“Dear Lord!” said Williams. “The man’s a damn enigma!”
Standing inside her lab, Rachel folded both arms. “Maybe he just doesn’t like talking about himself. A lot of people don’t.”
“Well, that doesn’t help us much, does it?”
She returned a bleak look. “It may just take time, Perry.”
“No kidding.”
She strolled forward, peering at the animals in the adjoining room. “I don’t like lying to him,” she said. “It feels—”
They were abruptly interrupted by a loud screech from Otis, the chimpanzee, hanging from a swinging perch in his giant cage and staring at them through the open doorway.
“It’s the least of our concerns at the moment,” said Williams.
Absently, Rachel noted the small capuchin monkey in the cage beside Otis, calmly watching them. “Did you see the way he was looking around the room? It’s like he knows.”
“How would he?”
“I don’t know, but I think he knows we’re lying, which makes it even worse. I feel guilty just looking him in the eyes.”
“It’s for his own good, Rachel. You know that. Even what we’re doing now, it has to be—”
The door behind them suddenly burst open, and a winded Henry Yamada rushed in, nearly shouting. “Someone’s in our system!”
Rachel and Perry looked at each other. “What?”
Yamada checked over his shoulder before letting the door close behind him. “Someone is in the system,” he repeated, “right now.”
“What, like being hacked?”
“Maybe? And that’s not all; they’re using Nora’s account.”
“How is that possible? Our system uses our faces for security.”
“I don’t know, but somehow, they got past it. And the connection is originating from someplace I don’t recognize.” Yamada looked back and forth at them. “What the hell is going on?!”
“We’ve been wondering the same thing,” answered Williams. “A lot of things are not adding up.”
“So then, something is going on?”
“Keep your voice down,” hissed Williams, stepping forward and pulling Yamada away from the door. “Something’s not right. That much is clear. But we don’t know what yet.”
“Then what do we do?”
The older man remained calm, thinking. After a long pause, he said, “Nothing.”
“Uh, pardon?”
“Nothing,” he repeated. “Clearly, we’re not being told everything. But none of us are exactly in danger. My guess is someone else is involved in our project that we haven’t been told about.”
“Like who?”
“How the hell would I know?”
Yamada looked back at the door. “If Nora is in on something, we have to tell Masten.”
Williams rolled his eyes. “Please. If Nora’s involved, do you seriously believe he isn’t?”
“Henry,” interrupted Rachel, “where is the connection coming from?”
“I don’t know.”
“You can’t locate it?”
“I tried. But it doesn’t trace. I’ve never seen that before. But I’m not exactly a hacking expert either.”
“Let’s all just take a deep breath,” said Williams. “We’re not in the loop about something, but like I said, it’s not life and death either. We have time to figure this out. So, the best thing to do … is nothing.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.” Williams nodded. “At least for the moment.”
“And what if this is some kind of secret conspiracy?”
“Then so what. It’s not our conspiracy. We just keep doing our jobs while we try to unravel things.”
Rachel and Henry both looked at him uncomfortably.
He went on. “Let’s not forget: We don’t own any part of this project. Or this lab, for that matter. We’re just employees. Pawns.”
“Pawns?”
Williams glared at Yamada. “On a chessboard. Jesus, how old are you?”
“Thirty-two.”
“I was being facetious.”
He turned to Rachel. “The best thing we can do is stay the course—but stay alert. Sooner or later, Masten or Lagner will have to reveal something. Especially,” he said, turning to Yamada, “when you tell her about the hacking.”
Yamada nodded, then said, “What if it’s not a hack?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if it’s her logging in?”
Williams raised an eyebrow. “Do you know where she is right now?”
“In her office. It seems crazy, but it’s possible she gave someone her login credentials.”
“Wait,” said Rachel. “There’s still a chance we could be misinterpreting things. I mean, it’s still possible there’s a normal explanation to all this. Something we’re just not aware of.”
“It’s possible,” agreed Williams. “But what we’re talking about is ‘likelihood.’”
“Okay, so worst case is that others are involved. But we’re still working toward the same goal, right?”
Williams tried not to roll his eyes again. She was, without a doubt, one of the brightest young minds he’d come across in medicine in a long time, but this was where her lack of experience became notably less helpful. Rarely had Williams seen silent partners actually help a project. Which was why they were kept silent. But even this felt different. Something he couldn’t put a finger on yet.
“Henry,” he finally said. “Tell Nora about the hack, or ‘possible’ hack, and see what she says. Rachel, you stay with Reiff and see if you can get any more out of him. Maybe he knows something, and maybe he doesn’t.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to have a talk, with Robert.”