He blinked fast, reminding her of Daniel again. “The packaging on the vaccinations—the outside was in Arabic, but the inside packaging, the original labels—everything was in English. And the name, too: Tacoma. It didn’t make sense. If de la Fuentes had wanted them translated, he would have had it changed from Arabic to Spanish. I wanted to trace the virus back. I was sure it hadn’t originated in Egypt. I figured there had to be an American or a Brit working with the developers somewhere. I wanted to find the guy. You’re saying this thing started in Washington State?”
“It’s got to be the same thing. The timing’s right. We get some info about this virus, suddenly they start watching me and Barnaby. Two years later—around the time de la Fuentes got his hands on it, right?—they murder Barnaby. That has to be the catalyst. That’s why they killed him and tried to kill me. Because the virus was out there again, and if the public found out, we knew something that could connect it back…”
Barnaby had never told her what had triggered his paranoia, why he’d decided they needed to be ready to flee. She looked at the letters on her screen. DH, Dominic Haugen. It was unlikely that the bad guys would leave Haugen alive if they’d felt the need to erase her and Barnaby. Had Haugen been the first to die? Probably in some totally normal, expected way. Car accident. Heart attack. There were so many methods to make it look innocent. Had Barnaby seen some notice of Haugen’s death? Had that been the tip-off?
She wanted to do a quick search online, but if she was right about this, then Haugen’s name was sure to be flagged. Anyone inquiring into his death—no matter how anonymous the method—would be noticed.
Who was the P? She couldn’t even be positive she had that letter right. It had been a fleeting mention. Something short, she thought, something snappy…
“Ollie, the packaging… it looked… professional? Is that the right word? It wasn’t something put together in a makeshift lab somewhere in the Middle East.”
They stared at each other for a moment.
“I always thought it was a stretch,” she murmured. “That someone could actually fabricate the virus from nothing more than Haugen’s theoretical design. It seemed the equivalent of winning the terrorist lottery.”
“You think they stole more than notes?”
“Haugen must have done it—actually created the thing. If there was a supply that large, if the vaccine was packaged up so neatly… they must have been producing it. So working on weaponized viruses wasn’t just Haugen’s weekend hobby. It was a military project. There were hints of that… something about a lieutenant general’s involvement. No one wanted to follow up on the American side of things. They kept us focused on the cell. Usually they let us ask the questions that naturally followed… but I remember, this was different. Carston fed me the questions he wanted.”
“So we got burned on the same case,” Kevin said darkly.
“I don’t believe in that big a coincidence.”
“Neither do I.”
“Who are they protecting?” Alex wondered. “Whoever it is, he’s got to be calling the shots. Which means he knows about both of us.”
“Which means we’ve got to get to him, too.”
They stared at each other again.
“Alex? Kev? Guys? Is this place soundproofed?”
Alex looked up slowly, her eyes not totally focusing on Daniel walking through the doorway.
“Is something wrong?” Daniel asked in a quieter tone as he took in the tableau. He hurried to the bed and put one hand on Alex’s shoulder.
“Just putting a few things together,” Kevin said grimly.
Daniel looked to Alex.
“We need to add another name to our list,” she told him.
“Who?”
“That’s the problem,” Kevin said.
“Let me think,” Alex said. “If I didn’t know the answer to that question, they wouldn’t be trying to kill me.” She glanced up at Kevin. “I know this is incredibly nonspecific, but did you ever hear a name beginning with a P involved with this on your end?”
“A P? I’ll have to think about it, but not offhand. I’ll go through Deavers’s calls again, see if I can turn anything up.”
“I’ll work on it while I go through the Carston stuff.”
Kevin nodded, then looked at Daniel. “I hope you came in here because there’s some food ready. Got to feed Ollie’s big brain so she can figure this out.”
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