Page 70 of Devil
“That is the woman who developed the virus you’re about to unleash on the world. She had a little lab accident, and you can see the results,” Lily said, her eyes never leaving Tina. The picture was beyond gruesome, and Darius had been somewhat surprised that the CDC had agreed to send it. Although at this point, he shouldn’t be surprised by anything Lily and her friends did.
In it, Jennifer Pritchard’s face was riddled with pustules, some closed and taut with pus, others ruptured and crusted over. Her body was contorted, perhaps from the pain she’d suffered prior to death, or perhaps from the aftermath of the virus.
“What happened? I don’t understand,” Tina said. She swallowed hard and looked away, pushing the photo back toward where he and Lily sat.
“Like I said, she encountered the virus,” Lily said. “The one Sonia Trimble and Nadia Mitchel left for you in New York. The one Dr. Jennifer Pritchard developed and that you and your cohorts intend to infect the president with.”
Tina started shaking her head, slowly at first, then violently. “No, no, no,” she said. “It wasn’t that kind of…it wasn’t supposed to…” She paused, then met Lily’s gaze, tears streaming down her face. “The woman said it would only make him sick, like flu sick.” Her eyes flickered to the photo again. “Not that, not anything like that, I swear.” The last words were said in a whisper.
Lily leaned forward, not giving Tina any quarter. Darius was inclined to believe her, but that didn’t change the facts of what she’d done.
“We know you met Sonia Trimble at a conference in Cambridge and we know you both know Dr. Jennifer Pritchard. You need to tell us everything else. The plan, the people involved, everything. Because if you don’t,” she said, looking the trembling Tina in the eye, “what happened to Dr. Pritchard will be nothing but a harbinger of what’s to come. On a global scale.”
Tina held Lily’s gaze, though tears still poured from the corners of her eyes. A beat passed, then she nodded. “I don’t want that,” she said. “I never wanted that. I only wanted the president to experience a little of what the people who work in his labs experience.”
Lily nodded. “Go on.”
“I swear it’s nothing more than that. The labs in China, they create and test viruses. I know that most countries do, but China doesn’t care for its people, they never have. Only the country; the people mean nothing. Those labs, they test on people. They make people sick and then see if they can heal them. And when they can’t it means nothing to them.”
Darius glanced at Dominic, who was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. The man’s gaze met his and a silent communication passed between them. No one but the scientists knew for certain what happened in those labs. But her explanation was verging on a conspiracy theory and not a story that was inherently believable. Of course, that didn’t meanTinadidn’t believe it.
“And how was Dr. Pritchard involved?”
Tina shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, I never knew her name when we spoke. She just said she’d smuggled one of the test viruses out of China and she wanted to prove a point to the president about how cruel and scary it was to be a part of his national experiments.”
“She wanted to make him sick, like you said?”
Tina nodded. “It wasn’t supposed to do that, though.” She pointed to the picture. “‘Just like the flu,’ she said, maybe a little more severe, but not that.”
“And you believed her?”
Tina raised her eyes and met Lily’s intense stare. “Why wouldn’t I? She knew all about the labs and was as outraged as I was, as I am.”
“It didn’t occur to you that it would be nearly impossible for an American to even gain access to a Chinese lab, let alone steal something from it?” Lily pressed.
Tina frowned. “She said she had someone on the inside who had helped. She’d gone on a scientific exchange and met someone.”
Lily spared him a glance and in the split second their eyes met, he read the disbelief in hers. Tina Lam was either incredibly gullible or trying to play them. He believed she hadn’t known about the potency of the virus, but he had a hard time imagining she’d never questioned the rest of it. Especially not if she knew anything about China.
Lily’s lips pressed together, and she took a deep breath. “We’ll have to pursue this line of questioning later. For now, I need you to tell me who else is involved and how you intend to infect the president. We know you bought the cologne, is that how?”
Tina gave a shaky nod. “It’s his favorite. He gives most of his gifts to other people, but he wouldn’t give that one away.”
“So you, or someone you are working with, was going to add the virus to the cologne and wait for him to spray it on himself?” Lily clarified.
Again, Tina nodded. Which meant something wasn’t adding up. Why would they add the virus to the cologne when Pritchard would have known the cologne would render it ineffective?
Lily frowned. “How did you get in touch with Dr. Pritchard? Who connected you to her?”
Tina’s brow furrowed. “I never actually knew her name. She just reached out to me and said we had a mutual friend and that we should work together. I didn’t believe her at first, but then she knew things. She knew a few parties I’d been to. She had names of other scientists, information on what was being studied in the labs. I couldn’t confirm the studies, but her knowledge aligned with what we’ve been hearing through the grapevine.”
“And so you jumped into this plot with her?” Lily asked.
Tina started to shake her head, then stopped. “She promised it would only give him the flu. By then, I knew Sonia Trimble pretty well. We connected at the conference, and both of us have a deep distrust of the Chinese government. Me because of what they did to my parents and so many others like them. And her because of what they are doing to the Uyghurs. I talked with her, and we agreed we’d help.”
“You work for the Chinese Council,” Lily pointed out.
Tina glanced away. “It’s the government I don’t trust. The government that runs that country with an iron fist. The people are not that different from us—they want peace and prosperity. They want to raise their families and have opportunities for their children. The people of China is why I work at the council, not the government.”
