Rogue Angel 53: Bathed in Blood
Page 23
Until this morning, when she’d been summoned to Prague.
They reached the end of the hall and a set of double doors. Her minder knocked once, then opened the door.
“He’s waiting for you inside.”
“Thank you,” she said, nodding, and then walked past him and into the room beyond.
It was a lavish study, furnished in dark woods and leather but with a touch of modern styling that helped it rise above the banal.
A man stepped out from behind the massive granite desk in the corner of the room and came toward her, his hand extended in greeting.
“Dr. Stone, a pleasure to meet you at last. My name’s Garin Braden.”
Her host was a tall, athletic man with long dark hair, a goatee and dark eyes that shone with confidence. She found herself attracted to him immediately, a response that was entirely unlike her, and she was momentarily nonplussed.
“The, ah, pleasure is all mine, Mr. Braden.”
He smiled as he shook her hand. “Please, Garin is fine.”
He led her over to a leather chair pulled up in front of his desk and indicated that she should sit, before resuming his seat on the other side.
Braden wasted no time getting down to business. “I understand the project has undergone a setback.”
Stone flushed; she wasn’t used to having her failures talked about so openly.
“Yes, that’s true,” she replied, covering her discomfort with studied nonchalance, “but it’s nothing more than a minor inconvenience.”
Braden raised an eyebrow. “You call the loss of a five-million-dollar facility and all the staff a minor inconvenience? How...interesting.”
Stone knew she was right and pushed ahead. “We could lose ten such facilities and still be ahead of the game.” She held up the small leather case she carried. “All the data was pulled from the computers before the authorities arrived, and it’s stored right here on this drive. We can start fresh anywhere you want and at any time. I assure you, the money we’ll earn from this project will buy another such facility ten times over.”
“I see. Mr. Kovács has kept me informed of your progress, but I’m not entirely sure what happened three weeks ago. Perhaps you could bring me up to speed?”
She sighed. “A woman managed to disrupt our operation unexpectedly. I was able to save the research from falling into the wrong hands, however, so we can move forward again as soon as you give the word.”
Braden continued gazing at her steadily as he asked, “Does this woman have a name?”
Stone hesitated. She had the sudden sense that she should tread carefully, but she had no idea why. At last, she said, “Her name is Annja Creed.”
“Is? I take it she has yet to be dealt with?”
“Yes, but it’s only a matter of time. Every loose end will be taken care of.”
Her host nodded. “As they should be. Tell me, what of the research? It has been several weeks since your last report to Mr. Kovács.”
Stone smiled. “Let me show you what we’ve accomplished.”
She reached across the desk and picked up the stiletto-like letter opener lying there. Braden didn’t say anything as she pulled up one sleeve and slashed the blade across the outside of her forearm. Blood welled up in a thin line.
“Watch,” Stone said.
Braden looked on noncommittally as first the blood stopped and then the cut itself closed right before their eyes.
“My healing ability is growing more powerful every day. I’ve healed broken bones, punctures, even a bullet wound.”
“Have you now? And all that’s a result of those tiny little prions floating through your veins?”
She leaned forward, eager to share her success. “Yes! I’m just days away from creating a synthesized version of it, as well. We’ve been giving our clients a harvested version from the blood of the living, but without continued injections the prions...die off, for lack of better terminology. But with a synthetic version, we can keep them in place indefinitely.”
Stone’s face was flushed with excitement as she said, “Think of it! We’re talking virtual immortality here!”
Braden smiled. “I’d say that calls for a drink, don’t you?”
Before she could answer, he rose from behind the desk and moved over to the drink cart standing against one wall. “Brandy all right?” he asked over one shoulder as he pulled out two snifter glasses.
“Yes, that would be just fine.”
She could hear him making the drinks—the sound of ice dropping into the glass followed by the soft gurgle of the pouring liquid—but when he turned around he only had one glass in hand.
“Actually, I much prefer whiskey,” he said, taking a sip, “and since I’m drinking alone I might as well indulge.”
Her mind was still trying to process what he’d said when he brought his other hand up, and Stone found herself staring down the barrel of a handgun.
“What are...?”
That was all she managed to get out before the sound of the gun filled the room and she knew no more.
* * *
GARIN REMAINED WHERE he was, though he did lower the gun. He gazed curiously at the body across the floor from him, paying particular attention to the bullet hole in the center of the woman’s forehead as he calmly sipped his drink.
A thin line of blood slipped down the flesh of her face, but that was the only sign of activity he could see, even after fifteen minutes of waiting.
He sighed.
Apparently she hadn’t been as close to virtual immortality as she’d thought.
The room was filled with the smell of cordite and bodily waste. The rug behind Stone’s chair was now littered with blood, bone and brain matter. Garin hardly noticed any of it. After living for six hundred years, the sight and stink of death had become almost commonplace.
The Báthory project had been a long shot from the start. He’d heard about Stone’s research and had decided to bankroll her efforts in the event that her discoveries might shed some light on his own longevity. He’d even suspected that the bloodline she’d been tracing might come full circle; he’d sown his oats far and wide in those early years, and it wasn’t a stretch to think Stone might have confused a German bloodline for a Hungarian one. But none of that mattered in light of what she’d actually achieved.
There was no way the fools of this day and age were ready for something so powerful. Not by a long shot.
And Kovács... When Garin had learned that his executive director was concealing Stone’s more brutal methods, he’d brought the man in for a final meeting before permanently ending their relationship.
He put down his now-empty glass and walked over to the body. Stone’s hand had clenched at the moment of death, and he had to pry the leather case containing the hard drive from her grip. Straightening, he leaned over his desk and pressed a button on the intercom. A moment later there was a discreet knock on his door.
“Come.”
His man, Griggs, stepped inside the room.
“Sir?”
Garin gestured at the mess in the chair across from him. “Ms. Stone’s appointment is over. Get a team in here to see her out and clean the place up.”
Griggs didn’t blink an eye; he’d no doubt heard the gunshot and was the last man who would question his employer’s actions.
That was one of the things Braden appreciated in a man like Griggs—he knew his place in the food chain, and his discretion was absolute.
“We’re headed back to Munich. How soon can the chopper be ready?”
“I can have it warmed up on the pad in ten minutes.”
“Excellent.”
He glanced at the body one more time and nearly laughed. Stone had probably gone to her death thinking she’d been executed for her loss of the research facility, but the actual reason was much simpler than that.
She’d threatened Annja, and that was something Garin did not tolerate unless he was the one doing it.
Not that Annja coul
dn’t have handled the woman on her own, but then again, it was the principle of the matter.
He headed for the door, the leather case holding the extent of Stone’s research clasped firmly in one hand.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460379134
Bathed in Blood
Copyright © 2015 by Worldwide Library
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Joe Nassise for his contribution to this work.
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