Dangerous in Motion (Aegis Group Alpha Team, #4)

by Sidney Bristol

  The SUV bumped over the road and her eyes popped open.

  Had she fallen asleep again?

  She blinked out the window. The vehicle crawled along on the clogged streets. This must be the evening rush hour. She did her best to keep her eyes on the sky, otherwise her brain would start tallying up the various diseases from the street filth alone.

  “This is us.” Kyle directed Adam to pull into a gated lot outside a tall, concrete and glass building. “We’re going to check things out. You three stay here, okay?”

  Adam was directed to park in a valet spot by a uniformed attendant while the other vehicle was guided next to them. Heidi took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts. They were here to find out information that would hopefully put an end to this mole business. If they could find evidence that someone in the CDC was behind all the outbreaks, they’d have a smaller suspect pool. Once they knew who was responsible, they could stop them.

  Both Adam and Kyle got out, leaving Heidi, Cindy and John in the SUV.

  “How are things between you two?” Cindy asked.

  “Complicated.” Heidi watched Adam stroll to the gates, while Kyle entered the building.

  “Does anyone else think we need to go back to Atlanta?” John twisted in his seat.

  “And tell them what?” Cindy asked.

  “The truth?”

  “We need to know what we’re dealing with before we go after whoever is working with Léo.” Heidi turned to face the other two. “He’s dangerous, so the mole is, too. We have to have the facts straight before we accuse anyone of anything.”

  “I hate to say it, but Heidi is right,” Cindy said.

  Heidi was more than a little surprised it was Cindy siding with her. The woman was the poster child for careful. Still, with her meticulous eyes on this, Heidi thought they stood a good chance of uncovering something major.

  Someone tapped on the window. Heidi turned in time to see Adam pull her door open. He offered her his hand and helped her step down out of the SUV. She stepped to his side, making way for Cindy and John to get out after her.

  “Follow me, everyone?” Kyle waved them toward the condo.

  “Where are you going?” Heidi peered up at Adam. A few hours together and now she didn’t want to be away from him.

  “Bringing the equipment up the service elevator.”

  She nodded, his answer placating her for now.

  Heidi followed the others into the lobby. The exterior and interior did not match, one bit. While the outside was fairly boring concrete, balconies and windows, the lobby was gleaming chrome, miles of hardwood, and lush flowers. Everyone in the lobby wore either a uniform like the valets or was decked out in designer clothing. Heidi was distinctly aware of the travel weary state of her clothes.

  “This way.” Kyle waved them into an elevator with two attendants.

  Heidi glanced out to the parking lot once, catching sight of Adam hauling a large crate out from the back of the other SUV. She stepped onto the elevator and stared at the chrome finishing, letting her mind wander.

  She’d given up hope that she and Adam could ever be more to each other than what they were. The idea that they had potential left her reeling, floating in uncharted waters, buoyed by hope.

  It was a dangerous place to be.

  They road all the way up to the top most floor without anyone speaking. The elevator dinged and one of the building staff swiped a card before the doors opened.

  Instead of letting them out to a hallway, the doors revealed a comfortable living room full of warm colors and scattered with toys.

  “Kyle, so good to see you!” A tall woman with thick, curling hair and a wide smile strode toward the elevator.

  “Mrs. Basu—”

  “Mrs. Basu? Seriously?” The woman came to a stop next to Kyle and wrapped her arm around his shoulders, giving him a friendly squeeze. She peered at the rest of them, an inner light shining out through her eyes that was full of wonder and joy. “Hello, I’m Aanya. Come inside, please? Is this everyone?”

  “No, ma’am. Adam and two other guys are bringing our luggage up. Thanks for offering to put us up like this.” Kyle and Aanya strolled past the first seating area.

  “What happened to Shane and Isaac? I don’t remember the other one’s name.” Aanya frowned.

  “Sick leave, ma’am.”

  “Are they okay?”

  “They will be.”

  Once they entered the suite, she could see the spacious layout of the floor. Directly in front of them was what appeared to be the main living area of the house, judging by the toys. A galley kitchen stretched along the left, running parallel to a long, formal dining table. Aanya led them to the sofas. A pitcher of water and glasses sat on the coffee table.

  “Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” she asked.

  Heidi would have preferred to shower and change before sitting on someone’s furniture, but she was too tired for all that. She eased down onto the sofa while the others helped themselves to the water.

  “How’s Tommy?” Kyle asked.

  “Good. He’s doing really well. My husband went to see if he’s napping yet. He’s always wanted to meet you.”

  There was a story there, one Heidi didn’t know. When she had the energy to be curious she’d have to ask Adam about it.

  “Are our guests here?” a man called out.

  “I hear my husband.” Aanya grinned.

  A man rounded the end of the living room. He reached for his wife without looking at her while offering Kyle his right hand.

  The couple was happy and in love. Heidi could see it in the way they leaned toward each other, the confidence that the other was there. It was the kind of connection she’d always wanted with Adam. Was it possible they could have that still? Or had that ship sailed? Heidi wanted to believe.

  “Heidi? Hey, Heidi.” John nudged her.

  Heidi blinked her eyes back into focus. She’d gotten lost staring at the sunset.

  “Sorry—what?” She twisted back toward the group and found everyone staring at her.

  “We need to get Dev and Aanya up to speed.” Kyle walked to the sofa across from her and sat down, the couple following him. “You’re going to speak the same language. Mind laying out our problem for them?”

  “Of course.” Come on, Heidi. Get your head out of your ass. “Uh... Over the last year we have worked on some unexplainable outbreaks. Mutated strains of diseases that have been eradicated. Diseases popping up where they’ve never been before. A few of the outbreaks were the work of the same disease, but there was no way for it to infect remote locations with no common vector. Baffling things.”

  “This is where we came in,” John said.

  “I work in virology. John works in epidemiology. Cindy heads up a special team that focuses on Zika. We had an outbreak that was a mutated form of Zika in Canada, during the winter.”

  “How?” Dev Basu’s face scrunched up.

  “Someone forced the Zika virus to mutate. With Cindy’s help we were able to deconstruct our sample and identified traces of the rhinovirus which helped this new strain survive in colder climates and without the need for the mosquito vector.”

  “Wait—this is all news to me.” Kyle frowned. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “Someone took the common cold and crossed it with Zika, creating a more contagious strain,” Cindy said.

  Three familiar figures entered by way of the kitchen. Adam’s presence eased the slight nervousness that had unsettled her mind. She let her attention shift back to the others.

  “Why?” Aanya blinked at her husband.

  “This is just one example. It took me, six? Eight months?” Heidi glanced at the others but they merely shrugged. “It wasn’t until a few months ago that, with John’s help, we identified one of the building blocks to another outbreak. It contained a strain of polio thought to have been eradicated. The only place where that strain lives is at the CDC in a research lab.”

  “Yo
u think someone inside the CDC sold samples?” Dev asked.

  “We think it’s worse than that.” Heidi grimaced. “Once we understood how to reverse engineer, the viruses we were able to identify two other strains kept in the same CDC lab. Now, all of this sounds terrible, but this is just what we deal with. Once we realized someone was making these, we started tracking patterns. Unexplainable outbreaks. To us, it was clear someone was doing this. What’s worse, these outbreaks weren’t raising flags in the CDC.”

  “That’s my area,” John said. “I took Heidi’s research and started combing through CDC records, which was when I discovered someone was amending reports. Changing things so they wouldn’t send up red flags.”

  “That’s when we stopped talking about this at work,” Cindy said.

  “I’ve been going out into the field more to try to understand what we’re up against, which was why I went to Peru two weeks ago.” Heidi had always wanted to do more field work and get out of the lab. She just hadn’t thought this would be how it happened. “We were beginning to realize there were other impacts to people getting sick. That where these outbreaks were, they disrupted trade, maybe someone’s control on the area.”

  “Our team back in Seattle have put together an economic report on the impact of these outbreaks.” Riley, the slow talking, easy smiling guy of the group, sat down on the edge of the sofa and leaned forward. “Out of Heidi’s list of outbreaks, we were able to identify power changes, independent covert ops, enough instances of things going in a direction they shouldn’t that there has to be a connection.”

  “Exactly.” Heidi nodded. “And the vaccines?”

  “What?” Dev’s frown deepened.

  “This is why we’re here.” Kyle glanced at Dev then Riley. “You have the printouts?”

  “Right here.” Riley pulled a folded stack of paper out from under his arm. “While half of the outbreaks on Heidi’s list were directly related to some other event, we think some of them were dry runs. In these circumstances, Sorkin Pharmaceuticals produced a ready for market vaccine within six to eight weeks and had it on the market.”

  “Sorkin?” Dev took the papers, but barely glanced at them.

  “We were hoping you might know something about them,” Riley said.

  “To be honest, I wasn’t sure how they were still surviving.” Dev shrugged. “They lost several contracts for compounding and their patents for products have missed the market needs. Do you think they’re behind all of this?”

  “We don’t know,” Kyle replied. “We are hoping to get in and talk to the CEO tomorrow. Get some answers.”

  “How are you involved in all this?” Dev asked.

  “Heidi, John and Cindy are our clients. We’re helping them get to the bottom of this so they can go to the authorities,” Kyle replied.

  “I see.” Dev flipped through the pages. “The Sorkin CEO couldn’t organize this. He’s a hard working man, but he wouldn’t have the skills to pull off what you’re describing.”

  “He could have answers though, right?” Heidi knew this wasn’t a quick fix that they were facing a larger plot. This was just their first move.

  “It doesn’t make sense that whoever is behind this would use the same company to cure their diseases over and over and over again,” Riley said.

  “Something’s not adding up. We need to talk to this CEO,” Heidi said.

  “I’m not sure we can help you with this. Any action by me or our company would be viewed with hostility.” Dev set the papers down on the coffee table.

  “You’re already doing more than we’d hoped for. All we wanted to do was ask a few questions,” Kyle said.

  “You didn’t actually think we would let you come to Mumbai and not have you over for dinner?” Aanya laughed. “Speaking of dinner, it should be here in the next hour. Would you like showers or anything before?”

  “WiFi?” Kyle asked.

  “I like your priorities.” Aanya grinned.

  “Aanya can show you our spare rooms and Kyle, I can show you where you can set up.”

  “Would you mind if I kept John and Cindy for a moment? We haven’t had a chance to revisit our lists, and I’d like to do that.” Heidi glanced at the other two who nodded.

  “Certainly. I’ll get them settled.” Aanya nodded at Adam and the other two. “Need anything?”

  “No, thank you.” Heidi smiled.

  Adam caught her eye and gave a little nod before ambling off after their hostess.

  Heidi’s heart did weird loops in her chest. God, she hoped she wasn’t being set up for a crushing fall.

  “Well?” Cindy prompted.

  “Sorry.” Heidi shook her head. Right, they had things to do before she could sort out the next move with Adam. “Knowing what we know, can we add or eliminate anyone to our suspect list?”

  “I’ll say,” Cindy muttered.

  “It has to be someone in management. Someone who has access to my lab.” John stared at a spot on the floor. “I just... I can’t believe it, you know? Who?”

  “If we’re saying management and the epidemiology labs...that’s a short list.” Heidi could probably count the suspects on two hands and have fingers left over.

  “Well, it’s not John, so we can mark him off,” Cindy said.

  “Are you sure?” John chuckled, but it was a bitter sound.

  “Don’t talk like that. We’re the only people we can trust.” Heidi pushed to her feet.

  “He’s right, though. We need to be able to eliminate ourselves, otherwise we could be putting ourselves at risk,” Cindy said.

  “Really?” Heidi turned to face them.

  “We have to prove that you were kidnapped and not gone voluntarily,” Cindy said.

  “You can’t be serious...” Heidi gaped at the other woman. “You’re serious?”

  “We are talking about accusing some top ranking doctors at the CDC of engineering outbreaks. I’m dead serious.” Cindy stared right back at her.

  “How do we do that?” Heidi was too tired to think of a way out of this. It was all so convoluted without adding complications. “I’d say, I brought that tablet out with me, but then you’d counter with of course I’d bring back the most pointless piece of evidence.”

  Heidi paced the living room. They really did not need more challenges than what they already had, but she could see the value to Cindy’s assertion. How did they know they could trust each other? Whoever was behind this was someone they’d worked with and trusted before.

  “This is ridiculous. We can trust each other. We have to believe in that. The moment we stop is when we might as well give up.” John stared at both of them. He’d pushed his hands through his hair to the point that it stuck up in silver and brown waves.

  “We need to cross all our t’s and dot all the i’s,” Cindy said.

  “I’m not disagreeing with you, but we’re going to spin our wheels trying to prove our innocence while wasting the time we have here, getting to the bottom of everything.”

  “I’m with John for now.” Heidi stopped and faced the other two. “I agree that we’re going to have to be pretty blameless ourselves, but we can’t squander the opportunity we have while we’re here to get answers.”

  Aanya strode into the living room, still smiling.

  “Need more time, or are you three ready?” she asked.

  “I’d love a shower,” Heidi said. She hated the grimy feeling of traveling, plus a shower might help some ideas shake loose.

  “This way, please?” Aanya turned.

  Cindy took off after Aanya while John waited on Heidi.

  “How are things with Adam?” He pitched his voice lower.

  “I think we’re working it all out.” Heidi would never have guessed she’d say those words. Not in a million years.

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” John peered down at her.

  “I want to believe it can work.” If it couldn’t, she didn’t want to know. Not right now.

  They fell in behi
nd their hostess and Cindy, passing passed through the kitchen and dining area. Past the table and chairs a set of stairs led to the floor below.

  “Kyle and my husband are still in the office, but everyone else is down here.” Aanya led the way to the second floor of the condo.

  The stairs let out into a play area and another living room, this one done in bright, primary colors. Unlike the very adult space upstairs, this was clearly where the children of the family reigned.

  “How many kids do you have?” Heidi asked.

  “Currently, one. You’ll meet Tommy at dinner.” Aanya glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “I don’t think I kept your names straight. My apologies. Ma’am? This is your room. Dinner should be here and ready in half an hour or so.”

  Aanya pushed the door open and gestured to Cindy.

  Cindy marched into the room without a backward glance and shut the door.

  Aanya glanced at John next and gestured at the door across the hall from Cindy’s.

  “These are the smaller rooms, but they’re more private,” Aanya explained.

  “You want to take this one, then?” John asked. His kind eyes said he understood that after enough failed marriages he got Heidi’s struggles.

  “Heidi’s room is down the hall,” Aanya said before Heidi could decline.

  “Oh, well, I will see you at dinner.” John ducked into his room.

  John and Cindy were almost painfully introverted. This much travel and interacting with people outside their profession must wear on them.

  “This way, please.” Aanya nodded across the living room down another hall.

  “You have a lovely home.” Heidi couldn’t imagine having all this space to herself.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re American?”

  “The lack of an accent gives me away, doesn’t it?” Aanya’s smile widened. “I met Dev through friends. He splits his time between here and America. More here now since...well, it’s a long story.”