Page 55 of Turn the Tide
No Way Out
A Final Hour Novella
Juno Rushdan
Chapter 1
Munich, Germany
Thursday, March 3, 11:55 a.m. CET
In thirty minutes, the lives of fourteen thousand employees and the future of one of the most innovative biotech companies in the world would be ruined, all thanks to Ashley Agnello.
She swung her gaze across the hall to Jonas Hoffmann, where the mild-mannered biochemist traded his suit jacket for a white lab coat. He left his office, electronically locking the door, passed his secretary, the iron gatekeeper Marie Fischer, and headed to the elevator as he did every day at noon. He’d spend the next six hours doing preclinical drug development.
Hoffmann’s project was hush-hush, but the overwhelming buzz about the breakthrough lead compound he’d discovered was impossible to muzzle. BGA predicted top-line results and projected a 50 percent boost in stock worth billions.
The compound was an unprecedented game-changer that had whetted Ashley’s curiosity.
Right on schedule, Marie poured her daily glass of the home-pressed green juice she’d drink in lieu of eating lunch. She was unmarried, had no children, didn’t smoke, didn’t attend office celebrations, didn’t do coffee runs, and seemed to have no apparent weaknesses.
Except one: she was always prepared for life’s little hiccups.
Funny how a person’s greatest strength could easily turn into their Achilles’ heel.
Ashley unscrewed a ballpoint pen, let the tube of ink slide into her palm, and snapped it. Blue dye splattered on her white oxford. She dumped the pen in the trash, grabbed the small plastic vial hidden in the liner of her purse, and hurried across the hall in feigned panic.
“Ugh! Look at this mess,” she said in fluent German with theBerlinerischtongue of her youth. Her father had been an American Foreign Service officer who met and married her mother abroad. Ashley spent every summer until she was sixteen with relatives in Germany.
She pulled on a careful frown, without overselling it. “Can you help me?”
Marie clucked her tongue and shook her head. “It’s good you came straight to me.” Her lilting Bavarian accent was thick. “You would’ve made it much worse.” She spun in her chair, turning her back, and opened a bottom desk drawer. The bangles on her wrist tinkled softly.
With a furtive glance ensuring no one in the nearby offices noticed, Ashley popped the top on the vial and poured a few drops of the colorless, odorless contents into Marie’s glass.
Four oily globules sank into the green liquid.
Marie soaked a palmful of cotton balls with nail polish remover. The sharp odor of acetone prickled Ashley’s nose. “Dab. Don’t rub,” Marie said with a reproachful sigh.
Giving a grateful smile, Ashley held the damp cotton balls in her cupped palms like a treasure. “What would I do without you?”
“Probably get fired.” The biting arrogance that kept the secretaries and apprentices at arm’s length oozed from her. “Herr Mueller has exacting standards.” Marie sipped her juice.
Ashley nodded agreement, but her gaze tracked the contraction of Marie’s throat with each swallow, stomach churning in anticipation.
She drifted back to her desk, dabbing at the ink stains, which were in fact disappearing, and waited for her opening. Every second counted. She had to be ready to spring into action.
This was her only shot.
Her real boss, the esteemed Bruce Sanborn, didn’t tolerate excuses and didn’t give second chances. She’d finally convinced him that her request to transfer from analysis to field operations wasn’t an emotional reaction to the terrorist attack two years ago on one of their covert teams. The lone survivor had been CIA officer Logan Silva.
Logan.They’d been closer than some married couples, without the steamy physical benefits, finishing each other’s sentences and shouldering one another’s confidences. Thedynamic duo. Until he pushed her away, as though their bond—the one she would’ve sworn on her life was unbreakable—was as insubstantial as tissue paper.
Her chest constricted, and Ashley fought back a shiver deep inside. She wasn’t going to muck up her first field assignment with toxic thoughts about Logan.
That coward. Selfish quitter.Damn him.
She drummed her fingers on the desk before she caught herself. Clenching her hands in her lap, she drew on her limited operational training and silently recited the four A’s.
