Color 1--2--3--4--5--6--7--8--9- Text Size 10--11 --12 --13 --14 --15 --16 --17 --18 --19 --20 --21 --22 --23 --24 DELIGHTFUL DECEPTION UNDER COVER ANTHOLOGY By MaryJanice Davidson Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Epilogue Chapter One ^? Thea Foster, MD, PhD, MBBS, and--this one had been for fun--PharmD, was a woman with a mission. Specifically, her mission was twofold: a) avoid termination, and b) avoid boredom. She was very much afraid that if she accomplished the first, the second was inevitable. She pressed her thumb to the ID plate, waited a moment to be scanned, then stood by as the door to BioSecurity slid open. "Good morning, Dr. Foster," the computer husked, and she nearly grinned. Those fools in IT had been fooling around with Central's voice programming again. How else to explain why she had just been greeted by Marilyn Monroe's breathy contralto? "Good morning, Central. Any schedule changes I should be aware of?" Probably not; as head of BioSecurity, there were precious few changes that were not immediately brought to her attention. "No, Dr. Foster. I downloaded the new CEO's presentation into your Palm last night; nothing has changed." Thea felt her mouth turn down in a grimace. The new CEO. Right. Not that she had forgotten--she had a photographic memory and it was, unfortunately, impossible for her to forget anything--but she'd shoved it to the back of her brain for awhile. After last quarter's debacle with the theft--OK, the donation--of PaceIC, the company's bottom line had gone well over into red, with no hope in sight. There were other eggs in Anodyne's basket, of course, but nothing near completion. PaceIC had been their shot, and now it was gone. Well, not entirely gone, but now there was market competition, and their profit margin had been considerably narrowed. Thanks to me. Well, yes. Thea hadn't liked the idea of making the suffering pay through the nose forher invention, thanks very much. She had expressed this thought to Nicholas Jekell, aka the Jackal. The Jackal had told her that as an employee of Anodyne, anything she invented was the company's property, what they did with it was none of her damned business, and if she didn't like it, she could shove it up her frozen ass. Forty-eight hours later, the head of security had left for the day, completely unaware that she was carrying a vial worth billions. Dr. Jekell never pieced it together--not all of it. For once her IQ, rep had been the saving of her. No one had considered for even a nanosecond that Dr. Foster had jettisoned PaceIC... to benice . Motivated partly by altruism, but mostly by vengeance, Thea had been shocked at how much she had enjoyed the great good fun that had resulted. The ensuing chaos had been the most interesting thing to happen in years, and if Renee had had a rough time of it at first, things had turned out all right for her in the end. Thea soothed her mildly guilty conscience--pricked by the memory of gunshots and police intervention--by recalling the proof in her briefcase: The wedding invitation had come yesterday. She had no idea why Renee and what's-his-name had invited her, but she meant to go. She was so rarely invited anywhere. Now the fun was done, unfortunately, and it was time to, as her metaphor-mixing grandmother would say, face the piper. Anodyne had been bought ought by wunderkind Jimmy Scrye, who was coming this morning, doubtless to lay waste to personnel. Well, it would be interesting, if nothing else. Thea strode down the hallway, paused to deposit her briefcase in her office, and then headed for the lab. The door's electric eye scanned her and, reading the correct biosignature, obligingly opened. Her staff was clustered around the play computer like a knot of lemmings trying to decide when to jump. They looked up at her, and she saw a blur of anxious expressions. "Good morning," Thea said. "Hi, boss." "Morning, chief." "Have you heard anything?" That last from her wide-eyed prot?g?, Jessica Lorentz. Jessica had been working for Anodyne for eighteen months and had been out of graduate school for eighteen and a half. Right now her blue eyes were quite round with distress, and her reddish brown curls were in wild disarray. She looked like a harassed Orphan Annie. "About the new owner?" "Just that he's meeting with all the teams today. He's due here in another five minutes, so you might consider looking as though you are working instead of researching him on the Internet." As one, the group straightened and backed away from the computer, which was used strictly for games, Internet searches, eBay bids, and online gambling. Thea pushed her team hard, and if they wanted to take a break and play a little blackjack, who was she to argue? "There's not much to work on, "Jack, one of her techs, pointed out. "I mean, with PaceIC gone, we don't have anything near ready--" "I know." Jessica elbowed Jack in the ribs. "Duh, she knows." "Perhaps Dr. Scrye will give us some direction," Thea suggested. "You ever had the big boss be younger than you? "Jack asked. "In this field?" Thea smiled. "Frequently." And it was true. Her team leader at BioSine had been twenty-four, with a managing budget of two-point-two million. At thirty-three, Thea was an old lady. "I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about--" She cut herself off. No need to give the team more to fret about. "Youmust be worried," Jessica teased. "I don't think you've ever used the word, much less felt the emotion. Our IQ." Only Jessica could get away with the Ice Queen thing, though others had tried. Thea was well aware that she came across as aloof. OK, cold. OK, frozen like Antarctica during a rough winter. She gave not a rat's ass. Results were what counted. If people called her IQ behind her back, that was fine. The important thing was that the work got done and into the field, to maximize aid. NotAnodyne's bottom line, though the former CEO had disagreed with her on that one. And where was he now? Facing charges of conspiracy to kidnap, among other things. It was almost enough to make her grin. Twice in one day! "Well, what did you find out about our new fearless leader?" Thea asked, pretending she hadn't been up until 3:30 A.M. researching the hell out of Scrye. Her team chimed in with answers, but nothing new: Born in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Orphaned at sixteen via a house fire, got his MD at nineteen after only three years, started his first biofirm at twenty-two, sold it for billions at twenty-five, made a practice of rescuing ailing biotech firms and turning them around. Today was his twenty-ninth birthday. "Maybe he'll fire us all as a b-day present to himself," Marshall said gloomily. Thea scowled at him over the tops of her glasses. "None of that, Miss Marshall." As always, her cross-dressing research tech brightened when she referred to him in the feminine tense. "Sorry, Dr. Foster." Marshall fiddled with his pearls. "It's just--OK, I get that our shares are pretty much in the toilet now, but I really like this job. I wasn't here to get rich and move on... Ilike it here, OK? I wanted to stay and do stuff. I don't want to be looking for work. I mean, jeez..." Now he was actually nibbling on the necklace in his agitation. "You're the only boss I've ever had who lets me dress up for work." "I'm sure it won't come to anything like that," she said automatically, but of course she was in no way certain. Scrye could fire them all and start over. Or he could fire half of them and rebuild the other half. Or he could leave things as they were. It was anyone's guess. And her research hadn't helped her formulate a plan, which was frustrating. What would a twenty-nine-year-old former prodigy do with them? "I think the best thing to do is--" "Happ... eee birth... day... to... youuuuu-uuu... happ... eee birth... day... to... youuu-uuuuuuu..." Thea covered her eyes. "Oh, dear God." "Happ... eeebirth dayyyyyyyy... Missster Pres... ih... dent..." "Jeez, I forgot about Central being Marilyn today," Jack said innocently, which was an utter lie, as his cousin was the head of the IT department. The door slid open, and a tail, balding man entered. He was dressed, surprisingly, in a sober black suit, with a light blue shirt and a blue bow tie with white polka dots. He looked more like a librarian than a hip young doctor. He stared at them through his gold wire rims and waited patiently for the computer to stop serenading him. "... tooooooo... youuuuuuuuuuuu. M-wah!" "Did the computer just blow me an air kiss?" the man asked pleasantly. "Uh--" was as far as Thea got. As God was her witness, she had no idea what to say. Marshall sidled up to her. "I don't think that's the new boss," he whispered to her. "Unless he's aged ten years in two days." "After the nonsense here, I may well have," whoever-it-was said dryly. "As it happens, my name is Don DePalma. James is--" He was interrupted by a blare of music, and sighed. "On his way." It took Thea a moment to place the music. It was the theme fromSuperman . James Edward Scrye II burst into the room. He was bizarrely arrayed in khaki shorts--in January!--a red button-down shirt, no socks, and red tennis shoes with yellow laces. She had a blurred impression of dark red hair and freckles...
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