Page 77 of The Lazarus Protocol

His face smashed something hard and cold. He blinked and heard them yelling in his ear.

“Guys.” Adam couldn’t lift his head. He wasn’t even sure that word had come out of his mouth, so he tried again, “Guys.”

A pop cracked off like a firework in the room. He didn’t have the strength to see what it was. “Probably that old man with his poison knife again, back to finish me off.”

“Sorry, just us.” Steph rolled him to his back.

Adam stared up at her face. “You’re prettier.”

“I bet you say that to all the CIA agents you meet. Former ones.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Not your fault I was burned. We’ll fix it.” She moved out of her spot, replaced by Dan.

“Not as pretty.”

Dan stuck a needle in Adam’s upper arm.

“Ouch.”

“We’re moving, and it’s gonna hurt. You go to sleep.”

“’Kay.” Adam’s eyes drooped closed and everything went black.

Steph backed up, completely soaked but barely cognizant of that fact. Adam had blood all over the front of his shirt, the shallow cuts bleeding profusely. The way he’d been acting indicated there had definitely been something on that knife.

Her mind wanted to catalogue the poisons she knew of, and their symptoms and treatments. Something like this was old-school spy craft.

Dan folded Adam on his shoulder and stood.

“I’ll hold the doors.” She raced ahead of them. “Kai, we need an update. Jay? What’s the situation with the bomb?”

Could they get the bomb back down here, into this lab? Surely, the density of the glass, and the fact the room could be air pressurized, meant that it might also protect the city from a portion of the blast.

“This is Jay. I’m in the hold, but Kai isn’t here.”

Steph frowned but didn’t stop moving. “And the bomb?”

Jay stayed quiet for a second, then said, “I don’t see a bomb. I don’t see anything that shouldn’t be here.”

“We’re working our way on deck.” Ice paused. “Is this thing gonna blow or not?”

“There’s no bomb here,” Jay said.

“Then why did Kai say that!” Ice ran up the stairs.

“When I catch up to the van I just saw them throw him in, I’ll ask!”

TWENTY-SIX

One hour south of Zürich

“You still see them?”

Ice nodded, gripping the steering wheel. “Did you get all that?”

Steph looked at the tablet on her lap. Never mind that she’d asked him for an update on their pursuit. The van up ahead that had both Vesper and Kai in it that they’d found and managed to follow from the ship. “I got it.”