Kay opened her mouth, closed it.
Sat, while the anger grew. And grew and grew until she thought she would explode.
"He's my boss." A fierce, fiery lump was in her throat. The words hurt.
"I know." Felicity put a hand on Kay's shoulder.
"Dr. Frank Winstone. The head of the CDC."
Felicity nodded.
Kay couldn't move, could barely breathe.
The head of the CDC was a person charged with protecting the nation's health. Protecting it from harm. Protecting it from exactly this kind of danger. The CDC was filled with professionals working their hearts out to protect the public, often by risking their own lives.
The Viral Special Pathogens Branch regularly sent officers into the heart of outbreaks of Lassa and Ebola and they went uncomplainingly, their sole purpose to help.
Every cell in Kay's body and every neuron in her brain rejected the idea of the head of the CDC helping to engineer a weaponized Spanish flu and genetically engineering it to hit specific people or peoples. It went against everything she believed in, had worked for all her life.
Her mouth tightened. This was the evilest thing she'd ever heard of. She knew there was evil in the world. Hell, her grandfather was a former FBI agent. He'd shielded her from most of the horrible things he'd seen, but enough got through for her to understand what was out there.
True, a lot of evil came from ignorance. But it took a special kind of evil to spend years and years studying science and turn around and use that knowledge to kill people. While heading an agency dedicating to saving lives.
He'd betrayed her, he'd betrayed the thousands of people working for the CDC, he'd betrayed the thousands who'd risked their lives. He'd betrayed the millions of Americans who trusted the CDC to keep them safe.
It was betrayal on an epic scale-and she wasn't going to sit still for it.
Felicity eyed her. "You're getting mad, now."
She turned her head. "Damn right."
"You're over the sad and into the mad."
Kay grunted an assent.
"What are you going to do about it?" Felicity cocked her head and studied her.
Kay froze. Was she going to do something about it?
She straightened in her chair. Yes. Yes, by God, she was.
Frank had taken something sacred-science and the worldwide effort to improve human health involving the sacrifices of generation after generation after generation of men and women-and turned it into something filthy. Dangerous and dirty, calculated to do harm.
For money.
To let it stand would be to betray the memory of scientists she revered.
Not going to happen.
But … "I don't think we can prove anything, or at least anything that would stand up in court."
Felicity sat for a moment, thinking it over. "No," she said finally, mouth turned down into a frown. "You're right. I mean, I think I understand what he did, but only because you explained it. It makes sense to you, but you're one of a handful of people in the world who can see it. For everyone else, it's all circumstantial. A good lawyer, and he'd have the best, would throw out so much smoke nobody'd understand. The DA would follow the money, but I'll bet the money disappears into opaque accounts very soon. We don't have a smoking gun."
They didn't. A terabyte of data, and though it pointed down to Frank Winstone like a huge red arrow in the sky, there wasn't enough evidence, clear evidence, a DA could follow. It was too technical.
Everything inside Kay rebelled. She shuddered with disgust at the idea of Frank getting off scot-free, continuing his path of destruction. He'd killed her best friend, he'd probably killed a researcher, and he'd killed a fine journalist. He'd tried to kill her, and he'd been responsible for the death of who knew how many people via the genetically edited flu.
If it served his purpose, he'd no doubt keep on killing. There was no one who could stop him.
Except her.
It was dangerous, and she'd have to depend completely on Felicity's hacking skills and her acting skills and Frank's greed. But if it could be done …
"Felicity, do you think you can do something for me?"
Felicity's pretty face was serious. "Just ask."
"It's dangerous and probably illegal."
"Will it bring this guy down?"
Kay smiled. "Oh, yeah," she said softly. Down. Down forever. With luck, six feet under.
"What do you need?"
Kay told her. Felicity turned pale.
Kay froze. She was asking too much. "Oh God. Can you do it? Will you do it?"
"Absolutely. Count on me." Felicity covered her mouth.
"I'm sorry if the thought makes you sick." Kay touched Felicity's arm.
"Not that. Morning sickness." And Felicity bolted for the bathroom.