Page 36 of Jacob

He wasn’t ready for reasonable, but he had to listen to her. It wouldn’t change his mind, but he’d listen.

“I realize this is some—some misguided sense of chivalry. No—” she held up her hand when he opened his mouth. “Let me speak. So, you don’t like the idea of you sleeping more comfortably than I will, and under ordinary circumstances, I wouldn’t object. I’m not crazy and like everyone else, I like to be comfortable. But—we don’t know what we’re walking into, Jacob. Whether Elias is there willingly or under duress, he’s with bad actors, there’s no doubt about that. I will be your technical advisor, but it’s you, your guy Nikolai and your men who will be subject to possible violence. To action. I simply can’t let you face possible danger on little rest for no reason at all beyond you being gentlemanly. Just can’t do it. And don’t ask me to.”

Jacob felt his entire body warring with itself. “I can’t do it either,” he said, voice hoarse.

Alex tipped her head back, rolled her eyes and stood up. Good, she was seeing reason. “Get up,” she said.

Jacob stood up. “I’ll show you the bedroom and bathroom.”

“No need.” Alex headed to the bedroom door. “We’ll share the bed.” She stopped and her head swiveled to him. “This is not an invitation to share anything but the bed. I’m counting on you to behave.”

Jacob held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Behaving,” he said.

Hot damn!

Sharing a bed with Alex was top of his all-time list of things he badly wanted to do. It wouldn’t be what he’d envisaged. But it was a pretty good step forward.

“And wipe that smile off your face,” she said sternly.

He didn’t even know he was smiling. Jacob’s default expression was a scowl so he tried to scowl, but it was hard. He followed her, deliberately not smiling, into the airplane’s bedroom.

ChapterEight

ZALNY, NEAR ZELENOGRAD

Elias Field was sorry. Really,reallysorry.

He was being observed through a two-way mirror, so he shuffled around the underground lab, making sure his movements were slow and awkward. Back home, at the CDC, he and Alex moved like ballet dancers in their suits. But it was the only thing he could think of to slow everything down, because from what he could tell, they were barreling straight to indescribable horror.

And it had started so pleasantly, so easily. A conference in Budapest, where he was a keynote speaker. The invitation had been a surprise, on behalf of a new pharmaceutical company based in Zelenograd he’d never heard of. But the invitation came with a business class ticket, reservations at the Budapest Four Seasons, pickup at the airport in a limo. First class all the way.

And then meeting Dr. Kasich, head of Teknolab, the pharmaceutical company, who’d been charming and flattering and had taken him to the finest restaurants.

And then the flattering comments on his scientific papers led to an amazing offer of a consultancy with very high fees. It was borderline illegal, certainly unethical, at least according to CDC rules, but the CDC was not making him rich. This gig could make him rich in a couple of years.

The commitment was not onerous. Being available for consultancy work 20 hours a month, which could be done via videoconferencing. Two trips to Budapest a year.

The stipend to be paid into a bank account in the Bahamas, to save on bureaucracy and, incidentally, on taxes.

It was an offer made in heaven and Elias leaped at it. His life took an immediate turn for the better. No longer scrimping and saving because the CDC wasn’t paying its top-tier scientists their due.

Alex never seemed to mind. Not in the least. It was really annoying. She not only didn’t complain about the hours or the pay, she seemed content in the job.

Well, maybe she didn’t have ambitions, but he did. Hell, yes.

The consulting job was easy. A few Zoom calls, a few emails. Once, a CDC report before it was published. Piddling things. And in return, the money and some fully paid conferences in places like Maui, Acapulco, Bali. Business class tickets and amazing hotels.

He’d been very pleased.

Right up to the request to show up at an airfield where he was strong armed onto a private jet and flown to a country he couldn’t identify. He’d asked and asked where they were going, but the pilots didn’t answer and the two men who were clearly guards weren’t talking. The flight had taken around 15 hours. He could have been anywhere in the world.

They’d landed on an airfield with no signs, he didn’t even know which language was spoken. He still didn’t know where he was, in his fourth, or maybe fifth, day.

At first, he’d been treated with respect, but it had been made very clear that he had no choice in the matter.

That first day he realized that nobody cared that he was going to lose his job. He was sure Alex would cover for him for a few days, but after that he was toast. It frightened him a little that they didn’t care at all. They were showing him that after this, his usefulness was zero.

At the airfield he’d been hustled into a SUV and driven for an hour. He gave up trying to communicate with anyone. Maybe nobody spoke English.

---