“Dr. Bennett got dosed with the Z-9 series virus.”
Nadia cursed and shook her head. “Was anyone else hurt?”
“Andrade may have contracted it. And, yes, he was in a protective suit initially, but Cordova told him to take it off. It wouldn’t have mattered if you were there. Bristow did a pretty damned fine job.”
“But she’s going to be okay, right?” Nadia asked, worry furrowing her forehead.
Garrison’s chin dipped to his chest. He rested his hands on his hips and glanced at her from beneath his brows. “She might die. She’s infected with a new mutation and her whole damned team has been murdered. There’s no time to get someone up to speed.”
A sound of a door opening and closing came in from the direction of the kitchen and a man carrying a basket of eggs stepped into the living room. “Nadia? I thought I heard … oh, it’s you, John.”
“Stephen.”
Stephen Powell, also known as Yehven Skoryk, was the creator of the Ebola virus backbone that had been the framework of the weaponized Z-9 series. Decades ago, his discovery was meant to find the cure to this deadly disease, but the ambitions of evil men bastardized his intent. Nadia was his daughter—Natasha Skoryk. Garrison tried to keep them away from the mess as much as he could, but Antonio managed to dig up this information. Even if he hadn’t, with Dr. Bennett infected, Garrison had no choice but to ask for his help.
“You need my help with this bug?” He lowered the basket on the table.
“If it isn’t too much trouble.” The most Garrison could do was ask, he had no power to force Stephen to blow his cover even if it was his work that started this whole clusterfuck. The infections at the Diamant nightclub was a message to the former Ukrainian scientist.
The older man contemplated Garrison. At fifty-six, Stephen remained lean, and had a shock of thick, white hair threaded with streaks of black. His face was narrow and heavily lined on his forehead and between his eyes. On one of their conversations, Stephen said he was thankful that Nadia took after her beautiful mother—the only person who died in that house fire. The CIA was able to spirit the scientist and his six-year-old daughter away to the United States and give them a new life. But it came at a price.
Garrison glanced briefly at the the LAPD’s crime analyst. What Nadia inherited from her father was his brilliance.
“Nadia, can you make coffee?” Stephen asked.
“Dad … ”
“Please, honey.”
Nadia gave a reluctant nod, expression resigned as she left them and went to the kitchen.
Stephen lowered himself to the couch. “My knees are starting to bother me. Sucks getting old.” He gestured for Garrison to do the same. “Now, tell me what happened.”
Epilogue
Three weeks later.
The faint splash of water reached his ears.
He smiled.
“Antonio, are you still with us?”
He focused on the squares of faces on the computer screen. Simone and Vicente. “Yes. Go on.”
“The clinical trials have resumed,” Simone said. “It should be done in a month.”
“Excellent. Renata will return to Anriotech next week,” Antonio said. His friend decided to take a short vacation following her bout with Ebola. A sort of soul-searching, she said.
Antonio thought it was a good idea as he was re-evaluating his priorities as well. He tapped his pen on the table. “Anything else?”
Simone smiled. “Impatient to get back to your a namorada?”
His smile widened.
Vicente chuckled. “We better let you go then. Let me know when you want to get the ball rolling on going public. The recent news exonerating Anriotech in the Ebola bioweapon case has caused a surge of interest from foreign investors.”
“We can discuss it in next week’s board meeting,” Antonio said.
“Sounds good.”
His interim company chiefs signed off.
Antonio pushed back from his desk and stood. He walked over to the window of the sleek contemporary home he’d been renting in Beverly Hills. His office overlooked the pool. Right now, swimming in it like a mermaid was Charly. He exhaled a heavy breath. It was as though the tightness in his lungs hadn’t loosened since that moment three weeks ago when Jacaré had taken her. Compounded with getting infected with the new mutation of the Ebola virus, the harrowing days that followed were some of his darkest. Antonio refused to let her follow the fate of his mother. He did not come this far in life only to lose the woman he loved.
So he raged.
He manipulated.
And he threatened.
In the end, Garrison was already a step ahead.
Nadia Powell’s father was Yehven Skoryk. The information from the PNO proved useful. At the time of Antonio’s discovery, he didn’t have their cover names, but Nadia Powell was the spitting image of her mother and the pieces started falling into place.
Dr. Stephen Powell was able to tweak the antiviral that Charly created. By the third day of infection, and before the virus in Charly decimated her organs, the doctor administered the cure. It took several days for the virus to be destroyed and a week of negative tests before they signed off on her release.
As for Antonio, he never contracted the virus. Dr. Powell explained that the numerous mutations could have attenuated its potential for transmission. Antonio had remained with Charly in the room for the length of her stay, although it took a sizable donation to Downtown Medical to make that happen. He would pay any price not to be separated from her at the time she needed him the most.
He did have to sign a waiver.
Even in her feverish state, Charly was mad at him for being so careless with his own health. What she didn’t understand was a world without her in it was unacceptable.
Movement from the pool drew his attention back to her. His eyes tracked her form. She was out of the pool, wearing a skimpy bikini. Beads of water trickled down her body in sexy rivulets. Antonio wasn’t oblivious to what his woman was
