The tension eased, and he risked looking at the computer on the table. Reese fought with guilt every day in the lab. Now that guilt grew barbs and threatened to flay the muscle from his bones.
He should have known.
And he would have if he hadn’t been such a coward and walled himself off from any of Koda’s life. He’d meant it when he told the colonel the less he knew, the easier it was to do the work.
Reese was wrong to think he couldn’t hate himself more. There was no question now. Reese had to make this right. Or at least as right as he could, no matter the cost to himself.
The clock on the nightstand read a quarter till six. Harrington would be over any time to pick Reese up.
He dressed, then packed. Reese had just pulled on his shoes when a knock sounded at his room door.
“Just a minute.” Reese picked up his duffle bag.
“Car is downstairs waiting, whenever you’re—”
Reese opened the door.
Colonel Harrington furrowed his brow. “You look like shit.”
Felt like it too. Reese forced a smile. “Thanks, you’re looking pretty dapper yourself this morning.”
Harrington’s mouth twitched.
“Careful there, Colonel, you might actually smile and ruin your reputation.”
“C’mon, the hospital has your room ready. They’ll have you prepped for your operation by noon, and by tomorrow morning, you’ll be gagging on green JELL-O.”
A pleasant thought. Worse, he was probably right. “No surgery.”
“Excuse me?” And Harrington spoke with the tone of a man not used to being told no.
“You need my help too much, and I need to help.”
“Did you pay attention to what that doctor said?”
Reese stepped into the hall. The door clicked shut behind him. “Yeah. I did. The surgery has a fifty percent failure rate.”
“A fifty percent chance at working too.”
“You do realize I can count, right?” He dropped his gaze to the gold and red patterned carpet. Did they pick such an ugly color to keep the dirt from showing or to keep people from looking for it? “I can’t risk that fifty percent failure. Without me, you guys will be flying blind. And by all appearances, those unknown Anubis are after Koda’s brother.”
Colonel Harrington stared at the end of the hallway where there was nothing but a large painting of flowers done in shadowy Renaissance hues and shades. “Honestly, Dr. Dante, at this point, I don’t know what else you can do.”
It was the way Harrington said it. “You found out something?”
He inclined his head. “Car’s waiting downstairs.”
“I told you—”
“If you’re not going to get the surgery, then you can come with me to Virginia.”
“What’s in Virginia?”
“Another scene.”
Fuck. “Where?”
“Motel.”