “Keith, right? Do you have a moment to spare for me?” Ree kept her voice bright as she gestured to the test report. Keith turned around slowly, his face a careful mask.

  “Of course, Dr. Lewis. What can I help you with?”

  “I was looking at this test report and was hoping you could explain it to me.”

  “Sure. Did I work on it?” Keith placed his pipette on the lab table and took off his gloves.

  Ree smiled again, trying to set him at ease. “I think so. Unless there’s another Keith in the lab. Dani…elle, Ms. Christensen, rather, worked on this report, but she seems to have missed work again today, so I was hoping to talk to you.”

  “That’s too bad.” Keith’s face was carefully neutral, and Ree both celebrated that she’d hadn’t blown it by referring to Dani too familiarly and wondered at why he didn’t seem concerned.

  “I agree. Have you known her long?”

  “Sure. Dani and I go back to college. We had a lab class together, and she hired me after her father gave her the job.”

  Scarlett had mentioned she thought there was jealously lurking behind Keith’s easygoing nature. Ree wasn’t a professional interrogator, but years of working with college students taught her to recognize envy when she saw it. Gotcha, she thought. Her tone was sugar sweet as she said, “Oh, how wonderful! Did she always have a knack for this sort of thing? Is that why you came to learn from her?”

  And there it was. The fire she’d been waiting for. “We all learn from each other here, Dr. Lewis.” His nostrils flared. “You had a question about a report?”

  “Well, it was more a procedural question. It says here that you were counting the virus kill for this formulation, and I was wondering what precautions you take to make sure it doesn’t get out of the lab.”

  Keith breathed out and his shoulders relaxed. His answer sounded rehearsed. “The access to that particular lab is controlled to a limited number of individuals, as required by the lab procedures. They’re trained to handle it appropriately.”

  “Perfect, Keith. Just one more question. If you aren’t on the list, how did you get access to run this test?”

  “Someone with access gave me approval to join them in the lab.” Keith’s mouth twitched. Ree began to retreat, instinct telling her she was getting too close to the truth.

  “Great. Thanks for your help, Keith. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.” She left the labs and shut the door behind her. She spoke under her breath. “Okay, he’s starting to freak me out. Scarlett, please tell me you have a plan.”

  28

  Stanislav bit his tongue so hard, it began to bleed. His men were in the building with
Andrei. This would all be over soon. His homeland would gain a small piece of land, and he would be welcomed back to his home with open arms. Dmitri, his ally in Russia, promised that with the influx of money through the right channels, all would be forgiven.

  Stanislav pulled open his tent, sneering as he eyed the white building that would be his redemption. He’d been careful to pull men from the rural areas with a low likelihood of immunity to their weapon. One never knew when one needed a test subject. It was too bad Andrei had ruined it the first time, quite by accident. But, nothing motivated a man like failure, and Andrei had formulated a better plan. Stanislav would spare his life for the time being. It was too hard to find someone with Andrei’s skills to kill him outright. As he prepared to round up his guards for another speech, his satellite phone rang, and he sighed. Until this was over, Dmitri was in control and must be answered to. But not for long.

  “Yes, my friend.” The lie rolled off Stanislav’s tongue.

  “We have Americans asking questions, Stanislav.”

  “Let them ask. We have nothing to hide.” He lied once more.

  “We cannot afford to fail.”

  “It will all be over soon, my friend. Put your trust in me and I will deliver what you need.”

  “I trust no one, Stanislav. Least of all someone who has a history of making mistakes.”

  Stanislav bit back his fury. “I will make it right, my friend. Trust in me and do not worry about the Americans.”

  The line went dead just before Stanislav heard Dmitri addressing his assistant. Probably a pretty young thing. Dmitri had a type and he rotated through them frequently. Even with the temptation a beautiful assistant offered, she would be dismissed to another job soon. Dmitri trusted no one long enough to allow them to betray him.

  * * *

  “How are you holding up?” Ree’s cheerful voice came through the phone and Dani clutched it like a lifeline.

  “Um, okay.”

  “And the panic attacks?”

  “Better, I guess.” Dani looked across the room at Tyler. She felt safest when he was close, but her proximity to the Romanian mountains had begun to chip away at her sense of security. And time passed slowly as she waited for clearance to visit the hospital lab that may or may not come.

  “You and Tyler make something happen?” Ree said, and Dani’s eyes went wide.

  “Who told you?” Dani clutched the phone a little tighter.

  “Parker mentioned that you found the records…” Ree trailed off. Yes, she was starting to lose it.

  “Right. The records. Well, I’m still waiting on the CIA to decide if they’re going to let me back in.”

  “Do you want to help our team answer some questions now?”

  “Yes, please.” Dani’s voice was sincere. Sitting in a quiet safe house without access to data was her idea of torture.

  “It’s about one of your coworkers.”

  “I’ve already told the guys Dr. Fabian is a dead-end.”

  “No one disagrees. We think there is someone else.”

  “Cam mentioned that. I’ve already lost Bruce. We are a not for profit, for heaven’s sakes. Why are we attracting criminals?”

  “Well, we think there’s just one ringleader. Bruce was a victim.”

  “And they’re letting you ask me questions because you’re a civilian, someone I can relate to. Of course, there’s probably a psychologist on the team that decided that.”

  “More or less. Look, I’m not going to insult you by sugarcoating this, Dani. We think Keith could be behind this.”

  “Keith Brooks? I went to college with him. I’ve known him forever.”

  “Did you ever give him your access card?”

  “No. I keep it in my safe when I’m not using it.”

  “Did you guys get along in college?”

  “Well enough. I hired him, after all.”

  “Did he ever resent that?”

  “I don’t think so. But he never seemed happy with his promotions. They were never as big as he felt he deserved. He’s hardly the first employee I’ve had like that, so I never thought it was noteworthy.”

  “Yeah, I get that. Well, hey. Stay safe over there, and I’ll buy you a glass of wine or a beer when you get back. Or take you to the shooting range. Your choice.”

  “Thanks, Ree. I appreciate it.” Dani smiled. Ree was definitely one of a kind. She began to second-guess all of her interactions with Keith. She’d seen the green-eyed monster in him a few times but brushed it off as nothing. Sadly, she had to go into every interaction assuming the other person thought she had her job because she worked for her father.

  Tyler joined her on the couch and gave her a gentle nudge with his elbow. She hadn’t realized her head was in her hands until she looked up. Cam had left the room and they were alone. So much for staying away from Tyler. Out of power to resist, she leaned into him, but he remained still. She crossed her arms and leaned against the couch instead.

  “They ask you about Keith?”

  “Yeah. Did he do it?”

  Tyler stiffened. “That’s what they’re trying to find out.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  “They can’t prove anything yet.”

  “But they’re trying. Tyler, has everyone around me always had it out for me?”

  “I know at least one person who doesn’t.” He gave her a little nudge. “But you’re forgetting that Bruce was being used, not using you. And there is a whole lab full of innocent people that you are working to protect right now. Try and focus on that, if it’s possible.”

  Dani gave in to her impulses and laid her head on Tyler’s shoulder. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said quietly, but didn’t move.

  “None of this should be happening at all. What’s something else?” She allowed herself a rare moment of indulgence, closing her eyes to rest for a few minutes. There was something about a smart, competent man who needed her help that presented just the right amount of temptation. Enough to let her heart override her brain–a first in Dani’s life.

  * * *

  Another lapse in self-control didn’t bode well for the operation. Tyler pulled himself away from their witness when Cam glared at him from the hallway. Cam had every right to fire him and it was a risk he was taking with eyes open. Dani was nearly asleep and he laid her on the couch as he stood up to face the music.

  “I saw nothing because I need you, Eagle. Hope she’s worth the risk.”

  Tyler swallowed but stood a little straighter.

  Cam continued. “Look, we’ve got some intel I can’t make sense of. Ready to hash this out?”

  “Yeah. Ree just called and told Dani they were checking into Keith. Got any leads there?”

  “Pretty sure he’s the one who orchestrated the vial thefts. Major chip on his shoulder with regards to our friend and she has no idea. No family to speak of and has been exchanging phone calls with a Russian official. No telling what he was promised if they’re working together.”

  Tyler crossed his arms. “But which Russian official?”

  “The Dmitri character our source in Russia told us about. He seems to be pulling a lot of strings. Keith is talking to Dmitri, who is talking to Stanislav. I’m not sure what Russia’s role in this is. It may be as simple as Dmitri using a few poor schmucks to impress his boss. Our analysts don’t think this is a nationally-sanctioned operation, which means we’re dealing with a guy who considers himself a criminal mastermind. Those are always fun. We have a source close to him and are getting information from him the hard way. Have to go through Morgan to get everything, but we’re doing what we can.”

  “So we know that Keith is talking to Dmitri and Dmitri is talking to Stanislav. That enough for a search warrant?”

  Cam paused to consider the question. “I think we can pull it off. But I don’t think Keith is the brains behind the operation. I think he’s just transportation and access to the virus.”

  Tyler scratched his chin. “What
does he stand to gain?”

  “He gets Dani out of the way.”

  “To advance at a not for profit foundation? No, there’s something else. Money? Maybe a promise of a job somewhere else? No family means he could be seeking asylum to Russia, or Dmitri promised him something he needs. See if he’s in any trouble stateside. Find out who else he’s talking to and unravel it.”

  Cam nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell the team to push a little harder, find out what kind of trouble he’s in.”

  “Let’s make sure he doesn’t get hurt. We need information and we need it bad. We need to turn him like we did Bruce. But this time, let’s try and keep him alive.”

  “Sounds like a plan, Eagle.” Cam tilted his head towards the living room. “When this is over, I expect you won’t let this one slip through your fingers. Until then, don’t do anything that would make me fire you. It’s too much work to train up a new partner.”

  “Understood, Watchman.” He hadn’t crossed the line, exactly. But he was thinking about it, and it was nice to know his friend was there to keep him honest. It was time to focus on putting all the pieces together so they could get this over with and get Dani out of danger, once and for all.

  Tyler pulled out his phone and dialed. Parker picked up. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Parker. Been talking with Cam about Keith. He’s been in contact with our friend in Russia and we can’t seem to figure out how it all fits together. Can you find out if he’s in any trouble stateside? We also have enough for a warrant, so we’ll get that paperwork through as soon as we can.”

  “Sure thing, Tyler. Thanks. How’s Dani holding up?”

  “She’s still in one piece, but we’ll all feel a lot better when this is over.”

  “We’ll see what we can do to help with that. We’re getting closer, Tyler. I can feel it.”

  “Yeah, man. Bad news, that’s when things get ugly. Keep an eye on everyone over there.”