Page 17 of Jacob

Jacob took her hand again. He felt like he was unplugged when she withdrew her hand, not a good feeling. He chose his next words carefully. “Hope is not the force that moves the world, Alex,” he said gently.

She winced. “No.” Her voice was the merest breath.

“We need to proceed as if your fears are reality. Anything else would be insane, given what’s at stake.”

Alex nodded her head jerkily. “So… what’s our first step?”

“My first step. I’ll debrief you and you’ll stay here, where you’ll be protected 24/7 and I’ll fly to Zalny. I can have a team ready and waiting there. We will coordinate with you here via secure comms.”

“Nice try, but not a chance.” Alex straightened. A little color had come into her face. “I’m coming, too. Don’t even try talking me out of it.”

The funniest thing. Jacob’s heart suddenly gave a huge pulse in his chest, a hard knock that hurt, like his heart had come unmoored and was trying to escape his chest. That had never happened before. His heart was always strong and reliable. His heart rate had been measured under live fire and it had never deviated from 60 beats per minute. It had never even occurred to him that it could do anything else but beat steadily and calmly.

And yet, here it was, one fast hard beat, whump! So hard it felt like the walls of his chest shook. Complete rejection of the idea of Alex coming with him. Alex, walking into danger.

That beat knocked him completely off his stride. He was pretty good at convincing people of his plan, whatever it was. He wasn’t above using his size and strength to intimidate but that didn’t really work in the military, and it didn’t work much in private enterprise, or at least not in his company, since he made a point of hiring strong-headed men and women.

So just as he’d learned military discipline, marksmanship, close quarters combat, he’d learned leadership, which was essentially the art of persuading people to do what you wanted. No matter what.

But this?

Nope. He had no words to express his horror at the idea of Alex walking into danger, of Alex anywhere near danger. He knew the basics of her life, knew she’d lived in Boston while going to college, had lived in Geneva while working under temporary contract with the WHO, and now lived in Atlanta. As far as he knew, she’d never faced violence, had never faced danger, unless you counted working with nightmare diseases. But that was different from the kind of danger violent people could wage. You could overcome the dangers posed by diseases by using science, but not the dangers of people. Certainly, she couldn’t fight back if someone attacked her. There was nothing in her body language that told him she could counter the violent fucks of the world.

He’d met and worked with women warriors and respected them. But they’d been trained and everything about them screameddon’t fuck with me or I will tear your fucking head off and stick it up your fucking ass.

Not Alex. Every line of her body spoke of gentility and grace. The violent fucks of the world would just roll right over her with spikes and he couldn’t even stay in the same space with that thought.

No,” he said. Thinking it was a miracle that his voice sounded normal. That he didn’t scream it.

Alex opened her eyes wide, head cocked to one side. “No?”

Jacob gave a short sharp nod. “No.”

“No, as a general principle? Or no on me coming with you?”

“No, you are not coming with me. With us. I have a good friend in that part of the world. He’s a Vice President of Black Inc., in fact, with responsibility for a spinoff. Really smart, with a team onsite that knows the terrain.”

Alex regarded him, unblinking, for a few moments. Did she think that staring at him would unnerve him? It took more than a beautiful pair of eyes to unnerve him.

“Okay, let’s see.”

She crossed her arms under her breasts. They were magnificent breasts but they weren’t going to sway him. Nope. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on hers.

“Describe an ELISA reader.”

Jacob’s lips pinched together.

“And how do you turn off an ultrasonic homogenizer?”

His eyes narrowed.

“I thought so. And tell me, what’s the difference between a filovirus and a bunyavirus?”

“Don’t know.” His jaws flexed as he bit on something bitter. “But we’re dealing with bad guys. I have a lot of experience there. Much more than you.”

“Uh-huh.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “Have you ever spent time in a MOPP4 suit?”

Jacob refrained from wincing at the memory. At least he could answer this.

---