Special Forces Rendezvous (11 page)

“Are you sure those people died from a virus, Jules? You said so yourself, you never saw the bodies.”

Sebastian spoke up. “The men in charge made several references to a virus. And like Julia mentioned, this wasn’t an isolated incident. The same virus, or one similar to it, was released ten months ago in another village.”

Frank was looking increasingly alarmed. “And there’s nothing more you can tell me about it? Modes of transmission? Incubation period? The ways in which it manifests?”

“We don’t know much.” Lines bracketed the corners of her mouth. “Potential symptoms are nosebleeds, foaming at the mouth, coughing maybe. We really don’t know. That’s why we came to you. We need to find out everything we can about this thing.”

Her former professor rubbed his chin, those brown eyes growing distant as he gave it some thought. “I don’t like this,” he finally said. “You should go to the police. If those villagers really were murdered, not to mention everyone at the clinic, you need to inform the authorities.”

“We can’t.” She shook her head in frustration. “Those soldiers were discussing the idea of killing me and blaming it on a virus! We can’t involve the police in this. The people in charge will just swoop in and orchestrate another cover-up.”

Frank shifted on his stool, looking extremely reluctant.

Sebastian, who hadn’t said much during the discussion, leaned forward and rested his elbows on the tabletop. “Look, Dr. Matheson, I understand where you’re coming from. Normally when people wind up dead, you call the cops, they investigate, catch the bad guys and case closed. But whatever’s going on here, it’s bigger than that. Someone is going to great lengths to keep the testing of this virus on the down low, and now that Julia knows the truth about what happened in the village, she’s a target. Do you understand?”

Worry erupted in the older man’s eyes. Julia had to hand it to Sebastian—he’d homed in on Frank’s weakness: the affection he felt for his surrogate daughter.

“Are you really in danger, Jules?” Frank asked quietly.

She nodded.

He reached for the vial and turned it over in his hand. “This won’t be easy,” he confessed. “There might not be enough of a sample here. When viruses are present in water, it’s typically in very low numbers. It’s far easier to detect a bacterium, or a parasite, as opposed to a virus.”

Her heart dropped. “But you can do it, right?”

“I can try.” He stroked his salt-and-pepper beard in a contemplative pose. “I suppose you want this done as soon as possible?”

“As fast as humanly possible,” she said ruefully. “And when I say this is life or death, I really frickin’ mean it.”

Both men chuckled, and then Frank grew serious again. “I’ll do my best, but if you’d paid any attention in my class, you’d know that detection using cell cultures takes time.”

“How much time?” Sebastian asked sharply.

“A few days, a few weeks.” The scientist shrugged. “The cells must be observed for signs of cellular destruction, and some viruses need as long as two weeks of growth before I can reach any conclusive results.”

Sebastian looked as frustrated as Julia felt. “Is there any way to speed up the process, Doc?”

For a second she thought he was talking to her, until she noticed those intense gray eyes focused on Frank. She experienced an odd spark of disappointment at the realization that Sebastian was so quick to assign the same nickname to someone else.

Call her pathetic, but she’d enjoyed feeling special.

“I can combine the culture with molecular detection,” Frank said thoughtfully. “Molecular methods often produce results in only twenty-four hours. What I can do is use reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction—”

“And you lost me,” Sebastian interrupted with a laugh.

Julia grinned at her old friend. “Just skip the explanation and give us the bottom line—will this combination of methods produce definitive results?”

“It should.” Frank sounded confident. “Let me get started on this right now. I can keep you apprised of any progress I make—do you still have the same cell number?”

She swallowed a lump of sadness, deciding not to mention that her cell phone, along with all her belongings and all her friends, had burned right along with the clinic. She quickly banished the heartbreaking memory.

“No, but you can call Sebastian’s phone.” She glanced at Sebastian, who quickly supplied the number.

“Do you need to write that down?” he asked when Frank didn’t reach for the notepad and ballpoint pen next to his arm.

“I have a head for numbers, young man. Don’t worry, I’ll remember it.” To illustrate, Frank recited the phone number without a single error.

Sebastian stood up and reached into his back pocket. He pulled out a slender black flip phone and handed it to Frank. “Use this phone when you contact us. It’s a disposable, and it can’t be traced.”

The professor slid off his stool, his expression taking on that glint of focused intensity Julia had seen so many times before.

Knowing he was two seconds from entering “science world,” she rounded the table and gave him a quick hug, overcome with a rush of gratitude. “Thanks, Frank. I owe you one.”

He planted a kiss on her forehead. “You know I’ll do anything for you. Now skedaddle. Give me some time to work on this.”

She took a step away, then halted. “I don’t need to tell you to keep this quiet, do I? Discretion is key.”

“Don’t you worry, Jules. My lips are sealed.”

* * *

Two days later, Julia paced the carpeted floor of the hotel room, biting on her bottom lip and trying hard not to panic. It had been eight hours since Frank’s last call and she was getting worried. She and Sebastian had been twiddling their thumbs in this room for what was beginning to feel like an eternity.

“Why hasn’t he called again?” she demanded.

Sebastian was lying in the center of the bed with his arms propped behind his head, wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants the same dark shade as his eyes. His bare chest gleamed beneath the dim ceiling lamp, but not even his deliciously tight six-pack could ease her distress. Last time Frank checked in, he’d sounded incredibly distracted, and she’d also picked up on a quiver of fear in his voice.

“I’m sure he’s just running some more tests,” Sebastian answered. “Yesterday he said he was following up on a hunch, remember?”

“I remember.” She gnawed on the inside of her cheek. “He’s scared, Sebastian. I heard it in his voice today. It must be about the results.”

Sinking down on the edge of the mattress, she studied Sebastian’s unruffled expression and shook her head in dismay. “Why don’t you look worried?”

“Because worrying achieves nothing. I don’t operate on what-ifs. I focus on facts, on what’s right in front of me. And right now, we don’t know much of anything.” He held out one muscular arm. “C’mere. Let me distract you for a bit.”

Immediately, a rush of warmth flooded her body. It was official—she was addicted to this man’s touch.

When he yanked her against him, she melted into him like butter on a hot pan, wondering why she transformed into a completely different woman when she was in Sebastian’s arms. He brought out a sensual, uninhibited side she never knew she possessed.

“You taste like chocolate and strawberries,” he murmured as he slanted his mouth over hers in a deep kiss.

“That’s because you made me eat an excessive amount of both for lunch,” she reminded him.

“Just trying to fatten you up a bit.” He said it teasingly, then cupped her breasts over her shirt.

Julia shivered, feeling utterly wanton as she rubbed her hardening nipples into his palms. She loved the way he touched her. Loved the mind-shattering sensations he evoked in her, the new and unfamiliar responses he summoned from her body.

He shoved his hands underneath her butt and lifted her onto his lap. The ridge of his erection pressed into her mound, making her moan. He was always so hard, so ready. It was liable to give her an ego, how turned on he got whenever she was around.

With heavy-lidded gray eyes, he peeled off her T-shirt and tossed it aside, then tackled her bra. “I need to taste you, baby.”

Baby. He only called her that when they were in bed, and she found herself eagerly anticipating the moments when those two rough syllables exited his sexy mouth. But nothing was as thrilling as the wet suction of that mouth as it closed around her nipple.

Sighing with pleasure, she closed her eyes and gave herself over to his erotic ministrations. His tongue came out to lick her nipple, flicking against the puckered bud before he sucked it hard, bringing a jolt of heat and a sting of pain. Sebastian slid one hand between her legs and stroked her over the thin material of her leggings, his tongue continuing to tease and torture her aching breasts.

As her muscles tightened and her sex quivered, it occurred to her that she’d had more orgasms in the past two days than in the past five years combined. And when Sebastian dipped a hand into her leggings, pushed aside the crotch of her panties and stroked her damp folds with skilled fingers, yet another orgasm blew through her, making her sag into his broad chest as she shuddered with pleasure.

How did he always manage to make her come apart without warning like that?

She stared at him in wonder, about to ask him that very question, but then she glimpsed the expression on his face and her breath hitched. Raw, hungry lust. Taut features. Glittering gray eyes. He wanted her, and a part of her still couldn’t fathom how a gorgeous warrior like this would be drawn to a scrawny, frizzy-haired workaholic like her.

Rolling onto her side, she cupped the bulge in his sweatpants, eliciting a low groan from him. “I’m really enjoying this fling,” she murmured, running her hand up and down his hard length.

“Me, too.” His eyelids grew heavy as he thrust his erection into her hand.

She stroked him for several lazy moments before tugging on his waistband to pull down his pants. With her body still loose and relaxed from her climax, she didn’t feel the urgency to have him inside her. She was in the mood to explore now, to tease him the way he liked to tease her, to torment him the way he tormented her.

He wasn’t wearing anything beneath his pants, and his erection sprang up to greet her, long and thick and weeping with desire. Smiling, Julia crawled between his legs and encircled his shaft with one hand, giving it a firm squeeze.

Sebastian groaned.

Pleased with his reaction, she decided to drive him crazier—she lowered her head and wrapped her lips around his engorged tip.

He jerked off the bed, a hoarse curse leaving his lips.

“Baby, you’re going to kill me,” he muttered, one hand coming down to slide into her hair. She’d left it unbraided, and he twined several long strands around his finger before cupping the back of her head to bring her closer.

Julia took him deep, loving the husky noises he made, the way he moved his hips to the rhythm of her strokes. She used her mouth and tongue and hands to send him over the edge.

Sebastian was struggling for breath by the time she released him. “C’mere,” he said roughly.

Julia clambered up his strong body and kissed him, laughing when he flipped her on her back and hovered over her, his gray eyes glimmering with hunger. “That was incredible, Doc.” He dipped his head to nibble on her ear. “Now give me five minutes of recovery time, and then I’m going to—”

A ringing cell phone interrupted him.

“Answer the phone,” he finished wryly.

He jumped off the bed and swiped his phone from the chest of drawers on the other side of the room. “It’s Frank,” he announced.

Julia shot off the bed, all playfulness and desire flying out the window to make room for the dread that filled the air. She listened to Sebastian’s side of the conversation, all two words of it, then frowned once he hung up. “What did he say?” she demanded.

“He wants us to meet him at the lab.”

Sebastian swiftly reached for his Beretta and unloaded the clip to check his ammo, while Julia stuck her feet into her sneakers and grabbed the messenger bag she’d bought at the campus bookstore yesterday. Her new IDs were stashed in there, along with the gun Sebastian had demanded she carry.

“Did he say anything about the sample?” she asked as they hurried out the door.

Sebastian’s jaw was tight. “All he said was for us to get there ASAP.”

It was hard not to freak out after hearing
that.
She’d been friends with Frank long enough to know that he didn’t throw around orders like ASAP unless absolutely necessary. The man must be in a real panic.

Julia was doing some panicking herself on the way to Harvard. She nervously tapped her fingernails on her thighs, wishing Frank had provided a few more details over the phone. Whatever he’d discovered, it couldn’t be good.

Sure enough, when she and Sebastian flew into the lab twenty minutes later, the frantic look in her former professor’s brown eyes was impossible to miss. This afternoon he’d opted to wear his white coat, and to Julia’s alarm, she glimpsed a reddish stain under his right breast pocket.

Was that
blood?

“Thanks for getting here so fast,” Frank said somberly, leading them toward the back of the laboratory.

Julia felt the color drain from her face as they approached a table with half a dozen cages on it. The cages were small and covered with protective plastic wrap, and each one contained wood chips, a plastic wheel, and a dead mouse.

Or at least she thought the mice were dead. Those white motionless lumps could be sleeping for all she knew.

But Frank’s forbidding expression said otherwise.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” she said bleakly.

“Bad?” Frank shook his head, looking both astounded and horrified. “Let me put it this way—if this virus found its way into a major water supply? The results wouldn’t be bad. They would be
catastrophic.
”

Chapter 10

S
cience had never been Sebastian’s favorite subject in school. Actually, anything academic hadn’t been his style—he much preferred being active, which was probably why he’d finished with an A in phys ed and a D in biology. Now, as he listened to Frank Matheson spit out the most technical-sounding explanation on the planet, he had to hold up his hand to interrupt the man.

“English, Doc,” he pleaded. “I have no idea what you’re saying.”

Matheson ran his fingers over his bushy gray beard, still looking frazzled. “I’m sorry. I often forget to speak in layman’s terms.” He gestured at the microscope to his left. “As I was saying, the culture showed results in an alarmingly short amount of time. Within twenty-four hours, the host cell displayed signs of the virus, and it was replicating at a disturbing rate. Healthy cells began to degenerate within hours of viral detection.”

Sebastian’s gaze strayed to the cages on the other table. From his vantage point, it was clear that the mice inside those cages weren’t moving. Unease swam in his gut, growing stronger when Frank noticed where his attention had drifted.

“Dead,” the microbiologist confirmed. “They’re all dead.”

“You tested the virus on the mice?” Next to him, Julia’s face was pale, but her expression was sharp and inquisitive. She stepped closer and peered inside one of the cages, furrowing her eyebrows.

“That’s why I took an extra day,” Matheson replied. “The accelerated reproduction cycle of this virus is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I wanted to see how it reacted to a living organism.”

Sebastian met the other man’s eyes. “And?”

“And it’s deadly. Like I said before, after twenty-four hours of infection the subject begins to exhibit symptoms. From what I was able to gather, this virus targets the central nervous system, but its manifestation was slightly odd. After about an hour or so, the test subjects exhibited some bleeding of the eyes, nose and ears, along with a high temperature and sluggish behavior. Two hours after that, the seizures began, and several of the mice showed signs of paralysis. By the four-hour mark, they were all dead.”

A sickening feeling churned in his stomach. “Would human beings be affected in the same way as the mice?”

“Most likely, yes.”

Looking extremely troubled, Julia sat on a nearby stool and started playing with the bottom of her braid, a habit Sebastian had come to associate with both distress and deep contemplation. “It sounds a bit like polio,” she remarked.

Matheson nodded. “That was my thought as well. The poliovirus is quite similar. It also attacks the nervous system, infecting the brain, spine and surrounding tissues. In rare cases, polio can cause encephalitis, which is what I believe the test subjects ultimately died of.”

Julia’s head lifted sharply. “You autopsied the mice?”

“Only two of them, and I found evidence of infected brain tissue.” The man rubbed his beard again. “This virus is similar enough to polio that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s simply a mutated strain of it. But its incubation period is shorter, the replication rate is faster, and I don’t believe there’s any possibility for survival. I hypothesize that whoever becomes infected with this virus will die approximately twenty-eight hours after ingestion, barring the administration of an antidote.” He cocked his head. “Is there an antidote?”

Sebastian’s mouth tensed. “We have no idea. And you’re certain this thing was manufactured?”

Matheson nodded fervently. “You won’t find this disease in nature. It was engineered in a lab, and I must emphasize again—if a water supply becomes contaminated, the outcome will not be desirable. This virus is incredibly fast-acting. It can wipe out an entire population in a
day.
”

And it had been designed for that very purpose, Sebastian thought grimly. The development of biological agents was nothing new—he wouldn’t be surprised if every nation in the world dabbled in bio warfare, experimenting with potential weapons and coming up with defenses against them. Yet this current administration had spoken publicly and repeatedly about the president’s stance on biological warfare. Defense, not development. President Howard had always been firm on that.

Question was, was someone going behind the president’s back to develop this new weapon, or was the man in charge aware of the project?

“So what do we do now?” Julia asked.

It took him a moment to realize she was talking to him, but with those big, hazel eyes focused on him, he couldn’t even remember what she’d asked. Her mere proximity was a huge distraction, and for the past forty-eight hours, he hadn’t been able to get enough of Julia Davenport. The woman continued to surprise him, not just with the sensuality and enthusiasm she displayed between the sheets, but with her strength, her intelligence, her ability to accept this messed-up situation and seek out solutions rather than whine.

He knew she hadn’t enjoyed being cooped up in the hotel room for two days—even though he’d tried his damnedest to distract her—but the woman hadn’t complained once, which only made him like her even more.

But he didn’t like a damn thing about this latest development. He’d known this virus couldn’t be good, but he hadn’t expected it to be
this
bad. For the life of him, he had no freaking idea what their next move should be.

Letting out a breath, Sebastian finally offered a helpless shrug. “I guess now we check in with Tate and hope that Eva found some new information about Project Aries.”

“That’s it?” Julia didn’t sound at all satisfied. “And if she struck out again, then what? We sit around and wait?”

“I don’t see what other choice we have.”

“You can contact the CDC,” Matheson suggested. “In fact, I highly recommend you do. They need to be made aware of this virus.” He glanced at Julia. “This is a deadly biological agent, Jules. We can’t just store the sample in my lab. It needs to be locked up in a government facility.”

Her teeth dug into her lower lip and then she made a frustrated noise. “We have no idea who in the government we can even trust. We could be handing the sample over to the very person who authorized the creation of it.”

“And then you’d be announcing your location to the people who most likely want you dead,” Sebastian added, resting a protective hand on her shoulder.

“So would you,” she replied. “They want me dead for knowing the truth about Esperanza. They want you dead for knowing the truth about Corazón. I’m scared that if we contact the CDC or Pentagon or whichever defense agency, they’ll just detain us the way they detained me at the village, and...”

He finished the words she couldn’t seem to get out.

“And this time we won’t come out of it alive.”

* * *

“I need coffee.” With a weary exhalation, Julia buckled her seat belt and glanced over at Sebastian, whose discontented demeanor most certainly matched her own.

She hadn’t gleaned an ounce of comfort from Frank’s findings. This virus was even more dangerous than she could’ve ever dreamed. Cell degeneration within twenty-four hours of infection? Death after twenty-eight hours? It was downright petrifying, especially if human subjects were to be affected in the same way as the mice, which Frank believed was more than likely.

“Should we hit that coffee shop on the other side of campus?” Sebastian suggested in response to her declaration.

“Please,” she said gratefully.

A few minutes later, he parked in front of the bustling café, illegally and without apology.

“I’ll risk the ticket as long as I get a caffeine fix,” he explained when he saw Julia’s amused look. “And food. I could definitely go for some food.”

They strode into the café, and Julia inhaled the intoxicating aroma of ground coffee beans, baked goods and fresh fruit. The loud whirring of a blender cut through the chatter in the room as the barista prepared a fruit smoothie for a waiting customer.

“What can I get you?” the harried-looking young woman asked as she slapped a lid on the smoothie and handed it to the shaggy-haired student at the counter.

They ordered two turkey clubs, a tray of banana muffins and two large coffees, then drifted to the end of the counter so Julia could dump a couple of sugars and a splash of milk into her tall foam cup.

As they waited for their food, she absentmindedly glanced at the television mounted on the wall in front of her. It was turned on to CNN, and a news report on the rising global oil prices blared out of the speakers. Indifferent, she was about to turn away when a very familiar image suddenly appeared on the screen.

“Sebastian,” she hissed, but she didn’t need to alert him—his gaze was focused on the same thing.

A photograph of the Doctors International clinic in Valero filled the screen, before it split off to show a reporter standing live in front of the burned ruins of the building.

“...believed to be the actions of a South American revolutionary group,” the woman was reporting. “The United Liberty Fighters have been responsible for countless fires, robberies and terrorist attacks over the past decade. Recently, the group lost its leader in a military ambush that devastated one of the ULF’s base camps. A new leader has since taken the helm, Javier Luego, who has denied the ULF’s involvement in this latest attack.”

Julia clenched her teeth. Of course Luego denied it—he
wasn’t
responsible for the fire and murders of her coworkers. Sebastian had been right, though. The military was blaming everything on the rebels.

“...among the victims, two American doctors. Dr. Marcus Freeman—” a photo of the African-American surgeon flashed on the screen “—and Dr. Julia Davenport.”

She sucked in a breath as her own face gazed back at her.

“Freeman and Davenport were identified using dental records, due to the state of the remains—”

“Your sandwiches are ready!” the guy at the counter called.

Before she could blink, Sebastian had grabbed the bag containing their food and was practically dragging her to the door. “Get in the car,” he said briskly.

Julia slid into the passenger seat without question, gripping her coffee cup with both hands because she desperately needed something to hold on to. Shock continued to course through her veins, making it difficult to formulate any coherent thoughts.

“They’re saying they found my
remains,
” she blurted out, shaking her head in astonishment. “They’re saying I’m dead.”

Sebastian’s profile revealed his calm, unfazed features. “It’s to their advantage, Doc. That way, when they track you down and kill you, they won’t need to conjure up some BS story because everyone already thinks you died in a fire.”

She swallowed her rising anger. “This is
insane.
How can these people just—” A thought struck her. “My mother! Oh, God, they probably contacted my mother and told her about the fire. I have to call her and—”

“You can’t,” he interrupted. “That’s what they’re hoping you’ll do. Mark my words, Julia, your mother is being watched. Her phones are tapped, her internet and financial activities are being monitored. They’re waiting for you to make contact.”

“Do you think they know I’m in the States?”

“I’m thinking no, but we can’t rule anything out. That’s why we need to lay low. Now that your picture is all over the news, you can’t risk being out in the open.” His strong jaw went rigid. “Christ. We really need to figure out our next move, Doc.”

She wholeheartedly agreed, but each time she tried to think of what the next logical step ought to be, her mind drew a blank. They couldn’t involve anyone in the government, not until they determined who could be trusted. They couldn’t involve the military for the same reason.

“What about the media?” she suggested. “We can tell them everything, and if the people after us try to make us look like a bunch of nut jobs, we give every last member of the press a sample of the virus.”

“That’s a possibility, except I don’t know how I feel about letting this water sample out of our hands. If the wrong person gets a hold of it...”

“You’re right.” She pursed her lips. “But I still say we blow this conspiracy right open. If we make enough noise, our pursuers will have a hell of a time trying to shut us up. And if we wind up dead, they’ll only be proving us right.”

“If we raise a fuss about this, they won’t kill us,” Sebastian agreed. He laughed dryly. “But they’ll lock us up, either in prison or at some sanitarium, claiming we’re criminals or psychotic. And remember, these people have the clout to do that.”

Strands of frustration tangled in her insides, congealing into hard knots that made her stomach hurt. By the time they got back to the hotel and strode into their room, her appetite was nonexistent and the smell of food wafting from their takeout bag made her nauseous.

She joined Sebastian at the small table under the window and flopped down on one of the cushioned chairs, but when he handed her the turkey sandwich, she simply shook her head. “I can’t eat right now.” When he frowned, she had to smile. “I’ll eat it later, I promise.”

Sebastian, on the other hand, seemed to have no problems with his appetite. He polished off his sandwich in a matter of minutes, then devoured three muffins before calling it quits and reaching for his coffee. She tracked the movements of his strong, callused hands as he wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin, as he brought his cup to his sensual lips, as his corded throat worked to swallow his coffee.

He was so unbelievably attractive. So masculine. So magnetic. Everything about this man intrigued her—his messy dark blond hair, his seductive gray eyes, his perpetual five o’clock. She could look at that sexy, rugged face for hours.

Catching her staring, Sebastian’s lips quirked in a grin. “Everything all right?”

“Just thinking about how sexy you are,” she admitted, feeling her cheeks go hot. “And I’m also wondering why nothing seems to faze you.”

“I’m very easygoing,” he said with a shrug.

Something about his tone brought a tug of suspicion. “Are you? Are you really easygoing, Sebastian, or...or are you just really good at pretending nothing bothers you?”