Author's note : My muse is not leaving me right now and i have already wrote the seventh and eighth chapter...let's hope it stays that way...
If anyone is interested into beta reading me...well get in touch with me
Hope you'll like it.
Please review...
Chap 6 : Meeting with the new devil...
Mister Levallois was in his late 40s, but he still had a certain charm. Something in his eyes made Max shiver. This guy was no angel. His features were simple, yet, it seemed to her it had been carved up from those late 40's fillm about gangsters. He didn't seem that much intelligent. But her instincts never failed her. This man was her new devil.
When he saw her approaching, he stood up.
"Ms Marks, i suppose?" he said gently.
"And you are mister Levallois." She replied.
"Nice to meet you. But call me Aurélien."
"Then, call me Chloé."
Alec rolled his eyes. Please, tell me they won't be flirting all night!
"I didn't know you'd came with your fiancé?" said Levallois visibly annoyed.
"My what... oh, oh, no! He is my bodyguard."
"Oh." He uttered in disbelief.
"Don't let his nice features fool you, he's really competent. And since he's better in french than i am."
"You won't need a translator anyway, Chloé." He cut off.
"May i." She said eyeing the seats.
"Oh, of course. Please. Sit down."
Alec remained a few feet from them, observing the whole scene and the room. Planning already an "escape and evade" in case the things went sideways. Standard procedures.
The dinner was boring. At least for Alec. It was more a "romantic dinner" than anything : during all the dinner, the guy was drooling all over Max.
It's only when the dessert came that things became serious.
"Though i would like to continue and talk about art with you Aurelien, but we have things to discuss." Her tone was serious. She knew the minute, he talked about paintings and sculptures that he would be easy for her to get under the guy's skin. Not that it was necessary, but it was always useful to gain your ennemy's trust.
"Yes, of course." He too became serious.
"Finally!" said Alec under his breath. No one heard, beside Max who stared at him meanfully.
"How much does Genedyne is proposing for our research?" he asked.
"I was said that the price had already been discussed by my superiors. I was sent here to control the datas you'll sell us."
"Are you afraid that our results would be fake?"
"As a friend of mine said, in the world there's a lot of players. So i hope, Genedyne hope, that you won't play us." She replied.
He smiled at her.
"Right. Be ready to leave your house tomorrow. 8 am. I'll show you our laboratory." He stated.
Back at the house.
"So what do you think of Levallois Max?"
"He's the devil in disguise."
"I thought you liked him. The way you batted you eyelash at him." He teased.
She hit him with her purse. "I did not batted my eylelash at him." She was going once again to storm out of the house, but she turned back at him. And beamed a wicked smile at him. "Are you jealous?"
Alec choke. "Please no! Why would i drool over you, huh? I'm not whipped like Logan!" Oh yeah you are, a little voice in his head said.
"Whatever. Call Lydecker and tell him how it went."
"Yes ma'am!" he snapped.
A black SUV was parked outside the house by 0755.
Both of them were already awaken. Anyway, Max didn't sleep much, because of her shark DNA and they were used to wake up early.
Alec opened the door to Pierre. The same guy who accompanied them to Levallois's table the night before.
"We're here to pick up miss Marks." He barked.
"She'll be down in a minute." The transgenic replied.
Max came down in white pants, a white tank top and a white jacket.
Alec followed her toward the car.
"Where do you think you're going?" the question was adressed to Alec.
"He's my bodyguard, i won't go anywhere whithout him." She snapped.
"He's not coming. We will take care of you security."
"My security is fine! Either he goes with me, either i stay here."
"Come on miss! The guy could not take care of my grandma!" He exclaimed.
Without any warning, Alec put his right hand on Pierre's throat and manhandled the bodyguard.
"I'll take care of miss Marks' security. She said, she won't go anywhere without me, so i will go with her. I am paid to do so. Do we understand each other now?" Alec asked.
"Yeah. You can go." Pierre choke.
Alec released his grip.
"Ok, get in the car. You have a good grip." Pierre commented.
"As the lady said it yesterday, don't get my features fool you."
Half an hour later, Max was in Levallois's office.
"Good morning Chloé!" he greeted.
"Good morning Aurelien." She said.
"Shall we get started. I will first show the place and then head back to the first reason that brings you here." He informed.
"Will there be any problem if my bodyguard is coming? Because, he is coming." She asked.
"Huh, sure. No problem." He tried to hide his disappointment.
"The thing is Aurelien, that nowadays, it's really not safe for me. Peter is a very good bodyguard, and i intend to stay alive. That why he always goes wherever i go. It's for my own peace of mind. I really hope there will be no problem." She continued.
"I understand. Though, i'm wondering who could want a woman as beautiful as you to be dead."
"The people who want my research i guess." She said smiling at the french guy.
"Come on, i'll show you, and your bodyguard around."
Alec didn't like the guy. Again, during all the "visit" Levallois was drooling over Max. He would take every excuse to touch her, her arms, her hands, her back. God! Can't he just see, she's not interested! Thought Alec while following them around.
When they finally entered a lab, Alec was relieved that the visit was over. He breathed again. They were finally coming to the interesting things.
"Chloé Marks, may i present you to my favorite scientist here, Mr Alliot." Aurelien introduced.
"Nice to meet you Mr Alliot!" she greeted him with a beautiful smile.
Oh God! Not another guy drooling over her! Alec told himself.
"Nnice to mmeet you too..." the scientist stammered.
"So Mr Alliot. Care to share me your work?" she asked. "I mean that's the first reason i'm here."
"Oh, yeah." He said recovering his voice. "Let me get the disks."
He went to his desk and search the disks obviously.
"I was wondering, i mean, back in Genedyne's laboratory, some of us thought about the fact that when you resequence nucleotides, you always end up with one stray intron. We considered that maybe you used plasmids to transfect the new base-pair vectors directly into the codon sequence, to prevent that from happening. Is that how you did it?" Max asked.
Alliot raised his head. This women was perfect, not only was she beautiful, but she also liked genetic.
"Actually, that's not the way we did it. You know we only stepped on to someone else's work." He replied. "Ah! Found them. Come on, i'll show you, you'll understand." He motionned her to approach a computer.
"That's amazing!" she gasped reading the files containing the datas.
"Yeah, that's all they say here!" said Aurelien. "I personally don't understand a word in those files. But i know, it's good money!"
I bet you don't, thought Max while she smiled at him.
"I think, i'll leave you here. Your bodyguard can wait outside the lab while you finish with Jean Louis." Aurelien declared.
Max looked at Alec who nodded. He could do some recon and lay the charges.
"Well, i'll be okay i guess." She said shyly.
"I'll leave you two then." And with that he left the three persons.
Max did what she had to do. She put a tap on Jean Louis Alliot's computer while he was searching for something else he wanted to show her.
"I guess, we have finished." Said Max.
"But...but i thought you were staying to take a coffee with me?" he asked.
"Well, i won't be leaving without the datas i came for. But i need to rest, as i didn't last night, and i'll be here in the morning tomorrow. I guess we'll see each other again then." She explained.
"Of course, the trip from the States must have been long." He conceded.
"Yes indeed." She agreed. "I think we'll make a great team Jean Louis. See you tomorrow then?"
She hide her hands that were already starting to shake. She prayed God, that she didn't really believe in to, that the guy will notice nothing.
She got out of the lab to find Alec leaning against a wall in the passage.
"Get me home." She pleaded.
From the minute she stepped out of the lab, he sniffed the fear and then saw it in her eyes.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Seizure." She stated showing him her hands. She almost fell on the floor but Alec caught her in time.
He lifted her from the ground and carried her to the parking lot. He asked Pierre to get them back home.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Pierre in the car.
"She has epilepsy. It's not only for Genedyne that she buys the works. It's also for her." In a sense, that was true, Alec thought as he rubbed her back.
"Is she going to be okay?" the bodyguard inquired.
"She will. She just need her medicine and rest. The trip has been long. She didn't slept too much last night either. She's a bit stressed i guess. She will be fine." Alec declared.
"How did you became her bodyguard? You seem to know each other very much." Pierre questionned. "I'm just trying to make a conversation here."
"My father was her father's bodyguard. We know each other since we are kids. I was familiar to all the world of the weapons and fights, really early. Now i work for her."
"That explain things i guess." Pierre concluded. "We're here. Do you need help to get her upstairs?" he asked.
"No, i'll be fine. I'm used to it." Alec stated.
"Ok. See you tomorrow then."
For the second time of the trip, she was laying in her bed, shaking, powerless. Alec was hovering around her and forced her again to swallow the tryptophan pills.
"If you continue like that, i might think you really want to get in your pants!" Alec teased.
"It's nnot funnyy Aleec..." she whispered.
"I know."
"Wwe reallllly nneed those ffiless, Alec. Reallyy." She managed to say.
"Sshh...sleep. I'll stay with you, don't worry."
"Thhank you." She uttered.
Again, he held her tight until she dozed off. He fell himself asleep a few minutes later.