Chapter Nine
Monday, 6:20 AM
Zane was asleep. He'd rearranged the black office chairs that sat in front of her desk so that they were facing each other, and he was slouched in one with his feet up on the other. He looked profoundly uncomfortable, but also incontrovertibly alive. It took every ounce of willpower Jo had not to shake him awake and yell at him for terrifying her, but instead she took a deep breath and called Carter.
"He's here, and he's fine," she reported quietly, hoping not to wake Zane.
"Oh, Jo, that's -" Carter stopped there, but Jo understood. She could hear the relief in his voice, as he quickly passed the news along to the others. "Henry's going to try to find out what caused the explosion, but I should start working on that list of people with motive. So who would want to sabotage Zane's project? Can you ask him if he has any ideas?"
Jo looked at the peacefully sleeping Zane and her mouth twisted in a wry smile. "That's going to be a long list, isn't it?" She remembered the day Tess Fontana accused Zane of sabotaging Tiny, the Titan Rover. How many other scientists were there at GD who blamed Zane when disaster struck? His reputation made him the first person anyone looked at. Of course, with the exception of the scientists who ran experiments on animals, they were probably wrong: Zane might have no respect for authority but he had a deep love of science, and his pranks almost never interfered with another scientist's work. Still, scientists were human and when a project went bad, looking around for someone to blame was natural. "I'll get back to you on that one."
Zane shifted, and Jo crouched down next to him. "Zane, you need to wake up," she said gently. No response. She said it again a little louder. A muscle might have twitched. She dropped a gentle kiss on his lips. He shifted very slightly, but didn't otherwise move. "Zane," she said loudly, as she shook him by the shoulder. Nothing.
With a sigh, she stood and kicked the chair out from under his feet. As his feet hit the ground, his eyes opened in protest, and he sat upright, startled awake the hard way. "Ouch, Jo," he grumbled, rubbing his hands over his face. "It's morning already?"
"Sort of." Watching him struggle to wake up, she felt a wave of love for him so intense that she had to close her eyes and take a deep breath. Opening them again, she glanced at the camera in the corner of her office ceiling, then shrugged and straddled Zane's legs, taking his mouth in a deep, possessive kiss.
He was surprised, she could tell. He hesitated before beginning to kiss her back but within seconds he was participating enthusiastically, sliding his hands around her and trying to pull her closer. There wasn't enough room, though, because the arms of the chair were getting in the way, so she wiggled backward slightly, tugging him back with her. He slid forward eagerly, trying to keep her close, but their weight was too much on the edge of the chair and for a moment, they almost over-balanced. Jo's eyes flew open as she felt the chair start to slide out from under them, but Zane caught them both, standing and pulling Jo to her feet, never pausing in his passionate exploration of her mouth.
She kissed him as if nothing in the world existed but him, reaching up to him and pulling his head to hers and opening her mouth to him as an electrifying passion ran through her. She slid her hands under his shirt and up, teasing him with stroking touches, and he groaned, drawing her into him so that she could feel his hard body pressed against hers. But she pulled away, wanting room to touch him, room to let her hands roam, and her desk hit the back of her legs. Then he was lifting her onto the desk and leaning her back, and she was moaning into his mouth as she felt his hands sliding down her body, stroking, cupping, until suddenly, she remembered…
"Wait." She broke the kiss, gasping, putting her hand over Zane's mouth to stop him. "Cameras. I didn't mean to get quite so carried away."
He groaned. "I don't care." But he pulled his hand out from under her shirt.
"Your mom was the person who saw the footage last time," she pointed out, still breathless.
"Okay, that…" he laughed, out of breath himself, and paused, turning his head to the side. "Unfair, Jo."
"Just saying."
"Yeah…good job," he said, straightening and stepping back. "Not quite a cold shower, but close." He shook his head and grinned at her, and as she sat up, added, "Not that that wasn't an awesome wake-up call, but the last time I saw you, you were pretty damn pissed at me. Don't I need to grovel a little?"
She looked at him, considering. Yes, he did, actually. The wedding hadn't been her idea and yet it had consumed her life for the last month. And when she'd imagined getting married – not that she'd ever spent much time thinking about it, but every woman at least considers the idea once or twice – she'd pictured leisurely planning a festive occasion with a partner, not a solo mad rush through a list of chores. But given that his obsession for the last month had just gone up in smoke, she could probably forgive him without the groveling. Plus, now she had to tell him about his project.
"There was an explosion," she said.
He looked startled. "Where? Did someone get hurt?"
"In your lab."
"In my lab?" His surprise was replaced by confusion. "What kind of explosion? The liquid nitrogen was vented. It couldn't explode except under pressure and there's no reason it would be under pressure – unless ice somehow…"
Jo was shaking her head. "No, there was a fire, too."
"A fire? But there was nothing combustible there. Liquid nitrogen is endothermic. It absorbs heat. And with the petrotech insulation – yeah, no, a fire is impossible. There'd be nothing to fuel it."
"That's why we think it must have been sabotage."
"Okay, you're – you're serious? The lab I've been using for the mag-lev project burned?" Zane sat down in the chair behind him, shocked.
Jo nodded. She'd been sitting on the desk, but she slid off and stood in front of him. "So the question is, who would want to sabotage your project?"
Zane shook his head. "No, the question is, why now? I finished last night. We filmed the prototype in action, and I uploaded the video and the project file to the server, and sent Fargo an email. It's done. Destroying the prototype – well, it's pointless."
"You're done?"
"With the proposal, yeah. The hard part is the cooling system: maintaining a temperature that keeps the liquid nitrogen cold enough to stay a superconductor over time is the real challenge. A transportation system that shuts down when it gets hot outside would be useless."
"And your prototype wasn't complete?"
"No, it was just a working demonstration of a magnetic-levitation system. If we could already make the cooling system, I wouldn't need to be asking Congress for insane amounts of money. I actually might need -" he glanced back at the camera, and then continued, "—to do some arctic research to learn more about these black ice striations."
Jo glanced at the camera, too, and then shrugged. They were no longer in danger of being sanctioned. And despite Zane's caution, there was no reason anyone watching the video would be suspicious if she mentioned the ice-creating fungus. "You mean you might need a sample of the fungus?"
He nodded. In this timeline, Taggart had been working on his wolf research, so he and Zane had never retrieved the arctic ice.
Jo started to pace. "But if it wasn't to destroy your prototype, why would someone blow up your lab?"
"Well, and how? Making liquid nitrogen explode is – hmm…" His eyes started to glaze over as he considered the science involved. "I suppose you could do it in stages. Release the nitrogen first – no, that wouldn't work. With that much nitrogen in an enclosed space, there wouldn't be enough oxygen. Whoever did it would suffocate, and there couldn't be a fire without oxygen. So put the nitrogen under pressure and – no, that wouldn't work, either."
"Henry's working on the how," Jo said firmly. "I need you to think about the who. Who would want to destroy your work?"
Zane shrugged. "If it was someone who wanted to stop the project before it got started, they must not have realized that I was finished. It's not like I broke out the champagne. It was pretty damn late." As she paced around him, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop. "Besides, I'd rather save the champagne for later in the week." His words were casual but his eyes were intent on hers.
"You don't drink champagne," she reminded him, looking down at his upturned face, starting to smile.
"Details," he shrugged, sliding his hand up her arm, his eyes still asking her a question.
"Details," she agreed, voice husky, leaning down to him and kissing him. After a long, solid, extremely satisfying kiss that said, she hoped, that all was forgiven, she pulled back and asked, slightly guiltily, "Although speaking of details, did you manage to arrange a fitting for -?"
She didn't have to finish because he was nodding. "9 AM this morning," he confirmed. "It's why I was in your office: I figured you'd wake me up. There aren't any clocks in the sleep lab, and Dr. Oneiroi doesn't usually get in until 10 or so."
"The sleep lab?" Jo asked. "Score for Henry. I'm glad I didn't send guards to search all of your old labs."
