Side Effects

Chapter 34

We were lucky. It was springtime, so it was not hurricane season in the Atlantic yet, and we made the crossing, once we refueled, in good time. Right on time, we were anchored off the coast of Rhode Island as expected. The mega yacht was so big that it had its own twenty foot motor launch, and we used that to get to shore. Were we bypassing US customs for Viola and the two bodyguards that we took with us? Yes. But we didn't have time to quibble with that. I was pretty sure they'd be okay with things when all was said and done. Or at least I hoped so.

Viola had pointed out that bringing guards was a good thing, because whoever was here with the virus might need to be kept out of sight while we went and took care of Anna. It was good logic, and they might be handy just in case there was other trouble that needed muscles. They also each had a gun, which was another reason to skip customs, while each of us had the Italian version of a taser.

We'd practiced using them on the boat, just shooting them at couch cushions, and were all pretty accurate inside of twenty feet. I was hoping that anyone from the lab who might be up here would only be able to recognize me or Alaya, while Esme and Viola would be strangers to them. If we could spot them, and distract them, then the other girls would be able to sneak up and shock them.

My problem was, if it was someone that I didn't know, and they could play innocent, then the world would be screwed as they sauntered right past us. But, since they thought that this would be an easy job, I was hoping they would not be too cautious about being sneaky.

Okay, we could hope.

We had a few other things going for us, all because of Viola. With her family's business holdings, they had several offices in the states, since she had to travel there multiple times over the years. That meant little things, like already having corporate rental car accounts, and we were met at the pier by a very nice gentleman who handed the keys to a pair of big SUVs over to Viola once we got to shore with our overnight bags. The rest of the bags stayed on the boat, as we planned to be back relatively quickly.

We loaded up the vehicles, and then we got on the road. It wasn't a hard drive, just over an hour, from Newport to Groton and we checked into the hotel right at the 3pm check in time. It was a decent hotel, though obviously nothing like the ones that we'd been staying in recently, and we had three rooms between us and the two guards. Everyone was on edge, since everything was still up in the air. The conference started the following day, and vendors would be setting up their booths in the morning. We were going to have to stake the place out in order to have a chance to find whoever was going to be spreading the new virus.

"I have to admit, I'm kind of hoping it's Tim," I told Alaya while we rested in bed. "I'd love to see him get shocked with a taser, and then let the bodyguards take him. Really, I'm expecting it to be him, because they have to keep this operation small."

She nodded along with me. "Yeah, payback would be nice. I've been hoping that too, and he'd be a logical person to send, since he's already proven himself to be cold blooded enough to kill people. It wouldn't shock me if they used him in Wuhan too."

I just stared at her, thinking about that revelation. It made sense, right? Whoever they used in Wuhan would most likely be used here too. That person knew very well what they were doing and had no regard for the lives of others, and it minimized the number of people with intimate knowledge of the plan. Tim made perfect sense, just seeing how he acted in Copenhagen, so connecting him back to Wuhan shouldn't be hard. I had little doubt that investigators would be able to find evidence of fake IDs or something that were in that area at the time.

In a case of perfect timing, a few days before we landed the news finally declared us all missing persons. They'd found the wreckage of the plane, but they still hadn't had a chance to get divers down to examine it. Even if they did though, it would take time to sort everything out.