Encrypted (28 page)

Wincing, Zach knew that couldn’t be true
.
This prick had to be a rogue agent, looking to cash in on the bounty on Ronnie’s head.

“Tell me the code,
p
uto
, or you
will
die.”

Zach held
Jorge
’
s
gaze
.
“Then I’ll die.”

The
Mexican
raised
his
hand again, but the door opened
.

“Torture wasn’t part of our deal,
Jorge
.”

Zach knew that voice
.
He craned his sore neck to find Grant
—
with that cheesy smile on his face.

Jorge
grew even
cockier
than before
.
“He is a boy born to milk and honey
.
A little pain will go a long way.”

As Zach tried to process his shock, Grant walked around the table to face him
.
“I don’t know
.
He’s got a pretty big hard
-
on for her.”

“All the more reason to beat the resistance from him.”

Zach finally found his voice
.
“You fucking bastard…
this
is going on
your
record.”

Fifer shrugged
.
“Dude, it already has
.
I was
ordered
to make sure you went to this damn party.” He turned to
Jorge
.
“Which
,
I might add
,
had a s
k
ank factor of
100
out of
100
.”

The Mexican shrugged
.
“We had to be sure he went outside.”

The conversation was a blur
.
“Ordered
?
Ordered by who
m
?”

“The director himself
.
Dawg
, I am telling you
,
this is for real
.
We need the
Robin Hood hacker
, like
now
.”

Zach shook his head, leaning back from the table
.
Anything to get away from Grant
.

“The director would
never
! The
FBI
would
never
authorize an agent to be apprehended.”

“Not on U
.
S
.
soil
,
they won’t
.
But here
?
Come on, federal agents get snatched all the time
.
What’s one more?”

Zach straightened
.
Obviously
,
Grant was in on this with
Jorge
.
Two lowlife
scum
trying to score the reward for Ronnie
.

Grant put his hands on the rickety table and leaned
toward
Zach
.
“Dude,
why
do you think they left you her case
?
Jesus, you haven’t caught her for how long
?
They were about to reassign you when
she
called
the field office
.
Talk about luck, man
.
They left you on the hook as bait.”

Zach’s mind spun
.
They wanted Ronnie, yet they had snatched him
.
Why not wait until she showed up
?
The only conclusion was that they didn’t know
.
They didn’t know
that
she was
in
town
.
That changed everything
.
He had a slim advantage
,
and he planned to use it.

“All this for some fucking reward.”

Grant slammed his hand down on the table. “Zach, focus. This is a completely sanctioned mission.”

Oh, Zach was focused
,
all right. “Prove it.”

Opening a laptop, Grant brought up a report regarding the plague. “The Black Death is back, man. It is here. And the only clue we have as to why
it
is written in this…”

Symbols unfamiliar to Zach scrolled down the page. They might have been unknown
,
but they did help clarify one thing for Zach. The U
.
S
.
government hadn’t gone to all this trouble just to catch an outside-the-law hacker. They
needed
her hacking skills.
Another slim advantage for Zach to use.

“Just make the damn call already,” Grant said
,
pushing the iPod to Zach.

Zach turned his head to stare at the wall. “Figure it out yourself.”

“And trigger the self-destruct mechanism?” Grant said in a singsong voice.

He couldn’t help but look
at
his ex-partner.

Grant chuckled. “What
?
Y
ou didn’t know
that
the woman you are so desperate to protect had the case lined in
plastique
. The dogs went nuts over it.”

Zach sighed. He made sure it was a big sigh.
A defeated sigh.
He had to make sure Grant and the others believed
that
he truly had given up. At some point
,
he
would
need to contact Ronnie
.
H
e just had to make sure
that
it looked like he was capitulating
—
and not part of his plan.

Okay, not so much a plan, but the inkling of a plan.

CHAPTER 11

Plum Island

12:02
a
.
m
.,
EST

Amanda studied the ancient map
,
looking
at
the pockets of plagu
e resistance. The key had to
lie
in
these areas of
respite. These areas of vaccinated populations
. Whoever created this plague must have taken precautions
—
just like they did back in 1347. They wouldn’t let loose a rampant,
weaponized
Yersinia
pestis
without some kind of vaccine formulated.

They also had to protect the person wielding the bacterium, spreading it throughout the Venice airport and beyond.

She glanced around the room
at
the other scientists who were tracking the plague. Amanda was certain that they all thought her insane for
poring
over the 1347
pandemic
. She just had this nagging feeling in her gut
that
if they could figure out how they had done
it last time, she could figure out how they could stop it this time.

Jennifer wasn’t back yet
,
though. She’d tasked her assistant with researching any instance of the subject vaccination in relation to the plague. This research could not have happened in a vacuum. Someone, somewhere must have knowledge of this global plot to wipe out the bulk of mankind.

Noticing her assistant hurrying down the hall, Amanda sat up and stretched. Dear
G
od, how long had it been since she’d slept? Forget about showering. Instead of coming into the conference room, Jennifer stood out in the hall, signaling Amanda over.

Stepping out into the hallway, Amanda took the paper Jennifer offered.
Her assistant didn’t have to explain
its contents
as Amanda’s eyes scanned the email. Despite the fact that she didn’t understand half the symbols on the paper, the Latin
—
the Latin
—
she did understand. Vindication and fury duked it out in her veins.

Amanda
walked
back into the conference room
as Devlin
popped another
cherry
throat lozenge into his mouth. She could smell the bitter
,
medicinal smell from here. His tongue must be a bright red by now. Jennifer pointed to the time
stamp on the email. Yesterday morning. Amanda
went
confront the CIA liaison, but Jennifer shook her head. Her assistant was right. Here was not the place.

Instead
,
she walked up to Devlin
.
“Henderson’s office.
Now
.”

“And why in the hell would I ever follow your
—
”

She
held
up the paper long enough for his eyes to dilate. Amanda didn’t bother telling him to follow her second time. He fell in right behind her on the short walk over to Henderson’s office.

Several officials sat in a semicircle around the director’s desk.

“Sir, we need to speak,” Amanda stated. “Privately.”

“Well, we were just going over the best way to quarantine those exposed but not yet symptomatic from
—
”

“This is more important.”

Henderson cocked his head, studying her face. What he really should have been looking at was her fists. Those were shaking in barely contained anger.

“Al
l
right
,
then,” the director said
,
and
then turned to the officials crowding his office. “Ladies and gentlemen
,
take a five
-
minute break.”

Amanda moved out of the doorway as the scientists filed out of the office. She didn’t look any of them in the eye because they would all be asking the same question with their look
s
. “What could be more important than containing the spread of the plague
?
”

Once everyone was out, Amanda
stepped into the office, allowing
Devlin to pass by her without giving him a sw
ift kick to the shin
.
Jennifer shut the door behind them.

“I think I
had
better sit down before you start,” Henderson said
,
landing hard in his leather chair.

She passed the paper to him. As he scanned it, his frown became deeper and deeper. Finally
,
he looked up
at
Devlin. “This is your email?”

“I do not know how she got hold of official, confidential
—
”

“I asked,” Henderson interrupted, “
i
f this truly came from your email account.”

The man’s toe scuffing the floor like a busted third grader gave them their answer.

Amanda turned on Devlin
.
“All this time
,
you hammered me about how preposterous my theories were
,
and here is the proof of them.”

“Hold on, Dr. Rolf,” Henderson cautioned. “We have some kind of intercepted communication between individuals
of an organization known as the Hidden Hand
discussing how to best “protect” themselves from the plague. There is quite a bit of latitude interrupting such
—
”

“Look at the time stamp
of the original
correspondence
,” Amanda urged
,
waiting for Henderson’s pupils to dilate. “It is dated over a week ago.
This Hidden Hand was discussing it a
t least several days
before
the start of the plague.”

“Mr. Devlin? How would you like to explain
the
fact that the CIA had knowledge of a group discussing the Black Death along with a possible prophylaxis
,
and did not feel the need to share it with the division of the CDC tasked with
fighting
the plague?”