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“That would be easy,” Bethan agreed.

Jonas’s mouth crooked up in one corner, as if that were easier for him now. “Isaac specifically told us both to stay put.”

Bethan grinned. “That he did. He seemed pretty serious about it, too.”

Let us figure out how we’re going to handle this, he had said. And then he’d looked each one of them straight on and ordered them to let that happen.

“Good thing this is a private security company,” Bethan mused, still grinning. “And not the United States Army, where I would feel duty-bound to obey that order.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” That crook at the side of Jonas’s mouth deepened. “We’re losing our hours here, Bethan. You ready to go rogue?”

Bethan did not say,I would follow you anywhere.

But she thought that was implied when that was what she did, moving swiftly after him when he picked up one of the medical implements the doctors had left behind, cut a slit through the plastic sheeting, and made a break for it.

Twenty-two

They were a good forty-five minutes down the Taconic Parkway when the call came in, lighting up the SUV’s console. Jonas debated ignoring it, but a few hours ago he would have killed half the world to have a pissed-off Isaac in his ear. He couldn’t bring himself to squander any opportunity, whatever it looked like.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” came Isaac’s voice, not in the least bit cool or controlled.

“I’m not dying standing still, brother,” Jonas replied, switching lanes and taking the curves of the winding highway with far too much speed. “I can tell you that.”

“Then I hope you and Bethan are taking a little joyride,” Isaac retorted. “Taking in the sights, maybe.”

“I’ve always wanted to see Niagara Falls,” Bethan piped in from the passenger side.

Isaac grunted. “I don’t believe you.”

“That’s why you’re the boss.” Bethan laughed. “I actually saw the falls when I was in high school. Very loud, it turns out.”

Isaac sighed. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in asking you to turn that vehicle around and return to the containment facility.”

“I can’t do that,” Jonas replied. “For one thing, the containment facility is no longer contained.”

“You mean because you cut your way out of it?”

Jonas and Bethan exchanged a look, because that was a lot more temper than Isaac normally displayed.

Then again, it had been a long day.

“We think there’s a personal component to this,” Jonas said after a moment. “I’m betting if you look at the air-filtration system in that basement, you’ll find that there were other options available to our guy.”

“Actually, yes.” Isaac made a sound that wasn’tquitea sigh. “The support team just finished testing down there, and there was cyanide, loaded and ready to go.”

Bethan was nodding. “That would have killed us right away, wouldn’t it?”

“Correct,” Isaac said.

“But he chose option B.” Jonas passed a slow-moving sports car. “There has to be a reason for that.”

“You can’t really think this guy went to all the trouble to kidnap a scientist, build a secret lab, activate fail-safes, and create a biological weapon, all to flush the two of you out.”

“I think we’re the icing on the cake,” Bethan said matter-of-factly. “It’s no secret that I work for Alaska Force. All he had to do was ask my father what his daughters do for a living and he would’ve gotten chapter and verse. And there’s no way he didn’t know it was Alaska Force out there in that high-desert ghost town.”

“That doesn’t justify—” Isaac began.

“So you’re this guy,” Jonas interrupted him. “Years ago, you have a near-death experience out in the desert, but you don’t think better of your life choices because of it. You double down. You go underground, nurse your grudges,and wait. And then, look at that, the perfect opportunity presents itself.”