Countermeasures

More blinks. “Um, yes. Agent Branson, right?”

Sawyer’s eyebrows rose. “Forget I was here?” Sawyer shook his head with a half smile. She might be cute, but she was definitely the worst receptionist ever.

“I’m sorry, my mind tends to only focus on one thing at a time.” She looked back up at him, again more at his general chest area than in the eyes. Meanwhile still blinking those big brown eyes of hers.

Maybe she was shy. Sawyer didn’t mind shy and scatterbrained. Although the sophisticated beauty he met when he first entered the building was generally more his type, Sawyer certainly didn’t mind spending a few minutes with shy, either. So he winked at her, when she finally peeked up at his eyes for a second, trying to put her at ease.

But that just seemed to throw her into more of a tizzy—she began reorganizing all the items on the desk—so Sawyer decided to just try to talk to her.

“So, I’m Sawyer Branson, the law-enforcement agent you were expecting. What’s your name?”

“Megan.” She was still clutching that stain-remover stick in one hand, moving office-supply products on the desk with the other.

“Have you worked here long?”

She looked at him oddly, then nodded. “About eight years.”

Eight years? Wow, she must be somebody’s relative or something if she was still this bad at her job after eight years. Sawyer smiled at her again—when he could catch her eye for a second—and leaned up against the desk. “That’s great. Maybe if I have some questions about how things operate around here I can ask you about them.”

Cute librarian Megan just nodded.

Sawyer looked around the open R & D area. People were still working, although Sawyer noticed he and Megan had drawn some attention.

“I’m sure you know Dr. Fuller, right?” Sawyer asked in a conspiratorial tone. He might as well try to get as much information as he could before meeting the man.

That question certainly got Megan’s attention—she finally looked him fully in the eye. “Oh.” She said it with wonder as if some puzzle had just become clear to her. “You don’t know who Dr. Fuller is.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, unfortunately, I was sent here without much information about him. Just that he needed protection while finishing a project for the government. As director of R & D, he would be your boss, right?”

Megan nodded. “Um, yes. Dr. Fuller is everyone’s boss, I guess.”

Sawyer smiled encouragingly; at least she was talking to him now. “Do you like him? Is he easy to get along with?”

Megan looked down and began moving items on the desk around again nervously. She obviously didn’t want to answer his questions. That was fine. Sawyer didn’t want to put her in a place where she had to speak badly about her boss. He decided to change the subject before Megan rearranged everything on her desk.

“Megan, do you think you could get me a cup of coffee somewhere or point me in the general direction of one? I’d just like to get some caffeine in my system before I meet Dr. Fuller.”

Megan opened her mouth as if to answer him, but then just shut it again shaking her head. She seemed at an utter loss at what to say.

Cyberdyne really needed to look into replacing Megan as their R & D receptionist.

A man in a white lab coat, probably in his early forties, walked over to where Sawyer and Megan stood looking at each other. “Megan, is everything okay?” When Megan nodded, the man turned to Sawyer. “You must be Agent Branson. We were told you’d be arriving today. I’m Jonathan Bushman, Dr. Fuller’s assistant.”

Sawyer shook the man’s outstretched hand. He decided not to mention the coffee; it had just been an attempt at changing the subject and he didn’t want to get Megan in any sort of trouble.

“Great, Jonathan. I’m ready to meet Dr. Fuller whenever it’s convenient.”

Jonathan looked to Megan and then back to Sawyer, frowning. “But you already have.” He gestured to Megan. “This is Dr. Zane Megan Fuller, lead conceptual and computer scientist for Cyberdyne.”

* * *

OKAY, HAD THE federal agent just asked her to go get him some coffee? Megan had to admit he hadn’t been obnoxious about it, but still...coffee? Of course, she couldn’t really blame him. She had been puttering all around the desk, resorting back to her college behavior when she’d had no idea what to do when she was attracted to a member of the opposite gender—she’d practically lost her ability to speak for goodness’ sake.

She had thought those days were long behind her, but evidently not when a man as gorgeous as Sawyer Branson talked to her. She could barely bring herself to meet his eyes for most of the conversation. He must have thought she was the worst secretary in the history of the world.

Megan had to remind herself that she was no longer that socially awkward, painfully shy sixteen-year-old girl she had been at MIT, intellectually ahead of all her classmates, but emotionally much less developed. Now Megan was twenty-nine years old, well respected and liked in her workplace and confident in her abilities and accolades.

If still a little shy socially.

Megan could see the wariness crossing Agent Branson’s face as he realized his mistake. He probably wasn’t too thrilled that he had asked her for a cup of coffee, either.

Megan stuck out her hand for him to shake. “Hi, I’m Dr. Fuller. Megan.”

“Not the receptionist. I’m sorry about that.” Megan could appreciate that Agent Branson had the good sense to at least look sheepish. His handshake was firm, and if Megan didn’t know better she would almost swear she could feel his thumb caressing the back of her hand. That totally had to be her imagination. She pulled her hand back quickly.

“Yeah, there’s not actually a receptionist for R & D, despite this desk. We just pretty much keep the desk as a catchall for office supplies and stuff.” Megan held up the stain-remover stick. “I got a stain on my lab coat, so I was coming to see if I could use this to get it out.”

Agent Branson nodded and gave her a half smile. “Well, a lab coat might have clued me in that you weren’t a receptionist, but I definitely didn’t know you were who I was here to see. My apologies.”

Wow, if that was only a half smile, Megan didn’t want to be around if he decided to turn his full charm on her. “I can still direct you to the coffee if you want it.”

Agent Branson gave a bark of soft laughter. “Believe it or not, that was to make you feel more comfortable. You seemed to have lost the ability to speak for a while there.”

Megan could feel a flush spilling over her. “Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have made a good receptionist. I’m more of a computer-person than a people-person.”

Megan heard a throat clear from the other side of the desk. Jonathan. She had almost totally forgotten her assistant was there. Good Lord, she needed to focus. On the situation, not on Agent Branson.

“Jonathan, yes, okay. Um, Agent Branson, it sounds like you didn’t know very much about me and we know even less about you. All we were told was that you would be ‘a presence’ here at Cyberdyne for a while. I don’t really know why.”

Agent Branson looked around. “Is there somewhere we could go to talk that isn’t so open to everything?”

“Yes, of course. As you can see, we have an open workspace in general, but everyone also has offices. Mine is in the back.” Megan began walking that way. “Should Jonathan join us?”

Agent Branson shook his head. “Right now, I’d just like it to be the two of us if that’s okay. I’ll need to talk with all of the R & D employees while I’m here, but I’d like to start with just you.”

Megan could tell Jonathan didn’t like that. But her assistant tended to be a little high-maintenance in that way. He always wanted to be involved with whatever was going on and tended to get a little churlish when he was left out. The behavior had been getting worse more recently. Megan tried to smile at Jonathan, but he had already turned away with a huff. Megan just shook her head and led Agent Branson back to her office, closing the door behind them.

Megan stood behind a chair at the table and gestured to another seat for Agent Branson. She couldn’t help but admire the casual fluidness in how he filled the chair. As if he was a model.

If it wasn’t for the scar on his chin and slightly crooked nose—it looked as though it had been broken at some point in his life—Agent Branson definitely could’ve made a living in front of the camera. Black hair, cut short and stylish, a perpetual five-o’clock shadow, gorgeous green eyes. Megan put a hand up to her chin just to make sure she wasn’t accidentally drooling.

It was time to rein in all of this nonsense. Okay, yes, Agent Branson was attractive. Megan didn’t know the specifics of exactly why he was here, but she did know that it wasn’t for her ogling enjoyment. Megan took a deep breath in through her nose to focus herself, then released it gently through her mouth.

One of the advantages of being so intellectually advanced for her age when she was growing up—and always surrounded by older people—was that Megan had learned early how to act professionally even when she didn’t feel that way. She wasn’t going to let Agent Handsome discombobulate her any more than he already had today. She hoped they both would just totally forget the incident at the reception desk. That wasn’t how she ran the R & D department—all flighty and unable to speak. She was a professional and she could handle this.

She could handle him.

Even though her lab coat had a small coffee stain on it, Megan grabbed it from where it hung on a hook on the back of her door and put it on. She immediately felt more secure with its familiar weight on her shoulders. She sat down and looked across the table.

“So, Agent Branson, how can we help you here at Cyberdyne?”

Evidently she had succeeded in adding the desired professionalism to her tone as she watched Agent Branson sit up a little straighter in his chair, his eyes narrowing slightly for just a moment. Obviously he was also expecting the nervous woman he had met earlier at the desk.

Well, she wasn’t around anymore.

Chapter Three

Sawyer watched pretty Megan transform into stuffy, prickly Dr. Zane Megan Fuller—just like her name tag said—as she pulled on that drab lab coat and buttoned it. The skirt underneath, and evidently the shy woman from the desk, disappeared. Sawyer could almost feel the temperature drop around him.

Okay, the asking her for coffee had been a bit of a misstep. Sawyer totally read that situation wrong—not something he was used to doing. He tried to think back to his conversation with Burgamy. Sawyer definitely would’ve remembered if his boss had said Dr. Fuller was an attractive young woman. Or if he had said woman at all.

What had Sawyer been expecting in Dr. Fuller again? Someone balding, with thick glasses and a bow tie? Sawyer could admit he’d let a stereotype get the better of him. It was his own fault and he knew better. But when he’d seen pretty little Megan fumbling around at the desk, blinking up at him with those big brown eyes and blushing for goodness’ sake?

It had never even crossed Sawyer’s mind that she would be the head computer scientist of a multimillion-dollar company. But the woman sitting across from him so coldly, lab coat around her like a suit of armor? He had no problem picturing her as Dr. Fuller, brilliant scientist.

“Yes, Dr. Fuller. I’m sorry for the confusion before.” Reflexively Sawyer tried to smile at her, but he was met only with cold professionalism. “I’ve been sent here from the Bureau to discuss Ghost Shell.”

Sawyer knew Megan would associate the word bureau with the FBI, but now wasn’t the time to explain about Omega Sector. Omega was a task force made up of representatives from all different sorts of government agencies—FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, hell, even Interpol—who answered to bosses inside Omega. The task force was generally kept on a need-to-know basis. All Megan needed to know right now was that Sawyer was from federal law enforcement.

Megan nodded curtly. “I gave Ghost Shell to the FBI three months ago. Then I receive a follow-up call a few days ago with all sorts of questions you guys should already know the answer to.”

Sawyer didn’t respond to that directly. “I understand you’ve been working on a countermeasure to Ghost Shell.”

That obviously wasn’t the statement she was expecting. “Well, we were. But once I turned Ghost Shell over to the FBI, we put that on the back burner. Didn’t seem important to work on the antidote for a poison we’d already gotten rid of.”

“Unfortunately, it looks like the poison is back.”

“What?” Her big brown eyes blinked at him again, but this time with confusion rather than shyness.

“Ghost Shell fell into the wrong hands not long ago.”

“What?” Megan parroted herself. “I gave Ghost Shell to the FBI to keep that exact thing from happening.”

Sawyer grimaced. “I understand your frustration.”

Sawyer watched Megan’s small fists ball on the table. He slid back a little in his chair, since it looked as if she might start swinging any moment. Not that he could blame her.

“My research team here at Cyberdyne put in hundreds of man-hours on Ghost Shell! The work we did was brilliant and could’ve potentially made Cyberdyne millions of dollars. But I chose—my team chose—to stop our progress when we realized how easily Ghost Shell could become a weapon.” One of her small fists came down forcefully on the table. “And now you’re telling me some terrorist group has it anyway?”

“Well, yes and no.”

One eyebrow rose. “I think perhaps you should just cut to the chase, Agent Branson.”

Totally gone was the shy, stammering woman he had seen at the front desk. This woman in front of him—he definitely could not think of her as mousy in any way—was a force to be reckoned with.

“The agent in charge of the technology you gave the FBI—”

“Fred McNeil.”

Sawyer shouldn’t be surprised that Megan remembered the name of an agent she’d spoken to months before, given her reputation. “Yes, Fred McNeil. Ends up he was also working for a crime-syndicate group known as DS-13.”

Megan closed her eyes and shook her head, her breath coming out in a hiss. “And is this DS-13 group terrorists?”

“No. But they would not hesitate to sell Ghost Shell to whatever terrorist faction was willing to pay the highest price.”

“And now DS-13 has Ghost Shell.”

“Again, yes and no.” Sawyer held his hand out to stop the sound of exasperation he knew was coming. “In a mission two weeks ago, one version—the working version—of Ghost Shell was recovered. But until we contacted you just a couple of days ago, we had no idea a second version of Ghost Shell even existed.”

“But you don’t have the other version?”

“No, Fred McNeil is still at large with it.”

Megan got up and began pacing around her office. “The other version, although not as dangerous as the first, is still definitely not benign. It’s just as potentially dangerous.”

“But it would take someone with a special set of skills to complete it, right?”

Megan shrugged a delicate shoulder. “My ego would like to think so. But really, anybody skilled in reverse engineering—taking something apart and figuring out what makes it work—and software development could probably do it. There’s a dozen people at Cyberdyne alone.”

“So the FBI should be acting on the assumption that Fred McNeil and DS-13 could have a working prototype at any time.”

Megan took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, leaning back against her desk. “Absolutely. With the right help, it won’t take long.”

“We’re going to do everything we can to stop that from happening.”

“No offense, Agent Branson, but my trusting the FBI is how this whole problem happened in the first place.”

Sawyer grimaced. There really wasn’t much argument around that one. “On behalf of the entire Bureau, I want to apologize for what happened. Nobody had any idea that Fred McNeil had flipped.”

“Well, thanks for the apology, but that doesn’t necessarily make me feel much better.” The ice doctor was back in full force. “Did you work with Agent McNeil?”

“No. I’m in an entirely different...section of the Bureau. Never met the man.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“Well, for one thing, I’m bringing Ghost Shell back to you, not the other way around. But also, there’s a whole department involved this time. Not just one person. A lot more accountability that way.”

Megan stared at him for a long moment. “I guess so. Fred McNeil always seemed to want to keep things so quiet and just between us. Now I know why.” Megan shuddered. “He was so smarmy. I should’ve known better.”

“We’re working around-the-clock to find McNeil and Ghost Shell before it can be developed more fully.”

“What exactly do you want from us here at Cyberdyne?”

“We need you to finish the countermeasure decryption system you were working on before.”

Megan shook her head and sat back down at the table. “I explained to whoever I talked to a couple of days ago that I can’t do it without Ghost Shell. That’s why I stopped working on it months ago.”

“I have the first version of Ghost Shell with me. I know you will need this version to create the countermeasure so we can stop McNeil once he gets his version of Ghost Shell up and running.”

“You have Ghost Shell here, unguarded?” Megan stood back up. “Then we need to get that drive into the vault right away. It’s too valuable, too dangerous for you to just be casually carrying it around.”

Sawyer tried not to be offended. “I think I’m capable of guarding a software system for a few hours, Dr. Fuller.”

It looked as if Megan would argue the point further, but then decided to let it go. “Fine. But you’ll have to excuse me for not having too much faith in FBI agents at the current moment. And, honestly, why shouldn’t I just wash my hands of this entire thing? My team and I did our job right. It’s you guys who messed things up.”

Sawyer took a breath. He needed to convince Megan to help them. Because if she decided she’d already done her part, and that law enforcement were on their own, Omega’s job was about to become a lot harder.

Sawyer looked at Megan, who was standing beside her desk, lips pressed into a white slash, posture rigid. He couldn’t blame her for how she was feeling.

But they needed her help, and right now it didn’t look as though she was very interested in giving it.

Sawyer knew his colleagues considered him to be the charming Branson brother; they teased him about it all the time back at Omega. People—and okay, he could admit it, women especially—responded to him. It was a gift, and Sawyer had used it to his advantage multiple times in different operations. It made undercover work a natural fit—who didn’t want to like the guy with the easy smile and quick joke? But his easy smile didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere in this conversation, not since the ice doctor had appeared.

It was amazing how different this controlled woman was from the pretty librarian-type he’d talked to at the desk. The woman at the desk Sawyer would’ve known how to reach, even with her shyness. Yet this woman didn’t seem to see him as a man—hell, even as a person—at all. But he had to try to get her cooperation.

“You’re right, the FBI has messed things up.” Sawyer smiled and held a hand out to her in a gesture for her to sit back down. Standing up and towering over her wasn’t the way to make her feel more comfortable. “And Fred McNeil fooled a lot of people, not just you.”

Sawyer noticed Megan’s posture slump slightly. Evidently McNeil’s ability to fool her weighed more heavily on Megan than she wanted to admit.

Sawyer continued, “I don’t have to tell you how important it is that Ghost Shell not fall into the hands of terrorists. You’re the one who came to us with the problem because you could see the catastrophic damage Ghost Shell was capable of. Without you, law enforcement would have no idea of the potential threat they were up against.”

He reached out and touched her hand that rested on the table. “Thank you for coming forward. I’m pretty sure nobody has said that to you, but somebody should have.”

For a moment, looking into her big brown eyes, Sawyer saw Megan, not the cold Dr. Fuller. Sawyer realized maybe it had been him not seeing her as a person, not vice versa. Dr. Fuller and Megan were one and the same; he needed to remember that. Sawyer squeezed her hand in a friendly manner, then let her go.

“You’re good at what you do,” Megan said after a moment.

“And what’s that?”

“Manipulating people.”

Sawyer shook his head. “I know it seems that way, but I’m not trying to manipulate you, I promise. Everything I’ve said so far has been the absolute truth.”

She looked at him with one eyebrow raised, but seemed to have lost a little of her coldness, so Sawyer continued, “But don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely asking you for something. We need your help. We’ve got to have a way to stop Ghost Shell when DS-13 goes to sell their version on the black market. You are our best hope for that.”

Megan sighed, resignation clear in her eyes. “All right, Agent Branson. Whether you’re trying to deliberately manipulate me or not, I guess you’re going to get what you want. I’ll get the Ghost Shell countermeasure finished as soon as possible.” Megan stood up again and wiped an imaginary piece of lint off her lab coat. “But I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. I just hope you guys don’t screw it up again.”

* * *

“I’LL MAKE YOU a deal. You get the Ghost Shell countermeasure completed and I will personally make sure nobody on my end of things screws it up.” Agent Branson had such utter confidence in his voice that Megan couldn’t help but believe him.

Megan couldn’t sit there and say she wasn’t affected by Agent Branson. But it wasn’t as if he was trying to talk her into going out with him; he was trying to get Megan to do something she was already willing to do.

Not that she wasn’t willing to go out with him.

But not that he was asking.

Megan had to get herself under control. Him asking or not asking her out was not the issue here. Ghost Shell and saving the world was. Focus. Be professional.

“So should I announce the change in projects to everyone?”

Agent Branson shook his head. “No, we want to keep this to as few people as possible.”

Megan nodded. That was probably best. Although she trusted everyone who worked in the R & D department, the fewer people who knew about all this, the better. “Okay, just my inner team then. That’s seven people including me and Jonathan Bushman, my assistant, whom you met.”

“That sounds good.”

“Great. So I guess I’ll call you in a couple of weeks when we have the countermeasure completed.” Megan stuck out her hand to shake his. The sooner she got him out of her office, the sooner she could focus on other things. Any other thing besides his presence here.

“Actually, I’ll be staying here for a while if that’s okay.”

“For the meeting with the team? That’s probably a good idea.” Her inner team rarely needed to be more focused than they already were, but Agent Branson could provide added motivation to get the Ghost Shell countermeasure completed faster.

“No. I’ll be staying until you’re finished.”

“The whole time? You know, this isn’t going to be done in a day. It’s going to take a while. Plus, we are a secure facility, especially within the R & D vault. You can leave Ghost Shell here and come back in a couple of weeks. I promise it will be safe.”

“Even so, I’ll be staying.”

This was not good. Having him here was going to wreak havoc on her concentration. “It’ll be pretty boring. You understand that, right?”

Megan watched Sawyer’s brows furrow as he nodded curtly, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. Evidently, he didn’t really want to be here. Megan wasn’t surprised; watching a group of scientists do conceptual engineering for days or weeks did not strike Megan as something a man like Sawyer would want to do on his own accord.