Nerds Are From Mars (23 page)

“That’s it? No guard at the gate?” Darcie was surprised, considering the expensive equipment housed in the buildings.

“Not on Sunday. There’s a guard the rest of the days so those who don’t have access cards can be cleared to enter. Even without the guard, the place is secure, though. Security cameras are everywhere. Look along the fence.”

She glanced up and discovered unobtrusive cameras mounted just below the fence line every three or four feet. “Guess I won’t be attacking you while we’re in this area.”

“You can if you want. Just know that you’re being videotaped.” He drove toward the first building and pulled into a parking spot with his name painted on the cement curb. The rest of the lot was empty. “This is it. My home away from home.”

Darcie surveyed the gray three-story building and shivered. Something didn’t feel right here. Maybe it was the industrial color and shape that turned her off. She’d never been a fan of boxy structures that had obviously been put up quickly with no thought to appearance.

And yet . . . . She stared through the car’s windshield at the building where Nolan worked. Then she looked over at the other ones. All the structures were similar in shape and color. Theoretically she should dislike all of them equally, but there was something about this one that made her feel uncomfortable.

Nolan opened the passenger door. “You still want to go, right? I figured you’d be out the door and chomping at the bit to get inside.”

“Uh, sure.” She accepted the hand he extended so she could climb out of the low-slung car with a little more grace. Good thing she’d worn slacks today. Navigating in and out of this vehicle in a dress without flashing the world would take skill.

“I’ll show you my lab first, but my key gets us in anywhere, so if you want to see more than just my spot, we can go wherever you want.”

“Okay.” She tried to work up enthusiasm for that. Before they’d arrived she’d been excited at the prospect of exploring a research facility built expressly for taking human beings to Mars. She’d read about both Harcourt’s and Sterling’s projects with great interest.

The media was barred from visiting this place or Sterling’s facility. That added an air of mystery to the research and made being here even more amazing. She should be honored and happy about that, especially because her tour guide was the head of the project and drove a very sexy car.

“Darcie, what’s wrong?” Nolan had replaced his shades with his regular glasses, and he peered at her. “Are you feeling sick?”

“No. I just . . .” She shook off the feeling. This place was as secure as Fort Knox with all its cameras. Nobody got in unless they had clearance or knew someone who had clearance. She was safer inside the research facility than she’d been barreling down the hill in Nolan’s car. “Let’s go in.”

“If you say so. But I admit that chicken at lunch tasted a little bit off. You might be dealing with some digestion issues.”

“Could be.” She smiled at him. “I really appreciate you bringing me here.”

“I wouldn’t have thought of it, to be honest, if Fagan hadn’t mentioned the idea. I thought you’d be bored. It’s really just a lot of equipment.”

“Anything dangerous, like chemicals and stuff?”

“Well, sure, we have chemicals around. We need them to do our experiments, but we’re extremely safety conscious. Let me rephrase that. I’m extremely safety conscious, and I monitor the lab very carefully.”

She chuckled as she walked with him to the front door of the building. “This speech comes from the man who drove down a winding hill at breakneck speed, squeaking the tires the whole way?”

“That’s different. I know my car and I know that hill. I was completely in control at all times.”

She recalled the daredevil streak in his chart. “At least it’s better than skydiving.”

“Oh, I’ve done that.”

“You
have
?” She put her hand to her chest. “Why?”

He shrugged and put his card key in the slot. “It looked like fun, so I took an introductory course and made a few jumps. Maybe if our research results improve, I’ll have time to do it some more.”

“I can’t imagine.”

“Darcie, you would love it. I was scared, too, at first, but then I tried it. You don’t feel as if you’re falling. You feel as if you’re floating. Seriously, we need to do it together.” He stepped back and ushered her into the building.

The minute she stepped through the door, her nerve endings prickled. Yet there was nothing strange about the reception area. A small metal desk and a desk chair were arranged neatly in one corner. The computer on the desk was off, as was the coffee machine in the other corner. A bulletin board on the wall had notices tacked on it in military precision.

“Pretty basic,” Nolan said. “The lab’s through that door. We can start on the ground floor where I mostly work and then take the elevator to the other levels if you want to see everything.” He started toward it.

The hairs on her arms stood straight up. “Wait!”

He turned around, his expression puzzled. “For what?”

“I don’t know.” She walked over and grabbed his arm. “But we’re getting out of here.”

“I thought you wanted to see my lab?”

“Not now. Listen, don’t argue with me! We have to get out of this building!”

“Okay, okay.” He hustled her out the front door and pulled it closed behind him. “I know it looks like a prison in there, but –”

“Get in the car.” She walked over, opened the passenger door and climbed in. “We’re leaving.”

“What?”

“Get in the car!” She fought the panic that tightened her chest and made it painful to breathe.

“Wow, okay.” Backing up with his palms raised, he walked quickly around the car, got in, and started the engine. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but we’ll leave if that’s what you want.” He backed the car around.

“Hurry, damn it!”

“I’m going. I’m going.”

“Then go faster!”

“What’s the problem, Darcie? Why are we doing this?”

“I don’t know!” And then she did. They were about fifty yards down the road leading to the gate when the building behind them exploded.

“Jesus!” He stepped on the gas and the car leaped forward as debris rained down behind them. He kept track of what was happening in the rearview mirror and gradually slowed the car as they moved out of range. Breathing hard, he looked over at her, his eyes wide. “Darcie, how did you . . . how did you know?”

She gulped for air. “I told you. The hairs on my arms stand up when . . . when something bad is going to happen.”

He continued to stare at her. “We would have been killed.”

She nodded and began to shake.

“God, Darcie.” Leaning over the console, he tossed his glasses on the dash and pulled her into his arms as best he could. “We would have been killed.”

“Y-yes.” Her teeth began to chatter.

“But we weren’t. You saved us. You saved us.” He rocked her gently back and forth. Then he leaned his forehead against her shoulder. “Thank God.” He dragged in a shaky breath. “Thank God we’re not dead. Thank God for you, Darcie Ingram.”

She clung to him and tried in vain to stop shaking. “We s-should c-call someone.”

“Yes. But you’re trembling like crazy. I don’t want to let you go.”

“C-call.” She struggled free. “I’m f-fine.”

“I’ll make it quick.” He pulled out his phone and called 911. He spoke quickly, gave the location and the problem before disconnecting and gathering her close again. He took a deep breath. “I don’t suppose you think that was an accident.”

“No.”

“Yeah, me either. Our going into the building triggered the explosion, so it was intended to kill whoever went in there.”

“Y-yes.” She tightened her grip on him.

He began stroking her back. “It was no secret I was taking you on a tour this afternoon.”

“B-but what if we h-hadn’t g-gone?”

“They still would have nailed me. I’m the first one at the lab every morning. I like to get there early and work for an hour or so when it’s quiet.” He cursed softly. “So it was an inside job. Someone I trusted did it or gave another person access and information.”

She groaned. “S-sorry.”

“Yeah, it sucks. And all that equipment . . . .”

Gradually her shaking stopped, but she couldn’t banish the horrible thought that someone wanted to kill him. She didn’t like Aaron Blackstone and knew he was a bully, but she didn’t want to believe that he’d attempt to murder his professional rival. She couldn’t bring herself to suggest such a thing to Nolan.

But she couldn’t let it go. If Aaron had orchestrated this, then he’d had help from the inside. Someone who worked with Nolan, who saw him every day, had helped set up an explosion that would have killed him if she hadn’t been there. She couldn’t wrap her head around that level of betrayal.

“Feeling a little better?”

“Uh-huh.”

He drew back and peered at her. “There’s more color in your cheeks. You were really white before.”

“So were you.”

“I’ll bet. Listen if it’s okay with you, I need to make another call.”

“Sure.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to get Fagan, but I need to try.”

“By all means.” She scooted back. “Call anyone you need to call.”

“He’s the most important. He’ll want to minimize the media coverage of this, but I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Darcie turned to look at the flames leaping from the building behind them. “Uh, yeah. I don’t know how you keep a major explosion, fire, and attempted murder out of the news.”

“If anyone can, he can.” Nolan put the phone to his ear and apparently, amazingly, reached Fagan Harcourt in Brazil.

Darcie pictured Fagan in a dugout canoe surrounded by piranhas while a boa constrictor dangled from a nearby tree. She was probably wrong about the setting, but Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise was as close as she’d ever been to an Amazon experience.

“Yeah, yeah, she’s fine,” Nolan said. “You sure? Okay.” He lowered the phone. “He wants to go on speaker so he can talk to both of us at once.”

As shaken up as she was, Darcie couldn’t help but smile at that Leo-like urge to command the situation.

Fagan’s voice boomed out of the cell phone. “Darcie? You there, young lady?”

“I am. How’s the Amazon?”

“Not on it, yet. Sitting in a hotel room drinking a martini. Nolan says you saved his life.”

“I just followed my instincts.”

“Damned good instincts. I want you to put them to use some more, because I don’t think our boy is out of the woods, yet. Nolan, I wish you’d told me about those notes, son.”

“Obviously I didn’t take them seriously enough.”

“Obviously. I assume you’re driving that red car of yours.”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to leave it there, my friend. It’s too visible.”

“What? You want me to leave it
here
? What if something happens to it?”

“Then I’ll buy you a new one. For God’s sake, focus. If somebody’s after you, we need to find out who, and I don’t want you running around in that conspicuous car.”

“Then how are we supposed to get home?”

“You’re not going home. You’re going to my safe house.”

Darcie gasped. “A safe house? You have one?”

“Sadly, I do. When you have a lot of money, you need to construct a mini fortress for those times when it’s better to disappear. You and Nolan can use it for a few days until we get a handle on this situation.”

“That’s great, Fagan,” Nolan said. “But I don’t have transportation and I don’t have the foggiest idea where your safe house is.”

“Don’t worry about anything. My assistant dispatched the helicopter soon after we started this conversation. It will bring my advance guys who will handle the media and the police. It should arrive before they do. Get in the helicopter.”

“But won’t the police want to question me?”

“Yes, but you’re too traumatized to be questioned right now.”

“No, I’m not. Sure it was a shock, but I’m –”

“God save me from the literal mind of a scientist. The story is that you’re too traumatized. You don’t have to actually be traumatized.”

“Oh. Okay. But what if –”

“Here’s what I want you to do. Make one phone call to your parents, but that’s it. Warn them not to talk to anybody from the media. Then turn off your phone. Darcie, same goes for you.”

“I will.” Darcie saw no point in stirring up her parents. They didn’t even know she was here. She took her phone out of her purse and turned it off.

“Nolan, don’t worry about notifying the rest of the team. I’ll handle that. I’ll contact you on the Harcourt Castle video feed when the coast is clear. I think that’s about it. My assistant tells me the helicopter should be arriving any minute.”

The whup, whup, whup sound above their heads indicated that he was right on the money.

“Oh, and one more thing. You’re welcome to anything you find in Harcourt Castle. Enjoy yourselves. Goodbye.”

Darcie looked over at Nolan, who seemed more shell-shocked than he had after the explosion. “Are you okay?”

He met her gaze. “Intellectually I knew someone just tried to kill me, and since they failed, they might try it again. But it hadn’t sunk in until now. Fagan doesn’t send people to his safe house for the hell of it.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t.”

Nolan swallowed. “I’m just a nerdy astrophysicist, Darcie. Why would someone want to kill me?”

“I don’t know.” Resolve stiffened her spine. “But once we get tucked away in that safe house, I’m going to help you figure it out.”

He nodded. “Good, because I know about black holes and gamma rays. I can tell you the circumference of every planet in our solar system and the distance between each one. I can imagine a colony on Mars and extraterrestrial life existing in other star systems similar to ours. But I can’t imagine why one human being would decide to kill another one, especially an essentially harmless guy like me.”

His vulnerability and sadness wrenched her heart. She reached over and brushed a lock of hair back from his forehead. “We’ll work on this together. It’s going to be okay. We –”

A man knocked on Nolan’s window, startling them both. Nolan turned the power on so he could put down the window.