Read Online Cutting Edge by Allison Brennan - Free Book Online Page B

seen the pain in his face after he’d recognized Jonah Payne. He blamed himself, and there was no doubt in her mind that right now Duke was working on finding out exactly how the security failed.
    Nora doubted it had been Duke’s fault if there was a security failure. She’d worked with him too often to believe he wouldn’t have triple-checked any system he put his name on.
    But Nora needed to figure out how the arsonists got into the lab to start the fire. Plus, where they’d released the animals — if there’d been any on the premises. Every anarchist or radical environmental group Nora had investigated avoided killing people or animals. At the heart of the movement were politics, and they knew that murder would turn public sentiment against them. Any deaths were unintentional, which made the Butcher-Payne arson doubly interesting, based on the M.E.’s assertion that Payne had been incapacitated prior to the fire.
    Nora avoided Duncan’s rhetorical question about security and asked, “How long have you worked for Dr. Payne?”
    “I’ve been there for five years, since they opened the new lab. I have a Ph.D. from USC in biochemistry and master’s degrees in both human biology and wildlife biology.”
    Nora made notes as Duncan spoke. “How many people work at Butcher-Payne?”
    “All of Butcher-Payne? We have two divisions. Jim’s group is all about media and fund-raising. They have ten, twelve people on staff. The lab has six full-time people, plus a vet who comes in twice a week.”
    It seemed from her tone that Dr. Duncan didn’t like Jim Butcher very much, or at least didn’t like the public focus of his division. “How was Dr. Payne’s relationship with his partner?”
    “They were best friends,” Duncan said flatly.
    “But you don’t like him?” she pushed.
    “He’s a spinner. He doesn’t care about what we’re trying to do. He has a degree in human biology, but his master’s was in business. All he cares about is bringing in the money. And that’s important, I know it is, but it feels icky.”
    Icky? “How so?”
    She shrugged. “Jim isn’t a bad guy, but he’s not Jonah. He’d bring in money that required us to work on specific projects, and so we had to put aside our primary work because the special projects funded our operations. And Jonah did it. He wasn’t always happy, but he did whatever Jim wanted.”
    “What was your primary focus?”
    She took a deep breath. “Jonah was on the verge of curing the bird flu — not by inoculating humans, but by genetically engineering birds predisposed to be carriers. By manipulating their genes, we inhibit their ability to contract the virus, which in turn prevents them from passing on the virus to other birds or humans. Influenza kills approximately half a million people worldwide every year. If we can’t find a way to stop the eventual pandemic from avian flu, that number will grow exponentially. Six months and we would have been ready for broad testing and trials. We’ve already started our internal tests. Now it’s all gone. It’ll take years to re-create. And without Jonah … I don’t know.” She squeezed her eyes closed.
    Something Duncan said tickled the back of Nora’s brain, but before she could formulate her question, Pete asked, “Have Butcher-Payne or Dr. Payne received any threatening letters? Visits?”
    “What day don’t we get them? Ask Jim, he’ll have them. No one even knew or cared what we did in the lab until last year when Cole’s idiot group protested outside the building.”
    “Professor Leif Cole?” Nora asked.
    Duncan scowled. “Yes. They should have all been arrested. They blocked traffic and harassed our employees, not to mention putting up disgusting pictures of dead and bloody animals they claimed were from animal testing. That’s not how we operate. But just because we are using gene therapy on birds, they attack us!”
    Nora said, “This group has indicated through their graffiti and