Degrees of Wrong (35 page)

“I want it in writing.”

To his good credit, the general made no further attempts to play innocent. “Done.”

“I also must insist that you make the cure available to all countries of the world, regardless of their standing with the United Nations.”

It took all I had not to squirm under his scrutiny. The essence of calm, he said, “You are asking us to make the cure available to our enemies.”

“I am asking you to make the cure available to sick people who would otherwise die, regardless of their nationality.”

“I’m afraid that is not our policy, Dr. Morgan.”

“Then I am asking you to renegotiate the terms of this particular policy, General.”

“I do not see a need to negotiate the terms of
any
of our policies, Dr. Morgan.”

I could tell he thought he had won. Unfortunately, General Marek lacked the experience to know better. “Then I’m afraid we’ve already reached an impasse, General. I can see myself out.” I stood. I felt five pairs of eyes boring into me as I rose. I wouldn’t dare look at the ones that mattered the most.

“
Sit down
.” General Marek slapped his hand on the table. Dr. Folsom startled, and Nicoli’s mother gasped.

Still, I did not sit down. I raised a brow at him, waiting.

I hoped nobody noticed that my knees had given out, that I was holding myself up with the table. The room had taken to spinning a bit, and I fervently wished we could reach an agreement soon.

“Dr. Morgan, it is imperative for you to realize that you are not in a position to negotiate anything. All I have to do is request your research files from the
Bellator
. Every single piece of work you did with the virus is documented in its main computer.”

“That’s the thing about viruses, General Marek. Computers can get them too.” This was a complete lie. Not only did I
not
plant a virus in the
Bellator
’s computer, but I simply wouldn’t know
how
to do it in the first place.

By the expression on his face though, I could see that he believed that I did. I sat down. It looked like negotiations would resume, after all.

His face turned red and I could see he fought for control. “You are aware, of course, Dr. Morgan, that there are ways of extracting what we need from you that will be very unpleasant if—”

“No,” Nicoli interjected. The room gasped in unison.

I stared open-mouthed at Nicoli as he eased out of his chair and glared at his bewildered father. Every muscle in his body was rigid. He was furious. Beyond furious.

I just
knew
he was going to complicate things.

“
What
?” his father whispered. His mother covered her gaping mouth with her tiny hand.

“Let me be clear,” he told his father through clenched teeth. “She will be harmed only after you have buried my…bloodied. Lifeless. Body.”

“Nicoli!” Lillian Marek screeched.

The thought of his bloodied, lifeless body sickened me almost beyond my ability to keep down the contents of my stomach. This had gone too far, too fast. It was time to intervene.

“His threat will not be necessary, Nicoli,” I told him. His head whipped in my direction, but father still regarded son in a state of disbelief.

“By the time he gets me ready to torture, I’ll already be dead,” I explained calmly.

All
heads snapped in my direction now.

I drew in the breath I needed to say it. “I infected myself with the Black Death three hours ago, before we arrived. If he doesn’t agree to my terms, I will die, and he will never get the antivirus. Oh, don’t look so worried, General Marek. I’ve stripped it of its airborne qualities. I would never bring that kind of danger to you or your family. It is only communicable through direct contact with bodily fluids. You have twenty-four hours before the effects are irreversible. Or rather, twenty-
one
hours.”

“Elyse,” Nicoli whispered. “What have you
done
?” The agony in his voice was also etched on his face. He raked a violent hand through his hair and growled, the sound reaching the most private corners of the ballroom.

“I did what I had to,” I told him weakly. “I’m sorry, Nicoli. So sorry. You weren’t supposed to be here, you were never going to see this—”

“Damn it, Elyse.” He pounded both his fists on the table. After the echo of impact, the room fell silent, muted with shock. And then he looked at me with a calculated calm. He flung his chair behind him and strode to me with purpose. He jerked me out of my seat by my forearms and pulled me to him.

“Wh-what are you doing?” But I already knew.

“Sharing your fate.” And for the second time, his mouth came down on mine. He kissed me roughly and thoroughly, and for a longer time than was appropriate in front of an audience—and especially this one.

He still held me when he pulled his lips from mine and turned to glare at General Marek. “You have twenty-one hours, sir. Or we both die.”

“No!” Lillian’s sobs shook her tiny body.

This was just too much. The room took a savage spin, the light of day diminishing in a tunnel. I tried to find my footing, but none of my limbs seemed to respond. I looked up to Nicoli, saw his perfect face contorted in panic.

“Elyse? Elyse! No! Stay with me! Stay with me, Elyse!” I could tell he was yelling, but he sounded so far away.

My last thought was that this had not gone as planned. The darkness engulfed me.

Chapter Sixteen

“Elyse, love?” he said softly. “Are you awake? Elyse, if you can hear me, we need to know what you’ve given us. Dr. Folsom knows you didn’t give us the virus, but she’s not sure what you gave us to make us this sick.”

I felt the back of a hot hand brushing my cheek, a warm body beside me in the bed.

“Ugghh,” I said. I hoped he could take that for
Yes, I’m awake, and I’m working on answering you.
My mouth was dry, and my eyes wouldn’t open.

He shifted his weight closer, and I could tell his face was also closer as he said, “Can you hear me, love? What did you give us? We need to know so we can get better.”

Nicoli’s voice was raspy. He didn’t sound well.

And then I remembered everything.

My body ached all over, and I stirred around to gain the momentum to speak. “I didn’t
give
you anything.” I tried to sound as angry as I could with an enlarged tongue. “You
took
it.” I still couldn’t open my eyes.

He laughed. “Yes. Yes, I did. Was thinking about doing it again too. But we need to know what it is, love. We need to get better. We have a lot of things to argue about, you and I.”

I brought my hands to my eyes and began to rub them open. The room unfolded as a blur. Nicoli peered down at me with unconcealed worry.

“I accidentally fainted,” I informed him.

“Accidentally.
Really
. Because from where I was sitting, it looked like it fit in with the rest of the perfectly executed plan. Honestly, I’ve seen governments overthrown with less precision, love.”

“Am I going to be arrested?” I tried not to sound scared. Was I
already
arrested? I took the time to take in my surroundings. Nope, definitely not jail.

We lay in a huge canopy bed with very luxurious, very soft and very golden bedding. The room was affluent with furniture derived from the same dark wood as the bed, all of it elegantly carved and polished to a gloss. Under normal circumstances, I would assume that the ornamental fixtures and picture frames around the room were brass, but right now the more ridiculous part of me imagined it all could very well be gold.

I looked back to the man beside me, confident. “This isn’t prison.”

He rolled his eyes. “No. As it turns out, threatening to kill yourself in order to strong-arm the Secretary General of the United Nations is not a crime.”

He offered a weak smile, and it was then that I realized how horrible he looked. His beautiful olive skin was now placid ash. Dark shadows encompassed his eyes. His normally alluring, full mouth was thin and lifeless, lips cracked dry from dehydration.

“How long have I been out?” I asked, alarmed.

“About twelve hours.” That was too long. We didn’t have much time to correct it. Of course, I hadn’t expected to pass out.

“We have the Black Plague,” I told him.

“Dr. Folsom tested for it and said that we didn’t.”

“Then…then the negotiations…” I tried to rein in the disappointment of my failure. If Dr. Folsom had tested for it, the general would know that I had been bluffing.

Nicoli chuckled. “You’ve no reason to worry about
that
. As soon as you lost consciousness, my father was on his feet, making calls. He convened an emergency meeting with the council. He didn’t wait around to confirm that we were dying. They should be wrapping it up pretty soon.”

“Oh,” I breathed in relief. “Well, we’re not dying. It’s not the Black
Death
. We have the Black
Plague
. The one that struck down Europe centuries ago. Caused by the bacterium
Yersinia pestis
.”

“Wherever did you find that?” I heard Dr. Folsom say from across the room. “That’s been eradicated for decades.”

With not a little pain, I lifted my head to look at her in front of the large, dark window across the room. She was gripping the gold curtain, and I felt sorry I’d worried her with my theatrical display. Still, I couldn’t have included her in my plans. I wouldn’t want her to take the punishment with me.

“It was eradicated, except in government labs,” I corrected her. “It was in some of the specimens I requested. One of the biologists had studied it in comparison to the Black Death, trying to find common links between the two. I chose it because it causes the same symptoms as the Black Death. It had to be believable.”

Dr. Folsom released the curtain and walked to the bed, sitting down next to me. She took my hand and patted it. Nicoli’s arm circled my waist, and he rested his head on the pillow next to mine. I scooted closer to him and he grinned. Shameless as it was, I wanted to soak this moment in, never forget it—even though forgetting would be the best thing for both of us.

“So, what do we need to do, you clever little chit?” he asked.

“We just need antibiotics,” Dr. Folsom told him. “I’ll go round them up.”

When she got to the door, she stopped, tears in her eyes. “Your parents would be so proud of you,” she told me hoarsely. “So very proud, my dear.” And then she left.

I turned to Nicoli, tears blurring my vision of him. He wiped them away with the back of his hand.

“You are in so much trouble,” I told him. “Being nice to me now won’t help you.”

He laughed. “I’m well aware of your temper, Dr. Morgan. And I’m still here. But which of my offenses am I in the most trouble for?”

“Your little stunt in the conference room, for one. Also, your lying about your exact lineage and ancestry comes to mind as well.”

He shook his head. “I would like to believe my little stunt helped your maniacal cause. And, I didn’t lie about it. I simply…omitted some things I thought you might find distasteful.”

“That’s the same thing as lying.”

“No, it isn’t. Besides, it’s not like it wasn’t public information.”

“You knew I didn’t know.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Because right now, I didn’t feel like there could be a bigger idiot left in the world.

“Because I thought it would preclude any small shot in hell I had in getting close to you.” He took my hand and rested it against his cheek. “And
that
I couldn’t allow.”

I wrested my hand away. “But you’re engaged. That alone precludes any chance. You know how I feel about it.”

He recaptured my hand, and after a small battle in which strength overruled stubbornness, he was able to place it to his cheek again.

“I’m not engaged anymore, love.”

My heart fluttered. “You’re not?” But I wouldn’t dare to believe it.

“No,” he whispered, leaning in closer.

“How? When? I don’t understand.” My mind raced, my heartbeat faltered and my breathing didn’t fare any better. I hoped it was just the infection, because otherwise I wasn’t taking this news well at all.

“Calm down. You’re still very ill, remember? Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this until you’ve regained some strength.” His brow creased in concern.

“No, Nicoli. Now. Tell me.” I struck my fist against the blankets.

“You are the most stubborn person alive,” he muttered.

“No. Let
me
tell her,” called a songlike voice from the door. We both turned to see Lillian Marek, in all her loveliness, glide over the threshold and come to sit on the bed next to me.

Nicoli sighed heavily and moved away from me, stretching out full length on his back. The rush of cold air in his wake made me shiver. “Elyse, I believe you’ve already met my mother, the
second
most stubborn person alive,” he said dryly. “And the world’s most scandalous eavesdropper.”

“That’s what makes me a good mother. Now, my dear.” She took my hands in hers. “About the matter of Nicoli’s engagement—”