Chapter 3

Robert tossed in his bed and woke up in a sweat. He got up and started looking at the results of his searches. Most of Holly's doings from the time of the explosion until the time he was released from his obligation from the WSB he was aware of. There was a crazy moment when he got his freedom that he thought very hard of making contact with her. He had tracked her to Montreal, had followed her around for a day, but then the self-recrimination ate away at him, and he fled before she knew he was even there. He remembered how beautiful she looked. Her hair was still long then, and though she didn't look particularly out of place amongst the undergrads, her sophistication and maturity glowed. His heart had ached at the sight of her.

The computer had produced a few details of which he had been unaware. He read about her marriage to Dougald McFarlane in London, and he found the notice of Dougald's death. "So that was true," he thought to himself. Then he ran a credit check, marvelling at how handy computers had always made his job. Robert noted that Holly was, as she said, completely broke. His heart sank a little at the thought that she had done it for the money. But something told him to keep looking. He clicked on a few more databases, and was able to pull up the details of Holly and Dougald's investment in Crylium, which he saw was in the range of 10 million dollars. Robert whistled through his teeth, but then decided to look at the couple's finances before the transaction. He was surprised to note that their net worth appeared to be 2 million dollars just before the day of the stock transaction. "I am no accountant," mused Robert, "but something certainly does not add up here."

A few more searches failed to turn up any bank loans made to either Holly or Dougald during that time period. "They got that money from somewhere," he thought to himself. He rooted through their financial records again, and turned out a large payment of roughly eight million dollars to Dougald from a company called Viranon. "Bingo!". Robert did a quick internet search on Viranon but failed to turn up any obvious clues.

He thought again to his conversation with Holly on the docks: "Don't arrest me. Run away with me. I love you, Robert. I never stopped.". He remembered how she looked around first, as if to see if anyone was listening. He thought of the failed ambush, the one that ended with him and Luke being shot at. Beyond the obvious, there was just something off about this whole mess.

Robert pushed his paperwork aside, closed his laptop and threw on some clothes. He then strode out the door. He had decided to go see if he could make any sense out of this craziness by talking to Holly directly.

He showed his ID to the prison guards and asked for a meeting with Ms. Sutton. As the arresting officer, his request was quickly granted.

"Robert. Here to gloat more, are we? Or perhaps you have more charges to lay against me?" Holly sat down across the table from Robert, arms folded across her chest and a skeptical look on her face.

"No, I'm here to get to the bottom of things. This is just not adding up. I think there are things that you are not telling me."

Something flashed quickly across Holly's face. Robert couldn't quite identify the emotion. But as quick as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by a completely impassive expression.

"You didn't seem to want to ask any questions before."

"Dammit, Holly, all I wanted was the antidote for Robin. Is that so bloody hard for you to understand?"

Holly lowered her eyes. "No. No, it's not."

"Now, why don't you tell me what's really been going on?"

"There's nothing more for me to tell you, Robert, we lost our money in the investment, the company was falling apart, and so I was trying to salvage something."

"Ok then, how about I start by telling you what I know and then you can fill in the blanks."

Holly raised an eyebrow at Robert.

"So I know that not only did you and your husband sink your savings into Crylium, it seems that you owe a little bit more money than that too. Where'd that money come from, Holly? And why don't you tell me about your 'friends' that accompanied you to Port Charles?"

"If you think I'm just going to wrap up all your loose ends so that you can file a clean report, you've got another thing coming, Robert," interrupted Holly. "For your own good, you should just leave well enough alone." Holly looked at Robert with such conviction that it was all he could do to keep breathing. Her tone changed rapidly. "Not everything is a mystery for you to solve." She looked over to the guard and motioned that she wished to leave. Before Robert could say anything more, she turned on her heels and stormed out of the visitation room, leaving him to wonder just what she meant by "for your own good".

Holly returned to her cell, fuming at Robert and his arrogant attitude. She was also still furious at his recent treatment of her; she had at least hoped for something as small as his eyes to soften when he saw her. On the other hand, on some level she was glad to feel angry, it was infinitely preferable to feeling scared out of her mind as she had over the last few months, since beginning to look into Crylium. She thought back to what had happened after Dougald had invested their money in the company.

Holly had decided to look deeper into Crylium, but hadn't been having too much luck. The prospectus Dougald brought home was very scanty in terms of information content. "Are these people for real?" she wondered to herself. Other companies she had invested in in the past had much more information available. She was no scientist, so she was happy when companies gave some details of their research in layman's terms. She sat down at her computer and started looking up the scientists listed in their information releases. After she had her first article published, Robin had showed Holly once how to look up scientists in PubMed and evaluate how much they had published, and how much their work was cited by others, thus showing its relative importance to the field. She thought for a moment that she should ask Robin for her help with the Crylium enigma, but then shrugged it off, thinking "there's no sense in dragging her into this."

Holly leaned back from her computer and rubbed her eyes. She kept hitting brick walls. Either the scientists she looked up had hardly published at all, or in some obscure journal written in another language, or she found no trace of them at all. She was really getting suspicious now. She thought of the money that Dougald had invested, and even though it would mean a financial loss, better to take one now rather than wait for the company to crumble. Holly knew that she wouldn't be able to convince Dougald of her suspicions without something more to show him, he being a very concrete thinker. "I never got enough credit for my sleuthing abilities," she ruminated. "Maybe it's about time that I put them to use again."

A couple of days later, Holly, fake employee ID in hand, sauntered into Crylium Industries headquarters late in the day. She put on a lab coat and moved to the part of the building that housed the laboratories. Before coming, she had been able to access the building plans and knew where exactly to find the main labs. She was pleased to see that no one was around, and set to work going through the files. Three hours later, she was still wading through files. Her reading glasses, which she normally wouldn't deign to wear except that she thought they added nicely to her 'disguise', kept slipping down her nose.

Holly was about to call it a night, but then she came across a set of files that caused her blood to run cold. The files outlined the manufacture of a virus, one more deadly than the 1918 influenza virus. The files also detailed how the rights to this virus could be auctioned to the highest bidder who could then do with it what they would. The sheer maliciousness of the plan was headlined by the fact that Crylium had also manufactured an antidote to the virus, that they would then be able to sell to whomever was in desperate need, be it governments, corporations, thus doubling or tripling their total profits. Panicking, Holly sat back and wondered what to do: she had to get the information out, but also didn't want to leave a trail behind her. Just as she was about to go looking for a photocopier, the door to the lab opened behind her.

"Ms. McFarlane," said a deep voice, "I hope I'm not interrupting your reading? We didn't realize you were such an avid fan of the biological sciences?"

Holly froze at the stranger's use of her name. She realized that they clearly knew enough about her that she would not be able to bluff her way out. "Are you the lunatic behind this scheme? Producing viruses and then auctioning off the cure to the highest bidder? What sort of lunacy is this?"

"This is very disappointing, my dear. I thought that you would appreciate the neat, tidy, profit-oriented nature of our plan."

"Your plan is barbaric!" Holly shot back. "And your profits won't be long for this world once it's exposed."

"May I remind you that a great deal of our profits are now balanced on you and your husband's recent investment. I can't fathom that you would be altruistic enough to put yourself in the poorhouse?"

"Perhaps you should give that some more thought, then. I'll leave you to it." Holly put on her best show of bravado.

"You're free to go, Ms. McFarlane. But I would strongly caution you to keep this information to yourself, lest anything happen to those who are near and dear to you. In addition, there is a price for this information."

"Which is?"

"You'll find out soon enough. We'll be in touch." The stranger beckoned to his security guard and motioned for him to escort Holly out.

Author's Notes:

For a little "what might have been", you can read my first story "Ensemble", which has Robert and Holly meeting up in Montreal.