by Michael Todd
Which meant there were fifteen of these locations, and he needed to keep a personal eye on all of them. He would visit and receive reports from all the lead scientists on their research projects. Well, that was the story he fed them, anyway. He’d finally given in and let Anja into his ear since the idea behind this was for her to record and transmit everything to Courtney when she wasn’t charging into the Zoo personally and putting this whole plan of theirs in jeopardy.
He’d told her that it wasn’t a good idea to keep doing that, but it wasn’t like he could tell her not to go. She was his boss, technically, and while he trusted her to make the right decisions and listen to him when he had something of value to say from a company perspective, he didn’t actually have a say in how she ran her life.
Which meant he was now forced to listen to one of the lead scientists who explained the various projects they still needed funding for. He had mentioned that the supply still came in from the Zoo despite the upheaval of the ongoing changes. The problem, apparently, was that the Zoo deliveries were behind schedule.
Anderson nodded. “I’ll raise that with the various department heads to see if we can’t hire more personnel to help shoulder the load. We’ve intended to initiate expansions to spread the workload a little. This seems like the perfect place to start training them for that, right?”
“Right,” the man in the lab coat agreed but looked confused. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Colonel, but I thought I would have to sell you on the concept a lot harder.”
“I see where you’re coming from, Dr. Maschick,” Anderson said with a smile. “I really do. And I’m no longer a colonel, by the way, so you can simply call me Anderson. What were we talking about again? Oh, right…well, the current hand at the Pegasus helm actually has her history in research and development, which makes her particularly happy to help you with your work. As it turns out, she’s something of a hardass who has most of the board members wrapped around her fingers like…”
“Putty?” Maschick asked.
“I don’t know if that’s the saying, but sure, let’s go with putty.” He grinned at the image that created in his head as they resumed the tour. “If the truth be told, expansion has always been a part of the plan. The only thing holding the people on the board back would be the cost to hire and train new people—mostly doctoral candidates and the like—only to have them run off when another company makes a higher offer.
“Thanks to Dr. Monroe’s efforts, however, no one will offer them anything remotely better these days, and with the people effectively trained in all these new facilities, we will turn work around much faster. Once that’s done and we’re all back on schedule, we can open other facilities and expand, all with new and trained people working with the highest salaries in the business and on the cutting edges in their respective fields.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Co—Anderson,” Maschick said as they continued the tour. “But you’re nothing like most of the other military people we’ve encountered before. They seemed to think this was something that needed to be rushed or scrapped. We had one of them running a facility once and ended up losing more money than we saved. Which was why he was sacked, of course, but still, that seemed to be more of a cultural issue than only with the one man.”
“Oh, no, don’t get me wrong, I’m one hundred percent like the other military people you’ve met.” He chuckled dryly. “You have to remember that Dr Monroe is the specialist here. While I cannot pretend to have her in-depth knowledge of the work undertaken by this and other facilities, I still have sufficient understanding to relay the relevant details to her. She will make the call about which projects are still worth running, understood?”
Maschick nodded and made a face that Anderson couldn’t quite read.
“I don’t suppose you do any of the research that goes into the weapons production, do you?” he asked and looked around as if in an attempt to answer his question at a glance. He’d worked hard to establish a brisk, no-nonsense, but also approachable persona and hopefully lower the man’s reservations. While he definitely didn’t all the scientific knowledge and understanding at his fingertips—and couldn’t be expected to—this natural ignorance could be readily extrapolated to include a broader vagueness that his companion would hopefully not question.
Courtney and Anderson still had far too many unanswered questions, many of which related to the military projects. With his history, it was entirely natural that he would evidence an interest in that side of Pegasus’ activities. Hopefully, with a few questions thrown into the mix in an almost casual way, he could ferret out a few tidbits of information that might open up a new line of inquiry.
“No, all the projects we run here are for civilian purposes,” Maschick said. “We’re developing goop pulled from the Pita flowers—you know, the one most of our competitors sell as anti-aging cream. We’ve developed it into fuel and found ways to make it recyclable, among other things. These are useful developments with patents either to be sold or maintained for Pegasus, whichever profits the most.”
“Right.” He paused for a moment before he grinned disarmingly. “And where are the facilities that handle the weapons development? The ones that work for the government.”
“Well, I actually have a friend running one of those,” Maschick said with a chuckle. “They moved those to Vegas. Well, Nevada, anyway, since those are the most isolated places, which allows them to actually run proper weapons tests.”
“Interesting,” he said, careful to school his features into mild interest rather than suspicion while he made a mental note of the information. None of the networked facilities had been moved to Nevada, which meant there were still locations working outside the Pegasus umbrella. That was…worrying. It also confirmed the vague, nebulous suspicions that had nagged at them all. Too many potentially lethal unknowns had yet to be unearthed and accounted for.
His phone vibrated, startling him out of his thoughts, and he yanked it a little irritably from his coat pocket. He scowled at Courtney’s name on the caller ID.
The unexpected call was even more worrying. He was still connected to Anja through his earpiece—her occasional snide comments an ongoing cheerful reminder of her presence. She’d gone quiet for a while, thank goodness, but if Courtney wanted to talk to him, she could have simply used Anja’s connection.
The unexpected communication was an anomaly, and he hated anomalies.
“Sorry,” he said and turned to wave his phone at Maschick in apology. “I need to take this. It’s the boss.”
“Of course,” the doctor said with a chuckle. “I’ll be here to resume the tour when you’re finished.”
“I appreciate it.” He tapped the accept call button and moved somewhere that didn’t have any prying ears.
Chapter Thirteen
“You’re talking too fast,” he said pointedly. “You…okay, slow down and tell me what it is that you know. Use your words the way they’re meant to be used—you know, with spaces between.”
“Ugh, fine,” Courtney mumbled irritably on the other side of the call. “It’s not that simple, though. We have a renegade on the board—Charles Stafford—and it would appear that he put a hit out on your life. And an expensive one at that.”
“Oh, wow, that makes me feel all warm and cuddly inside.” Anderson let his sarcasm drip from his words although he didn’t really mean it. Perversely, it was oddly flattering to know that the people who wanted you dead were willing to pay top-dollar for it. Then again, the fact that they tried to kill him at all was something he needed to get used to. Had he allowed himself to slide into complacency with his own fireteam now in place? They’d sent assassins before. The fact that they’d failed meant the worst was yet to come.
“Look, if you need me to head back to help you to deal with this shit, I’m sure I can put my business here aside,” Courtney said. Anderson could hear a rumble of protest on the other side, but he couldn’t tell who it was. Probably Jacobs, he mused.
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br /> “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He shook his head firmly. “The fact that they have a hit out on me and not you is suspicious on its own, considering you’re the figurehead for all the changes we’ve made here. The only reason I can think of why they don’t have a hit out on you too is that you are still near the Zoo. They have vivid memories of what happened the last time they tried to kill you there. Hell, I still have vivid memories from that time.”
“Would you believe me if I said that I do too?” she asked with a dark chuckle.
“I’m torn between my own memories and the fact that you’ve actually been in the Zoo the longest. Technically, you should be the one it affects the least.”
“And the fact that the nightmare we saw that day still haunts me should be enough said, I think.” Her voice took on a somber note.
“Hell.” Anderson forced a laugh. “Now, I actually think we could lead all these people who want us dead out there with you and the Zoo will take care of the evidence.”
“Yeah, take care of, digest, and shit out before too long. If they’re lucky, of course.”
He laughed despite the fact that none of it was funny at all. These days, a dark sense of humor was all he could really manage. When he thought about it, the fact that he still had a sense of humor at all was a miracle on its own.
“Ah, no matter, we’ll deal with it on this end.” He nodded decisively. “Haven’t you heard? We appear to have had an uptick of gangland violence in this part of town. Horrible business, really. I hear five men with guns were killed outside the restaurant where I had dinner with Ivy and Damon.”
“Oh, golly me, that is terrifying,” Courtney said and ran with the joke. “Why, that makes me wonder if I should even return to Philly at all. It’s probably a good deal safer around here.”
“Yeah, that joke will never get old. While we have Davis and Mixon working with us to keep things running smoothly around Philly, I thought I might make it a little more difficult for people to find and kill me by taking a road trip.”
“Will you and Savage have a bonding experience on the road?” Courtney sounded amused. “Become bros. Have an adventure, start talking like surfers while you smoke weed and try out all kinds of new ideas. And all that before the two of you meet a couple of happy go lucky ladies who make you realize how much you’ve missed living life to the fullest?”
“That was…oddly specific.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to delve into either the fantasy or its possible sources.
“It was a movie I watched,” she admitted. “Or maybe a book, I don’t remember. Bro-bonding fiction is usually my go-to. That and sci-fi action. All kinds of fun shenanigans, actually.”
“Well, the reason for the proposed road trip was something very interesting that the lead scientist here in the Wolven facility said,” Anderson explained. He spoke quietly and paced around the small research lab that still hadn’t been unpacked and seemed rather low on the list of priorities of the people there. “He told me the people running most of the military weapons testing were all moved to facilities in Nevada.”
“But we don’t have any testing facilities in Nevada,” Courtney pointed out.
“That was exactly what I thought,” Anderson concurred quickly. “It would seem that most of the military testing equipment was moved by Carlson before we actually arrived, which is what I plan to take Savage to investigate. If I had to guess, I’d say most of the scientists and researchers were kept out of the loop, which would explain why Dr. Maschick provided me with that little nugget so flippantly. If we can bring them back into the fold, we can find out who was in charge of moving them and if they’re still with Pegasus.”
“Fantastic,” Courtney said enthusiastically, then drew in a quick breath. “Wait a second. You and Savage won’t rush off to Nevada to gamble away all the company funds I left at your disposal, will you?”
“I have company funds at my disposal?” he asked.
“Forget I said that,” she snapped.
“Nope, too late,” he replied. “In all seriousness, though, with this new hit and the higher stakes, staying on the move does seem to be the best option right now. We still haven’t managed to establish how the bastards knew we’d be at the chop shop, although Anja is adamant there is no evidence that our systems were compromised. That leaves the option of more conventional or old-school surveillance techniques as a viable possibility. It wouldn’t have been difficult to track us on public airlines. If they are watching, a moving target with no clear or obvious purpose could confuse them a little—or draw them out if they think I’m vulnerable.”
He paused and frowned before he decided to simply go ahead and say it. “And if you’d rather return to the States, I’d suggest you adopt a similar policy. I’ll make sure to use most if not all the company funds at my disposal.”
“Ugh, fine.” Courtney sounded aggravated and Anderson thought he could hear her roll her eyes if he actually tried. “But don’t do it all on red or something like that. Let Savage play a little. He has the potential to simply scare everything so shitless it coughs up, so maybe we can actually pull a profit from this.”
“I’ll get right on that. Okay, I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Damn right you will. Stay alive, Anderson.”
“Will do, ma’am,” Anderson said and smirked at the indignant gasp.
“Did you just ‘ma’am’ me?” She almost sounded angry.
“Sorry…going through a tunnel… Losing you… I… you…” He continued the stutter for a few seconds before he hung up. She wouldn’t believe the charade, but she wouldn’t bother to call him back for that kind of awkward conversation.
He hoped, anyway.
Maschick still waited patiently for him when he stepped out of the room.
“I’m sorry, doctor, but I’m afraid I’ll have to cut this visit short.” He shook the man’s hand. “Trouble at the office and it can’t wait. But I’ll be sure to pass your notes on to Dr. Monroe, and if there’s anything I’ve missed, feel free to email me.”
“Of course,” Maschick smiled but looked a little disappointed. “You have a nice day now.”
Anderson nodded and headed back the way they’d come, his phone in his hand. When he was out of earshot, he opened his contacts list and brought up Savage’s number.
Meet me at Pegasus building. Urgent! He sent the text as he hurried to his car. Savage wasn’t the type who liked conversations for their own sake and would appreciate that the message was concise and to the point. If he was in any kind of trouble and couldn’t make it, he would call or text a response. He’d do the same if he needed more details. Otherwise, he would arrive at the Pegasus offices and assume he had been called in for an emergency.
“He’ll know what that means,” Anderson said to himself with a grin. He turned the car on and grinned when the engine revved delightfully in the underground parking of the testing facility.
Behind him, Mixon eased onto the road a short distance back. The ex-colonel grimaced when he remembered how close he’d come that morning to telling his shadow not to follow. It had been a momentary foolishness, but he’d learned his lesson. For better or for worse, their foresight in bringing in the new team members had been wise, and he was grateful for the fact that the quiet sniper took his responsibilities seriously.
Chapter Fourteen
The elevator dinged softly to grab her attention and that of the other five women in the conference room with her. A man stepped out as the doors parted and looked around. He appeared decidedly uncomfortable in the building, stiff and hard to define. Rather than a suit, he wore a leather jacket over a gray bowling shirt, a pair of worn jeans, and boots. His brown hair was cut short and a hint of scruff traced along on his jawline. Greenish-brown eyes seemed to change color with the light.
The receptionist jumped out from behind her desk and circled it to talk to him. He looked a little surprised and took a step back when she smiled and talked over him before she handed him a folder. He s
miled that thin-lipped smile of his as she directed him to the other conference room on the floor. Anderson was waiting for him there.
As the man entered the room, the receptionist broke away and headed into the secretaries-office-slash-conference-room. Marie was a younger girl, barely over twenty, but her likable nature and quick mind for the gossip around the building had made her something of a hit among the newcomers in the room.
“Oh, my God,” she said with a grin as she prowled the table and kept her gaze discreetly on the two men in the opposite conference room. “How hot is he?”
Alexandra glanced at the receptionist, then tilted her head to examine the two men.
Apparently, it was a popular move.
“Don’t all look at once,” Marie shrieked and looked utterly abashed. “Are you girls completely unable to control yourselves? Jesus.”
Alexandra waited a moment before she looked once again. She could see it, although it wasn’t the obvious kind of hotness. She’d seen him around before, of course, but she’d never caught a name. He had the look of the quintessential tough guy, and there was some attraction to that, but there was something else there too. She couldn’t really place it—perhaps the mysterious look of a man with secrets?
Marie pushed her shoulder with a finger. “Come on, Alex, could you be more obvious?”
She looked away quickly. “What do you know about him?”
The girl grinned. “Anderson introduced him as Savage. Does that sound like a fake name to you or what?”
“Why would he have a fake name?” one of the other secretaries asked and leaned in closer, the better to hear the gossip that was sure to come.