Cliff Ryder - Out of Time

“Not now,” he said, calming himself. “Not here.

We need to get this to one of your labs. Clear one—a small one, fully equipped—right away.

We’ll need it for the rest of the month, maybe longer, and I can’t risk anyone but you having access. I’ll have a locksmith in to upgrade the security.”

Brin turned away from the case to stare at Rand.

The man was clearly not himself.

“Have you lost your mind?” she asked. “What did you bring in here, some new form of plague?

What are you afraid of?”

Rand frowned and Brin pushed the case an inch closer to his hand. He yanked his hand back and cursed under his breath. Brin would have laughed if it hadn’t been such an unexpected reaction.

“What have you done?” she asked.

“Just get that lab ready,” he snapped. “This is big and could means hundreds of millions of dollars to our company. I’m counting on you for this. It isn’t what you obviously think, but it is, I will admit, disturbing in other ways. This may well be the break you’ve been looking for your entire career—not exactly related to your work, but very, very close—and with implications that could change your whole approach.”

Despite herself, Brin laughed. She looked at the package again and her scientific curiosity won out over any misgivings she had. “Okay. I can clear the corner lab on my wing. We have some cultures in there, but they aren’t under any critical environmental restriction, and there’s room for them in other spaces. It will take a couple of hours to remove what’s in there. I assume you have a list of specifics—equipment I should requisition, supplies I might need? And while you’re at it, if we’re going to be doing any serious research I’m going to need a laptop for the data—I get the feeling you don’t want me taking this work home with me.”

“If I had my way, you’d sleep in the lab until this was over with.” Rand’s tone finally lightened up a little, and he chuckled ruefully. “I’m sorry for the attitude, Brin—and my paranoia. This development took me a bit by surprise. I knew we were working on it, but I didn’t expect this level of success so soon, and the pressure from up top is huge.”

“I thought you were up top, ” Brin replied.

“There’s always someone further up the chain—

that’s how chains work. You know that our research-and-development side is largely funded by foreign interests. Our own government would rather spend its money elsewhere, and we couldn’t do the work we do, the work you do, without foreign investors. That’s where the push is coming from on this. Those shareholders want results and want them right now. There are other parts of the company working on different aspects of this project, as well, but we were chosen as the only U.S. branch. I guess it’s an honor, but at the moment it’s starting to feel more like one giant pain in the ass.”

Brin turned back to the case. She ran her hand over the labels and wished for a universal transla-tor.

“I’ll get right on it,” she said, turning away. “I’ll give you a call when the lab is ready, then I’ll bring up a transport cart and we can move it down ourselves. I’m not sure it’s going to help security if the CEO and a department head cart a sealed climate-controlled case off into a sealed lab, but I’ll do as you ask. You have me curious—I want to crack this thing open and see what’s inside.”

“When you get the lab cleared, I’ll send down the laptop you requested. I anticipated it, so I had it preloaded, and I’ve already personally transferred the files that came in with this case. The reading should keep you busy while the security is upgraded and the equipment is installed. There are cover stories in place for all of this, and they are included in the files. The first and best answer to any questions is that you don’t know, and that it’s something coming down from the top. Hopefully you’ll have time to catch up on the back story while you figure out what the hell is in there—and what we’re in for when we let it loose.”

Brin took a last look at the case, shrugged and turned to the door. “I’ll get Steph and Billy in there to clean up the cultures. I can keep the curiosity level down for a while, but once the dark forces descend on that lab, all bets are off. I’ll keep my mouth shut, but I hope you have a good plan. Otherwise the rumors on this one are going to span the gap from terrorism to genetic tampering, and there won’t be anything we can do to stop them.”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now, we need to get moving on this and keep moving. They’re expecting the first report in a week—that doesn’t leave much time, even for someone as brilliant as you.”

BRIN RODE the elevator alone and stopped by the coffee mess for a strong black cup of concentration. When she entered her office for the second time that day, she stopped cold. In the excitement she’d forgotten all about the pharmacy. She hadn’t even been thinking about Alex, and while that was usually a good thing when he was on the road, it still upset her to think how easily she’d been distracted.

She sat down, picked up her phone and dialed her lab assistant’s extension. Stephanie Peters picked up on the second ring.

“What’s up, boss?” she asked.

“Nothing too important,” Brin lied. “I need you to find Billy and get over to the corner lab. Rand has a special project in, and we need a place to isolate some samples. Those cultures we have going can be moved easily enough. Stick them over in the back of 7C, okay?”

“Sure thing. I’ll get right on it. I was just finish-ing up some slides, and I don’t have anything pending this afternoon. Is the new project something I can help you on?”

Brin smiled. “Not this time. It’s a security clearance issue. I know you’re cleared to secret, but this one is in from the top—probably some new form of fungus that makes golf balls fly farther. I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I can, okay?”

“Sure. I’ll give you a call when the lab’s cleared.”

“Thanks.”

Brin hung up and reached for the brown bottle of pills and the phone number. She had some time, and until she had the laptop from Rand, there wasn’t anything she could do to prepare for the work to come. It was time to get to the bottom of the mysterious neurologist and the unexpected prescription. Maybe the doctor had a weekend clinic or emergency contact number.

If Alex called, she intended to give him holy hell about it—for keeping secrets and for scaring her.

He almost never called when he was on assignment, though, and she assumed this time would be no different. She really didn’t have a clear idea of what kind of work he did. Security consulting covered a lot of ground, but when he’d gently told her he couldn’t explain fully, she’d understood.

Now she wished she’d been more insistent. She didn’t even have a good contact at his company to check in with—just an emergency number in case she or Savannah was hurt.

The separation had always bothered her, but this time was different. This time it left a dull ache in her chest, and she needed to make it go away.

She glanced at the number, picked up her phone and dialed.

Liang and Alex left the airport without incident.

Liang guided the truck through the bustling streets of Beijing as Alex watched out the window. His legs still ached a bit and his eyes were dry and itchy, almost as though he had allergies or something nagging at them. He thought Beijing was part industrial city, part sociology experiment.

There was noise everywhere, bright splashes of color and people packed so tightly together that you could topple them all just by shoving one down.