Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103719 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103719 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
“Oh, okay. More of Gus’s magic sauce? Or is he finally letting you exercise some.”
“Yeah, something like that.” He moved a potato around with his silver fork. “Actually, I’m doing a little research for C.P.”
“About what?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she murmured, “Oh, that.”
“In a weird way, it feels good to do something productive.” He motioned back and forth with his fork. “I’m not going out into the field or anything. I’m just trying to make sense of some old files in a database. Trying to figure out who was knocking on our door last night.”
“Are we a target here?”
“Well, the dead man on the lawn suggests yes. The question is whether whoever it is will have the resources to get through all our defenses. The smartest thing C.P. ever did was move into this house. Blowing up something under a cornfield in a rural town is one thing. This estate? Sure, Walters has a population of a hundred, but the footprint of a mansion like this? It is as far from invisible as you can get.”
“Yet that’s what you were sent here to do.” Lydia put her hands forward. “I’m not accusing you of—”
“Oh, you’re right. That is what I came to do—but my focus was the lab. And the difference now is that she plugged up the entrances and tunnels on the mountain. Even if somebody were to blast the hatches—which would create a light show and set off some really big boom-booms—they’re just going to face concrete caps and an excavation job that will take days, if not weeks, to get through.” He pointed to the floor. “She’s centralized the access now, which means fewer entry points to defend. You need a lot of firepower and know-how to get into the lab now, and until I know otherwise, this house is still the safest place for us to be.”
“Are we prisoners here, then?”
“It’s safer that way. At least until we know what’s going on.”
Lydia thought about what Xhex had told her, about how she had to go to the mountain, and found herself standing up in a rush. “Well, I’m not going to live in fear. I’m still going to go out.”
“Lydia, be reasonable—”
“I’m not the target and neither are you.”
“Anybody associated with C.P. Phalen is a target.”
Crossing her arms, she tried to imagine not being able to run free, and the panic choked her so badly she had to pace around the table. As she circled, she stared out into the darkness, picturing the meadow, the forest, remembering the smell of the clean air and the feel of the grass under her feet, her paws.
“I’m going to keep living my life.”
Daniel put down his fork. “Be serious here. You don’t know what this type of killer is capable of.”
“I was out there last night by the car. They went after the guard, not me. I walked right out into the darkness. They don’t want us—”
“That is not a reasonable conclusion. Maybe whoever it was knew they’d gotten spotted and backed off in case defensive reinforcements were called. Which in fact they were. You’ve got to trust me on this. I understand you’re frustrated at the thought of—”
“I’m not like you, Daniel. I think you’re forgetting that.”
Daniel opened his mouth. Closed it.
Going around to her chair, she sat back down. “I have instincts and capabilities that humans don’t, and I’ve never hesitated to use them. I’m already living in terror of your disease, I’m not making space for that kind of fear anywhere else.”
“Lydia.” Except then he stared at his plate. As he pushed his half-eaten seconds away, he cursed. “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
“Good. Thank you.”
After a moment, he put out a hand, palm up. When she covered it with her own, he cursed. A couple of times.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “You can trust me.”
* * *
Eight p.m. Showtime was early, and the fact that Gus had decided not to wait until midnight was just fine with C.P.
As she took the elevator down to what she thought of as the highway to the lab, she was in a trance. And when she started the long walk to the main access point, she was going against the grain—and causing a stir. Many staff were leaving for the night, and a lot of the lab techs and researchers tripped up as they passed her.
She thought of Daniel as she nodded at them regally, like she was dressed as her usual self.
Battle-ax, huh. At the moment, she was feeling more like a thumbtack.
When she got to the checkpoint, she watched from a vast distance as her hand reached out and put her forefinger on the reader. The steel panel retracted to reveal a bald hallway with one-way mirrors running down the long sides, the bulletproof glass obscuring the security detail that would hit the nerve gas if there was any kind of infiltration.