| |
The suitcases were ready by the time Peter arrived with his SUV, and he loaded them into the car. Mrs. Taylor told her kids that uncle Peter was driving them to their destination. They looked puzzled to see him since he had ceased visiting their house two years ago, but they both followed their mother and entered the vehicle.
“Daddy said he was coming home. Why can’t we wait to say goodbye?” little Tim’s voice innocently filled the car.
“Because Mommy already made plans, and besides, Daddy is busy with his project. I told Samantha where we are going, so he can reach us if he has time.”
Hopefully, he was going to be dead as a doornail. She felt no guilt or regret about being the cause of so many people dying or preparing to die. It wasn’t her direct involvement, she assured herself. She only supplied Aria Pharmaceuticals with the new developments of her husband’s project. She never pulled the trigger; she was innocent. Peter was the one who had engaged in detailed discussions with the pharmaceutical company and had written the deadly code.
“The command was pretty harsh.” Did she really care?
He glanced in his rearview mirror to make sure Theresa and Tim were involved with their portable games and had their earplugs in place, then turned the volume up a notch.
“I only created what I was asked to create. It was not my doing by any means. I composed a command. That’s it.”
“A command that would instruct the recipients of the device to kill someone close to them that they loved, and they had to kill them in a specific way by performing a religious sacrifice.” She stopped talking. Did the thought make her sick?
She reflected upon her actions from the time she began the affair with the man next to her, and she realized that he had sacrificed his whole life, even his beliefs for her. Yet, she would have done it all over again. There was not a doubt in her mind.
“I don’t know why they evoked religion. Perhaps they wanted to mock it for some reason. Where to?”
“I have no idea. Just drive. We are going to figure it out. Any regrets?”
“None,” he quickly answered.