“What kind of symptoms are we looking at?” Hunter asked.
“Early symptoms include blisters on the skin. Eventually, those blisters pop and start bleeding. Labored breathing, bleeding from every orifice, diarrhea, vomiting, loss of cognitive functions…inevitably, this virus eats you from the inside out. Patients were described as being unrecognizable by the time the virus had killed the host.”
“And the patients that survived?” I asked.
“Permanent scarring, blindness, brain damage, scarring on the lungs…basically, you’d wish you had died.”
“This is bad,” Sinner said quietly.
“No shit, it’s bad,” Cazzo snapped. “Who the fuck would create a virus like this? Even if you created it as a weapon, you’d still kill off almost all the people on the planet.”
“Unless you were planning on sending them to a gas chamber like the Nazis used,” Derek pointed out.
“No,” I shook my head. “For someone to create a virus like this, they wanted to watch people suffer. They wanted to spread fear.”
“But if you create something like this, you have to have a vaccination or a cure,” Hunter said. “You can’t create something like this and not have anyway to protect yourself.”
“It does appear that they are working on something, but so far, the tests are not promising.”
“What would the senator get out of funding a project like this? What committees does he sit on?” Cap asked.
“He sits on the Appropriations Committee,” Becky answered.
“So, if the virus was unleashed, he would be on the committee that would be in charge of spending. How does that help if you’ve got a virus that could kill you at any moment?”
“We know from the paper you found that they were hoping this was ready by the spring. So, if someone is planning on using this virus as a weapon, they’re planning to do it soon,” Cap said. “Which means we don’t have much time to figure this out. We need to know who the target would be. Chances are, it would be a foreign country, someplace that it would take longer to spread to the US. Becky, you and Rob need to start digging. I know this is fucking impossible, but come up with any ideas for us. Start with the U.S.’s biggest enemies and work down the list. Look for any way that the senator would have an interest in what happens in those countries. Knight, what about your contact with the FBI?”
“We’re meeting up tomorrow.”
“I want him here. Cazzo’s property has a secondary entrance. We’ll use that, since his property is the farthest from the main building.”
I pulled out my phone and called Kate immediately. This changed everything. This was no longer some little plot that the feds were covering up. This was much larger and deadlier than I could have ever imagined. The feds weren’t going to come at us with a search warrant. They were going to come in and take over, disregarding any law that got in their way. Because if their plan got out, they would all rot in jail for the rest of their lives.
The phone rang and rang, but Kate didn’t pick up. My heart hammered in my chest as I dialed again. I felt like I was going to throw up. This couldn’t be happening. I should have gone immediately. What the fuck was I thinking? I headed for the door as soon as it went to voicemail for the second time.
“Where are you going?” Hunter asked.
“Kate’s not answering.”
I rushed out the door and jumped on my motorcycle. Kate’s office was in town, a good twenty minutes from where I was. I heard some of the guys get in their trucks, but I didn’t wait for them. There wasn’t time. If they were already there for her, I had to pray that she was able to stall them until I could get to her. If they laid even one hair on her head, I would kill them all without a second thought.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Kate
“Hey, Kate, is it alright if I head out for the night? I’ve got dinner plans.”
Carrie looked so hopeful that I couldn’t say no, even though I had a massive amount of paperwork to finish up. Hudson wouldn’t be happy with me. He didn’t like me deviating from my schedule, and his paranoia was off the charts right now. But I would just have to explain to him that I had work that couldn’t wait. He’d just have to get over it.
“Sure,” I smiled. “Have a great night, and lock the door behind you.”
“Thanks, Kate!”
She walked out of my office and I heard the bell over the door chime, signaling she had left. I sighed at the mountain of files that I still had to go through. Pulling the first one off the top of the pile, I started jotting down notes and checking over the patient file to make sure I had all pertinent documents. The bell over the door rang, pulling me from my thoughts. Carrie must have forgotten something. I continued on to the next file.
“Did you forget something, Carrie?” I called out as I started with my notes.
She appeared in the doorway, a wobbly smile on her face.
“Did you forget something?”
She didn’t say anything, but then she stumbled forward into my office. A man appeared behind her, holding a gun at her.
“I’m so sorry, Kate.” Her voice wobbled as tears filled her eyes. “They said if I didn’t get them in, they would kill me.”
I slowly stood from the desk and moved toward Carrie. “It’s okay. You did the right thing.”
I had to think fast. I hadn’t called Hudson yet and told him that I was going to be late. He would come for me when I didn’t answer the phone. Hopefully, he would get here before these men accomplished whatever it was they came here to do.
“Kate Knight?” the man asked.
I nodded slowly. “That’s me.”
“You’re coming with us.”
Another man appeared in the doorway, gun in hand and a deadly expression on his face. My
