Swordfish

by Andrea Bramhall

  “The brain’s a damn tricky thing, Jazz. You know that, right?”

  Jazz whined and gave a little bark.

  “Oh, so you knew already? Well, I guess that makes you the brains of this outfit.” She checked her watch. Seven forty-five. She wondered what time Cassandra would get here. “Might as well wait around and find her since I’ve obviously changed my mind.”

  She made her way slowly to the student services desk and asked where she might find Professor Burns. The receptionist gave her directions to her office.

  “But she doesn’t hold office hours until three today. She’s scheduled to give lectures all morning.”

  “What time’s the first one?”

  “At eight.”

  “Can you tell me where? I only need to see her for a moment.”

  “Why are you looking for her again?”

  Bailey waved a pen drive that she always had attached to her key ring. “My daughter’s in her class and she has to hand in this assignment. She’s sick and doesn’t want it to be late. I’m on my way back to take care of her as soon as I give this to the professor.”

  The woman held out her hand. “I can make sure she gets it.”

  Shit. “I know, but the professor has done so much for my daughter, I wanted to thank her too.” She offered what she hoped was a sincere smile. “In person, you know?”

  “We don’t normally—”

  “I know, but I’d be ever so grateful. Jazz has just gone on and on about her since they met. I’d really like to hand this in to her personally. I know Jazz will rest easier knowing that I can say I gave it to her.” Bailey wanted to laugh. It was the first thing that came to mind, and it certainly amused her. “Please.”

  “Okay. But only because your daughter’s sick.” She gave her the directions. “I hope she feels better soon. I think I know Jazz. She’s a lovely girl.”

  “She is. I’ll pass on your regards.” Bailey sniggered to herself as she made her way down the hall.

  Chapter Nine

  “Professor Burns, do you have a moment?”

  Cassie turned and smiled at the young woman. “Sure, what can I do for you, Cara?”

  “I’ve been applying for internships over the summer and I have to send a letter of recommendation in with the application. I was wondering—”

  “When do you need the letter?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? Why didn’t you come to me earlier?”

  “I only got the application form yesterday. Sterling BioTech was really late in putting out the positions.”

  Cassie’s heart beat a little faster, as it always did at the mention of her ex-husband’s company. It wasn’t the first time she’d written a student recommendation for Sterling BioTech, because it was one of the closest research facilities to MIT and many students applied for internships there with a hope of securing a position after their graduation. Previously, she had had nightmares that William would see the name Sandra Burns and somehow know it was her. She knew it was a ludicrous fear. He would have nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the laboratories, and there would be no way for him to know who she was. There was no reason for him to even look for Sandra Burns. This time her heart beat faster for a different reason. With William behind bars, who was heading Sterling Enterprises?

  “I know it’s a lot to ask, Professor, but I’d really appreciate it if you could.”

  Cassie checked her watch. “I have an hour free at three. Come see me at four and I’ll have it for you.”

  “Thanks, Professor Burns. You’re the best.”

  She liked Cara, the girl showed promise, and she was happy to help, but she didn’t want to be inundated with requests she wouldn’t be able to fulfill. “Don’t go telling your friends. I don’t have the time to be doing this for a whole class full today.”

  “My lips are sealed. Thank you.”

  Cassie walked down the long corridor to the lecture hall, unable to stop thinking about Sterling Enterprises. More than thirty years ago, she had been instrumental in the business’s inauspicious beginnings. Without the funding from her father, William would never have been able to buy the properties that had begun the avalanche. Property, computers, telecommunications, a bank, the laboratories, it had all come so easily to him. He had coveted the money and the power, and he had reveled in his success, leaving nothing behind of the young man who had charmed her before she had even had the chance to question what she wanted from life. She had thought she loved him when she agreed to marry him. She had berated herself so many times over the years for her foolishness, her naivety, and her desperate desire for love. She was in love with the idea of love, not the man. It wasn’t until she’d met Karen that she had realized why she was so unhappy, so unfulfilled, and so lonely. Loving Karen was the irresistible force her romantic heart had yearned for.

  She’d asked herself more than once if it had been her actions that had turned William into the greedy, power-driven man he had become, but she knew the signs had already been there. The need to be greater, better, richer, than anyone around him. The aggressive competitor who was ready to rip out the throat of his adversary was a part of the man he had hidden from her when they met, but it hadn’t stayed hidden very long. And by the time she left, she knew that it wasn’t only in the boardroom where he’d tear out throats. Nothing and no one would stand in the way of William Sterling.

  “Professor?”

  Cassie turned and her heart felt like it would pummel its way out of her chest. “Ms. Davenport. What are you doing here?”

  “Well, it’s not a burning desire to learn neurothingymawhatsits.”

  Cassie smiled. “I can point you to a class about ethics that’s about to start in the other auditorium. You should be fine there.”

  “Thanks.” Bailey smiled. “But I think I’ll still pass.”

  “So what are you doing here?”

  “I came to say that I think I’ve changed my mind.”

  “You think?”

  Bailey shrugged. “Yeah. Any chance we can meet later and have a chat?”

  “We can, but I can’t tell you any more today than I could on Friday. I thought you said you couldn’t work like that? That you didn’t trust me.” She looked over her shoulder quickly, checking that the hallway was empty.

  “Maybe you can’t tell me anymore, but perhaps I know a little bit more than I did then.”

  “And what is it that you think you know, Ms. Davenport?”

  “That a mother, who loves her child enough to try to find her after twenty-five years, doesn’t leave that child without a damn good reason. Especially not like this.” She pulled the printout of the newspaper article from her pocket and handed it to her.

  Cassie felt the blood drain from her face and her vision faded until all she could see was the mangled wreck of her old car. The twisted metal and rubber still dripped seawater, and the windscreen was cracked. She shivered and Bailey held her hand out like she was getting ready to catch her.

  “Hey, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  Cassie handed her back the page. “I’m fine.” Her legs felt rubbery and she feared they’d give way beneath her.

  “You sure? You don’t look fine.”

  Cassie waved her off. “It was a shock.” She pointed to the page. “Seeing that. That’s all.”

  “I’m sorry. But I understand you have a class to go to, and you don’t have time for long explanations.” She shrugged. “This seemed like the best way.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “So will you meet me?”

  “When?”

  “This afternoon. Wherever you want.”

  “I have office hours till five. I can meet you at a coffee shop after that.”

  “Perfect.”

  Cassie gave her the name and address of the coffee shop and watched her walk away, her gut twisting into knots. I wanted her to find Daniela. I’m not stupid. I knew if she started she’d find stuff about me. So why the hell does this
feel like a huge mistake?

  She pulled open the door and walked into the auditorium. “Good morning, class.” She placed her bag on the desk and smiled up at the rows of filled seats. “Today we are looking at the synaptic pathways of the brain and central nervous system. I trust you have all completed the recommended reading. So I will begin.”

  Chapter Ten

  Finn stared at the computer screen. The three-dimensional molecular model rotated slowly as she examined the structure, looking for the weak point, the instability. The protein base for the modified toxin was already in production, and Lyell’s original vaccine—or Gamble as Finn had continued to refer to it—was sitting in the fridge. But she wasn’t happy with it. His test results showed a less than fifty percent success rate. As far as she was concerned, that wasn’t a vaccine—it was a game of Russian roulette. She switched screens and stared at the swirling molecules of the toxin.

  Mehalik was expecting a toxin that was built inside a stomach bug, so that’s what he’d get. He’d also get the vials of the vaccine that Lyell had created, again as he expected. What she was planning to do, though, was create her own vaccine. Her vaccine would effectively immunize those who hadn’t come into contact with Balor, and help those who were infected to fight it off. Just in case the worst should happen. She needed a fast, efficient transportation system that was capable of spreading faster than Balor, but was harmless on its own. And preferably one that was overlooked and resistant to medications. The common cold was the perfect host. Vaccine and antidote all rolled into one, beautiful set of sneezes, and one she would release as soon as it was ready. Once her cold virus had spread, Balor would never be a threat again.

  That was the theory, anyway.

  The door opened and Billy walked in. He put a sandwich and a cup of coffee on her desk and sat opposite her.

  “Thanks.” She sipped the coffee and frowned at him. “You okay?”

  “I would be if I was getting enough sleep.”

  “Why aren’t you sleeping? Something bothering you?”

  “Yeah. Sleeping in a damn chair.” He laughed. “I’m too old for that shit, Finn. When are we going back to the apartment to get a decent night’s sleep? It’s been three days, and you haven’t left this office for more than four hours.” He sipped his own coffee. “Junior can keep going like this, but my old butt’s draggin’ on the floor right about now.”

  Finn laughed at the image, but she also knew he would keep going until he dropped dead if he had to. He wouldn’t let down his team, especially when that team was his family, but she was happy enough to play along. “I’m sorry, Billy. Why don’t you go on home? We’ll be fine.”

  Billy stared at her from under grizzled eyebrows.

  Finn sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll finish up here and we can go. About an hour. Think you can last that long?”

  “I’ll manage.” He started to get up.

  “Billy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Anything, darlin’.”

  “Before this happened, I don’t know if Oz told you, but I was trying to find my mum.”

  “She told me. Said that you got some stuff off your daddy’s computer that might have given you a place to start.”

  “It did. A few years ago, he actually traced my mum and her girlfriend to a place called Glens Falls in upstate New York. He found out that they had adopted different names and he found Karen’s grave. She’d been dead since two thousand and one. But there was no sign of my mum there under either name, and no sign of her since. I’ve tried everywhere I can think of to look. I even tried a couple of tricks that Pete showed me a few years ago to check both names through DMV records and stuff.”

  “You went hacking, young lady?”

  Finn shrugged. “Little bit.”

  Billy chuckled. “And you still couldn’t find her.”

  “No.”

  “She may have changed her name again.”

  “I thought of that, but I don’t think there’s any way I could find that out. So I was trying everything I could.” She laughed derisively. “I even checked the death registry.”

  “Nothing there either?”

  “No. I’ve got to say I’m glad about that. Until I started thinking that maybe she didn’t have ID on her and she is dead, but she’s a Jane Doe.” Finn let the tears roll down her cheeks. “If that’s the case I want to find her so that I can bury her. Give her a gravestone.” She reached into her drawer and pulled out a DNA profile. “It’s mine.” She handed it to him. “Maybe you can…”

  He took the profile and came around the desk. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “If she’s anywhere like that, I’ll find her. You leave it with me, darlin’. If she has changed her name though, this won’t help.”

  “I know. But I’ll know I did everything I could.” Finn pulled away from him and wiped her eyes. “Sorry, Billy, all I seem to do lately is cry.”

  “Don’t you worry about that. There’s a ton of reasons for crying, and you’ve got a whole bunch of ’em right now. I happen to think you’re pretty amazing, doing what you’re doing with all this mumbo jumbo.” He waved his hand at the screen.

  “I wish I didn’t know anything about this mumbo jumbo, Billy. If I’d never started this then we wouldn’t have Balor to worry about and the world would be a safer place.”

  “You think?”

  Finn nodded.

  “Want to know what I think?”

  Finn didn’t say anything. She just waited for him to continue. She knew he was going to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, and that she’d had nothing but good intentions when she started her work. She’d heard it before from all of them. She’d tried to convince herself of that fact when she first found out about Balor. It didn’t work then, and she doubted that it would work now.

  “You’re probably right.”

  Her jaw dropped and she felt herself sag in her chair.

  “If you hadn’t worked on your idea, this fella, Lyell, he wouldn’t have been able to make this bloody thing. He wasn’t smart enough to do it on his own. But he wasn’t stupid either. He could have come up with something else when your daddy pushed him. Something that could be just as dangerous—I don’t know, maybe even more dangerous—than this little tummy bug. And that something wouldn’t be as easy for you to fix, now would it? You wouldn’t have all these pictures already here to help you make the vaccine, and stop this from being so dangerous.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Hell, you wouldn’t even know enough of this mumbo jumbo to do anything about it at all. We’d all be stuck in the hands of someone we didn’t know, didn’t trust, and who might not know as much mumbo-jumbo as you do. So maybe it’s time to stop fretting about what’s done and get on with fixing it.”

  He was right. What’s done was done and there was no way to undo any of it now. All she could do now was make the best out of the situation and finish this off once and for all.

  “You know, Billy, I wish you’d been my dad.”

  Billy laughed. “No, you don’t. That would make Oz your sister.”

  “Oh God, that’s just sick.”

  “Everything okay in here?” Oz stood in the doorway of the office.

  “Surely is, Ladyfish. Finn here was just telling me that we’ll be heading home for a good meal and a decent night’s sleep in an hour or so.”

  “Great. Anyone have any preference for takeout?”

  “Pizza,” Finn said.

  “Sounds good to me. Let me know when you’re almost done and we can place the order.” She smiled and crossed the room to drop a kiss on Finn’s head. Finn grabbed her hand and pulled her in for another, their lips meeting in a quick kiss, just to connect.

  “I love you.” Finn smiled into Oz’s big blue eyes.

  “I love you too, baby.” Oz frowned. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “I am. I just have a lot of work to do, and I don’t know how much time I have to do it in.”

&n
bsp; “How long did it take you to create the protocol originally?”

  “Three years. I pretty much started on it as soon as I finished my studies.”

  Oz’s eyes widened. “Well, I’m pretty sure we don’t have that much time.”

  “I know. But at least this time I have a blueprint.”

  “Baby, I know these guys are putting a lot of pressure on you, but if you can’t do this—”

  “I can. And they aren’t putting nearly as much pressure on me as I am.”

  “Damn stubborn woman.”

  Finn snorted. “Look who’s talking.” She kissed her again quickly. “Now shoo, let me finish up today so that we can get pizza before midnight.”

  Finn turned back to her notes. She punched a series of numbers into the simulation model in the computer and waited for it to generate the data.

  Chapter Eleven

  Masood slid the door closed behind him as he stepped out onto the aft deck of the Ataba and Zarief E-ttool. The breeze blew off the Red Sea and cooled his sun-warmed skin. He breathed in deeply, loving the smell of the sea. It felt clean, fresh, and full of life, unlike the dusty, barren, and often acrid stench that had been constant companions throughout his childhood growing up in Gaza where the rubble of martyrs’ homes were his playground and color of concrete dust was only broken by the claret of spilled blood.

  “General Mehalik, telephone.” The young Arab boy held the cell phone out to him. Masood picked up the handset using his sleeve and disconnected the call. He put one hand on the back of the boy’s neck and pulled him close.

  “Hasan, we have spoken of this before. What are you supposed to do when a call comes for me?” He spoke quietly and flipped the back off the phone letting it fall into the water, the battery followed with a small splash.

  “I am sorry, General. I forgot.” The boy shivered beside him, and Masood smiled. He let go of him, pulled the SIM card from the phone, and dropped them both into the Red Sea.

  “Next time you will not forget to take a number and bring me a clean, untraceable phone. Will you, Hasan?” He slapped the boy hard across the face and watched him stumble and fall to the dark mahogany deck.