Page 46 of Turn the Tide
The woman’s eyes made a slow, cautious sweep of the room, though she couldn’t possibly see a thing. “A virus.” The words came out barely voiced—just a sibilant hiss.
“A virus?” Zoe stood stock-still. “At the bottom of the ocean?”
“Look, I’m low-level. I don’t get access to the details.”
“Just tell us what you know.” Zoe was admirably calm. Part of the team.
Jesus, this woman.
“It’s just gossip, okay? Not… Nothing solid. They keep us in our own little…silos. Need-to-know only. I only have the vaguest sense of what they’re looking for—just enough to let me search. No idea what they want it for.” She threw a frightened glance around the room. They must seem like ghosts to this woman peering blindly into the dark.
“What else?” Eric asked with a twinge of discomfort. It was old-fashioned and possibly stupid, but he hated threatening a woman.
“Oh, geez.” The researcher looked up, as if maybe praying to God. Or to the helicopter they’d said was coming any minute. “There’s a big bonus for the first team that locates a viable specimen.”
“Have you?”
“Located it? No.” She sounded disappointed. “Not here.”
“Has anyone?”
Her eyes flickered, but she shook her head.
“Why’d they have you search here?”
She shrugged, looking off to the side, like maybe she already regretted divulging what she had. Eric was about to move in, but Zoe beat him to it.
“While you assholes churned up the ground out here, the marine animals that I work with have deserted their natural habitat. Some of them might never come back—might die because of what you did.” He’d never get enough of this woman and her passion. “So I think you need to give us just a little more than that.”
“I heard they’ve got a sample.” Emily Marquette shook her head. “Doesn’t make sense to keep up the search if they’ve got what they want, but it’s just a rumor.” She lifted her chin. “Like I said, I’m low-level.”
Zoe nodded at Eric, who advanced toward the prisoners, leaned down, and grasped Nasal Voice by the wrist. The man’s groan confirmed that he was still hurting from yesterday’s run-in. He bent low and asked, “How many charges are on this rig?”
“A dozen.” After a second, the man went on. “Pilot’s supposed to set them off.”
“And if you’re stuck in here? What are the orders then?”
Nasal Voice was shaking now. “Everything blows.” Emily Marquette visibly started. “Whether we’ve vacated the premises or not.”
The cowboy geologist opened his mouth and shut it when Eric asked, “How long we got?”
“Minutes now, at most.”
Above them, just on schedule, came the telltale thump of the approaching bird.
***
Given her current situation, it seemed wrong that Zoe should feel so very alive. But she couldn’t help it.
Maybe it was mild hysteria from not getting much sleep, or the much wilder hysteria of her crush on Eric becoming an actual thing. Or, hey, maybe it was taking over an oil platform held by an armed security force. Whatever the case, she felt incredible. Hell, if she’d known it was like this, she might’ve joined the military or become a pirate or something.
Not really, though, since she was more of a peacenik than anything else.
Not right now, I’m not.
Unwilling to condemn their prisoners to possible death, they’d towed them to the top level of the rig and kept them subdued just out of sight of the helipad. Here, they discussed a plan, keeping watch while the helicopter grew from a hazy black dot floating on the horizon to something ominous, spiderlike, and way too close for comfort.
Eric looked at the group. “We need to get to the pilot.”
