Something about what he asked didn’t sit right with her. It should have, but it didn’t. “Um, yes. That’s standard with any of our platforms. Your equipment won’t contain hazardous material or anything that might cause an environmental impact, will it? We’re very cautious not to damage the delicate environments we operate in.”
Tony frowned. “No, there won’t be any environmental impact. It’s perfectly safe.”
Alarm bells rang in her head again. There was always risk. Stefanie kept her voice light. “Your platform isn’t designed to mine for oceanic microhyla taraiensis by any chance, is it? There is a lot of interest in the material.”
Tony gave her a wink. “I can neither confirm nor deny if my customers are mining for that.”
“Okay, my lips are sealed.” Stefanie gave him another friendly smile. “And you have documentation explaining that there isn’t anything that would cause an environmental impact?” When Tony’s polite mask turned offended, she clarified. “For our lawyers, you understand. We’ve openly advertised that we don’t damage the surrounding environment, and if we put anything hazardous on the ocean floor, we have to make sure that we have the appropriate permissions, permits, and risk controls in place. The rules are very specific on this.”
Tony nodded thoughtfully. “I can work with my team to provide a certification from our parts suppliers. They are making everything for us. The business I represent has been able to turn around equipment quite quickly. The sensor will be fully sealed when we deliver it.”
Joey exchanged a look with Stefanie then looked back at Tony. “If it’s sealed, can you tell me more about how we need to bolt it to the platform? Will the case have holes or do we need to develop something that will go around it to secure it?”
Tony reached into his bag and Stefanie saw the slightest movement out of the corner of her eye. Joey had shifted his hand to his back. Waffle tensed against her leg. Tony removed a small box and placed it on the table. Waffle’s tail began to wag furiously and he gave it a sniff, then lay on the floor again. It wasn’t explosive but it was the object from Dmitri. Good dog, Waffle. Her competitive spirit rallied with the clue, but her inherent preference for self-preservation would rather throw it out the window. Her heart began to pound just a little harder. Tony had picked it up, so hopefully, it wasn’t too dangerous. “Our manufacturer provided this small scale, non-functional prototype for just these kinds of questions. I will leave this here for you to study.”
“Thank you so much.” Stefanie swallowed hard.
Joey studied it and responded in the slow drawl that she now recognized as his cover for how quickly his brain was processing the information. “I should be able to work with that. Let me check the schedule. We’ll see what we can do this weekend.”
Stefanie ushered the men out, exchanging pleasantries along the way. She brought Waffle with her, more as a security blanket than anything else. What the hell had Dmitri sent? And what was Tony’s role in all of this? Once they left, she heard Joey’s voice in her earpiece. “What is microhyla taraiensis?”
Stefanie took in a deep breath, checking behind her to be sure she was alone. “A frog from eastern Nepal. They’re bullshitting us, Joey. What’s in the box? Do we need to clear the building?”
His response wasn’t quite as quick as she’d hoped. A few long seconds later he replied, “I don’t think so.”
“Think?” She practically hissed out the question. “You don’t think so?”
“I don’t think so, but I also can call in a false alarm from the fire department and get this thing out of here.”
“Do you have it now?”
“No. I stepped away in case it has a listening device in it. Can’t be too careful.”
Stefanie’s shoulders tensed. She took the deep cleansing breaths that she’d read about in the first three chapters of a yoga book someone had given her as a gift. “Okay…what do you want me to do?”
“Come back to the conference room and we’ll figure out what to do with this thing.”
18
On the way back to her office area, Peggy stopped her. “Oh, honey. Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Stefanie froze and tried to decipher if Peggy was testing her or truly concerned. She couldn’t tell. Great. Cole’s lies got in her head. Now she was scared and mad at herself. She was good at reading people, darn it. Peggy sensed her frustration and took a step back. “Sorry, Peggy. Those guys want us to move mountains in a week and I don’t want to disappoint Cole. He took a chance on me, after all.”
“What did they want?” Peggy tilted her head. She reached out her hand to pet Waffle, but Waffle stayed dutifully by Stefanie’s side.
Stefanie shrugged. “To put some kind of undefined box on the research platform. They don’t want to tell us what’s in it. They claim it’s proprietary.”
Peggy nodded with understanding. “Well, some customers are that way.”
“Really?” Stefanie eyed her incredulously.
Peggy chuckled. “Oh, yes. Like we don’t know what they’re actually sending. It’s okay. They can be precious about their technological developments all they want. Our lawyers have special forms for the customers who won’t tell us what they’re sending. Cole warned me when I took the job that I’d have to shuffle paperwork for customers who think this way.” She lifted her hands. “I mean, it’s not like we don’t figure it out eventually. There are only so many things people want to send to the bottom of the ocean.”
Peggy knew something. Of course she did. Why didn’t she think of that sooner? Administrative assistants knew everything. But if she knew, whose side was she on? Was she part of Dmitri’s deception? “They seemed interested in a trip out on the boat when I
