To the right was a huge kitchen and a long table that could sit the entire staff of ASI. Or the court of Henry VIII. But smaller tables were scattered around and the kitchen had a cozy breakfast nook.
They entered a long, wide corridor with pretty wrought metal sconces and plants in huge enameled pots. Even here, in the bowels of the earth, the air smelled fresh and clean.
Halfway down the corridor, Nick stopped and placed his palm against the wall to the side of a door. "My room," he said. There was a metallic click and he pushed the door open for her, gesturing with his hand. Go on in.
Kay walked through a corridor and into a large living room area. She turned around, taking it all in. This space, too, was beautiful. Flagstone tiles, a dusky eggplant-colored couch with light gray armchairs, a fully equipped kitchenette, framed black-and-white photographs along the way. The impression was of comfort and elegance.
"Wow." She turned back to Nick with one eyebrow raised. "I didn't know you had a hidden talent for interior decorating."
He lifted his hands. "Hey, I'm not responsible for the décor. My apartment in Portland was decorated in one very painful afternoon at Ikea and looks it. This is all Suzanne's doing. Don't ask me how but she decorated every single person's room in a different way and we're all delighted with what we got. I couldn't have done this in a million years."
She smiled. She didn't know Suzanne Huntington well, but what she knew of her she liked. A lot. One of the country's top decorators, she was totally unpretentious and down to earth, with a wild sense of humor. Word had it that she had her husband-a true badass tough guy, a former SEAL like Nick-totally wrapped around her little finger.
Nick's cell pinged. "Yeah," he answered. "She's right here." He held the phone out to her, switching to speakerphone. "It's Felicity."
Kay snatched the cell. The video function was on and she stared at her friend's face, tears coming to her eyes. "Felicity! Oh, it's so good to see you!"
Felicity looked tired. "Hey, Kay." Felicity ran a finger down her screen as if touching Kay's face. "I wish these were better circumstances."
A deadly bio-weapon in play. Her best friend, dead. Priyanka's colleague, dead. Mike Hammer, dead. "Yeah. I think some very bad things are happening, Felicity. I hate to say it, but I'm really scared."
"You're right to be scared, girlfriend, just not right now. Right this minute, you're super secure at the Grange, or the Batcave, as the girls call it. And you have Nick. He's not going to let anything happen to you."
Nick gave out a low guttural sound.
"Was that a growl, Nick?" Felicity's tinny voice asked from the speaker. "Being in the Batcave doesn't mean you get to revert to a primitive state."
Kay sat down, the cell cradled in her hand. "Did you get the flash drive?" she asked.
Felicity bit her lips and looked worried, which blew Kay's mind. Felicity never looked worried. She was always serenely confident in her own abilities, and rightly so.
"Yeah, Metal got it to me right away, and I've been working on it ever since. It's got some serious encryption, Kay. And a couple of traps. I'm making my way through the firewalls slowly, so I don't accidentally trigger data destruction. Someone who knows what they're doing encrypted this."
Kay nodded.
"By the way, if you come across a password-based hurdle, try 'naanisbetterthanwonderbread'. All lower case. It was our password for our secret email system."
Felicity smiled. "Will do, great password. So … " She disappeared from the small screen for a second. She lived in her wheeled ergonomic chair, zipping from screen to screen. Her pretty face popped back up. "I'm back. My systems tell me it will be another four hours. I'll send you the files as soon as they're decrypted."
"I hate to ask, honey, but are the communications systems here secure?"
Felicity cocked her head. "I really like you, Kay, and I know your head's on the line here, so I'll forgive you. Yes, everything is very secure there. As a matter of fact, security there is a 10-million-dollar business at the moment. Growing as we speak."
That's right, she'd forgotten. This place was not just a coolly elegant zombie apocalypse bug-out place, it was a cyber security business. God only knew how many Fortune 500 companies had their files backed up here. Probably billions of dollars' worth of info. So yeah, it should be secure.
"I'll contact you the second the files are available. Rest a little bit, though, because the data files are enormous and you have a lot of work to do. And none of us can help you, since no one here has a PhD in biochemistry or virology or genetics. You'll have your hands full."