Page 70 of Her Captivated Hero

“Riya?”

She wrote a note, then shut off her microscope and looked over at the door of Jonah’s lab, where she’d been hiding.

“Hey Susan,” she smiled.

“You have your cell phone turned off again.”

Riya sighed. She fished out her phone from her lab coat and realized it was powered off. “It was ringing too much. I’m on a deadline.”

“There’s a pissed off general in Miranda’s office. She’s been holding him off, but I think she needs your help. What are you doing in here? We’ve been looking all over for you.”

Riya turned on her phone as she quickly walked over to Susan. “Shit, there’s a ton of texts, and they’re not just from Miranda. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. But you’re a popular girl. The CDC has been calling for you, too.”

“I’m sorry, I was hiding in here to get this last set of tests done. Jonah took today off, and he keeps a tight ship, so leaving my lab was worth it to finish up. I’m sorry, Susan.”

They went out the door and across the campus to Miranda’s office. When they got there, she saw Lieutenant General Astor drinking coffee and laughing at something Miranda was saying.

“There you are,” Miranda smiled. “The general told me how impressed he was with your work last month. Of course he didn’t go into as much detail as I would have liked.” Miranda waved her to the seat beside the general.

Well she had done a good job, but she sure didn’t remember the general singing her praises. It must have been more of the Porter magic.

“Dr. Patel, it’s good to see you again.” He cleared his throat. “She and I were reviewing your file. When you took your job with TAID and got your clearances with the government, it was with the understanding you might be asked to work on classified and / or top secret assignments.”

“Yes, I remember. It also said that the assignments were at my discretion.”

Riya thanked God that the leather seat she was sitting in had high arms, it allowed her to slip her hands under her legs to contain the sweat forming on her palms.

“Riya, I think you understand that if we asked you to work on something that was top secret it was because your country needed you. I talked to everyone at the Pentagon, and I was told you were the man for the job. I mean, woman.”

When things were this confusing, she found it was just better to wait, and let the person speaking to just keep talking, so she waited.

“We have a top secret international assignment. It’s critical that you go on this mission. Your country needs you.” His eyes drilled into hers, it took every ounce of her willpower not to drop her gaze. “Will you do this?”

She sat up straighter. “Of course I will.”

“Good.” He gave a brisk nod.

“General, when will this assignment begin? Is there something that Dr. Patel can review prior to leaving?” Miranda asked.

“She’ll be leaving out of NAS tonight. When she reaches Coronado she’ll join the briefing with the team. Members of the CDC will be meeting us there with the equipment she’ll need.”

Suddenly she wasn’t as worried. He was talking her language. “What kind of equipment, Sir?”

“She’ll need a portable biocontainment lab.” He spoke to Miranda instead of her.

Riya looked over at Miranda and did a quick eyeroll that the general couldn’t see. Then she turned back to him.

“Understood, General. I’ll be dealing with at least a BSL-1 safety hazard, got it. Is it the same one I was researching before? The airborne toxin?”

“Are you excited about this?” It sounded like he was angry. No, it was more like he had eaten something he didn’t like. It took her moment to figure out what he was thinking.

“I take my projects very seriously. I think you are misunderstanding my eagerness to assist you, with some sort of elation.”

“Oh. Well then,” he smiled. She could tell she had appeased him. “Riya, I’m grateful to have you working on this. I’m just sorry I didn’t have you continue working on the toxin longer, like you wanted too.”

Having dealt with enough Pentagon personnel, she knew better than to smile at this point. But inside she was smiling. Inside she was thankful that she had continued to analyze the poison and come to some of her own conclusions. Maybe this would give her a leg up on whatever job she would be doing.