Safe Passage by Loreth Anne White Page B

she imagining it? The newly emerged beetles were a rich chestnut in color. But the older ones should be glossy black by now.
    She frowned, flicked on the fluorescent overhead lighting. They were the wrong color. It was so subtle a variation, most probably wouldn’t notice it. But she did. Her mouth went dry. Something wasn’t right. Perhaps they were at an earlier stage of the life cycle than indicated in the log. She moved quickly to check Charly’s notes. Nothing. No mention of changes.
    Skye wiped her sleeve across her brow, thinking. She was running out of time. But she couldn’t leave. Something was amiss with her project. She needed more trials.
    She reached for a small tweezer-like tool, quickly plucking an adult beetle from the sample. She flicked on her microscope, placed it beneath the lens. Her pulse kicked into high gear. This was something she’d never seen in her previous samples. Minute red speckles scattered over the black-brown shell of the beetle, invisible to the naked eye.
    Panic gripped her throat. Perhaps the gene had mutated. She needed to check the hundreds of newly emerged adults that would be shipped within two weeks. She needed to see that this aberration was only being demonstrated in this small control sample. And she needed to know why, what in hell it meant. She reached for another beetle. But the shrill ring in her pocket snapped her back. She fumbled, pulled out her cell.
    “What?”
    “Get out now! They’re coming around the front.”
    Adrenaline squeezed at her lungs. Her eyes shot to the lab door, then back to her beetles. She had to make a choice.
    The security alarm sounded. Someone was trying to get into the building.
    Fear kicked Skye into action. She raced for the lab door, shoved it open, sped down the corridor. Fred Ryan was not at his security post. She flew out the back exit, alarm bells clanging in her ears.
    Scott had the truck waiting, engine running, door open. She threw herself into the cab. He spun tires, her feet barely off the ground. He floored the gas, gunned through the parking lot.
    And Skye could see why. The two men had seen them and were running for their car. She tried to duck down into the cab.
    “Too late, sweetheart, they’ve seen you. And me. We’re in this together now.”
    She clenched her teeth as he swerved out of the Kepplar gates and onto the road.
    “Buckle up, we’re on the run.”
    She turned to him. His face was pure granite, a study of self-control. Not an edge of fear.
    “You’ve done this before.”
    He yanked on the wheel, cut down a side road. “That an accusation?”
    “Who are you?”
    “Just a guy with a sense of adventure.” He grinned, pulled on the wheel again, spinning her and Honey hard up against the passenger door. “I told you to buckle up,” he yelled.
    Skye pulled herself upright, grabbing for the seat belt as Scott turned again, veered down a narrow farm lane and suddenly slammed on the brakes. She lurched forward, belt cutting into her neck.
    Scott peered into the rearview mirror. “There they go.”
    She spun around in time to glimpse the brown sedan speeding down the road they’d just left. She slumped back into the seat, heart pounding a staccato beat against her ribs. “God, that was close.” She pushed the hair out of her face, realized she was still wearing her latex gloves. She stared at them. “What now?”
    “Now you tell me the truth. Now you tell me what you’re running from.”
    She opened her mouth to lie, saw the hard green glint in his eyes, shut it slowly.
    “Well?”
    She studied him, weighing her options. “Why should I trust you?”
    “Because right now I’m all you’ve got, sweetheart.”
    She swallowed under his keen scrutiny. He was right. At this moment he was all she had. And she had little doubt that if she didn’t satisfy this man, he’d ditch her. Right here on this dirt road. And it would be mere minutes before those men realized they’d ducked down one of the