TUESDAY. BASU RESIDENCE, Mumbai, India.

Heidi stared at the outline of Adam’s face in the darkness. It felt as though she had a string of tension inside of her, vibrating at such a pitch that it stopped time. She was afraid to breathe in case she ruined this perfect bubble. Nothing seemed to touch them here. If they could stay in this room forever and shut out the world, she might do it.

She’d given up hope of more with Adam years ago. His parents still kept her apprised of what he was doing in a general sense. They’d taken their role of in-laws seriously, treating her like a daughter. She’d never had kind parents. The Novaks were her haven. Always had been.

Her earliest memory of them was fuzzy and more a series of feelings.

She’d been little and her parents were fighting, which wasn’t anything new. She’d hide when they really got going. This time she’d gone out into the yard and it had begun to rain. Instead of going inside, where the fight still raged on, she’d tried to take shelter under a tree. Adam had found her huddled in the dirt. She didn’t recall what happened to lead him to decide taking her to his house was a good idea, but the next thing she remembered was being wrapped in a huge, fluffy towel.

Mrs. Novak had made them hot chocolate and let them watch cartoons in the living room. Heidi never got to watch TV in the living room at her house. That was her father’s domain. Heidi had been so happy. She’d wanted to stay there forever, but all good things had to end. When her parents came to find her she’d cried, but Mrs. Novak said she could come over another time.

That was the beginning of her and Adam. It was always kindness that brought them together. Giving her a shelter from the storm. A place to belong. Someone to trust.

Without him, she knew she’d have turned out differently. At the very least she’d have run away from her toxic home for good. At the worst, maybe she’d have been there the day her parent’s killed each other.

She’d been with Adam instead of at home, which might have saved her life. They’d gone to a movie, but left early to fool around in the car. He’d only been home a week, and they’d just made-up from their post-deployment break-up. He’d driven them back to their street with the plan to eat dinner with the Novak’s when they saw the lights outside her house.

Even now she recalled those events with a detached sensation. As though she were a passenger instead of a part of it all. The officers had explained her parents were dead. It wasn’t until later that the forensics indicated they’d shot each other.

Her parents weren’t bad people, but they weren’t good for each other either. She’d never understood why they hadn’t split up. Why they forced themselves into a union they resented.

Heidi reached out and ran her fingers across Adam’s hand.

She liked to think it was different with them. She loved Adam. But her parent’s had loved each other, too. Heidi had to wonder if they’d passed that dysfunctional genetic down to her. If this Merry-Go-Round she and Adam had going on was because she wasn’t capable of a healthy, normal relationship.

Then again, Adam was equally guilty of breaking up with her half a dozen times because he was leaving again. Every deployment started like that. He’d sit her down, break up with her, they’d both cry, and a few weeks after he’d left she’d get a letter or phone call if she was really lucky and he’d take it all back. Usually that was the only time she heard from him while he was gone.

The rest of those break-ups were her, and deep down she knew she used to do it to get his attention. That sometimes he’d take her being there for him as the norm and he’d forget to make time with her a priority.

In hindsight, she’d thought getting married would change all of that. That they would magically be different. Better. Instead, he’d left with every intention to not speak to her for his entire deployment. There was no reason to call her if they hadn’t just broken up, but she’d waited, staying close to home on the off chance he’d call.

If she could go back and change things, if she could put off her PhD for a semester so she’d have been home when he got back, she would have. Instead they’d spent all these years apart. Could they pick up the pieces and really try? Was that a possibility? Or were they kidding themselves? Would they spend a week together and learn they hated who the other had become? Were they even good for each other anymore? Was she bound to turn out like her parents?

She closed her eyes and swallowed.

There it was.

She could pretend that thought didn’t haunt her, but it did.

They didn’t have a great history. What if, after a while, she turned into her mother? Or worse, her dad? Being apart meant she hadn’t had to face these questions. She’d shoved them down deep, but they’d been there. Rearing their head from time to time, telling her she was better off alone, away from Adam. For his own good.

The only person she’d shared this part of her life with was John. He’d been a good friend to her these last few years.

Adam’s hand turned, and he grasped her hand. He sucked down a breath and stretched. Unlike most people, Adam was either completely asleep or entirely awake. There was no in-between period.

“Morning,” she whispered.

“Morning,” he mumbled.

Warmth curled through her body at the sound of his sleep roughened tone.

How was it she could go this long without seeing him and yet, she still got butterflies? It had to be love if she felt this way despite the time apart and all the baggage, right?

“Time?” he asked.

“Almost eight, I think.”

“We need to go.” He tugged on her hand.

She scooted toward him until Adam could wrap his arm around her, tucking her in close to his body. She closed her eyes and relished the warmth radiating from his body, how being snuggled up with this man made her forget everything going on in the world.

“Do we have a plan for today?” she asked.

“Zain got us blueprints for the Sorkin building. We probably need to get going.”

“I can see the urgency.” She slid her hand around his waist. Soon they’d both be wearing clothes and she wouldn’t be able to touch him like this.

Did she think she could overcome her history for a better future? Or was she bound to repeat the past?

A sharp knock at the door startled her. There was no voice, no command, just a knock.

“That’s probably Kyle.” Adam sighed. He squeezed her once more, then kissed the top of her head. “Come on.”

He let go of her and rolled out of bed, onto his feet.

“Do we have to?” She sat up and pushed her hair back.

“Yup. Come on, get dressed.”

In short order they packed up their things and got ready. Regardless of whether things went well today, they’d need to do something. Whatever Léo was working on wasn’t going to wait for them.

Heidi and Adam left the luggage in the lower living area, then went up to join the rest at the dining table for an a la cart breakfast of whatever they could shove in their mouths. Their hosts were nowhere to be seen. Heidi would have loved to pick Aanya’s head for what Adam was like on a normal job, but it didn’t appear she would get that chance.

“Okay.” Kyle tapped a notebook on the table, all eyes going to him. “Abigail was able to get us on the CEO’s schedule. That’s just going to get us in the office. Zain needs us in there for at least five minutes to hack their system, so we have to start with soft questions. Got it?”

“Do you have a list?” Cindy asked.

“I was thinking Adam, myself and Heidi will go into the office while the rest of you remain outside. We don’t want the two of you connected to this for as long as possible, but we need someone in that room who speaks the language.”

“What are the rest of us doing?” Cindy crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn’t used to taking orders after so long giving them.

“You’ll be with us, ma’am.” The smooth talking cowboy leveled a grin at Cindy that she deflected with her icy cold sniff.

Kyle’s watch beeped. He tapped it then glanced up.

“Let’s do this.”

TUESDAY. SORKIN PHARMACEUTICAL, Mumbai, India.

Léo stared across the street at the Sorkin office building. The company had consolidated their labs and offices into one location as a way to trim the fat back before they began working with Léo’s boss. Now it was a well-oiled machine. Efficient. Purposeful. And neatly under the boss’ thumb. For now.

The way Léo saw it this was a bomb waiting to go off. They might have the CEO in check for now, but how long would that last if the truth got out?

This was yet another case of when the boss’ hyper focus got them into more than they could handle.

Two years ago the boss had done some work in this part of the world and met a lovely young woman named Laranya Reddy. Léo didn’t know the story, he hadn’t been involved in the boss plans for her until it was too late and the ball was already rolling. The only thing Léo had been able to do was try to get out in front of the wreck before it took them all down.

This was a pattern Léo hadn’t identified until later in life when it was too late.

When he came to live with the boss, he’d been a lost soul. The boss had given him a home, freedom and the kind of affection his parents never showed to anyone. It’d taken ten, maybe twelve months, before Léo discovered that first body in the trunk of the car.

The boss had attempted to explain. The reasoning could potentially be sound, but Léo already knew what the boss had done for him. It wasn’t a great leap of logic to understand that this wasn’t anything new. The boss killed to save people. Léo’s parents were cruel people, to not just him but their employees. No one had mourned their untimely death. It was easy enough to cover up, painting them as victims of the fever. But the body in the trunk was another matter.

Back then, Léo had wanted to help. He’d seen the person responsible for saving him in trouble, so he’d figured out how to make the body go away. And that became their routine. The boss would save someone, who didn’t always know they’d been rescued, and Léo would fix it so that the deceased never traced back to anyone. He’d become good at cleaning up after the boss. He’d done it out of love, for the person who’d rescued him, to keep the boss safe.

He’d never expected things to escalate, which was naïve. That was the way these things went. He’d just been too young and stupid to know the way of the world.It’d all started with one person talking, and word was out. They’d been eating pizza and watching a movie when a man knocked on the door. He’d offered them a lot of money for a small thing. Making the boss’ problems go away wasn’t cheap, and Léo had run through most of the money left to him by his parent’s. He’d seen this as an opportunity to create a cushion, for the future, just in case. To take care of the person he loved like a parent. Instead, all this time, he’d been enabling the horrific behavior.

He’d created a monster.

Today, they’d cut off one problem at least. Léo couldn’t touch the quarantined house without risking an intel leak, but he could make sure Doctor Reddy didn’t cause them further problems.

Léo checked his watch.

They should be here any moment.

There.

At a quarter till nine, a trio of people walked through the front doors.

The woman with the short, auburn hair he could pick out of a crowd.

Léo’s skin prickled.

Did the boss know she was here?

He turned and strode into the neighboring building, tugging his ball cap low. People hardly looked at him. It didn’t matter the country, everyone ignored a man in a utility uniform.

TUESDAY. SORKIN PHARMACEUTICAL, Mumbai, India.

Heidi kept her gaze on the floor, hands in her lap. She didn’t have near the confidence in their plan as Kyle did. Adam was still sitting by, not a word passing his lips. She glanced up at him, but he hadn’t taken his gaze off the front door, examining every person who entered the Sorkin building. There was a mix of professionally dressed individuals and those in business casual. It appeared as though the company operated entirely out of this building. There was a clear divide between two groups of people, the management and operations, and the lab staff. One were dressed to the hilt in sleek suits while the others were business casual.

She glanced at Kyle and he smiled at her. He had his head tilted to the side and the blue light on his ear piece flickered. If she strained to listen, she could make out the faint sound of the other person on the line talking. Zain, whoever he was.

Heidi did her best to not bounce her knee or pick at her clothes. Despite the lack of obvious security, she felt like any moment now a uniformed guard was going to haul them into a secret jail cell and demand answers. Ever since Adam tried to get her to wear a bullet proof vest under her t-shirt, she’d been ten times more nervous. The bulky vest hadn’t fit, so she’d left it behind in the car. Now she had to wonder if she should have worn it.

A woman strode toward them, her heels clicking on the polished concrete floor. She stared down her nose at them, clearly not impressed with their casual appearance.

“Mr. Reddy will see you now.” She pronounced the words in a staccato manner, each one clipped. She gestured at the main set of elevators. “Follow me?”

Kyle glanced at Adam and nodded over her head. That didn’t make her feel any better. They were communicating literally over her head with her smack dab in the middle of this crazy plot. She didn’t like it one bit, but she wanted answers more, which was why she put one foot in front of the other, keeping close to their guide.

The woman led them into an elevator and swiped her keycard. She punched a four digit code and a green light flashed before the top floor button lit up.

How was it this was happening?

Wasn’t it obvious Heidi, and the others were frauds?

They had gotten them a meeting by claiming they were reps from an American company looking for a partner. What a load of bullshit.

No one spoke as the elevator rose to the topmost floor. Music kept the ride from being totally intolerable, but not by much.

What the hell was she going to say to this man? How was she going to pull this off?

Kyle wanted her to talk shop for a bit, distract the man before they slipped out, but the problem she saw was that the people in charge weren’t likely to be all that familiar with the lab work. It wasn’t like they could discuss techniques or anything. This man was a macro picture person.

Heidi glanced at Adam.

He had that stony set to his jaw. He got that way when they were fighting and he wasn’t going to back down.

They had a plan they weren’t letting her in on. Because she wasn’t going to like it? Did they not trust her?

“Follow me?” The woman led them off the elevator, past the executive suites, to a secondary waiting area.

The interior offices were dark, the desks cleared. Even the executive assistant area outside the CEO office was cleared off.

Their escort walked them straight to the stately glass door and gestured for them to enter.

This wasn’t normal. It wasn’t right.

Kyle took the lead stepping into the office and waving Heidi after him.

She glanced up at Adam, who nodded.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked.

He urged her forward, his hand against her back.

“Hello, Mr. Reddy.” Kyle strode to the desk, his hand outstretched.

“Hello.” Mr. Reddy was a man on the upper end of middle aged with a nervous smile. He glanced from Kyle to her, then Adam with a slightly confused expression. Heidi actually felt sorry for him. “Sorry about the reception. We have a company holiday coming up.”

Kyle glanced at her.

Right, she was supposed to take the lead.

“Its fine, thanks for seeing us so quickly.” Heidi stepped up, pasting on a pleasant smile.

“Not a problem. I understand you wanted to discuss opportunities?” Mr. Reddy gestured to a small meeting table at the far end of the room with chairs clustered around it.

“Shoot. I need to take this.” Kyle frowned at his phone. “Talk without me.”

What the hell?

Heidi frowned at Kyle.

Just what was going on here?

She turned her attention back to Mr. Reddy and followed him to the table, Adam trailing behind her.

“I apologize for being unprepared.” Mr. Reddy gestured at the seats, then took one himself. “Who did you say you work for?”

“We are aware of your work and how quickly you get products to market.” Heidi smiled and prayed her question distracted him. She couldn’t begin to explain who they each worked for and why they were truly there.

“Oh, well, thank you.” Mr. Reddy shifted, clearly uncomfortable with the compliment. That was odd. In her experience, powerful men liked compliments.

“We aren’t in India on an official trip, but since we were here, and you had an opening, we were hoping to talk a bit about your process. How you get products to market so quickly.” Heidi folded her hands on the table top to keep herself from fidgeting.

No one would tell her the true secret to their success. The simple truth was that cultivating a vaccine took time. Testing, production and distribution were equally slow. She didn’t see how Sorkin could do it.

“Well, uh, I can’t take credit for that. We have a great team.” The man was visibly sweating and his accent grew thicker. He didn’t preen at what had no doubt been a windfall profit season for him. He was uncomfortable and eyeing the door as though he wanted to escape.

This was all wrong. She hadn’t known what to expect, but this wasn’t it.

“I’m especially interested in the work you did in Tunisia.” Heidi leaned forward, watching Mr. Reddy’s every reaction. The way he licked his lips, how his gaze kept darting around.

He was trapped. By them or something else.

He eased his chair away from the table and glanced at Kyle, who was still across the room near the desk. He knew they weren’t who they said they were. He’d pegged them as a threat. If they let him get up from this table, he’d call security and their opportunity to get answers would close because Mr. Reddy was beginning to grasp the situation.

“Who did you say you worked for again?” Mr. Reddy asked.

“I didn’t.” Heidi planted her forearms on the table, her gaze on the other man.

She’d seen enough scared patients to note the symptoms.

He was afraid, but not of them. Then who? And why?

They weren’t going to get answers from him, not in such a state of fear. Either he was scared of them, or he was scared of the same people they were after. One way or another, they needed to gamble.

“Mr. Reddy, I’m not going to lie to you. You seem to understand the severity of the situation. I’m from the CDC,” she said.

Adam ground his teeth, but didn’t say anything.

“You’re scared. I get that. I think the same people you’re worried about are the ones who kidnapped me. I’m looking for answers, Mr. Reddy. Can you help us?”

“You were kidnapped? By who? Where? Was there anyone else there?” The man leaned forward, gripping the edge of the table. He’d zeroed in on those two words and nothing else mattered.

Who else had Léo kidnapped?

“I was held in Peru, in a lab. There were other people there, but they were locals.”

He slumped in his chair and stared out the windows.

“She wasn’t there then.” He sighed.

“Who? Mr. Reddy, we know that someone is feeding you information about outbreaks before they happen, and get vaccines ready for market faster than anyone else. What don’t we know?” She bit her tongue to keep the part about custom diseases to herself.

“What is the CDC going to do?” Mr. Reddy stared at Heidi, already resigned to his fate.

“Depends on how much you tell me. I can’t help you if I don’t know how involved you are. You’ve got to give me something. They’ve taken someone from you, haven’t they? Tell us, and we can try to get them back.”

“That’s just it. I think she’s already dead.” Mr. Reddy’s face was lined with worry. His shoulders slumped with the weight of it all. “The only thing I have left is this company. I have to protect my people. If you can promise they’ll be okay, I’ll tell you everything. Just—I’m the one who is responsible, okay?”

“Okay.” Heidi nodded.

“Two years ago we were on the brink of bankruptcy. We’d sunk a lot of money into developing products that didn’t earn out. I was desperate. A man approached me about becoming a silent partner, offered us money to keep going. I said yes, he wired money, and we were back in business. That was it. Every month I paid a little back.”

“Who was the silent partner?” Heidi wondered if it was someone they knew, or the mole.

“Léo. He told me his last name was Leonard, but I think that’s a lie.”

“Spanish? Light complexion?” Heidi grimaced. God, she hated that man.

“Yes.

“We’ve met. I’m not a fan.”

“Léo came to visit me and asked for a favor. He wanted us to replicate a vaccine. Small batch. It was straight forward, we were barely scraping by, and I owed this man. So, I had it done. A few weeks go by, then I wake up to a video of my daughter and her family. They’d been kidnapped while on vacation. No ransom note, nothing. Léo called and said he wanted us to begin producing the vaccine for market. He never said that my daughter’s life was on the line, but...”

Heidi’s heart broke for this man. Léo was not kind. If he had Mr. Reddy’s daughter and family, she didn’t hold out much hope for their longevity. She’d seen firsthand how he plowed through people.

“When she’s missing and you know Léo has her, it’s hard to see any other option.” Heidi swallowed. More than likely, he was right and his daughter was dead.

“We made the vaccine and sold it. That was the first time. It wasn’t the last.”

“Do you know what happened to your daughter?”

“I haven’t seen her or her family since then. Léo stopped allowing me video privileges, so we’d talk on the phone. Now, I haven’t spoken to her in months. I think...I think she’s dead.” Mr. Reddy dragged his hand over his face.

This wasn’t an act. The guy wasn’t that good. He was a fractured person, holding it together with hope and willpower.

“Why not go to someone?” Heidi asked.

“What do I say? Who do I go to? My company, the people who rely on me, they’re going to lose their jobs. I thought I could protect my daughter.” Mr. Reddy shook his head. “I was stupid to believe if I did what Léo wanted, she’d be okay.”

“What was her name?” Heidi asked.

“Laranya.”

“That’s a pretty name. I don’t want to give you false hope, but I also don’t want you to think you have to believe Laranya is dead. Do you have records of what you were given, or contact information for Léo?” Heidi had known that Léo wanted something from her the moment they’d met. Maybe it was the same with Laranya?

“Yes, in my—”

The glass cracked, shards raining down on them. Heidi lifted her hands to shield her head. Bits of glass hit her arms and face.

Adam flung himself sideways, knocking her out of her chair and onto the ground, driving the air out of her lungs. Her head hit the thin carpet and her vision unfocused.

“Get down!” Kyle yelled.

“What the hell?” Heidi pushed at Adam’s shoulder.

He ignored her and shoved her back down.

“Sniper, I see him next door.” Adam pushed to his feet.

“What?” Heidi stared up at him, then the window.

A sniper? Was after them?

“We have to go.” Kyle crouched next to Mr. Reddy, who was still sprawled on the floor. The older man didn’t move though he continued to stare at her.

“Did you get it?” Adam asked.

“I’ve got his phone. Get her up. We’ve got to get out of here.” Kyle jogged for the door.

Adam grasped Heidi’s hand and hauled her to her feet, wrapping his arm around her head and covering her wide eyes.

“But—Mr. Reddy.” She twisted, but he tightened his grip.

“Don’t look.”

Her hand slid over Adam’s sleeve. Her fingers were wet.

She stared at her hand, streaked with red. The same sleeve he’d used to wipe her face.

“Oh my God...”

She froze.

The sightless eyes

Heidi stared up at Adam, afraid to ask.

“Is he—?” She blinked, her lips parted.

“We’re getting out of here,” Adam said.

“No.” Kyle barked. “We run, we’re guilty. Take her outside, I’ll handle this.”

Adam planted a hand against her lower back and propelled her forward.

“There was a sniper. Nothing about this is coincidence. Kyle, we have to leave.”

Heidi couldn’t wrap her head around anything Kyle and Adam was saying. The implications were too heavy, too much. She couldn’t handle that.

LÉO LEANED UP AGAINST the wall and watched the sniper’s motionless body. Julie was good at what she did and faithful to the boss. Léo wasn’t sure she was even getting money for this job, which was a relief. They didn’t exactly have a lot to spare lately.

His phone vibrated with another text.

The Buenos Aires job was operating in a satisfactory manner. Good. They needed something to go right. Ever since the India lab went up in flames thanks to Laranya, nothing was clicking for them.

If Léo had understood how important Heidi Novak was to the boss, Léo would have kept her under lock and key and forgotten the boss’ directive to put her to work. Constant guard would have been better. The monetary cost would be dwarfed by the ability to keep the boss focused on work.

Not knowing about his boss’ focus was what worried Léo. There was a time when they’d been as close as any parent and child, but things had grown strained since expanding the business. No matter what, Léo couldn’t pretend his priority was anything but the boss’ well being. Everything else was secondary.

Julie shifted.

Did he dare tell her to take out Heidi as well?

Léo peered at the building across the street. The windows were lightly tinted. He could see three figures inside. There was no way to make out their features, but something about them tickled his mind. He pulled out his phone and using the camera, zoomed in as far as he could.

It was the hair, that spunky, chin length cut that gave her away.

Whatever Heidi was up to, it could very well destroy the boss. Léo knew they were in dire need of someone with her skills, but he feared what it might take to turn her and what the boss might do if she didn’t come to adore him.

The report of the single sniper shot, even with the silencer, echoed off the concrete and steel building. The rest of the people in the room dove to the ground.

The sniper pushed to her knees, already disassembling and packing up her gear.

The job was done.

A large man shoved Heidi to the ground. There would be no second, lucky shot.

Léo opened the door to the stairwell and held the door.

Within moments the Sorkin building would be a hotbed of police activity as the incident was handled by the local authorities. The question Léo had to wonder was, would the virologist and her friends flee or remain on site?

Léo needed to get a handle on this, which meant he had to have Doctor Novak.