Free No Place to Hide by Lynette Eason Page B

would get on his knees and ask forgiveness when the time came. Lord, tell me what to do. “Protect the people. That’s the priority.”
    “How did Anwar Goff manage to steal the smallpox virus without any alarms going off? That’s what I want to know.”
    Tobias shook his head. “Goff had top security clearance.He was a long-term trusted employee and often worked late. There was no reason to suspect he’d ever do anything like this.” Tobias paused and met each eye in the room. “And he wouldn’t have if his family hadn’t been threatened.”
    “Now we don’t know for sure his family was threatened,” Rebecca said. “There’s no concrete evidence of that.”
    Tobias lifted a brow. “You mean other than the fact that they’re all dead?”
    Rebecca cleared her throat.
    Tobias honed in on the chief. “You may not know it, but I do. Whoever’s behind this held his family hostage and threatened to kill them if he didn’t get the virus for them. I don’t need any investigation or concrete evidence to tell me that. His actions, his dead family, and the missing virus are all the proof I need.”
    The chief nodded. “I think you’re right, but we still want to prove it without a shadow of a doubt.”
    “Now,” Tobias looked at Rebecca, “you have the lead on this. Who else do we need to bring into this circle of confidence?”
    Rebecca pursed her lips, then leaned forward. “We’ll have all the manpower we need. All of our resources will be going toward finding that virus and getting it back where it belongs. I’ll keep you updated if I think of something.”
    Tobias nodded. “FBI media coordinator Mark Hughes will handle the media. We’ll give him our statement and let him fend off the sharks.” He looked over the top of his glasses. “I think our best defense is a good offense at this point.”
    “You think they’ll connect the murder of the Goff family, one of whom worked for the CDC, to the sudden encouragement for citizens to take the smallpox vaccine?” Rebecca asked.
    “They’ll speculate, but won’t be able to prove anything.”
    Rebecca narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. “What about a connection between Ian Lockwood and the CDC?”
    Tobias nodded. “I’ve thought about that. The timing is just too much to be a coincidence. The smallpox virus goes missing on Thursday and Lockwood, a trusted employee of Wainwright Labs, is accused of working with enemies of the United States to sell a mutated malaria virus?” He steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them. “I’m going with the assumption the two are related.” He looked at Rebecca. “What do you think?”
    “I’m inclined to agree. We’ll work it like it’s the same case—or at least related. I’ll fill in my agents and headquarters. I’ll assign as many as needed to this task force.” She tapped her chin. “As well as the agents from South Carolina where Lockwood started this chase. We may even need to swear in other law enforcement officers as federal marshals at some point if Lockwood and Sellers cross state lines.”
    Tobias narrowed his eyes and once again looked at each individual person. “Right now, we are the only ones aware of what’s going on. If something gets leaked to the media that didn’t come from Hughes, the consequences won’t be pretty. I hope you understand what I’m saying.”
    Rebecca stood. “Indeed. No leaks of any kind, no talking to prosecutors, nothing. I want complete silence on this. Because if this gets out, we’ll all go down. And I don’t plan on being one of the casualties.” She sounded confident, ready to take on this disaster of mammoth proportions and walk away a hero. Tobias could only pray that’s the way the scenario would play out.

9
    8:15 A.M.
VIRGINIA
    At the bus station, Jackie left Ian sitting in one of the chairs with Gus at his feet. She’d picked a spot as distant from other people as possible. Ian’s newly dyed hair looked more salt and pepper than the