Breeding Evil

by Liz Wolfe

  “I’m Cathy Silvers with InfoTech Professionals.”

  “Cathy is working on our computer virus problem,”

  Dr. Carlson said to him. “Cathy, do whatever you think is necessary. I’ll be here until two this afternoon.”

  “Perfect. I just need to get that diskette, and I’ll be back in under an hour.” Shelby grabbed the glass from Carlson’s hand, being careful not to smudge the prints the good doctor had left on it.

  Fortunately, she had the equipment she needed in the trunk of her car, so she didn’t even need to drive back to Tucson. She dumped the water from the glass, set it in the cup holder of the console, and drove to the closest gas station. The bathroom provided everything necessary to cast the thumbprints she’d gotten from the doctors. Shelby locked the door and opened a small case, taking out the items she needed. When the polymer was mixed into a smooth paste, she applied it to the glass and to the back of her hand. The hand dryer supplied the heat she needed to cure it quickly. Both prints lifted neatly, and it only took a few more minutes to transfer them to the special molds she’d prepared earlier.

  Shelby now had portable thumbprints from both doctors. Of course, she had to get into their offices and manage to use the thumbprints without them knowing about it.

  Less than half an hour later, she walked into The Center, latex sleeves with the doctors’ thumbprints tucked safely in her padded tee shirt. She hated the hot, padded clothes, but there were some advantages, like being able to store a lot of equipment.

  The guard let her in and called Dr. Carlson. The doctor stomped into the reception area and motioned Shelby to follow her. Evidently, she disliked being interrupted. Shelby thanked her and pretended to log onto the network. As soon as she left, Shelby turned her cell phone on again. There was one missed call from Ethan. Great, maybe he had an answer that meant she wouldn’t have to skulk around trying to get into the doctors’ computers. She punched in the number, and Ethan answered.

  “Sorry, Shelby.”

  Crap. That didn’t bode well for her fantasy of being able to fix this easily.

  “What?”

  “According to Ted, it’s a software program the doctors asked him to install. It’s hidden and sends an alert to the doctors if it’s disabled.”

  “Crap.” She thought that summed up the situation succinctly.

  “I know. It looks like the only option is for you to try to download as much as you can.”

  “Crap.”

  “You already said that.”

  “Yeah, but I really mean it this time. Did Ted mention how the doctors are alerted? I need to know if they’re going to get the big red warning sign on their computers.”

  “Hold on, Josh is talking to him.” Shelby said a little prayer while Ethan posed the question.

  “Ted says it will appear on Dr. Carlson’s computer when she logs into the network, but not on Dr. Thomas’.”

  Shelby mumbled a few expletives, which didn’t make her feel any better, but let Ethan know that they had a big problem. “OK. I have to get into Dr. Carlson’s office and log her computer onto the network, before she has a chance to.”

  “Is that a possibility?”

  “I’ve got the thumbprint already. I just have to get past the security lock on her office door.”

  “What about her network password?”

  “I memorized it when she logged on for me yesterday. If it doesn’t work, I’ll reset it as the administrator and tell her there was a glitch in the network, and she’ll have to change it.” Sure, no problem. As long as Dr. Carlson didn’t come into her office for anything while Shelby was in there.

  “Can you manage to hang around there long enough to get the files?”

  “Downloading from the network isn’t a problem. I just need to bring in my equipment.” She patted her puffy abdomen. Plenty of room there. “I’ll have to get into the doctors’ offices again to get their files. But first things first.”

  “Let me know when you get that message off Dr. Carlson’s screen.”

  Shelby ended the phone call and headed back to the lab. She almost forgot to breathe when she saw Dr. Carlson and Dr. Thomas leaving the lab.

  “Is it two already?” Shelby asked.

  “Not quite, but Dr. Thomas and I are leaving for a while.”

  “Oh, I got the diskette, but it’s going to take a while to clean up all the files.”

  “Then you’ll just have to finish up tomorrow. I can’t stay around all afternoon waiting for you.”

  “There’s no reason you have to be here, Ruth. One of the guards can let her out when she’s finished,” Dr. Thomas suggested.

  Dr. Carlson seemed to consider the idea. She didn’t look too happy about it, but she finally nodded. “Very well. I’ll have the guard check in on you. How long will you be staying?”

  “It’s going to take several days to get the whole job done.”

  “I see. Well, be out of here by four today. I’ll let the guard know that you’ll be leaving then.” Dr. Carlson pulled out the ever-present inhaler and took a good whiff, motioned to Dr. Thomas, and walked toward the reception area. Talk about your lousy bedside manner.

  Shelby could barely keep the smile off her face. She’d have plenty of time to get into the offices. Too bad she didn’t have the equipment to download the files today. On the other hand, Carlson was probably going to have the guard watch her like a hawk, so she still needed to be careful.

  Shelby headed back toward the computer room to give the doctors time to get out of the building and drive away. She checked her padded tummy pouch to make sure she had the equipment to decode the door lock and walked back down the hallway.

  “Where are you going?”

  Crap. The guard.

  “Ladies’ room. Is that a problem?”

  The guard grunted, glanced into the computer room, and then turned back to the reception area. So much for having all the time in the world. He hadn’t taken long to check on her, and Shelby had no idea how often he planned to repeat it.

  She hurried down the hall, pulling the equipment out as she ran. It only took a few seconds to attach it to the security lock and less than a minute for the code to be displayed. She committed it to memory and punched in the numbers. While the laptop booted up, she slipped the latex sleeve over her thumb. As soon as the login screen appeared, she pressed the print against the reader and held her breath. It worked. Shelby punched in Carlson’s password and jumped up to see if anyone was coming down the hallway.

  Dr. McRae was standing at the far end of the hall, looking at a chart attached to a clipboard. As soon as the laptop beeped, she hustled over to the desk. Sure enough, the bright red warning sign was on Carlson’s screen. Shelby typed in the commands to delete it, logged out, and turned off the laptop. Now to get back to the computer room.

  Dr. McRae was still in the hall. He’d put the chart away and was talking to the guard. The restroom was just around the corner from Dr. Carlson’s office. But Shelby had to get there without either of them seeing her. Dr. McRae looked up, straight at the pane of glass in Dr. Carlson’s door. Shelby jerked back. Crap. When she looked again, Dr. McRae was pointing to something and talking to the guard, both their backs to her. Seizing the opportunity, she scuttled out and around the corner into the restroom. She gave herself a moment to calm down and then walked out into the now empty hallway, edging over to the door that led to the reception area and poked her head in.

  “Hey. Just wanted to let you know I’m going back to the computer room now.” The guard grunted, and she closed the door. Shelby hurried over to Dr. Thomas’ door and attached the decoder module. Might as well get his code, too, while the security cameras were out of commission. As soon as the code flashed, she memorized it and disconnected the equipment.

  “Ms. Silvers.” Dr. McRae turned as she walked into the computer room, sounding surprised to see her there. “I’d forgotten that you were coming in today. Any luck with the virus?”

  “Some. Th
e program I used wasn’t working completely, so I have to go through all the files individually.”

  “I see. Well, I won’t keep you.” He nodded and turned back to the door.

  “Did you need something?”

  “No. I just saw the light on and wondered who was here on a Saturday.”

  “Just me.” She dug into her backpack and fished out a slightly squished tuna sandwich. “If you need to work in here, I was about to go eat my lunch.”

  “No, I don’t need anything in here. But I’ll join you for lunch, if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure.” Shelby smiled. The scum doctor was being so very nice.

  “There’s a little courtyard outside. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes. Can I bring you anything?”

  “Uh, yeah. A soda would be good.”

  Shelby thought it was highly unlikely that he was looking for a lunch companion, which meant he wanted something.

  She chose a seat in the sparse shade, ever mindful of her sweltering disguise. Dr. McRae joined her a few minutes later with an ice-cold soda and a bag of chips. For his own lunch, he’d purchased a pre-packaged sandwich that claimed to be turkey and cheese according to the wrapper.

  “So, are you adjusting to the weather here?”

  “Yeah. It’s kind of hot, but I guess that’s just going to get worse, huh?” Shelby opened the squished sandwich and took a big bite. With her mouth full the conversational ball was in his court.

  “That’s what I hear. I’ve only been here for a month myself.” Dr. McRae nibbled on his sandwich.

  “What made you come here?”

  “The Center made me a good offer. And it’s a chance to work with children. They do quite a bit of research with gifted children.”

  “Really? You like kids, huh?”

  “I find them easier to deal with than most adults.” McRae shrugged. “Children are so much more open and up front about what they’re feeling and what they think.”

  “I guess they don’t have as much to hide yet.” That comment earned her a sharp glance.

  “Back in DC, I coached a soccer team. The kids were great. Biggest problem I had was dealing with the parents.”

  “You coached a soccer team?” That bit of intel didn’t exactly fit with his background check.

  “Sure. Great way to keep in shape.”

  “I’ve got to get back to work. It’s going to take some time to go through all the files individually to clean up the virus.”

  “So, you’ll be around for a while?”

  “Oh, yeah. For a few days at least.”

  “Then we’ll have to have lunch again.”

  “Sure.” Shelby wadded her sandwich wrapper up and tossed it into a trashcan. She then headed back to the computer room wondering why Dr. McRae wanted to be so damn friendly. Not that she had a problem with that. There were worse things than listening to that accent and looking into those bright green eyes. But she couldn’t help wondering what he was getting out of it.

  There really wasn’t much she could do back in the computer room. She didn’t have the equipment with her to download files so she just nosed around the network. She tried some searches to see if there was anything with Shannon Masterson’s name on it, but came up with nothing.

  Dr. Carlson had sounded like they were coming back at some point so Shelby didn’t want to risk breaking into one of their offices again. But with the security cameras out of service, she might as well take the opportunity to check the place out. She pulled a diskette out of her backpack and quickly installed a couple of harmless viruses that Josh had made for her, then started the virus scan. Anyone who looked at the screen would assume that she was cleaning the mole virus from the files on the network.

  She opened a few doors along the hallway, but found only janitor and storage closets. The double doors to the lab were at the end of the hall, and she approached cautiously since they had big windows. As Shelby inched up to the doors, she could hear voices. One was definitely Dr. Carlson.

  “There’s no way he could be aware of what we did,” Dr. Carlson said.

  “I know. It’s just that he’s asked some rather probing questions.” The voice sounded like Jonah Thomas, but Shelby couldn’t be sure.

  “About what?”

  “He said he remembered some strange dreams that he’d had during the EEG and wondered about them.”

  “What were they about?”

  “They were sexual in nature. And unusual. That’s all he would tell me.” The man’s voice sounded disappointed.

  “I was sure we’d given him enough anesthesia that he wouldn’t remember anything,” Dr. Carlson said.

  Whoa! What had they done to this guy? And who was he?

  “The electro ejaculation procedure had to feel unusual to him. His mind would register that even if he had no real memory of what happened.”

  “I suppose. I just didn’t think this would be a problem.” Dr. Carlson sounded agitated.

  “It isn’t a problem. At least not yet.” It was definitely Dr. Thomas’ voice. “I told him that it was probably just that he’d been uncomfortable about having an EEG done while he was sleeping, and that it was nothing to worry about.”

  “And he believed you?” Dr. Carlson asked.

  “He seemed to. Don’t worry so, Ruth. If it becomes a problem, we’ll deal with it.”

  “I don’t want to get rid of him. I’d hoped to use his sperm in further experiments.”

  Eeeuuwww! Sperm? What were these people doing?

  “I know, Ruth. No need to panic. At the very worst, we’ll have to sedate him and harvest his sperm over a period of time. It isn’t the best case scenario, but it will work.”

  “Well, we knew that it would come to that eventually. There’s no other way to produce the babies we need for the program.”

  “I keep searching for other donors who are suitable. That’s very important for the long term.”

  “And we still need more mothers. That’s actually more important than the men.”

  “I have a lead on several right now,” Dr. Thomas said. “We should be able to bring them in within the next few months.”

  The door handle turned, and the door opened a crack. Shelby scanned the wide, empty hallway for a place to hide. There wasn’t so much as a water fountain in the hall.

  Crap.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Shelby awakened at four on Sunday morning still thinking about the conversation she’d overheard right before she’d made a mad sprint down the hall. If Carlson hadn’t turned back for a minute, she’d have been caught for sure. Not that she wouldn’t have talked her way out of it. Still, it was a close call.

  When she’d reported in to Ethan, he had the same reaction. The Center was doing something really wrong. But they still didn’t know exactly what or why. And she still had no clue as to where Shannon and her son were.

  Shelby slugged down a couple cups of coffee, wondering what to do at the crack of dawn, and then she remembered—she knew where Dr. McRae lived. She hadn’t had any luck finding him out and about before, but if she got there before he got up, she could certainly follow him around for a bit. Might be handy knowing what he did with his free time.

  McRae confused her. The intel from his background check didn’t mesh with what he’d told her about himself at all. Ethan had probably just done a basic background check, and that wouldn’t necessarily turn up something like coaching a soccer team. And, of course, McRae could be lying. But why? He certainly had no need to impress Cathy Silvers.

  At least Shelby wouldn’t have to wear the padded underwear today. She threw on a tank top and shorts, pulled her hair into a ponytail, and then shoved on a baseball cap and added large sunglasses. A quick check in the mirror assured her that she’d blend in with the general Tucson population. Certainly McRae wouldn’t suspect that she was Cathy Silvers. She drove to the airport, parked her Firebird, and rented a new white compact that looked like more than half the cars in Tucson.

 
McRae turned out to be a morning person too. She’d only been parked across from his apartment for half an hour when he came out. Following him was a little tricky since there weren’t many cars on the road at seven on a Sunday morning. He stopped at a small bakery and café for breakfast, and she was able to jog across the street to a fast food place and get an egg sandwich for herself.

  He’d bought a newspaper, and she expected him to linger over breakfast. But as soon as he finished eating, he returned to his car carrying several large boxes of pastries. Shelby followed him north on Oracle to a small nursing home in a residential area. She knew he’d moved to Tucson recently, so it was unlikely that he had a relative in a nursing home here. Besides, there were enough pastries in those boxes to feed a lot of people.

  Shelby hadn’t planned on getting too close to McRae, but curiosity got the better of her. She gave him about ten minutes and then followed him into the nursing home. The lobby was decorated with a couple of vinyl sofas left over from the seventies, not quite matching chairs, and a small reception area desk. Next to the dining room door was a sign that read: You are in Tucson. The month is May. Today is Sunday. Your next meal is Lunch. When she needed a sign like that, Shelby decided she was going to eat a bullet.

  “Hi,” she said to the middle-aged receptionist. “I’m checking out nursing homes for my grandmother. Do you have a brochure or anything like that?”

  “Oh, certainly, dear. Let me just find it for you.” The woman opened a drawer and rummaged around.

  “Looks like a party in there.” Shelby nodded toward the small cafeteria area where she could see people gathered around tables

  “Every Sunday Dr. McRae brings in some doughnuts and pastries for the residents. They just love it.”

  “He must really care about his patients,” Shelby said. She could see McRae through the open doors talking to one of the nurses.

  “Oh, he does. They aren’t his patients, though. Not really. He doesn’t work here. But he’s a psychiatrist, and he comes in and talks to the residents. Such a sweetheart.” She pulled some brochures out of the drawer. “Now, is your grandmother already in a nursing facility, dear?”