Page 32 of Heart of Danger
Maybe the inside of her house could be considered a vice. It was decorated to within an inch of its life. Lee was impressed and a little uneasy. A hidden artistic streak was out of character for Young. He’d have felt better if the house had been as bland as she was. As she appeared to be.
The inside of her house was such a jewel he wondered uneasily what else Catherine Young might have hidden from him.
“Got something, boss.” Baring and his two colleagues had cleared each room, finding nothing. Now they were in her bedroom. Baring stood in front of her bed. The tiny but powerful videocamera mounted on his shoulder showed Lee exactly what Baring was seeing.
Young had a big down-filled emerald green comforter on her bed. Next to the edge was a square indent, the size and shape of a small carryon suitcase. Some neatly folded clothes lay on the comforter as well. Clothes that had been discarded.
Young had packed a bag for a trip.
It was official. She wasn’t missing because she’d had an accident or had fallen so ill she couldn’t call in, or had slipped and banged her head on the bathtub.
She was, of course, as of this minute without a job. No question of Young ever returning. However, she had a lot of knowledge of the SL Project in her pretty head.
Scenarios raced through Lee’s mind. He was almost certain no information had been stolen from the lab because they had stringent security measures in place. No researcher was allowed to take data home with them. That didn’t mean she hadn’t figured out a way to smuggle data out. He was now faced with a very tedious security inventory that would interrupt work flow and slow his schedule down. Not to mention the fact that their best scientist was now gone, perhaps selling secrets to third parties or the US government or the Iranians.
She was, of course, a dead woman walking, but first they needed to find her.
A laptop was open on a pretty table that doubled as a desk. “Get Morrison to check her computer,” he ordered Baring. “More men are on the way. I want you to go through her house inch by inch and I want some information on where she’s gone by the time you’re done. Is that clear?”
Baring nodded. “Yeah. How careful do we have to be.”
Lee thought of all the trouble Young was causing him at a very delicate moment in the project. “Take the place apart if you have to,” he said.
“You got it.” Baring turned away.
Morrison was checking her laptop, Lee could hear breakage in what he supposed was the kitchen and he watched for a moment as Baring began methodically slashing all soft surfaces in her bedroom. Cushions, pillows, comforter, mattress. Then he began taking apart a dresser drawer.
It had beautiful lines, what the Americans called Shaker furniture. Lee was a man who appreciated simplicity, beauty. Pity. Still, if there was anything hidden in it, Baring would find it.
He listened and watched for a moment more. “Don’t come back here until you can tell me where she is,” he told Baring and pressed a button.
The hologram winked off.
MOUNT BLUE
“Sitrep,” Mac barked, coming to a halt. Catherine skidded to a stop behind him, panting, resisting the urge to plant her hands on her thighs and lean over, gasping for breath.Hewasn’t winded. His deep low voice contained a note of menace. “What the fuck is so urgent I had to come running and bring her?” He shot a thumb in her direction.
Catherine froze.This concernedher?
There were two men in the room, some kind of high-tech paradise. There were monitors everywhere, most the fancy very expensive hologram type. There must have been fifty of them. Her company lavished money on their equipment and even she didn’t have this kind of computing and screen power. She saw other equipment, some she recognized, some she didn’t. There must have been several million dollars’ worth of gear in the room.
There were two men in the room, sitting on transparent Ergonos, the most expensive office chairs on earth. She’d asked for one but it had been denied in the last budget round. She’d even contemplated buying one for herself but they cost more than her car.
Though invisible, they were made of some kind of material that molded itself to each body that sat in it, programmed to provide exactly the right kind of support precisely where it was needed.
The two men in the room looked as if they were sitting on air but there was nothing delicate about them. One dark, one blond. Both looked tough, no-nonsense. The blond one was manipulating images so quickly she could barely grasp what was showing on them, flicking them away with movements of his fingers, like a keyboard artist playing some arcane tune.
Though there was one image…then it was gone.
They both turned to look at her and here, too, she saw stone faces. Completely without expression.
The dark one stood, moved away from the Ergonos. He gestured with his hand. “Have a seat, Dr. Young.”
She looked up, startled. He wasn’t quite as tall as Mac but he was still much taller than she was. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Mr…”
“Nick.” His voice was low. Abrupt. “Please sit. We’ve got something to show you.”
Show her? She sat and nearly moaned at the absolute comfort of the chair. It was important not to look down because she’d see herself ostensibly sitting on thin air. Some got so dizzy they couldn’t use Ergonos.
