A Cold Dark Promise (Cold Justice #8.5)(33)
Alex found a small fridge on the bridge and carefully placed the vial inside. Finally, he called Frazer.
“The nanny escaped on a speedboat,” Alex told him. Someone, Matt presumably, should have spotted the woman already. A small flotilla of boats was approaching the helicopter wreckage that now lay behind them. “Josette claims she has the real toxin and left a sample with me as an act of faith.” Alex cleared his throat. “She said she’d swapped out the original vials and that we hadn’t been infected.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I want to.” Desperately. “She had an identical case to the one Masook had in his safe and the vials look the same. She said her government would be in touch.”
“So that’s what she was there for? All very James Bond,” Frazer commented dryly. Alex heard relief edge Frazer’s tone, but they weren’t in the clear yet.
“We can’t risk she’s lying.” Alex said softy. “You need to arrange someone to follow ‘Josette’ or pick her up. You need to arrange a cordon around this boat.” He frowned at all the controls. “I need to figure out how to drop the anchor.”
“I know how.” Taylor showed him a lever on the bridge.
“You want to do the honors?” Alex asked her.
Taylor nodded.
“The girl is safe?” asked Frazer.
She appeared fine as far as Alex could tell. Minus the emotional trauma. “As safe as I am.”
“What do you want me to do?” asked Frazer.
“Keep the cops and press and everyone else away from us. Arrange an airdrop of airtight body bags. Get a group from the French equivalent of the CDC out here so they can confirm we don’t have anthrax in our systems. I suspect the boat has everything we’ll need to survive a few days until we get confirmation.”
“Roger that.”
“And start finding out who in the US is working on anthrax as a bioweapon.”
“US?” Frazer sounded terse.
“That’s what I inferred from what Masook said.”
“I assume he was the firework I saw a few minutes ago.”
“Affirmative.” Alex watched the tearstained face of the child and wished she hadn’t had to endure what she had over the last hour. Josette had played him. Assuming they weren’t exposed to a bioweapon. She’d known Alex would try to stop Masook and that had given her time to make her escape. If he had to guess who she worked for, he’d say the Mossad, but he didn’t like guessing.
“Salamander?” Frazer asked.
“Pretty sure everyone else onboard the Fair Winds is dead. Salamander must have had people inside Masook’s security team. They killed the others and probably all the crew. It was only a matter of time before they killed Masook and…” He stopped talking and cleared his throat. Taylor was in hearing distance.
“Jane is going to want to come onboard,” Frazer said softly.
Alex thought about it. If he was in her position and the person he loved most in the world was on this boat, he’d want to be here, too. Even if it killed him.
“Maybe you should let her.” It was up to her whether or not she wanted to risk her life. “And do not tell Mallory about this. Complete radio silence.”
“What if you get sick—”
“Especially if I get sick. She’ll fly out and swim to the boat if she has to. No way. Even if she wasn’t pregnant, no fucking way. No one tells her anything to stress her out. As far as she is concerned I’m undercover and will be back in plenty of time for the wedding.”
“What if she asks me directly?”
“Then you lie. Promise me, Linc.”
“I promise. But the press might get hold of this.”
“Don’t let them.”
Frazer laughed. “You seem to have a high opinion of my abilities, friend. You better get those bodies off the deck and in the freezer, pronto.”
Frazer obviously had a view of the deck, and Alex spotted the Ascension just to the north of them.
“Good point.” Alex just smiled. “I need to check for survivors…”
“Okay. Try not to scare the kid to death.”
“I’ll try.”
“Alex…”
“If you declare undying love for me I might have to shoot you.”
Frazer laughed. “Just wanted to say thanks for trusting me with best man duties. I take my vows very seriously. I will get you to the church on time.”
“Assuming I don’t die.”
“Assuming you don’t die,” Frazer confirmed.
“Just…” Alex drew a long breath in then released it. “If anything does happen to me…take care of Mallory for me.”
“That’s a given.”
“And that’s why you’re my best man. I’m going to need you to do something else for me…”
“What is it?”
“What’s your handwriting like?”
Chapter Nineteen
It was dawn and a slight wind ruffled her hair and raised goosebumps on her arms. Jane sat in the middle of a small inflatable dingy staring at Reilly who was escorting her out to the Fair Winds.