by Tara Brown
“So you understand that your invention is insanely dangerous in the wrong hands?”
She nodded, not speaking.
“Then why should we keep you alive?”
She swallowed hard, battling herself and her response and clearly avoiding a selfish answer, as I was seconds away from a real hissy fit and possible raging tantrum. “I believe that the world needs to save the sick more than it needs to worry about the government. Cancer patients alone would be cured. The strain on the countries from medical systems is outrageous.”
“Surely you see that the drug companies are banking money and don't want cures, right?”
Her gaze hardened. “Do you think any of the people with cancer give a fuck about what the drug companies want?”
She had spunk and her accent was cool, but I didn't see how it was possible we could do anything beyond give her to the Burrow, a death sentence. Actually death was nicer. The Burrow was a rattrap. I myself couldn't imagine a fate worse than being surrounded by people who had never actually seen their life’s dream come to fruition. A whole colony of unsatisfied geniuses. It was terrible.
A cell phone rang, making us all turn and look at the desk where Jack was sitting. He rolled his eyes. “It’s clearly a burner.” He lifted it to his face. “Hello?”
His back tightened as he nodded. “I know but we decided—okay?”
It was Coop and he was pissed. I didn't need to hear the conversation. I knew exactly how it would go. Jack spun back in his chair and handed me the phone. “It’s for you.”
I gulped at first, but then I remembered I had just done something incredibly badass, and I wasn't in the mood to be scorned by the little boy pretending to be my superior. Instead of acting like it was fine, I listened so as to get a scope of the situation.
“Evie, that was fucking irresponsible. You went off grid on our fucking off-grid mission? You had no support and no backup and no weapons? Really? I never imagined you were this fucking stupid!”
He paused as if waiting for my excuse, but I offered nothing.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Again I listened, waiting for him to blow his wad.
“I cannot believe you went against my orders and didn’t listen to me! This is exactly why you aren’t the agent in charge!”
“Are you done?” I asked softly.
“NO, I FUCKING AM NOT!”
I nodded, regardless of the fact he couldn't see me.
“You went to England to fuck Servario—let’s be really honest about that fact. You went there to be fucked by that scumbag piece of shit. Fuck you!”
I sighed, starting to feel a little anger boiling in me. It was a slow burn, not a rager, but it could build fast if he continued.
“You really have nothing to fucking say for yourself?” He was spitting mad.
“Did you find your sister?”
“HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! THAT’S WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR ENDANGERING YOUR LIFE AND THEIRS?”
I hung up the phone and looked at Jack, clearing my throat. “So he’s pissed.”
“Yeah, I did mention he would be.”
I nodded again. “Yeah, you did.”
The Aussie gave us all a look. “Who the fuck are you morons? What kind of badly hatched plan was this?”
The slow burn ended there. Maybe it was petty. Maybe I took my anger at Coop and Servario out on her. Maybe. Whatever. But I snapped. “You better shut the fuck up, you little bitch! We are here, saving your stupid ass from a league of terrorists who wanted your fucking experiments and science projects for their evil! They were planning on taking horrible diseases into countries using your nanorobots and killing off a huge chunk of the population! You are actually the dumbest bitch here! So don't even think about joining in on the shit-on-Evie brigade. I will literally kill you for no fucking reason other than I can!”
She flinched but came back from it fast, “Fuck you, Evie! I was doing my job—”
“AND I AM DOING MINE!”
She looked into my eyes, maybe comparing the rage before she backed down. She didn't say another thing, God help her if she had. I was snorting breaths from my nose like a fiery dragon might have when the phone rang again. “WHAT?” I answered.
“DON’T YOU THINK—”
“Shut up, Coop! Just stop! I did my job! You’re out with your family putting out the amber alert for your fucking sister, who by the way is a spy—” The words left my lips like strangers creeping out. I didn't know them, and yet I did. “She’s a spy.” I whispered my next thought, “She’s the one who sold us out to James. She was what was on the phone Servario had traded me for. She sold my kids out to James.” I swallowed and realized what I had been told, what I had seen.
“That is a lie!” he snapped, but I lifted my gaze to Jack, ignoring Coop’s rant.
“She sells the secrets from her family and from us. She’s corrupt.”
Jack nodded. “It makes sense.”
Coop fell silent in my ear. I knew a thousand images or memories or doubts were filtering through his mind as he realized how much she had actually told and how much she had actually risked.
“She is how Steve found my house and my kids.” The words in my head had memories too. Ones of me and Servario in a hotel in Dubai. Me and Servario in a car. Me and Servario in the elevator in Belgium. He hadn’t made me forget because of the brothel. He made me forget so he could deal with Coop’s sister on his own. And so that I wouldn't know about the confession he had whispered in bed with me. The one about changing the world to be with me. He loved me.
A lump grew in my throat. “Servario has your sister, Coop. I doubt she is alive. I doubt she is anything more than ash.” I hung up the phone without saying sorry. I wasn't. That evil bitch had sold my kids’ location. If it hadn’t been for my mom and Fitz, my kids could have been in grave danger.
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “You knew all along?”
“I did.” I nodded. “But Servario gave me a drug to make me forget the extent of my time in Dubai and Belgium. I don't believe he ever intended me to remember this.”
“How have you?” Jack looked confused, not nearly as confused as I was.
“I don't know.” And that was the truth.
Luce sighed. “So you remember the brothel and everything?”
“Yeah.”
“You people are bonkers,” Janice whispered.
Luce chuckled nervously. “You have no idea.” Jack and I joined in on a nervous laugh.
“Does your iPad work for the Internet, Jack?” I asked.
He handed it to me. “Yeah, it fell off a truck and has been rewired to reroute to a hundred and seventeen different servers and create a ghost trail that no one could follow.”
Janice gave him a look. “Oh, so you are actually intelligent? Like the brains of the operation?”
He cocked an eyebrow as he handed it to me, not answering her. It was a better choice.
I searched the Saudi bombings and found the news channel I wanted. It was Fox, a little sensational for my liking, but it would do the job to show her exactly how extreme her work had become. I limped over to her and squatted on the floor until I was sitting next to her chair. It was not an attractive series of movements, but I was actually dying.
I pressed play as the story started and the Fox newscaster, one of the sensationalist morons I hated, started to speak, “Two days ago Saudi Arabia suffered an attack so violent some are calling it the start of World War Three. All the hospitals in Riyadh, over three hundred of the government run and nearly two hundred privately run, suffered in what is being called the most deliberate attack the world has ever seen. This is Pearl Harbor times a thousand. The obvious destruction of a major city’s hospitals is now being called the cleverest way to cripple a country in one day. How will the Saudis treat their wounded when the war against them starts? It’s clearly coming. Whatever those bombs were, they are the modern-day Trojan horse. The bombs, all of them fairly small, have been rumored to come
from Yemen. A country known for its political crisis and ties to al-Qaeda. They are screaming innocence. It’s a waiting game now as the Saudis have asked for aid from every free nation and the dust settles. The death toll is in the tens of thousands.”
I pressed pause and looked at Janice. “Any idea how easy it would be for your little drones of doom to cause a major breakout of, let’s say, Ebola in that country tomorrow?”
She gulped. “My—my work caused this?” Her eyes filled with tears.
“We don't know. What we do know is that it is likely being done as a means to ending the Saudi reign and getting the oil from them without going to war.” I nodded my head at Jack. “He saw your research and predicted this would be the outcome and the next day it was.”
Squeezing her eyes shut she shook her head. “I didn't know he would use it so badly.”
My insides dropped and my eyes met Jack’s. We shared a momentary panic attack. “You have given your research to someone already?” he asked, almost whispering.
She sniffled and nodded. “Dr. Drusack. He’s a—a scientist I have long admired. He’s a leading robotics engineer and his wife had cancer. He’s been a huge supporter of my—”
“Oh fuck!”
We all glanced at Jack who flashed a photo from his laptop. It was of Dr. Vincent Drusack, a face I recognized immediately. “He was at the—” I didn't say Burrow. I didn't need to. We all knew that face. He was one of the people who was there for our swearing in, one of the people who made us agree that we would stop the threat against the Burrow before we could have our lives back.
“That's him.” She sniffled again.
I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed. “So they want us to gather the scientists and protect the world, but then they want to be able to choose which should be kept secret and which should be used to better their world?”
Luce whistled through her teeth. “We are screwed, ladies and gentlemen.”
My blood started to boil again as I took the phone back from Jack and dialed Coop.
“Don't yell at me. Get my mom and Fitz and the kids out. We have a major situation.” I hung up again before he could argue.
Jack took the phone and dropped it into a glass of soda. None of us spoke. We just got up and grabbed the doctor. Jack gave her a look as he lifted a rod—a cattle prod maybe. “This is going to hurt.” He jabbed her with it delicately. I let go as it made contact and she tensed, making a slight grunting noise. He pulled the cattle prod and went about gathering his few things he had brought in.
“You fucker!” She twitched and breathed like she had run a marathon.
“You likely are being traced, Janice. It’s even possible your own little nanobots are inside you. I just shorted everything for you.”
She winced. “Good point.” She didn't seem less annoyed. I didn't blame her. Being electrocuted wasn't fun for anyone.
With the clothes on our backs and the thick socks on my feet, we hurried out and down the street of the old house. Luce ran ahead, knowing we needed wheels.
Jack slipped inside a house—one of the ones in the Portobello area that looked shabby on the outside, but you knew were redone inside and worth a couple of million pounds. He hurried back to me and Janice, already on the phone he had lifted from inside the house. “Meet us where I told you I owned royal property. Bring the whole crew.” He hung up and dropped the phone into a puddle.
Janice looked confused and still a little worried.
I gave her my best attempt at a kind expression. “We will sort this out. You just might have to never be you again.”
She cringed and nodded.
I knew exactly what was going through her mind and how much it hurt.
Chapter Sixteen
Bond, Jack Bond
“You know the one good thing about the EU is their lack of border patrols.” Jack chuckled to himself as he drove us in the car Luce had stolen in Paris.
“I don't think this was the intended use of the union.” Luce opened her window and let the wind blow all over us. “But you’re right, this is awesome.”
We had made it two countries over but had gone in wild zigzagging patterns. I was tired and ready to kill someone. But sitting was better than anything for my feet so I suffered in silence and lost all feeling in my butt as Jack zoomed along the Autobahn.
I moaned and stretched, earning a look from Janice. “You have ADHD, don't you?”
“What? No?”
She nodded. “You do. I bet you can’t ever sit still and you change your mind constantly, and you hate choosing anything and being stuck with it.”
I scoffed. “You can’t tell that by a stretch and a yawn. And no, I don’t.”
Jack and Luce sniggered in the front seat like assholes, but I refused to admit there was any possibility my being antsy was anything other than a lack of constant peace and daily yoga classes.
“I have it. That's how I recognize the symptoms.”
“Awesome.” I nodded, not certain where this was going but getting less patient as the conversation continued.
“My dad has it as well. It’s genetic. My research was actually moving into the neurotransmitters of the brain, working toward regulating the output of dopamine pathways. It could actually work its way into depression, with serotonin levels being regulated.” Her eyes glazed over as she sighed. “It was going to be revolutionary.”
My heart, which was no longer in survival-Evie mode, twinged a little for her. This was her baby. She was thirty-one years old, single, living alone in a shitty apartment, and in a foreign country, and that research was all of her accomplishments. It was her life.
That made me hurt for her. Not badly enough to allow me to believe that we should free her and let the whole world suffer as a result.
“So when you gave your research to Dr. Drusack—”
“Oh, I never gave him the research, just a container of drone-like nanorobots, simply programmed to follow one task.” She shook her head. “He doesn’t know how to make them or anything like that. And the program I gave him that was initiated with him giving them one single command is actually corrupted. Once it was set to run with whatever he asked them to do, the program ended. It was a one-time use.”
Jack glanced back in the rearview mirror. “So he came to you and asked for some nanorobots and you just gave them to him?”
“I did.” She nodded. “I thought that he was going to help me branch out with my research. He has published far greater studies than I ever will and the research is protected. I never imagined he would use it for anything like that. In fact, he told me he wouldn't. He’s a scientist. All scientists want to preserve life on the earth; it isn’t ever about killing innocent people for us.”
Luce gave me a sideways glance. I knew what she wanted me to do, but I didn't want to do it. I didn't think it was ours to share. If she managed to get away from us, Janice could tell others of the Burrow. I shook my head subtly. “Loose lips sink ships,” I muttered.
Janice agreed. “Indeed.”
“So he asked for a specific number of nanorobots?”
“Yes. He said he needed five hundred for testing. He was going to do five groups of fifty and we had to account for mishaps and malfunctions. You always provide for double the amount needed in testing. He said he would be a few months with it. I planned to publish long before then. I had already filed my patents to protect the rights.”
“How did he program each of them to detonate bombs in various locations if the bots each had one program?”
Jack answered Luce’s question for Janice, “He programmed the bots to detonate the bombs. They each would have had the same bomb and the same detonation and the same time. Or he just programmed them to deliver a package at the exact same time. It was the people who went to the many individual hospitals that would have made the location difference.”
Janice nodded. “That's right. If he asked them to go to the hospitals as delivery people and they didn't know they were each carrying s
omething evil inside them, he could have run the one program on the bots and detonated five hundred bombs.”
“But now he’s out of bots, but if he still has a few, he’s unable to program the ones he has left?”
She shrugged. “I don't know. He might have saved a few. The program has run its course though. The bots he has are useless if he can’t find the codes to program them.”
“We will kill him long before he ever gets to that stage.” Jack sighed and continued driving.
My insides were cramping and my breathing was hurting, but I knew I didn't have time to be injured.
I pulled the disgusting socks off and unwound the bandages. Seeing the cuts and scrapes and swelling of my feet was defeating. They looked worse.
“Good God, you are fairly extreme.” Janice leaned in to get a better look.
Luce laughed. “She is the most extreme. If a job needs to get done, this is your woman.”
I scoffed. “No. I have a terribly strong sense of survival, that's all. I hate pain, but I hate being caught or losing more. Highly competitive maybe, but extreme—no.”
“Being extreme is another ADHD symptom. They have proven the trait has overcome Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest because people with ADHD are predisposed to being better hunters. They are more likely to do extreme things and hyper focus with activities they enjoy. And women are instinctively attracted to extreme men; we are drawn to them and therefore carry the genetic disability through to the next generation.”
“Well, sign me up then. I need some hyper focus.”
She laughed. “Oh, I think you might be the president of the club.”
Luce laughed. “It’s all fairly accurate, you know.”
I pulled my hand out of Servario’s baggy trousers and acted surprised by the middle finger I found in there for her.
They both laughed. I wished I could laugh, but I was stuck on the fact that my father was part of something evil. He knew I was helping the Burrow and he had to know the Burrow was misusing its assets. I couldn't help but wonder if my mom knew as well. Servario clearly knew. He had warned us about Janice because the Burrow wanted her. They had sent him to get her. Obviously. The problem was his membership to the Organization. They wanted Janice too. So he sent us to retrieve her for the Burrow and sent himself and hired the most inept group of bad guys I had ever seen to be his team. He had set himself up for a failed abduction.