in that company for months even when there were other investment opportunities that would have seen a better return. I assumed he had some insider information on the company which he was waiting to cash out on but the fact that it’s a pharmaceutical company rings some alarm bells given our current situation."
"Okay, let me see if I can find any more about Serenity Pharmaceuticals," Tatum said and the sounds of her searching returned to me.
My mind was racing as I waited for them to find something else of use and I quickly pulled up my own stock portfolio, followed by my father's, followed by the company website for Serenity Pharmaceuticals.
Blake leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath feathering on my neck but I didn't even bother to snap at him over it as I quickly started skimming through the information they had on their site.
They were a big company, but not one of the biggest. Obviously they were in the midst of trialling vaccinations for the Hades Virus like every other Pharmaceutical company in the world. All of them taking part in a race to be the first to provide it and cash out on the billions they'd get from worldwide governments for it if they succeeded. Their site was full of overreaching promises of a vaccine within a few months but nothing to say they were really any closer than anyone else to success.
I pulled up a list of the people running the company and added them to my list of assholes to check up on and then Kyan interrupted my hunt.
“I’ve got something that might be nothing,” he said slowly. “It was in the trash.”
“Go on,” I urged.
“It’s a note with a name on it. Dr Henry Singh and a number,” he explained.
“Singh was the name of the guy my dad worked for in the lab that developed the Hades Virus,” Tatum said urgently.
“Is it a phone number?” Blake asked.
“Naw. It’s like a reference number,” Kyan replied. “P247T9.”
My brain was firing on all cylinders but that meant less than nothing to me and my jaw tightened in frustration.
“Wait,” Tatum said suddenly. “There was a number like that on a file I found in the desk drawer. But the stuff inside it was to do with the next elections, so I discarded it.”
We were forced to wait while they moved around the office again and Monroe clawed a hand though his blonde hair as the tension built around us.
“The drawers here are locked, shall I force them?” Kyan suggested and I cursed beneath my breath. We needed to investigate this properly, but if they made it obvious someone had been in there then it would put them at risk of discovery.
"I can pick it with a hair pin," Tatum said confidently and I could have kissed her father for teaching her all of that prepper survivalist bullshit.
"Shit, baby, do you know how hot it is to see you going all spy girl on me?" Kyan purred.
"Focus on what you're there to do," Monroe snapped before I could and Kyan chuckled like an asshole.
"Got it!" Tatum announced in excitement and the sound of drawers rolling open followed her words.
I waited patiently as they rifled through more paperwork. Or perhaps it wasn't so patiently because my jaw was grinding and I was moving my fingers to the notes of the most complicated piano piece I could think of on my thigh beneath the table.
"I've got it - P247T9," Kyan said triumphantly and we were forced to wait while they read whatever was in that file.
"Okay, it looks like a breakdown of Singh’s research into the creation of the Hades Virus," Tatum explained. "There are some pretty fucked up photographs of test subjects and...nothing else."
"Fuck," Kyan cursed before I could.
"There's another reference number though. Y684E1," she said.
"On it, baby," Kyan replied and we waited again.
"This is taking too fucking long," Blake growled and I couldn't help but agree. They couldn't stay in there much longer. Every moment that passed was another second that could equal their discovery.
"Got it," Tatum said. "Okay, this one is a...it's a lot of test data which looks kinda like the things my dad used to work on..."
"It's about the Hades Virus," Kyan said. "Look."
"Oh yeah," she replied. "Shit, okay, there's a lot of negative results here, it’s kinda hard to decipher what..."
I forced myself to remain silent throughout their nonsensical ramblings, waiting for them to figure out what they were looking at and