Page 122 of Airborne
“Don’t think so,” Chad said. “I talked to Jackson last night. He’s in Houston. Told me an interesting story, tragic, too. Your childhood must have left you emotionally crippled, especially with the abuse from your father.”
Heather poured shock into her words and face. “Thomas, what is he talking about?”
Thomas sneered. “Heather, let’s go.”
“Let’s put this to rest,” she said. “Do you have a brother?”
“No.”
Chad scrolled through his phone and displayed a photo of Jackson Powell. “Take a look at the twin.”
Heather gingerly picked up Chad’s phone. “I don’t understand.” She tilted her head to Thomas. “Can you explain this to me?”
Thomas’s face distorted. He pulled a Beretta Pico from his pocket, covered it with a napkin, and aimed it at Chad. “Heather, keep both your hands on the table.”
She met his demands, regretting she hadn’t retrieved her weapon sooner. “Is this true? Did you know Trey had stumbled upon an unknown virus before you booked the flight to Germany?”
“My dear, the world is filled with brilliant, smiling monsters. I’m one who likes to show his teeth. But that’s not my name. I’m Shield, the one destined to take retribution for Thomas.” A feral look met her more menacing than any of the predatory animals.
“Where is Thomas?”
“I got rid of him.” He turned the napkin-covered Beretta toward her. “I’m the one in charge.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
THE CONVICTION IN THOMAS’S VOICEput Heather on alert mode. “What’s going on?”
Thomas bent closer to the table as though the three shared an intimate conversation. His hand stayed fixed on the napkin and the weapon. “Yes, I knew all about Trey’s plan to abandon me. The kid was an ungrateful recipient of my generosity. How dare he leave me for Lawrence Labs. He deserved to drown.”
“Was it an accident?” Heather whispered the words so not to attract attention from the many people filling the café.
“Hardly not.”
“Did Thomas or Shield kill him?”
“Who do you think?” Thomas’s eyes flashed anger, yet she had to dig deeper for the evidence. The female agent with the stroller entered the café and sat across the room.
“What happened on board the flight?”
“I see no reason to hide my ingenuity. I dispensed the virus through a breath freshener, but clumsy Thomas dropped it and aflight attendant stepped on the container. Thomas panicked and flushed it down the toilet to cover his tracks. I saw his blunder and acted. I already had every person’s background in business class. Heather, you were always my ace. FBI. Husband a medical researcher.” He pointed to Chad with his free hand. “Luck smiled on me. Learned about your marital status, and it all fell into my lap. So very easy to implicate you, which I did as soon as the plane landed at JFK.”
“You exposed my wife and every person on the flight to a deadly virus?” Chad said.
Thomas smirked. “My design was for Kirk Durgin to infect Oliver and Jackson. Half of the people on the flight intended to vacation in Salzburg for the music festival. Imagine the international crowds. But instead of the virus taking two to three days, the symptoms occurred in two to three hours.” He wagged his finger. “Can’t figure out what accelerated the incubation period. None of the testing pointed to a rapid progression. It’s an issue to address when opportunity presents itself. I’ll have the formula revised and make sure it performs according to my expectations for future applications.”
“Future applications?” Heather whispered. “Thomas, you can’t be serious.”
His eyes flared. “My name is Shield. By the way, thanks for letting Thomas play hero on the plane. He’s always had a weak spot for the underdog, and his financial contributions on the island played well into my strategy. Throwing money away on a useless cause to help the needy is like starting a bomb fire with hundred-dollar bills.”
“Thomas is a good man,” she said.
“He’s a sniveling coward. He tried to talk me out of eliminating Oliver and Jackson, but I’d worked on this since I was ten years old.”
“How did Kirk Durgin become a part of your plan?”
Thomas laughed. “What have you figured out?”
She moistened her lips. “I’m sure you can fill in the blanks. He was invited to play at your father’s last concert. Kirk’s son posted on Facebook that Kirk would need to decline because of lack of funds. Your computer is set to display all instances of your father, brother, and the Salzburg music festival. You became a generous benefactor. I’m thinking you manipulated your seat on the plane to ensure he received a dose of the virus.”
