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“Do not speak another thing,” he said in accented English. “Or I blow the head off.”
She stared at the man’s gun, sucking in air as a strange sense of calmness drenched her panic. He didn’t really want to kill her. He wanted the virus, and she was the only person who could hand it over. “Where did you come from?”
“We come back from side door. Easy-peasy when you think to prop it open. Then we creep the stairs while you are all shooting the breeze.”
He motioned with his gun toward her lab. “Go back.”
The sounds of scuffling and grunts came from down the hall Will was in there. Her chest tightened as if in a straitjacket and her heart pounded. She retreated, Caruceko and his pistol keeping pace.
Evan pressed Will to the floor with a knee. Even facedown and with his arms twisted behind him, Will caught the other man’s leg and flipped him. Both men scrambled for Winston’s loose gun.
“You!” Caruceko thrust his gun at Will before he could grab the other weapon. “Do not move.” He jerked his head at his mercenary. “Take him downstairs and finish him off.”
“No!” Gwen cried as Evan hauled Will out the door.
The gangster closed the hallway door. “Now, we get down to business.” He gestured with his pistol to the first of the doors to the lab. “Open the door. Hurry. Give me the virus.”
“It’s very dangerous if disbursed.” Would he understand that word? “If it’s scattered around.” She would explain this to any untrained individual. Convincing Caruceko of this would buy her time. And then what? The police were gone. The maintenance man was gone. And Will—? She bit her lip.
Perspiration ran down her temple, but she didn’t dare move for fear Caruceko might overreact and shoot her!
“Do not worry. I do not plan to release here,” he said. He probably planned to sell the virus samples to the highest bidder amongst the bad actors who made up his customers.
He spoke so calmly, she doubted he really understand the consequences of letting this virus loose in the world anywhere. Gwen watched his hands. “What I meant was you should wear protective covering before handling it.”
Now, if they entered the second room where the virus was stored without suiting up like CSI techs at a crime scene, they would contaminate the lab.
“It is in container, no?”
Gwen had transferred the office key and the card to the passageways to outer pockets before she and Will had met the officers earlier. She found the access card for the first room, the room where they suited up in the jump suits.
Something hard pressed into her back, and the man’s strong garlic breath made her ill. “Why you no answer?” Caruceko’s voice rose. “Is in container?”
She squelched the urge to gag and tried without success to stiffen away from the gun barrel. She blanked on what he’d asked and then remembered. “Y-Yes, it’s in a container. Can you step back so I can insert the card?”
He shifted away, and she swiped the card, still trying to come up with a solution to get rid of him. Would that even be possible? Her throat threatened to close, but she forced herself to calm down.
“It is open, no?” The arms dealer stepped on her heels in his effort to get inside the room.
Pushed off-balance, she staggered, searching for a handhold to stay upright. Her fingers closed around the handle of the refrigerator. Why not use the cultures of harmless bacteria inside this cooler? She tried to turn that way, but the gangster crowded too close. “Move back, please.”
He barely retreated, but she managed to pry open the door. He looked past her at the tray of vials and then at the maximum-security room where they kept samples of the deadliest strains. He reached past her to rap on that door. “The virus is not in there?”
“I’m the one who works here and I know where it’s stored.” She eyed him, but her ruse must be working because he didn’t seem suspicious. She removed the tray with the common cultures. “This is the virus, but you must carry them in this.”
The air in the tiny room grew stifling even as cold air flowed from the open fridge and chilled her feet. With his gun trained on her, she packed the vials in a molded foam box with a fitted lid, continuing her deception. Something made her look up. Behind Caruceko, outside the shattered hallway door, an indistinct form loomed. Was this Winston? Coming back alone because he’d killed Will? The vise in her chest squeezed tight. No!
No. Will had to still be alive. The shadow could be him. Or the FBI agents. She thrust the lightweight box at the gangster. “Go. I need to close the door.”
The arms dealer barreled into the main office. Loud popping noises burst forth. Gunshots.
Gwen ducked out of sight. Scenes of bloody carnage on the other side of the barrier spun through her mind. Suddenly, everything stopped. Silence descended. After a few minutes, the ringing in her ears faded.
Someone was standing on the other side of the door. She crouched lower, her heart pounding. It could be?—
A male voice called, “You can come out now, Gwen.”
Was that Will’s voice?
