“Hey,” he chided. “Remember the power of positive thinking. Tonight is the first night, not the only night.”
“Have you always been a Pollyanna?”
“Pollyanna saw something good in everything. I see nothing good at all about that Fiat.”
Taken by surprise at his abrupt change of subject, she snickered. “I do. I got a good laugh out of your reaction to it”
He stiffened. “You mean you deliberately picked out that car just to jerk my chain?”
She didn’t bother denying it, just gave a satisfied sigh as she rubbed her cheek against his chest. “I wanted to see you drive it for just one day. It’s a perfectly good car; I once owned a Fiat, so I know how reliable and economical they are, but you act as if you’re in agony.”
“You’ll have to pay for this,” he said, shaking his head. “And not with all that massaging you promised, either. This is big. I’ll have to think about this one for a while.”
“Just don’t take too long.”
“You’ll know tonight,” he promised, tilting her head up for a warm kiss that lingered, multiplied, deepened. Unlike the night before, he took his time stroking her breasts, cupping them, thumbing her nipples through the layers of clothing. Lily half expected to be tumbled onto the bed, but he didn’t even slip his hand under her top. She was glad; she wasn’t anywhere near aroused. His caresses felt good, though, and when he released her, she was warmer and more fluid than she’d been before.
A brisk knock on the door signaled the arrival of housekeeping with an armful of towels. Swain went to the door and took the towels in the same motion with which he handed over a tip, not letting the maid in, though she would have gladly arranged the towels in the bathroom for them.
“Let’s read over all these papers and see what we’ve got,” he said after he put the towels away, indicating everything they’d printed out at the Internet cafe. “There’s a lot of extra stuff in the articles that we won’t need.”
She liked that he wanted to take care of business before fun and games, so she joined him in the sitting area, where he had all the papers scattered out on the coffee table.
“Ebola… Marburg… We don’t need all this,” he muttered, dropping page after page on the floor. Lily picked up a stack of paper and began sorting through it, looking for any information on influenza.
“Here,” she said a moment later. “ ‘How influenza viruses are treated in the laboratory.’ Let’s see… ‘laboratory-associated infections aren’t documented,’ but watch out for ferrets.”
“What?” he asked, startled.
“That’s what it says. Evidently infected ferrets pass the virus along to humans fairly easily, and vice versa. They make us sick, we make them sick. That’s fair,” she said judiciously. “What else… ‘a genetically altered virus… unknown potential. Biosafety Level 2 is recommended.’ What’s Biosafety Level 2?”
“I have that here… somewhere.” Rapidly he flipped through a section of papers. “Here. Okay. The threat is considered moderate. ‘Laboratory personnel must be trained in handling the viruses, access to the lab is limited when work is being done,’ but I guess we can safely say access to the Nervi lab is limited at all times. ‘People have to wash their hands… no eating or drinking in the area… wastes are decontaminated before disposal’-that’s good to know. I guess we could have safely gone in the sewer, after all.”
“I’m just as glad we didn’t.”
“We may have to yet”
She wrinkled her nose at the thought. Even though the sewer had been her idea and she would go that route if there was no other way, she’d rather not.
“ ‘A biohazard sign must be posted,’ ” he continued. “ ‘Extra care taken when handling sharp instruments’-duh-these are all precautions the laboratory personnel take while handling the bugs. ‘The lab must have lockable doors; no specific ventilation system is required.’ Huh.” He put down the papers and scratched his jaw. “This sounds like a basic lab, no airlock entrances, retina scans, thumbprint locks, or anything else. Looks as if we were borrowing trouble, because if Dr. Giordano follows these instructions, all we have to deal with is a locked door.”
“And a lot of people with weapons.”
He waved his hand. “That’s straightforward.” He tossed the papers on the coffee table and leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “I’m surprised. I thought when you were dealing with infectious bugs, you had all sorts of hoops to jump through; but it’s mostly personal security, not external.”
They looked at each other and shrugged. “We’re back where we started,” Lily said. “We need information about the external security system. Once we get in, we look around for the door with the biohazard sign on it”
“X marks the spot,” he agreed. They both knew it wouldn’t be that simple; for one thing, the laboratory could be anywhere within the large complex. It could even be underground, which would limit their available exit routes.
Having found out what they needed to know, which was a lot less than they’d expected, there was no need to keep all the copies they’d printed. Swain picked up the ones he’d dropped on the floor while Lily gathered up all the other sheets; then they dumped everything in the trash.
She was at a loss for something to do now. The hour was still fairly early; they hadn’t even had dinner. She didn’t want to take a shower yet, and thankfully he didn’t seem inclined to rush her into bed. Finally she picked up the book she’d brought and kicked off her boots, then curled up on the sofa to read.