Page 45 of Shadow Break

“I didn’t want to bother you with it before. I want you to feel settled and secure.”

“But?”

“But you need to know that because of what’s happened, because of the new threat that we’ve identified, I will have other responsibilities.”

“Like speaking to the Russian?”

“Yeah. And with the biological weapon in the picture, my work may take me away from you. They’ll have an agent with you at all times when you’re away from this building, but it might not be me.”

Aaron continued down the hall. “Your room is up here around the corner if the instructions Chris gave me were accurate.”

“That’s good, though, right?” Sydney said, continuing the other discussion. “Your skills are probably better suited to chasing down leads than following me around. Unless I get attacked.”

“I’ll make sure that whoever is with you is just as capable of keeping you safe as I am. But we need to find out who did this.”

“Yeah. We do.”

Aaron stopped in front of a door. “This is it.” She followed him through into her new lab. It was bigger than her last one and more sterile looking. She set the container on a bench, rubbing her neck.

“You okay?” Aaron asked.

“I’m just tired. Also happy to know that you will be busy doing what you're good at instead of standing around bored with me. I’m safe now. My work is safe, and that’s what’s important.”

“Syd!” Dr. Pallon said from the door. “I wondered what was taking you so long. What do you think? It’s amazing, right? This is the right kind of place for a world-class scientist such as yourself.”

“World-class, huh?”

“You will be once you work the kinks out of this drug. And it only took having your life threatened in order to get you in here.”

Sydney ran her hand along the edge of one of the long, white tables. “We couldn’t have afforded it any other way. But it certainly is something.” She turned in a circle, taking it all in.

“I see you’ve got the prototype?” He nodded toward the box on the bench.

“Yes.”

“If you’d like to bring that right over here.” He led her over to a large vault. “Eight-digit code. Highly secure. Close to impossible to crack. Although” — he looked at Aaron — “if they are good enough to break in here, they’re probably good enough to break in there.”

“What?” Sydney said, looking startled.

“It was a joke.”

Aaron cleared his throat. “Nice one. Syd, I’ll leave you two to unpack. I’ve got a Russian to speak to.”

“Hey, Agent Pritchard. I’m glad you’re here. With all the commotion at the other lab, I forgot to thank you for saving Syd. If it weren’t for you — I hate to even think. I just wish there was something we could do to say thank you.”

“No need. That’s my job.”

Sydney hated hearing him say that. “Okay,” she said to Chris. “Let’s get started.”

Aaron stopped at the door before he left. “Syd, don’t leave the compound without an agent, okay?”

“So you’re definitely not coming back?”

“Not sure. I don’t know where this case is going to take me. I’ll try to touch base and keep you updated. If you’re ready to go home and no one is here, you can call me.” He placed a card on the table closest. “My number’s on there.”

She glanced at it. “I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”

Aaron nodded and left.

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