Page 15 of Jacob

He knew he wasn’t going to like this. “Which is?”

“The deadliest disease in human history. Mankind’s most vicious enemy. Smallpox,” Alex whispered. “And his sub-specialty is blackpox—hemorrhagic smallpox. Think smallpox crossed with Ebola.”

ChapterFour

Silence.

Alex was used to this when discussing her field of expertise. Civilians had a primordial terror of viral and bacterial diseases. Those invisible killers. Certain diseases were supposed to stay in the past, and the idea of them was terrifying, as if countless ancestors reached out to touch them with cold, dead, bony hands to drag them back into the horrors of the past.

Smallpox was the worst.

Jake’s jaw muscles bunched as he worked to repress a shudder. “I thought smallpox has been eradicated.”

She sighed. “It has. And hasn’t. Let me give you a quick history. Smallpox is humanity’s oldest enemy. There are signs that some Egyptian mummies died of smallpox. It can be devastating in populations that haven’t been exposed. They say that when the Spanish landed in South America, spreading smallpox, it killed most of the infected because they had no immunity at all. Smallpox ranks among the most devastating illnesses ever suffered by humankind. It dramatically altered the course of human history, even contributing to the decline of civilizations. Officially the deadly virus no longer exists. It was eradicated in 1977, in a massive worldwide effort by the World Health Organization. Vaccinations stopped in 1972.”

She watched his face. He was frowning.

“But?” Jake asked. “There’s definitely a ‘but’ in there.”

Alex sighed. “Yes. There are two small stocks kept under maximum security, frozen, in BSL-4 labs. One is at the CDC itself, in a separate facility. The other is in the State Center of Virology and Biotechnology, known as VECTOR, in Kotsovo, Russia, under close supervision.”

“Except, oops, every once in a while, someone finds a couple of vials, right?” Jake said.

She sighed again. “Yes. Sometimes more than a couple of vials. And the CIA is certain four countries have stocks, particularly Russia. The Soviet Union produced tons of the virus as a biological weapon. They say they destroyed them all, but—” she shrugged.

“Jesus.” Jake shook his head. “And here I was worrying about cyberattacks and suitcase nukes and runaway AI. Now I have another nightmare to add to it.”

Alex met his eyes. “That’s not the nightmare. Smallpox is bad, but mankind survived epidemics of smallpox for thousands of years. It’s what Elias could theoretically do that is the real nightmare.”

Jacob put his hand over hers. “Tell me,” he said simply.

Alex looked down at his hand over hers, torn. He knew he shouldn’t be touching her. She hadn’t given him permission to touch her. He’d disappeared from her life at her absolute lowest point, abandoning her in the most cruel way possible, scarring her for life. It was totally unforgiveable, she’d never forgive him, and he didn’t have the right to touch her.

Absolutely. No touching, certainly no kissing.

But…

Oh my God. The warmth, the comfort, the reassurance. That hand was strong. Not a pampered successful businessman’s hand. No. Broad, long-fingered, with the raised veins of an athlete along the back. White scars against his dark skin. Nails short and clean, but not buffed and manicured. Hands that weren’t pampered, hands that were used a lot.

The skin of his palm was heavily callused. Though he wasn’t exerting pressure, just resting his big hand over hers, she could feel power pulsing from his hand. Infusing her with warmth.

Alex was still angry at him. He was responsible for unrelenting unhappiness and sadness lodged deep in her soul, lasting so long her sadness had become a part of her. He’d abandoned her, in her time of greatest need.

But… that was in the past.

He was here now. And everything pointed to him not abandoning her now. She remembered the aching sorrow, and the fear of being alone in the world at 16. As horrible as that had been though, it was nothing compared to what she was feeling now. The weight of responsibility that felt like a boulder on her chest. Knowing if she was right, people would die, in the millions. Civilization could end. If she was wrong, she and Elias were still in a world of hurt. She needed someone, someone strong and smart, by her side. And she had someone. Someone strong and smart. Right there, by her side.

The Jake she’d known had been rawboned, painfully thin. Two classes behind everyone else, looked down on by everyone, welcomed nowhere except in the Hethering household. An outcast, shunned. As low on the totem pole as you could get.

The Jacob she had before her was immensely powerful in all ways, including physically. Though he was as far from a pampered tech bro billionaire as it was possible to be, his name was always prefaced by the term billionaire.

But that wasn’t his power. Money wasn’t his power.Hewas his power. Power emanated from every cell in his body and not just physical. Alex had never been so close to someone like him, someone who looked like he could bend space and time to his will. All her life since Jake left her, she’d been around science students and scientists and though they mastered the world through intelligence, none of them had this powerful charisma Jacob had.

The horrible leaden weight of what she was dealing with lifted from her and moved to Jacob. She could breathe for the first time in days. Heat emanating from his hand on hers filled her for the first time in days. She’d been frozen and terrified and now… she wasn’t. Or at least she wasn’t paralyzed from fear.

It was as if he’d surrounded her with a force field. Her troubles were still there but the worst thoughts bounced off the force field Jake created, letting anxiety in, but shattering that frozen wilderness of terror she’d been living in.

Jake—Jacob—had done that. He was dressed in an immaculate suit that looked very much like light-weight cashmere, dark gray, very elegant. But beneath that suit were massive shoulders built to pile on troubles. She was still mad at him, she might stay mad at him for the rest of her life, but right now, she was so grateful he was here with her, letting her breathe, shouldering her burdens.

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