Submission Impossible (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 1)

Kyle nodded and sat back. “Well, we know something’s happening there, and you’re involved in some way. You said she’s now interested in your research?”

“Yes.” She had a lot of work to do. She hoped Hutch didn’t think she was going to be staying home for a few days. “Jessica got a look at my initial results. They’re promising. She can raise money off it if I can reproduce the results.”

“Did she raise money off Madison’s research?” Kyle asked.

“Of course. Madison’s research was flashier than mine. She talked it up all the time.”

“And Jessica’s still got that research?”

“Some of it, certainly,” Noelle replied. “I’m not sure how much was lost in the fire, but she had backups for the initial research. She should have almost everything up to the night of the fire. But I do know the experiment Madison was working on was lost during the accident. So anything she tweaked that night would be lost.”

“How much do you think Jessica raised on the hope of that research?”

Noelle didn’t pay much attention to the business side of things. It was one of the reasons she wanted that sweet tenured position at a university someday. She loved science. Business was the awful part of her job. “No idea. Though I do know she had investor meetings about it. The rumor around the office had Madison on the cusp of a breakthrough.”

“One has to think losing the head of the research would upset the people who invested because of it,” Kyle mused. “I would really like to see the financials on Genedyne.”

“I don’t think she shares that with anyone except maybe her CFO. I’m not sure. I don’t spend a lot of time in the upper levels.” She liked her lab, and now she had to wonder if she would see it again soon. “Does this mean I have to call into work?”

“No,” Kyle said.

“Of course it does.” Hutch was standing at the edge of his kitchen, his phone in hand. He put it back to his ear. “Yeah, do it, Ian. I’ve got a problem. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Fine. Tomorrow night. Yes, I’ll come to the club.”

He slid the phone into his pocket.

“What’s Ian doing?” Kyle turned the chair around, showing it could swivel fully.

“Running some more reports on Cara,” Hutch explained. “And I think it’s best if Noelle takes time off work.”

“I can’t. My research is in a delicate phase. I actually need to work this weekend. My boss is expecting a full write-up on Monday.” A bit of panic started. “Hutch, I can’t miss work.”

“You can write up your research here.”

She shook her head. “No, I can’t. A lot of my data is on the internal server, and I can’t take that home with me. I also need to run the experiment again and then again and again to make sure it’s not a fluke. I can’t miss work.”

“Chris believes we’re heading back down to Papillon,” Hutch pointed out. “So does Cara, since we had Noelle text her.”

“I don’t care what they think.” She couldn’t lose her job. “I’ll get fired and I’ll lose control of everything I’ve worked for in the last few years.”

Hutch’s eyes narrowed. “You could also lose your life.”

“If they wanted to kill me, they could have done it in the locker room,” she pointed out. “Kyle will get fired, too. I don’t understand. Do you think Cara is watching me? Why would she do that? I don’t understand how she would know I didn’t go back home like I said?”

Hutch and Kyle shared a long look before Hutch finally answered. “She might not be who she says she is. We have to consider that she might be the person who’s monitoring you.”

She couldn’t see Cara being a bad guy, but then she wasn’t the spy. However, Hutch was ignoring a very important detail. “Then she already knows I didn’t go to Papillon and it doesn’t matter.”

“She’s got a point there.” Kyle stood again. “I didn’t see anyone tailing us, and if Cara’s half the reporter she says she is, she’ll probably find out we aren’t who we say we are. She might already know.”

He’d placed a slight emphasis on the word reporter. “You don’t think she’s really a reporter?”

“I’m worried she might be like Chris Taylor,” Hutch replied. “I’m worried they’re the ones who turned on your monitoring. She knew we weren’t going to be in tonight. She asked about it. Chris can get into your apartment. If they’re working together, then it’s best we hole up someplace else.”

Kyle put a hand on his shoulder. “I get it, man. You’re worried about her, but she can’t go on the run without even knowing what she’s running from. We need to figure this out, and that means we might have to reach out to Taylor.”