Frozen Solid A Novel

42




“WE NEED TO TALK TO GERRIN,” BLAINE SAID. HE HAD COME straight to Merritt’s office after being grilled by Hallie. She had called Doc and Guillotte, who were on their way.

“The non-gov sat link they use is supposed to be secure. But every call is like a submarine’s periscope going up.”

“She knows, goddamnit,” Blaine said.

“She knows something. I’m not sure how much.”

“She asked me straight out about Triage. You said she asked you, too.”

“You fed her the story Gerrin gave and we all rehearsed. That was good. I pretended ignorance. She believed me. Do you think she believed you?”

“Not really.” He hesitated. “I don’t know. Maybe. Did you hear about Brank? It had to be goddamned Guillotte. The last thing we needed was another death.”

“He has his uses, you have to admit.”

“I’ve never liked Guillotte. There’s something wrong with him.”

“He’s French,” Merritt said. “There’s something wrong with all of them.”

“No. He’s a psychopath. There’s something wrong with all of them.”

“Stop that,” Merritt said. “It makes you look like an old woman.”

“What?”

“Wringing your hands.”

He looked down. “Didn’t realize I was doing it.”

A knock on the door. Guillotte and Doc came in. Blaine related the conversation with Hallie Leland. Merritt told them about her own.

“Maynard thinks we should call Gerrin. I’m on the fence. Let’s hear your thoughts.”

“Do it,” Doc said, his voice unsteady. “Damn the risk. It feels like things are starting to—”

“Will you take those goddamned glasses off?” Blaine interrupted. “This is a serious discussion.”

“It hurts my eyes,” Doc said. “You know that.”

“Stop it,” Merritt said.

“Leland may not know everything,” Blaine said. “But she knows enough to suspect that there’s a lot more. And she doesn’t strike me as the type who gives up easily.”

“No,” Merritt said. “She isn’t. But Maynard, Gerrin will want to know what went wrong. It will be his first question.”

“The answer is that nothing went wrong.” Blaine’s voice got louder. “I engineered a picornavirus that carries a strep bacterium payload. Not a big deal, actually. The real challenge was genetically engineering the streptococcus strain to have affinity for ovarian cells.”

“He’s not going to care about that,” Doc said. “He will want to know why three women died here after I swabbed their throats and drew blood with contaminated instruments. I want to know that myself.”

“Keep your voices down, both of you,” Merritt said.

“You know what he is going to think, Maynard,” Guillotte said. “That you f*cked up the genetics.”

“Something else killed those women, I tell you,” Blaine protested. But it was too quick and too loud.

“I hope you can do better than that for Gerrin,” Guillotte said.

“Do you want to know something? That man scares me. Me. There is something in him. A huge anger. Like a grenade about to explode.”

“Do you think we should call, Rémy?” Merritt asked.

He shrugged, appearing more concerned about a hangnail. “Call, do not call, makes no difference to me either way. But here is something else. I followed Leland down to the morgue a little while ago.”

“What?” Merritt snapped. “Why? What did she do?”

“I am not sure. There is a heavy curtain. I did not want her to know I was there.”

She looked at each of them in turn. “That’s it, then. We call. What is wrong with that woman?”

“There are some people who cannot help themselves,” Guillotte said.

“From doing what?” Blaine asked.

“The right thing.” Guillotte shook his head.

“I’ll make the call later tonight,” Merritt said. To Guillotte: “How much longer can you keep comms interdicted?”

“Four hours. Eight, at most. Even these engineers here will figure a work-around at some point.”

“This was never about killing women,” Doc said. He was hugging himself.

“We need to kill her,” Guillotte said, finally pulling the hangnail out with his teeth. He didn’t wince. Blood oozed from beneath his fingernail.

“That’s Gerrin’s decision,” Merritt said. No one spoke after that.

Guillotte left first, with Doc right behind him. Before Blaine made it through the door, Merritt said, “Maynard, stay here for a bit. There’s something I’d like you to do.”