The Viral Series (Book 2): Viral Storm by Rankin Skyler

Author:Rankin, Skyler [Rankin, Skyler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Zombies
Publisher: Woodland Media Creative Services
Published: 2019-10-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Huai Li

“You need something, Mr. Rhodes?” Huai Li asked as she entered the CEO’s office, the interior, a stark contrast to the nondescript, sterile functionality of the rest of the building. Rhodes, with an ego as big as his bank account, had hand-picked the furnishings in each of his offices located on military bases and in government buildings across the globe. He sat behind his hand-carved, mahogany replica of the Resolute desk, barely acknowledging Huai Li as she entered.

Huai Li pushed the door closed, and her senses registered the deadened ambiance that engulfed the room as it shut. Per Rhodes’ specifications, the office was sound-proof, fire-proof, and most important to him, bulletproof.

Rhodes sat at his desk and worked behind a computer outfitted with multiple auxiliary monitors. His desktop was littered with printouts of spreadsheets. “Close the door and sit down, Smith,” the man mumbled, his mustache undulating as he spoke. He glared at her from behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with bulky lenses that made his eyes appear bigger than they were. The effect was comical, but Huai Li knew well that no one who knew the man ever equated Marshall Rhodes with humor.

He waved stubby fingers toward a chair. It wasn’t a courtesy.

Huai Li obediently sat down as the CEO continued typing at his computer, making her wait. He’d always been fond of such power games in the years she’d known him, enjoying the control he wielded as the BioGenetics mastermind. The lines of his brow remained crooked in focused annoyance of late, as he’d personally taken the reigns of much of the data analysis after what he grudgingly referred to as the incident at the safe zone. He preferred to leave the daily functions of the country’s financial mainframes to his personally designed algorithms, but the incident had sparked volatile unpredictability in the markets that he couldn’t tolerate.

Huai Li understood that although Rhodes’s attention was on his work, he was enjoying the thought of her sitting here, squirming inside her mind, because she was too scared to move.

The woman used the time to take note, again, of the features in his office. She knew he kept a Sig P226 9mm loaded with 15 rounds. It was likely holstered beneath his jacket, and despite his girth and deceptive frumpiness, he could draw it on her in a heartbeat, if she gave him cause. In this room, he wouldn’t even need the suppressor he kept strapped to the opposite side of his bulbous belly. But he wouldn’t shoot. No, that wasn’t his style. He was a modern version of a 19th-century robber baron, who would capitalize on every aspect of the situation.

Waste not.

He’d use her for his research, as well as entertainment, in the operating room. Like he did to Cohen.

Though it had been only a short time ago, thoughts of Cohen no longer came with the pain most people associated with a spouse’s murder. Grief was an indulgence Huai Li couldn’t afford. Cohen. Her sweet, brilliant research colleague, and love of her life, had stepped across the line just days before the incident.

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