Grimm tilted his head, puzzled. “What do you hope to determine from the girl’s pictures?”
Jason let out a slow breath, the effort made his head throb mercilessly. “Closure on a hunch. I know Annie’s tied in somehow. I’m hoping her pictures can clarify what her blood samples couldn’t.”
A suspicion was all he had. One he mulled over in his mind on the return trip to Briet’s sick room. The pictures had to give him some final answers. He considered his theory as they headed back to the room but needing answers on another front, he turned to Ansgar. “Why the change?”
The man didn’t bother to pretend he didn’t know what Jason was asking. The lack of animosity between them could have been detected by a two-year old.
“When Briet was a little girl, I used to tell her stories about our parents. To give her memories, hope. She had this fanciful idea of what our lives would be like. You know, little girl stuff. All flowers, bows and happy endings.” Ansgar leaned back against the door jam and looked at his sister, his expression so akin to grief Jason glanced away.
Grief equated to giving up. He wasn’t giving up.
“She would draw these pictures. When she got older, she had Kaax draw the pictures for her because his were more detailed. There’s one of the gardens here. One of the lighthouse, too.” He shrugged as Jason met his look. “It’s been in our family for generations. She missed it.”
He pursed his lips. “There’s one of a ring, all glittery and delicate, but very specific, very detailed.” After a pointed look to the ring on Briet’s finger above the covers, he glanced back at Jason. “It’s identical to the one you’ve given her. She loved the sketch of the design so much that I had it matted and framed. It’s been hanging in her quarters for years.”
Jason had considered finding the ring to be the end of a series of coincidences. But as he looked at Ansgar’s face and the open acceptance of something neither of them could begin to explain, he conceded that small measures of fate had dovetailed into a beautiful master plan.
“I want her to be happy,” said Ansgar. “It’s become obvious, even to me, that you’re the one she’s been waiting for all this time.”
Jason let out heavy breath. “I’m trying.”
Ansgar gave a small laugh. “How about you try a little less than you did in the lab today? You’ll live longer.”
***
“I feel like all I do is kiss you goodbye.” Jason whispered the words into Briet’s hair. His hand cupped the back of her head, holding her to him for a long moment. He’d rested with her for several hours and with final clearance from Grimm, had contacted Frank. “I’ll be back. Remember I’m with you.”
Ansgar walked into Briet’s room with Tsu, Turen, and Kamau.
“We’re prepared for your meeting,” said Turen.
“We?” Jason glanced back at Ansgar to get a read on the brother’s motive here. His face was surprisingly impassive.
“Sera and I are staying with Briet, as well as Grimm.” Kamau settled into the chair next to Briet. Jason eyed the black leopard’s sleek muscles and sharp teeth with a quick surge of concern. However, the feline rubbed her head against Briet’s hand then slid to the floor at Kamau’s feet.
“Tsu, Ansgar, and I will be going with you,” said Turen, giving him an appraising look. “Kamau and Tsu have already done some surveillance on your apartment. They’ve cleaned out several listening devices and set up a vibration signal, a little creation of our own. We’ll know if anyone tries to enter.”
“Tag team approach.” Jason hadn’t considered his place might be bugged, though the thought was logical. He did wonder if they were coming with him to help or to babysit. However, given they’d already covered more ground than he could alone, he suspected it was more concern for an attack which had them sticking to him.
“Team, yes. Guardians have always operated in small family units. We train in teams. In instances of potential threat, we operate in those groups for protection and safety. If you’d prefer to interface with a different team, I can introduce you to others?”
Jason shook his head. He’d evidently been picked for a side. He knew the players, mostly, and respected them. He glanced at Ansgar, the one who’d rallied the cavalry on this mission. “I would be honored to be part of your team. I appreciate the offer and the coverage.” Especially, with Salvatore on the loose.
“The warriors in our team have been together for years.” Turen glanced at Briet and back to Jason. “With new members, we’ll expand. Fresh blood and new ideas are good, a valuable asset to maintain the health and understanding of our people’s ways.”
Good word for it.
Understanding of people felt like the only thing he brought to the table. Maybe he wasn’t so different from Mia in that respect. She’d turned out well.
CHAPTER 27
“Based on our searches of the phone calls and internal records, the hiring of the attackers was external to Welson Labs. We’ve confirmed the drug wasn’t a Welson initiative, either. But you knew that.” Frank Major met Jason’s gaze and looked over his shoulder at the three other men in the room.
There had been brief introductions. Everyone was still assessing. This was one meeting that Jason wouldn’t smooth over. The Guardians were a very reclusive bunch. No one had actually said don’t tell, but it was implied. For Frank and the tribe’s best interests, Jason planned to keep any revelation of details between the two to a minimum.
“We’ve been able to track some of the correspondence in and out, primarily from Gault to a holding company, fronted by another holding company and so on. We haven’t hit the bottom of that trail yet. However, we hit several other problems along the way.”
“Like what?”
Frank let out a slow breath and tapped a thick manila folder on the coffee table, spilling out two inches of paper. “We found other transmissions from one of those holding companies. They went to several of Welson Laboratory’s competitors, and from there to many other small, discrete studies, like the one at the hospital.”
Jason frowned. It had been only three days. Frank hadn’t even balked at his request. Yet, he’d jumped in full-blown, unearthed a huge amount of information, and delivered it all to him with few questions. As if he did this regularly. “What’s your take on it?”
“Like I said, we’re not at the bottom yet, but based on what we do have, it appears that whoever developed this drug is funneling it into scenarios just like Welson Labs with other hospitals for a specific objective.”
Jason narrowed his eyes.
Tsu spoke up. “You think the intent isn’t to test the drug for market but to test it for release into the population.”
Frank’s eyes widened momentarily at Tsu’s quick assessment, but he pursed his lips and nodded. “I tend to look at things from the perspective of potential threats. Yes, I think this is being weapons-tested. The test cases are isolated, the patient population manageable from a cleanup standpoint.”
Jason could take a shot at what the cleanup entailed—eradication of problems—like Briet and Dr. Arnault. “We need to get in front of this.”
“It’s going to take more work, but we can’t afford to ignore this. We’re going to send someone into each one of these front companies once we’ve established a break. Once we pinpoint the location for manufacturing the technology you’ve detailed, we can send someone in to dismantle that portion of the operation. We may not be able to stop the whole monster, but we can cut off the legs and give it a severe setback.”
Jason started to offer. Tsu got there first. “You’re already too well known, Jason. So is Ansgar. I would make a better choice.”
“It’ll be dangerous—physical entry to the facility and site demolition. Detection is a problem as well.” Frank took out a smaller packet from the envelope and slipped several dozen photos onto the table. “We’re pretty certain we can attribute the deaths of at least forty people as an offshoot of this initiative. Dr. Arnault would be one. Between test subjects who died without substantiated reasons and people we suspect learned more than they should have, the count is disturbing. I expect it to rise.”
“Dangerous is not really a problem.” Turen commented as Tsu gave a nod. “I think you’ll find Tsu is very resourceful.”
“He won’t be alone. We have others to send in,” said Frank.
Tsu shook his head. “Don’t risk your people. I can be in and out faster than you could imagine. Let me know the specifics of the plant and your timing.”
Jason reached in his pocket and pulled out the check and a picture, sliding them on the table before Frank. “The check came from one of those fronts. I need it traced, but I’m signing it over to your group. It seems only right to have their own money used against them.”
Frank whistled at the amount on the check. “My company’s not pay-for-hire. We don’t take—”
“Skip it. I refuse to keep blood money and it will give me great pleasure to know your team is using their profits against them. Or anyone else like them.” Jason tapped the picture he’d managed to extract from security footage at the hotel from the night of Briet’s attack. “This guy. I need him found, but he’s mine.”
“Personal?”
“Very. He attacked her twice. I need a name and location.”
Ansgar and Tsu assessed the picture over Frank’s shoulder before he picked it up to analyze. Frank looked up at Jason. “You’ve been missing from Welson for the last week. How have you explained your absence?”
“Family emergency.” Jason winced and gave Frank a look. “I said my brother had a heart attack.”
Frank laughed. “Glad to be of use. And the good doctor?” He looked around at the other men as if he figured one might step forward with the information.
Ansgar did. “I called her boss and explained she’d been exposed to a major flu bug. The treatment caused a secondary reaction, which resulted in appendicitis. She wouldn’t be back for several weeks.”
Jason stared at Ansgar. “That’s pretty detailed. What in the world made you come up with that?”
The corner of Ansgar’s mouth lifted in a grin. “You hang around with medical geeks long enough and some of it brushes off. Just enough diagnosis to decommission her, not so much she’d never come back.”
Tsu rolled his eyes, Turen hung his head, and Frank coughed over a laugh before he turned back to Jason. “Creative bunch.”
“You have no idea.”
Jason walked Frank to the foyer.
“I’ll let you know when we have something. Probably be several days yet, but when we find the site we’ll need to move fast.” Frank scrutinized him in a way that stripped away all the years and left Jason’s emotions naked. “She must be pretty important?”
“She’s everything.”
“Glad to hear it. I really am.”
Turen waited for the elevator doors to close. “You trust him.” His words were more a statement than a question.
Jason nodded. “He’s my brother.”
“I thought you didn’t have any family,” Ansgar said quietly.
Jason stuck his hands in his pockets, glanced to the black wicker basket full of opened letters, and then to each of the men in the room. Briet’s tribe. His relationship with her had brought not only her tribe into his life, but brought back Frank. Someone he should never have let go. Family was suddenly bursting from every crack. “I was wrong.”
“Glad to hear it.” Turen’s hand clapped him on the shoulder. “Now, let’s figure out how we’re going to decommission this problem.”
CHAPTER 28
A bird’s trill drifted from somewhere close, but Briet clung to the fringes of sleep, her eyes closed, letting her last waking memory gel in her consciousness. The stark fear in Jason’s eyes as he’d held her in her lab.
She let out a slow, easy breath and fought against panic while much harsher images flooded back into her memory. The memory of the attack was still vivid, though she’d obviously survived. Yet the heavy weight of blankets provided little replacement for the security of Jason’s arms.
Her hands rubbed across the soft cloth over her stomach to the sluggish, tiny aches and twinges that signaled her muscles prolonged inactivity. Confused, she pushed at the covers, not able to recall owning the light gray t-shirt with the bold maroon college insignia she wore. Jason’s alma mater.
“He wanted you comfortable.”
She looked up too quickly. The motion combined with the bright light from the window flooded her system with a hint of nausea and dizziness. Grimm’s eyes held a strange mix of humor and watchfulness as he leaned forward to touch her face. His silhouette blissfully blocked the glare of the light and her sensations receded at his touch.
“Close your eyes for a moment,” he said.
At the creak of the interior shutters, she opened her eyes again and glanced around the room for confirmation, but only the two of them were there. What he’d implied, Jason’s presence—couldn’t be true. Grimm’s expression changed from one of mild amusement to gentle reprimand as he followed her actions, probably guessing at the thoughts written all over her face. She hadn’t seen that expression on him for years, since she’d tried to cut corners on his training sessions.
“He’s been here with you the whole time, Briet. That is when he’s not working in your lab to break down the toxin.” Grimm shook his head. “Or now.”
The parched dust in her throat made her effort to speak, and even swallow, a challenge. Trying to sit produced another struggle, accompanied by dizziness. He helped her upright, positioning pillows to prop her up and held the glass of water for her until she nodded she was done.
“How long have I been out?” The words croaked from her throat.
“Four days.”
“That can’t be.” Her patients needed her and—whoa, Jason was here?
“There isn’t a person at the Sanctum who can’t confirm these last few miserable days for you, especially Jason.” He adjusted another pillow behind her back and moved to sit in a chair at her side.
“Then, where—”
“With Ansgar, Turen—”
Panic welled up in her chest and she stopped listening as her fears demanded center stage. Jason knew nothing of her people. She’d told him nothing. To be brought here and forced to accept this. Now, they would—what?