Page 90 of Her Captivated Hero

18

“Guys, it’s not a valid address,”Dex said over their receiver. Hunter relayed the news to Griff.

Gray relayed the news in Arabic to the man, who babbled back in Arabic.

“I heard him,” Dex said. “I’m checking it out.” Gray could hear the familiar sound of Dex slamming down on the keyboard. “Got it, he’s outside of the forty-forth sector, on the north side of third street.”

“Dalton. Aiden. Do you think you can get past all the patrols, find a vehicle and meet us at the address?” Gray asked.

“Not a problem.” Aiden’s voice was confident.

Gray didn’t want anything to go wrong. This guy needed to be caught. God knew how many different formulas he’d made.

“Riya, can you hear me?” Gray asked.

“Loud and clear,” she answered. Her voice was subdued.

“You all right?”

“Just saying plenty of prayers I can have the antitoxin done in time for the little girl.”

“What’s your ETA?” Gray asked.

“Just got everything started forty-five minutes ago.”

She sounded off, but maybe this was just how Riya sounded in scientist mode.

“Gray, Dalton and Aiden have already left,” Dex said.

“Good. That’s good,” he muttered.

“Yeah, well, here’s the not-so-good part,” Dex said. “Liam has been up my ass ever since you’ve been gone. Then Captain Hale started in an hour ago, and I just got pinged a half hour ago by the lieutenant general who has to brief the president.”

“Why, the president?”

“The president is going to be the one who has to smooth the way with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to get the anti-toxin into the Jordanian royals, then there is the prime minister of Jordan. The president’s got to start cutting through the red tape like yesterday.”

Gray hadn’t considered that. He turned to Hunter. “Let’s go. You’re going to need to drop me off at the hotel so I can deal with the brass, while you head over to the address.”

* * *

Riya started to shiver.Even in her hot suit, she was cold. She so badly wanted to rub the back of her neck. Her head was pounding. These were all the signs of meningitis. While she waited for the thermal cycler to finish for the DNA specific toxin, she had the fluorescence reader working on the broad toxin.

She heard a commotion and turned around.

“Gray.” Her head was swimming.

She carefully walked a straight line to the plastic inner door and gave a wan smile.

“Hey, Buttercup.”

She looked behind him.

“Wyatt said you would be gone for an hour. It’s been a lot longer than that. Where’s everybody else?”

Gray grimaced. “It takes a while to get in and out of the hotel. Cops and the military are swarming around. The others are on an assignment. I’m here to talk to some people. How’s it going for you? I know you had to start over.”

He looked sad.