"Oh yeah. Super pregnant. Double pregnant." A corner of Metal's mouth lifted. "We've been trying and trying and finally it caught."
"Tough job," Nick said. "But someone's got to do it."
"Well." Kay smiled at the thought of Felicity expecting kids. She'd had a very lonely existence, much lonelier than Kay's own, though she'd had both parents until she was in her late teens. Her parents had been Russians, undercover, and they had lived in the Witness Protection Program all her life. Kay had Gramps to love her. Felicity had had no one who loved her, truly loved her.
But now she had a future husband-Kay heard from everyone that Metal asked Felicity to marry him daily, and she'd accepted without setting a date-and she was expecting twins. A full, happy household. "At least you know your kids will be gorgeous and have IQs off the charts."
Felicity's father had been a Nobel Prize winner in physics and she herself had been tested at genius level.
"Yeah." Metal tried to smile, but his big plain face was creased with worry.
"She's got morning sickness," Nick said.
"Morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night sickness," Metal answered. "It's awful."
"Oh my God." Kay was horrified. "I asked her to decrypt those files while she was sick? I didn't know! I had no idea, I would never have asked her if I'd known-"
"Nah." Metal held up a huge hand. "There was no way to stop her. As a matter of fact, she was so engrossed in your files that she wasn't sick for hours. A first. So thanks for that. And Felicity would have kicked me in the balls if I'd tried to stop her. You did her, and me, a big favor."
He was half turned toward the back of the vast room, his hand clutching the back of the chair so tightly his knuckles were white. He was champing at the bit to get to Felicity.
"Go see how she's doing, Metal," Kay said gently. "It's up to me now. As soon as I know anything, I'll let you know." He blew out a breath of relief and was already on his way to Felicity when she called him back. "Metal!"
He stopped himself with difficulty-he was practically vibrating with impatience.
"Send me John, if you can."
He nodded and nearly ran across the room.
A minute later, John Huntington popped up on the screen. He was in his private office, which was amazingly elegant and as silent as a church.
He was … intimidating. That was the only word for it. Sharply handsome, he always looked grim and cold. The people who worked for him worshipped him, but Kay was just a little-a teensy bit-frightened of him.
He was one of the good guys. He'd founded one of the best security companies in the world. He'd managed to make a beautiful, gentle, highly creative woman fall in love with him and he had two little girls he hadn't eaten like the big bad wolf. Yet.
But still she was a little scared.
"Dr. Hudson." That cold, handsome face looked, as usual, as if he'd just received news that World War III had broken out.
"Mr. Huntington."
He dipped his head, lifted it. She swore his eyes could see inside her head though he was in the heart of Portland and she was on the slopes of Mount Hood. "Good to see you alive and well, Dr. Hudson." His dark eyes shifted to the man behind her. "I am counting on you to keep her that way, Nick."
"Yeah. You can count on me." Nick respected John Huntington a lot, but he wasn't intimidated like she was.
"This feels like bad business, Nick." Huntington scowled.
"It is bad business, sir."
Kay lifted her hand and Nick grabbed it, held it. He might have thought it was her way of showing John Huntington that they were together, but that wasn't it. John unnerved her.
"Mike Hammer's body was recovered and autopsied. The ME said that if he hadn't been ordered to carry out the autopsy, he wouldn't have bothered. He said it looked like a natural death." Huntington's eyes narrowed.
"Except that he drowned in a back alley."
Huntington dipped his head again. "Exactly. His lungs were full of fluid."
"Not water." Kay shook her head. "Transudates."
He briefly consulted a sheet in front of him. "Exactly."
This was safer ground; this was her field. "I understand Captain Morrison asked for the blood panel to be tested for cytokines."
He dipped his head again. "As you asked. And again, he said he wouldn't have tested for cytokines if there hadn't been a special request.
"And the count was high."
"Off the charts. I assume that is significant."
Time to share what she knew. The time for secrecy was gone. "Very significant. I need to study Dr. Anand's files, but I suspect that someone-probably a biochemist called Bill Morrell-perfected a bio-weaponized form of the Spanish flu."