Lawrence Alamain entered the prison visitor's room and took a seat across the plastic divider from his attorney. Maurice Marchand cost $500 an hour, so Lawrence expected something important for Marchand to call this meeting.

"I assume you have some news for me," Lawrence asked.

Marchand kept his voice low. "We've had a significant setback. The facility in Egypt was attacked and destroyed."

Lawrence tried to remain impassive as he thought He did not want the guards to grow curious and start listening. His meetings with Marchand were supposed to be confidential, but Lawrence could not be sure that nobody was recording his conversation. He already placed too much faith in this country's purported laws promising confidentiality, and look what it had gotten him. A small prison cell, because Shane Donovan had used an illegally recorded conversation to force Lawrence to plead guilty to Jennifer Horton's ridiculous rape charges. Lawrence had learned a hard lesson and would be very circumspect in anything he said, even in a supposedly "confidential" conversation. "Tell me more," he finally said. "But choose your words wisely."

Marchand nodded. "We don't know much. Only two of our men got out of the compound alive."

Lawrence digested that news. That meant that several of the scientists must be dead. "Who attacked them?"

"We don't know for sure. They were well armed and left in helicopters. One of the men heard English and thought they were Americans."

"Regular soldiers or mercenaries?" Lawrence asked.

"He couldn't tell."

Lawrence took a deep breath. That compound was secret. He had paid the Egyptian authorities a lot of money to ignore that project, and there was no reason for anyone to have discovered it. He knew the ISA was doing everything it could to find clues about the origins of the virus, but that compound had never been used to test or produce the virus. "Who would have wanted that research?" he asked. "Who would even have known about that research? I thought you personally made sure that every person there checked out."

"I did," Marchand insisted. After a moment, he added, "There is some good news."

"There is? What could possibly be 'good' about this? That research is critical to my plans."

Marchand took a deep breath. "The good news is that the main building was destroyed before they could get anything."

"So all the research is destroyed?" Lawrence asked. "And you're telling me it's good news?"

"At least, nobody else has it - and a lot of the research had already been sent to our facility in Venezuela, so it's not like they are starting over from scratch."

That was probably true, but something still did not sit right with Lawrence. "Why would they go after that facility?" he wondered aloud. Then a thought hit him. "Maurice, was that where a certain local 'friend' of ours was staying?"

Marchand glanced around quickly. "Yes." He hesitated. "We don't know what happened to him."

"We don't? Didn't the survivors check?"

"Yes, but they found no sign of him," Marchand explained. "The building he was in was all shot up; only it and the central operations building were attacked."

"I see." Lawrence was putting two and two together. "And you don't think that is a big clue as to what they were looking for?"

"We don't know, Mr. Alamain," Marchand said. "It's possible John- I mean, our friend - escaped into the desert."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" He sat back and thought a little. "Find out where he is," Lawrence ordered. "Also, just in case our friend knows anything, I want you to close every facility he's been at. Move the research elsewhere."

"But that will cost a fortune," Marchand said. "And do you have any idea how much time that will take?"

"Time is not a luxury you have, Maurice. We're moving up the timeframe for the project." Lawrence paused as he pictured a calendar. "Tell everyone that I expect everything to be operational by December."

"December?" Marchand gulped. "That's only five months away. Our people said they won't even be able to begin testing until next year."

Lawrence started intently at his attorney. "Then tell them to work faster. And you, Maurice, have another task. You had better make certain I get the earliest possible parole date. When this project goes operational, I want to ensure I have a front-row seat."