Page 6 of Devil
She acknowledged his statement with a small tip of her head. “Thank you for stopping by, Commander. I’m sure you’re already aware, but in case you’re not, after Friday, my lab is closing for three weeks. I’ll reopen it and begin my next study in September.”
He gave a sharp nod. “Enjoy your time off, Doctor. I’m sure we’ll see each other again in September.” And with that, he turned and left, closing the door behind him.
Devil remained standing, not so much staring at the door but letting her mind wander to what September might bring. She hadn’t interacted much with the prior COO; perhaps she could keep that streak going.
* * *
Darius left Lily’s office and headed to his own. She’d been the last of the twenty-eight primary researchers he’d introduced himself to. He’d meet the seventy-eight staff and graduate students over the next few days. After that, the forty-two who worked in administration or facilities were on his docket. All in all, it was a much smaller set up than he’d had in Virginia. But he supposed that was a good thing since hisjobwas tangential to his op.
As he made his way to his office, he considered Lily’s response to his question about her research. People in the military made life-and-death decisions more often than the average bear, but he hadn’t considered that people like the good doctor made them, too. It was hubris, of course, that kept him from seeing that those tucked safely into labs were not always coddled and cushioned from life’s hard decisions. In truth, with every study Lily completed she had to ask those questions and make those choices. And each time she determined a drug insufficient was one more time she hadn’t been able to help.
Lily. Hmm. He took a seat at his desk as he realized that between the time he’d walked into her office and the time he’d walked out, he’d stopped thinking of her as Dr. Devillier. He wasn’t about to become her friend, but the small interaction they’d had, coupled with Esteban’s insistence of her awesomeness, had him reconsidering his original assessment. She was still richer than Croesus and led a very charmed and pampered life, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t also be a decent human being.
Chagrined, he acknowledged that he might not have been fair when forming his initial assessment of her life. He wasn’t ready to jump on Team Lily yet, but hecouldkeep an open mind.
With a sigh, he pushed all thoughts of her to the side and brought his computer to life. He’d been told to just keep the ship running, so to speak, but there was no reason he couldn’t implement a few improvements while still keeping an eye on Lily. Besides, she was going on vacation for a few weeks, and he wasn’t, so he might as well do something productive with his time.
Opening the procurement application used by the researchers, names he now recognized populated the screen. As he scrolled through the most recent set of orders, a thought popped into his mind. He’d been looking at the trees and not the forest. He might know precisely how many pipettes Dr. Leo Godesky in Lab 7 might use, but he didn’t have a good understanding of what he used them for.
With a shake of his head, he closed the window, then brought up an IM.“Judy?”he typed to his executive assistant.
“Yes?”
“Any chance we have an archive of all the research papers and articles that have come out of the labs in the last five years or so?”
“Yes, hard copies are in the archives in the basement, but the university hosts them all online. Do you want the link?”The research center was informally associated with one of the local universities, so he hadn’t thought to look in the university library.
“Please.”
“FYI, there are a shit ton.”
He grinned. Judy was from South Boston, and he could hear her accent every time he read her words.
“That an official term?”
“Absolutely,”she responded, then sent the link. He popped it open to find a utilitarian site. A simple search function was located on the top right, but the page primarily contained a list of titles and links to papers, organized by year.
His assistant was right. There were a shit ton. In the past five years, there were no less than a hundred papers. He sighed. It was a good thing he had a few weeks on his hands.
CHAPTERFOUR
Devil twirledher desk chair and looked out the window. She’d been back from her decadent holiday for less than a week, and although it was only early September, fall was settling in and a few of the trees lining the streets below were beginning to change colors. She loved this time of year when the days were crisp and the nights cool. And since she’d only just started the new research project and hadn’t gotten into the thick of things yet, she’d been able to enjoy it.
Drumming her pen on the arm of her chair, Devil considered the oddity that not onlycouldshe enjoy the fall weather, but that she was, in fact, enjoying it. The ministry hadn’t called her into an op in over nine months, her day job was plugging along, and while there’d been a few exciting moments with her friends recently—if you can call foiling a terrorist attack and bringing about the downfall of a major corporation exciting—for the most part, her days were passing in a gentle sort of flow. A certain quietness had sneaked up on her that, until this moment, she hadn’t really noticed.
She frowned. Did that mean something? Earlier in the year, Cyn had said she was considering leaving her work with MI6—not imminently, but in the near future. Devil supported her friend’s decision but hadn’t felt the same. Or at least she thought she hadn’t felt the same. Subconsciously, maybe she had.
A knock at the door ended her ruminations and she called out “Come in” as she spun her chair back around.
“Dr. Devillier,” Commander Washington said from the doorway. She’d passed him a few times in the hallways since she’d returned but hadn’t seen much of him otherwise.
“Commander.” She didn’t rise. There was something powerful in remaining seated. Like a queen, or an emperor.
“I came to make sure you had everything you need for your new study?” he asked.
That wasn’t why he’d come. He knew she was well equipped; he’d signed off on her procurement forms before she’d left for England. She tipped her head and studied him. “I do.”
He met her gaze. “I noticed your grad students were paid while you were away.”
