Chapter Five

Outside, the sun was rising, coloring the sky crimson and tangerine. Lauren stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up two entire walls of her corner office and gazed down at the city of London spread out below her.

What would the view be like one week from now?

Not for the first time, the enormity of what they were about to set in motion struck her. Perhaps she was getting old or developing a conscience—God forbid—but there was no point in getting squeamish at this point; she couldn’t stop this even if she wanted to.

Which she didn’t. Not really.

In many ways, she believed in what they were doing, that this was their only way forward in a society determined to self-implode. She wondered if people would understand that this was actually for their own good. The ones left alive, at least.

Lauren had never seen herself as a savior of the world. Now, she found herself smiling at the notion.

A quiet tap sounded on the door, and she turned as her assistant entered. “What is it, Mark?”

“We’ve been monitoring chatter on the web and picked up something we believed needed investigating.”

A flicker of annoyance pricked her skin. “And that was?”

“A flag set by you.”

Lauren frowned. “Descartes?” The project was on schedule; nothing could be allowed to go wrong.

“Yes. But more than that—a Professor Merrick?”

A thread of unease shivered across her skin. How long had it been since she’d heard that name? She crossed the office and sat behind her desk as she tried to see a possible connection.

“You set the flag over twenty years ago,” Mark continued. “But I can’t make out any link to the current project.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Lauren said. Though neither could she. The old connection was a dead end—literally. Why would Merrick’s name come up now in connection with Descartes? She didn’t believe in coincidences.

“Tell me,” she ordered.

“A Dr. David Griffith. He’s a small town GP. Last night, he did an internet search for Merrick and Descartes. We probably wouldn’t have picked it up if it had been just one or the other, but both together set off the alarms.”

“Yes, they would.”

“We’re sending Carson to check it out as he was available.”

She frowned. “Hasn’t Carson been compromised?”

“His contact in New York went missing a week ago, turned up dead in a car accident. Carson has been sidelined since. But he’s been given the all clear, and we’re a little short-staffed right now.”

They were all busy. “Okay, let me know what he finds out from this doctor.” She got up and paced the room. “And put an immediate tail on Merrick. I don’t want anyone going near him that I don’t know about.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As the door clicked shut behind him, she returned to her desk. Something about all this was making her uneasy. Memories from the past. A past she’d believed she’d closed.

But with Project Descartes about to go live, it was unsurprising those thoughts should be at the forefront of her mind.

She switched her scrambled link on. “We may have a problem.”