Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
“Did she overhear that they wanted to create weapons instead of viruses that would specifically target your immune systems?”
She shook her head. “Whitney told me that.”
“Did she report the conversation to Whitney?”
Shylah leveled her gaze on him. “Seriously? It was us against Whitney. We never told him anything unless it got us something we needed. We weren’t protecting them either; they were our enemy. As far as we knew they were the ones coming up with the viruses Whitney planted in us to force us back to him.”
“Were you aware they were working on a hemorrhagic virus?”
“How would I know that? I’m no scientist,” Shylah denied. “I don’t know the first thing about viruses. And, honestly, I don’t want to.”
Draden went still, anger beginning a slow burn through his mind. What the hell had Whitney been thinking, sending her into a mess she couldn’t possibly understand or protect herself adequately from?
“Are you saying you’d never seen the results of the Ebola or Marburg viruses on human beings?”
“We keep up on the latest news. I heard a few years ago when Africa got hit so hard and then when there was a scare in the United States, but that was all until this latest news of the small outbreak in the Congo again.”
He forced himself to breathe. He wanted to strangle Whitney with his bare hands. “Why the hell would Whitney send you into this situation?” Draden was furious. “You aren’t in the least equipped to deal with a hemorrhagic virus, one that could start a pandemic if let loose in a crowded populated area. He had no right to send you, Shylah.”
“I wasn’t sent to deal with the virus. That wasn’t my job.” Her brown eyes didn’t flinch away from his. Almost defiant. No remorse. “I’m a tracker. A very good one.”
“A tracker?” he prompted, but he was certain he knew what it meant. He could track anything or anyone. He had an acute sense of smell and his eyesight was phenomenal. His hearing was exceptional and even when he was running full out, he was aware of everything around him in relationship to him.
“I can track anything. In this case, the three wayward scientists. You save lives, and I take them.”
Draden stared at her in utter shock. It was the last thing he expected her to say. He knew she’d been sent after the three virologists, but it didn’t occur to him that was her regular job. He had thought she was experienced with viruses so she’d drawn the short straw as an assassin. To call herself a tracker meant she was elite. She was Whitney’s assassin. Given her personality, that was insane. She was too compassionate for that kind of work. It wasn’t a façade. He’d been in her mind. He saw how empathetic she was.
“All of Whitney’s creations are assassins, especially the ones he’s been working on lately.” He struggled to make sense of what she was telling him.
“Yes, but the genetic altering he did on me makes me singularly equipped to be the one he sends out when it’s needed. I have more cat DNA than most, specifically tiger.”
Instantly he stiffened. Knowing. Not wanting to know. “What the hell else do you have in you?” He refused to let his mind come up with any possibilities. He kept wiping the slate clean as fast as answers surged in.
“I’m a cocktail of things. I run fast, not like Zara, but where she is superfast, I can go all day.”
He didn’t want to tell her that Zara was no longer superfast. Her feet had been damaged when she’d been tortured, and she would never have that ability again.
“Eyesight, hearing, my ability to smell, all of my senses are heightened. My hair acts the same way a cat’s whiskers do. All that enables me to be very good at hunting prey.”
He had those same traits. Whitney liked to pair females with males. He didn’t want to think the man had paired them, but it was just too much of a coincidence. He turned away from her, looking back at the room. “I think, with what we have to do, those traits will come in handy.” He’d discuss it with her later, but right now, he wanted to put it out of his head. He did so, focusing on the equipment.
“They left in a hurry. Why, I wonder?” He crossed the room to the freezer. A case lay on top of it with the lid open. It was heavily padded with three cutouts in the dense foam. He touched the case. “Have you ever seen this before?”
She nodded. “That’s what Whitney was looking for. He showed me a picture of the outside of it. It acts like a freezer, and they carried the virus out in it.”
“The tube is very, very tiny. Only two spaces in the freezing foam. Assuming they sold one to the MSS, they most likely have the other vial.”