The Chemist

Daniel looked down at his brother again. “He’s not dead now, is he?”

“Just sleeping. He’ll wake up in a few minutes.”

Daniel’s brow furrowed. “What is he wearing?”

“Some kind of military armored suit, I guess. Not my specialty.”

“The CIA,” he whispered.

“Black ops, I would imagine. Your brother didn’t self-destruct, he just switched divisions. That’s why he was involved with the drug lord.”

His wide eyes turned sober. “He was helping the drug lord with the virus?” he whispered.

“No. Shutting him down, actually. We’re basically on the same side, though you wouldn’t know it to look at us.” She nudged his supine form with her toe.

Daniel’s head whipped back up to hers. “Did Kevin do that to your face?” Funny, but he sounded more upset about that than the idea that his brother was a murderous criminal.

“Yes, and I did this to him.” Another nudge.

“But he’s going to wake up?”

Alex nodded. She was a little conflicted about Batman waking up. It wasn’t going to be pretty. And Daniel was being so nice about everything, about her. That would probably change once his brother started talking.

He smiled just a little, staring at his brother’s exposed back. “So you won?”

She laughed. “Temporarily.”

“He’s a lot bigger than you are.”

“I would say I was smarter, but I made some pretty huge mistakes in my security here. I think I was just luckier this time.”

Daniel started to get to his feet, then paused. “Are my clothes around here anywhere?”

“Sorry, no. I thought there might be tracking devices in them. I had to cut them off you and ditch them.”

He blushed again, all the way down to that small spot on his chest. He cleared his throat. “Why would someone track me?”

“Well, at the time, I thought the drug lord might be monitoring you. Or that you were a trap, and my department would use you to track me. Which is a little bit closer to the truth, actually.”

He frowned. “I am so confused.”

She gave him the bullet-points version as succinctly as possible. While she was talking, he got to his feet, wrapping the blanket around his waist like an oversize towel, and started pacing back and forth in front of his brother’s body.

“They tried to kill you four times?” he asked when she was finished.

“Five now, I think,” she said, looking pointedly at Batman.

“I can’t believe Kevin is alive.” He sighed. He folded his long legs under the blanket and settled to the floor beside his brother’s head. “I can’t believe he lied to me. I can’t believe he let me think he was a criminal… I can’t believe he let me think he died… I can’t believe how many times I visited him – do you know how long it takes to drive from DC to Milwaukee?”

He stared in silence at his brother. She let him have a moment. She couldn’t imagine how she would feel if Barnaby walked back into her life without warning. How did you process something like that?

“When he wakes up,” Daniel murmured gently, “I’m going to punch him in the throat.”

Well, that was one way to process it.

“Why did you handcuff him?” Daniel wondered.

“Because as soon as he’s conscious, he’s going to try to kill me.”

Wide eyes again. “What?”

“It’s not hard to understand. All he knew when he came through the roof was that someone was hurting you. He let me live only because he wasn’t sure if you were really okay. For example, maybe I would have to give you an antidote or something. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t gotten the upper hand for a second, the minute you woke up, he would have shot me.”

She could see Daniel didn’t believe her. He shook his head, eyebrows pulling down, upset. A thatch of curls flopped onto his forehead, still a little damp with sweat. It was amazing how short a time had actually passed, but everything had changed. And she needed a new plan.

Was it safe to go back to her most recent home, the place she’d been living when Carston had contacted her? It would certainly be easiest. There was food there, and no one would have to see her face for as long as it took to look normal again. She didn’t think she’d compromised the house…

But then what? How much of her nest egg had she blown through for this stupid trap? How long would she be able to keep going on what she had?

Carston knew about her online presence, so it would be a risk to go looking for a real job on the Internet. The department didn’t have to know where she was to tie her hands.

Something touched her leg and she jumped. It was just Daniel’s hand.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.”

“You just look so worried. Don’t. I can talk to Kevin.”

She smiled humorlessly. “Thanks, but I’m not worrying about Lazarus at the moment.”

“You’re worried about your department.”

She turned away, walked to her computer, and rested her hand against the space bar. Hopefully it didn’t appear deliberate.

“Yeah,” she said without looking at him. “You could say that.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a short hitch in Kevin’s breathing before it evened out again. Good thing she’d moved away. She definitely didn’t want to be within reach now.