Page 133 of Fury In Death

“I don’t give a flying fuck who he thinks he owns. We have the goods. The restricted lab. They were in the process of making bioweapons. Airborne. Violating international law.”

She saw it surprised him, and when his gaze went from sharp to thoughtful, she tried for her weapon.

Her body rammed the elevator wall; more pain erupted.

“Stop.” He said it absently, remained thoughtful. “I wasn’t sure what they’d done in there now. I couldn’t access those files. So they gave up on Rainmaker.”

If she couldn’t fight him, she could stall him. And learn more. “Rainmaker?”

“My project, my work. For the good, and I learned they meant to use it to destroy, to manipulate for their own profit. People would die, hundreds of thousands could die, that was the plan. Then they would step in, the saviors. My work, and they’d distort it into a weapon. Rainmaker. Not to control but to influence weather patterns, climate trends. Bring the rain to revive the land in a drought. Stop the rain to decrease a flood. And more.”

She shifted onto her knees, though both objected. Closer, a little closer to the stunner.

“They’re working on something to do with climatology. We need an expert to figure out what.”

He smiled a little. “I don’t think they can do it. It was mine, and I destroyed my own work, put a virus in the system. After I copied proof of what they’d done, and what they planned to do. I brought it home. Ari and I had decided I’d go to the FBI. We couldn’t be sure who they could bribe or had bribed, but we decided we had to trust the authorities.”

His eyes never left hers, but now they clouded with sadness. “Destroyed, the proof gone. My beautiful wife and our daughter, who’d have come into the world in a matter of weeks. My sweet boy. They were everything to me. Do you understand? My heart and soul died with them.”

“We’re going to get them justice, Steve.”

“Your police didn’t before.”

“Banner-Wyst had more and better technology than the NYPSD, and they hired Cruz, through Delgato—understand we know this now, will use it now. Cruz, an expert at making an explosion look like an accident. I know the lead investigator on that explosion, Steve. He’s the best I know.”

“Maybe he took a bribe. So many did. So many do.”

“No. He would never betray his badge, his duty. I’d swear it on my life.”

“I’ve studied him, his record, and I believe you. If I thought he or the arson investigator had been part of it, they’d be dead.”

“Is this what Ari would want, Steve? Would she want you to kill to avenge her death?”

“I can’t know, can I?” The fatigue vanished in rage. “They took her from me, took her, took our children. And you didn’t know her!”

“No, but I’ve read about her. I have her face on my case board. I’ve talked to people who knew her, loved her. I stand for the dead, Steve. It’s my life’s work. I stand for Ari, for Luke, for the baby.”

“Chloe,” he murmured. “She was Chloe.”

Eve shifted, just a little. When his eyes flickered, she cradled a hand on her jaw as if it ached.

It didn’t ache, it throbbed and screamed. As she did, she saw something in him. A hint, just a hint of regret.

She gasped, let the pain show on her face. And went for the stunner.

The punch brought blood to her throat, slapped her head against the elevator wall.

“I said don’t! I can’t always control the anger. I’m trying. You’ve done nothing to earn my anger.”

She coughed up blood, spat it out. “What the fuck are you on?”

“I call it Fury. It took me years to perfect it. It keeps me alive, and it’s killing me. I don’t have much longer, much less without it. I’ll destroy any left when I’m done, all the records so no one can duplicate it. Like Rainmaker. I need to finish, so listen.

“Larry, my good friend, he betrayed me. He came to the hospital the day after . . . The day after. I couldn’t speak. The words were in my head, screaming to get out, but I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. It was like being trapped inside the shell of my body.

“But I could hear. I could understand. He was sorry, he told me. He didn’t know they were going to do what they did. He shouldn’t have told them I knew, but he was afraid. He wanted to work things out. He was sorry, so very sorry.”

Steve’s gloved hands balled into fists. “He cried. Tears fell, but he took their money, he kept working for them. He told no one what they’d done. They killed my family, and he knew, but he told no one.