The cannister weighed heavier than its form, its contents. It was one thing, the piecing together of science to bend elements to his will. Playing God there, that was something else.
He checked his watch; the timing had to be perfect.
Jed wouldn’t honour Charles’ life, he’d find a way to negate his insurance. And now there was Lily. All it would take would be for them to hold her hostage.
This was the only way.
And the innocents?
He placed the container beside him on the gangway. This would show the Nobel Committee just how urgent safe water was. How he deserved the damn prize, how his compound was a miracle worker. The money Stuart would siphon from Every Drop in safe payments would be enough to keep him and Lily hidden, running, but what kind of life was that for either of them? A better use of it was to live a good life, further his research, not waste his days hiding from the long reach of Jed Carson.
He was owed that.
It’d be just like a drug trial. There were always some casualties but, as they furthered the scientific knowledge, everyone overlooked that.
This was his stage, even though no one would know he was the player. Saviour, that’s what they’d call him when he swept in to tell them how he could save their water source. It would become another stream of income, payment from a grateful city.
Charles gripped the edge of the main access hatch and pulled.
53
In the shadows of the tall banks of pump machinery Eva waited, breath held for Charles to prove he was the man she’d married, the man she knew, not the monster she was recording on Luke’s phone. It was taking everything she had to not rush at him screaming for Lily.
This had been her worst case guess, she hadn’t expected him to actually dream this up, let alone do it. But he was there. Trying to open the main access hatch, beside him a container that looked far too much like the one the saboteur had used in Tirupudur.
She stepped out from her cover. “Don’t do it.”
“Eva?”
“Stand up, away from the water.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I understand all too well.”
He shook his head sharply, as if trying to reconcile her being here now, ahead of him.
“I think the Moroccan authorities, the Americans, every country who sent a leader here will be very interested in you attempting to poison the water supply.”
“You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“I know it is. Where’s Lily?”
“She’s safe and she’ll continue to be so, you just need to let me do what I came here to do.”
“You want me to look the other way while you kill thousands of people?”
“If you want to see her again, you will.”
“You’re trading Lily for everyone else?” The wave of shock, of outrage, swamped her. Her voice shook.
“If you want to look at it like that. I’ll give you her address when I’m done.” He gestured at the open hatch.
“You can’t.” She worked at Luke’s phone, couldn’t help flicking a glance at the door. Where was he? He was supposed to have her back. She pressed send on the email she’d prepared that would forward the video of Charles sabotaging the water supply to everyone she thought would be interested. The starburst rolled around in its little circle, buffering, buffering. Come on.
“You thought I’d just waltz in here unprepared? The signal’s being jammed. You can’t upload anything, your leverage is useless. Your back-up’s locked in the security room. You’re lucky.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s The Society, Eva, the man you brought here. He’s probably only waiting until we’re in the same room to kill us both.”
Luke would shoot his way out when he realised he was trapped. But what would he do then? Who would he aim at, who would he shoot? Hazel eyes looking at her then as his target? If that were true, why would he have let Eva take the real security guard’s baton when their bundle of dirham and dollars persuaded him to take a long break?
“That’s impossible.”
“Why do you think I knocked him out at the airport? It was a trap. I heard him calling in our false passport names.”
“It was a security check.”
“Confirm, Eva Janssen travelling as Sara Peyton, Lily Janssen as Madeleine Peyton, does that sound like a security check to you?”
“That doesn’t explain why you left me behind, Charles.”
He looked at the canister. “I didn’t appreciate you weren’t on the plane until we’d begun taxi-ing and then it was too late.”
“So you left me with a killer?”
“You were clearly safe, he’s after me and you brought him right to me. You surpassed yourself.” He looked at his watch.
Eva tried to not let his words hurt, she shrugged as though it was that simple to forget them. “It was that, wasn’t it,” she gestured at the flask, “in Africa and India? Whatever’s in there?”
He considered, nodded. “It’s genius, it’s a shame it’s come to this to convince the Committee.”
“The Nobel Committee, this is about your nomination?”
He half-shrugged like it wasn’t important at all. “Not entirely.” He grasped the hatch’s handle with both hands and pulled it. Hydraulics folded it neatly out of his way, the roar of the water surging beneath them, feeding the city, filled the room so Eva had to shout to pull his attention away from the tumbling dark mass.
“Tell me then so I understand.”
She knew he couldn’t resist the chance to show off.
“It’s a two-stage process, the compound that I had added to your pipes, Eva, so Every Drop would be okay.” The words cut deep. She was more sure than ever that Every Drop wouldn’t be. “And an agent,” he gestured at the container. “They’re like a jigsaw, the compound creates a system at the molecular level that catches the molecules of
