Degrees of Wrong (38 page)

“You…you were saying those things to distract me? You weren’t trying to kidnap me?”

He laughed. “Tempting, but no. Although, he’s going to be mighty interested in what we talked about… Well, shall we?” He held his hand out to me.

“You’re not getting out with me. It will look like…like…” Like we were
together
.

“Yes.” He grinned. “It will. Nicoli will be furious.”

I peeked around the curtain to see the myriad of people packed into the stadium-like auditorium, waiting to hear me squeak unintelligibly on stage. My pulse raced, and really, I shouldn’t have eaten anything for breakfast because it was trying to make a presentation of its own. I didn’t see a single person I knew except for Ryon, who kept making funny faces at me every time I poked my head out.

This last time, I had stuck my tongue out at him and had retracted quickly into the sanctity of the curtain when I heard some hushed chuckles.

My eyes kept glancing back to the table directly in front of the podium. Dr. Folsom’s chair sat empty. Her vehicle had left before mine, so she should really be here by now. I wondered if she had taken ill, because if she had, I would happily postpone this for another day…

“Dr. Morgan, we’re ready for you,” said the short man I knew to be Professor Tulio.

I inhaled and exhaled, then stepped out onto the stage. Amid the resounding applause, I heard Dr. Tulio introduce me to the crowd from the podium. My podium.

“Although I can tell by the applause that she needs no further introduction, may I present to you Dr. Elyse Morgan.”

Impossibly, the applause roared louder as I made my way across the two-mile-long stage.
Where is Nicoli? Where is Dr. Folsom? Where is my tongue?

I reached the stand and accessed the computer there, retrieving my notes. One last time, I inhaled. And then I began. I looked up to the crowd at the unfamiliar faces, the important faces, the faces of intellect. And I smiled. “I would like to apologize in advance for my speaking ability. If I’d thought I’d have to give a speech about it, I might not have tried to find the cure at all,” I told them, laughing nervously. Hot damn, my tongue worked.

The collective laughter resonated throughout the auditorium. It made me feel better. A little. My father had taught me that trick. Always start with an icebreaker.

Suddenly, my icebreaker fell by the wayside, and my anxiety about my speech was replaced and compounded by a new worry. The doors on either side of the auditorium were kicked open, and huge soldiers with huge guns started to pour in and up the stadium stairs. Their pace was at a half trot, half march, and only when the entire room was lined with the lot of them did they stop, planting their feet in place.

Anxious murmurs erupted throughout the room. Half of the audience was looking to me for direction and the other half couldn’t help but gawk at the spectacle-creating obstacles in front of all the exits.

I looked down to Ryon, but he shrugged once. He seemed alert but markedly less worried than his frantic counterparts. He knew these men, I realized. These men were wearing UOC uniforms.

Dr. Tulio scurried across the stage and pulled at my sleeve. “Uh, Dr. Morgan, your presence has been requested in the back offices.”

I looked to Ryon for approval, and he nodded slightly. I hurried off the stage with the fumbling professor.

He led me down the hall behind the stage. My heels clicked loudly in the frantic pace of our flight. He stopped and opened the door to a room on the left, and bid me enter. I did so alone, and he shut the door behind me.

The room was completely empty, except for Nicoli and Ralph, who were both scowling. A short moment later, Ryon entered quietly behind me.

“What’s with the freak show?” he asked.

“There has been a development,” Nicoli said grimly.

Ralph held a drawn expression. This was the first time I’d seen him in person since that day he bid me farewell on the docks of a beach I still didn’t know the location of.

Nicoli motioned for me to come to him. I did so, waiting patiently for him to explain his meaning. “It would appear that Dr. Folsom has been abducted.” As he said this, he grabbed both my arms to hold me steady.

“What?” I gasped. “By who? Why? What do they want? Money?”

I had more questions, but he stopped them. “Her vehicle was diverted and left the convoy. When we tracked its location, it was empty. Even the driver was gone. There was a video chip left on the seat. Lean into me, love. You don’t look very good.”

I was dizzy. The room was swirling, or my head was spinning, or both, and I did lean into him. “How much are they asking for?”

“It’s Ares Petropoulos. And he’s not asking for money, love.”

“What? No. Nicoli, you can’t go! He’ll kill you, he’ll—”

“He doesn’t want me, love. He wants to exchange Dr. Folsom for…for…” he stammered.

I felt sickened. “Me.”

Nicoli nodded.

“But why? I’ve already turned the cure over to the UN. What good am I to him?”

“For the same reason he sought out your father after he refused to work for him. Revenge,” Ralph said.

“Then just tell me when and where.”

“What do you mean?” Nicoli asked.

“When and where do we make the exchange?” I clarified.

“Damn it, Elyse.” He shook me. “There isn’t going to
be
any exchange.”

That’s when I snapped. “You listen to me, Nicoli Marek. I’m not going to allow any harm to come to Dr. Folsom because of me. I provoked him. She’s not going to pay for that. And I will do whatever it takes—”

“She’s the mole, Elyse,” he blurted, shaking me again.

I wrenched myself from his grasp and took a step back. He allowed me to move away from him. “Wh-what?” I looked to Ryon and Ralph. Both remained silent.

Nicoli’s expression softened, but he didn’t move toward me. “She’s the mole we were looking for, Elyse. She works for Petropoulos.”

“That’s…that’s not possible.” I shook my head. “She was my mother’s closest friend.”

He nodded. “Which proved to be of great value to him, I’m sure. Listen, love. I need you to listen to me. I promise to explain everything, if you promise to listen. Do you promise?”

I wasn’t sure if I really could just listen. Not to this.

By his expression, Nicoli wasn’t sure either. “On the ship, when you were so sick and I was staying in your room at night, I had a lot of time to think about what happened. At first, I thought this mole had just been waiting for the perfect opportunity and found it when Dr. Folsom became ill. I thought Petropoulos had just gotten a lucky break. But that theory wasn’t consistent with the
Bellator
’s communication records. Remember I told you that there weren’t any inappropriate communications with the prison?”

I nodded, trying hard to follow.

“Well, I accessed the
prison’s
communications records. The call came from the beach house, Elyse. The night before we left the Maldives.”

I gasped.

“She faked the illness in order to force us to send you to the prison,” he said angrily. “Conveniently, Dr. Folsom was unavailable, and we all know what happened to Dr. Yomato at the prison. That only left you. So, Petropoulos suddenly developed a heart condition.”

“But…she wasn’t faking it, Nicoli. You can’t fake what she had…what
I
had. Half the crew contracted it.”

“She poisoned you, love. She poisoned the crew, and herself as well. I figure she must have been faking her symptoms that night we re-boarded the
Bellator
. I went back and checked her accesses. She left her room that night. She went to the mess hall.”

“She poisoned the food?” I was getting sicker by the second.

“Yes. I figured that out when I didn’t get sick. You and I both know that if it was a virus, I would have gotten it from you, love.”

“You wouldn’t keep your hands off me. I was worried about that, actually. So, she poisoned herself too. Who would do such a thing?”

“Of course, that’s a bit hypocritical of you, love,” he said, amused.

Oh. I had done virtually the same thing. I shrugged, sheepish.

“At any rate,” he continued, “she waited until after you had seen Petropoulos to poison your food supply. She must have done that for effect. You couldn’t have treated all those patients and not contracted it yourself.”

“But I ate at the mess hall too, Nicoli. I should have been sick sooner, with everyone else,” I reasoned. “Also, what about your food?”

“You realize I was referring to the chocolate, Elyse. She didn’t poison the chocolate until after you had returned. And my food is kept separate from the crew’s, due to my—”

“Royal blood?” I offered. He scowled but didn’t correct me.

“
Anyway
,” he said, “I began to see a much bigger picture. Her friendship with your mother made her an invaluable asset to Petropoulos. You had said that he met with your father before. No doubt she had a hand in arranging the meeting somehow. And I believe…” He paused and ran his hand through his hair. “I believe she may have been instrumental in your parents’ death. She was in contact with your mother in Portugal the day of your father’s lecture.”

My hand flew to my mouth to stifle a sob or vomit or both. The tears streamed freely now. I held up my other hand to Nicoli to stop him from coming any closer. I just needed a moment to gain control. He stared at me, a helpless look on his face.

“Go on,” I told him hoarsely, after a long moment.

“Of course, she would have been the one to give Petropoulos your name in the first place. She would have told him of your work.”

“But…who told the UN? I had always thought that she was the one—”

“I found that a surveillance team specifically assigned to Ares had picked up some intel with your name in it as the target. Apparently, it had been decided that if Ares Petropoulos was interested in you, then so should the United Nations be. When they checked your background, they must have found out whose daughter you were. They were already aware of what he’d done to your parents, so they sent forces to retrieve you.”

Ralph interjected, “We didn’t know exactly why Petropoulos wanted you, but we guessed it had something to do with your father.”

“But…but you said that first day, that you were
there
because of my work on the Black Death,” I reminded him.

“And your response confirmed our suspicions, but we didn’t know with any certainty. If you were indeed trying to find the cure, we were going to offer our assistance. If not, we were still going to offer you protection from Petropoulos, out of respect for your father.”

“Out of respect for him? How did my father come to have such a rapport with the United Nations? He despised the UN.”

“He didn’t always despise it, Dr. Morgan. In his younger days, he was actually the director of the epidemiology department of the World Health Organization.”

“He never once in his life told me that.” Why didn’t this room have chairs? I needed to sit down.

Ralph shrugged. “He wasn’t proud of it. He had some strong disagreements with the double standards of that time. He resigned his position. He didn’t leave on bad terms. He was a very ethical man.”

“You knew my father.”

“I did. That’s why I didn’t think you would come willingly with us that day. I was quite sure he had instilled in you a distaste for the UN.”

I nodded. He had done exactly that.

“And since they were unsure of your status,” Nicoli added, “the admiral and I had merely been informed that you would be on our ship for witness protection.”

“Ironically, we had chosen the
Bellator
because
of your ties with Dr. Folsom. To make you feel more comfortable.” Ralph shook his head. “We played right into his hands.”

Again, I covered my mouth with one hand and pressed into my stomach with the other, trying to suppress the pain welling there. Dr. Folsom’s betrayal made it feel like my mother had died all over again. I shook my head at Nicoli when he took a step toward me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? You said you had this figured out when I was sick. Why would you leave me alone with her?”

“I had to leave, love. If you recall, you forced my hand in that. I couldn’t allow you to transfer to another ship where I couldn’t monitor you. It was obvious that she didn’t want you dead, or harmed. She easily could have done you in when you were so helpless in the bed. Besides, you wouldn’t be any use to Petropoulos if you were dead. I did watch her though, from my home. I can access the ship at any time, love, from anywhere. I knew when you woke up, when you stayed late in the lab, when you ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. I knew where she was at all times. If she would have done anything remotely suspicious, I would have had her arrested before she could protest. I did see where she accessed your research. But I figured you had probably allowed her to do it.”

“I did. I wouldn’t have hidden anything from her. I explained it all to her, step by step.”

He shrugged. “She was helpless to do anything with it on the
Bellator
. She would have known I would be monitoring the communications because of the apparent mole we had on board. She would have had to wait until you ported. Since your arrival in Egypt, I’ve been biding my time. I didn’t want her to know that she was a suspect. I don’t believe she knows, even now. But, Elyse, love, there’s something else.”