Harrington led Reese down the cobblestone path, across the yard. His big toe caught one of the rocks. Colonel Harrington steered Reese to the open side door of the chopper. Another man in fatigues hauled him into the cabin and guided Reese to a seat while another shut the door muffling the noise of the chopper blades. Everyone buckled in, and Reese fumbled with the belt until the military man who’d helped him in clicked the latch in place. Within seconds, the ground fell away, and Reese’s insides flipped.
“My fish, who’s going to feed my fish?”
“We’ll send someone to feed your fish and lock up your house.” Colonel Harrington had silver hair and crow’s-feet around his eyes. An older, weathered version of the other four cookie-cutter soldiers in the cabin.
The woman in the suit, however, clearly wasn’t baked from the same batch.
Pain beat in Reese’s toe. Crimson filled the cuticle edging the nail. He scrubbed the sleep from his eyes hoping this was a dream. “Why am I here and not asleep on my couch? Do you know how hard it is for me to sleep?”
Colonel Harrington leaned forward in his seat. “We received a call from a company named New World Genetics about a possible terrorist attack on their Utah facility.”
“Is everyone okay?” Reese no longer worked for New World, but he still knew people who did.
“We don’t know yet.”
“What did they say happened?”
“They don’t know. At 0200 Monday morning, the Utah facility owned by New World Genetics failed to check in. I don’t have to tell you how serious that is.”
He didn’t. Every eight hours security did a visual and verbal confirmation from each of the five floors of the lab. A single minute late led to full lockdown.
The woman said, “Minutes after the project coordinator tried to contact on-site security, the entire lab went dark.”
“Wait… what?” Reese tossed a look back and forth between the woman and the colonel. “The Utah facility can’t go dark.” The lab was self-sufficient, so even if the power grid in the area failed, all systems remained a hundred percent. And in the event of a catastrophe, there were backup generators and large cell batteries with solar power rechargers.
“That’s why we need your help,” Harrington said.
“My—” Reese squinted at the man. “I think you’ve made a mistake.”
The woman lifted her chin. “Anubis.”
Reese’s tongue tried to stick to the roof of his mouth. “What about it?”
“According to New World, there was only one research project going on in that lab, and it was called Anubis,” Harrington said. “And terrorists don’t attack a place like the Utah facility unless there’s something they want. That means we need to know about everything you worked on during your time there.”
“Look.” Reese held up his hands. “I haven’t set foot in that lab in over three years. There’s nothing I can tell you.”
“You were on the ground floor of the research. You sat second chair to Dr. Gary Echols who founded the project. You are one of only four researchers ever given top-tier access to the lab. You know the work being done there.”
“And you people are the goddamned government. You probably know what I had for breakfast and what brand toilet paper I use.”
“I will strongly advise you to cut with the hostility and cooperate with us, Dr. Dante.” The arrogant tone of the woman wearing the suit crawled over Reese with pins and needles.
“And who the hell are you?”
“Laura Phillips.”
“Is that name supposed to mean something to me? Because it doesn’t.”
“I’m above your pay grade, Dr. Dante. All you need to know is my name.” Her cold stare carved through Reese’s will.
He ran a hand through his hair, and his glasses tumbled off the top of his head. He caught them and put them back on so he could see. “I signed an NDA. Even if I had answers, New World Genetics would bury me in court for discussing anything with you.”
“New World Genetics is the one who contacted us. Since they seem to think terrorism may be involved, it makes this a military operation,” Harrington said. “Any nondisclosure agreements you’ve made with New World Genetics is null and void under the Homeland Security Act.”
Reese shook his head, then nodded. “I still think you should ask someone who’s working there. They’ll know a lot more than me. Six months out of a lab might as well be years. Years might as well be decades. Any information I have will be out of date, if it’s applicable at all.”
“We can’t ask anyone else.”