Charming The Highlander

“Jonathan,” she said, scrambling to her feet to face him. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Virginia, monitoring Podly.”

“I was. But something’s gone wrong. I grabbed the first available flight here but was only able to get as far as Boston.” He shook his head in disgust. “It took me all night and most of today to get from Boston to here. There weren’t any flights to Bangor, so I rented a car. I nearly killed myself trying to keep it on the icy roads.”

“But why?”

He walked up and took her by the shoulders, as if to brace her against something unpleasant. “It’s Podly, Grace. She’s malfunctioning.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know,” he said, his hands tightening on her shoulders. “That’s why I’m here. The data Podly’s sending back are scrambled. And our computers can’t sort it out.”

She gaped at him. “That’s impossible. I ran several tests on that program before Podly even went up.

Everything was working fine.”

Jonathan let her go and paced across the room, ru

He paced back to her, his expression desperate. “You’re the only chance we’ve got, Grace. You designed that software. You’re the only one who can unscramble the data.”

“But you didn’t have to come up here, Jonathan. I can link up with Podly, fix the glitch from here, and then you can start downloading to the computers back at the lab. I have the program in my laptop.”

“There’s something you don’t know, Grace, about Podly,” he said, suddenly pacing back across the room. He stopped and stood facing the window, his hands shoved into his pockets. He kept his back to her when he finally spoke.

“Do you remember six months ago, when Collins pulled his money out of our project?” he asked softly.

“I remember. But you said you found a new money-man.”

He turned toward her, still keeping his distance. “I did. But the new money came with a condition.”

“What kind of condition?” she asked, hugging herself against the sudden chill of the quiet house.

“A transmitter, Grace. Placed in Podly before she went up.”

The hair on the back of her neck stirred, and Grace felt something churn in the pit of her stomach.

“Transmitting what?” she whispered.

“Our data,” Jonathan said succinctly. He pulled his hands from his pockets and started toward her.

Grace took a step back.

Jonathan stopped. “Our competition gave me eighty million dollars for the data, Grace. And now they can’t get it.”

“You sold out StarShip Spaceline? To who?”

“AeroSaqii. But I didn’t sell out. I kept StarShip alive.” He shook his head. “Without Collins’s money, I would have been bankrupt in twelve months.”

“You will be anyway,” Grace snapped, her stomach now churning with the violence of a thousand angry bees. “They’ll win the race, and we’ll be left with nothing.”

He moved closer, holding one hand out beseechingly. “We’ve still got the shuttles, Grace. We can concentrate on those. AeroSaqii will contract with us to build them.”

Angry beyond words, Grace turned her back on Jonathan and returned to building the fire in the hearth.

The ion propulsion experiment was hers; she’d designed it, laid down the groundwork, and put the processor into Podly herself.

And Jonathan had sold it without telling her.

“That still doesn’t explain why you had to come all the way up here,” she said, her back to the room. “I could have just unscrambled the data and sent the results to you.”

“There’s something else, Grace,” Jonathan said from right behind her. He took her shoulders and lifted her up, turning her to face him. “I have reason to believe my deal with AeroSaqii is not exactly…well, it appears there’s more involved in this deal than I thought there was.”

“What do you mean?”

Jonathan shook his head. “AeroSaqii also intends to sell our experiment, once they’ve perfected it. But to a private consortium that hopes to turn it into a weapon instead of a propulsion agent.”

Grace felt the blood drain from her face. “How do you know this?” she whispered.

“I’ve had a mole planted in AeroSaqii for several months now,” he told her. “And he told me that when the transmission came back garbled, people at AeroSaqii became very upset. Paul—that’s my mole—

thought their reaction was way out of proportion to the problem, and he started digging deeper. It seems that several of the men there were from this consortium and not really AeroSaqii scientists.”

“A weapon?” Grace whispered, shrinking away from Jonathan. “They plan to use my experiment to build a weapon?”

His grip tightened. “Of mass proportions,” he confirmed. “Can you imagine what an ion-based weapon would be capable of? It would make a nuclear detonation look like a firecracker going off in comparison.”

“Jonathan,” Grace hissed on an indrawn breath, reversing their positions and grabbing his arms. “We’ve got to stop it. You need to give AeroSaqii their money back, and we’ve got to block the transmission they’re receiving, garbled or not. Now, before they find a way to unscramble it.”

“I tried to reason with them, Grace. I told them the deal was off, but they’re having none of it. It’s too late. And now I’m afraid they have sent someone here to make sure they get what they paid for.”

Grace pushed away from Jonathan and moved to the opposite side of the room, alarmed by what he was implying. Hugging herself against the sudden chill in the room, she turned back to face Jonathan.

“What do you mean, they’ll make sure they get what they paid for?”

“Just that, Grace. According to Paul, they’ve sent men to bring you back to their lab to straighten out the transmission and process the data.”

“That’s kidnapping, Jonathan.”

He nodded. “Yes, it is. But to the devils AeroSaqii crawled into bed with, it’s worth the risk. And that’s why you’ve got to come back with me, Grace. Today, before they get here. We have the security in Virginia to protect you.”

Hugging herself again, Grace looked at the cradle where Baby was sleeping. “I…I can’t just up and leave, Jonathan,” she said softly. “I’m right in the middle of my own obligations.”

Baby started fussing, and Jonathan snapped his head around in surprise. He turned back to her and frowned. “You’ve still got that kid?”

“Yes. And his name’s Baby.”

Jonathan snorted. “That’s not a name, either. Why haven’t you given him to his father?”

“I haven’t decided if he deserves him yet,” she said, picking Baby up and sticking his pacifier back in his mouth. She headed for the kitchen.

Jonathan followed her.

“Who is he, Grace? Have you even met him?”

“I’m not saying.” She reached into the cupboard and took down a bottle of formula. She turned to Jonathan, only to discover that he hadn’t liked her answer. He looked…well, he looked stu

His eyes suddenly narrowed. “You have no intention of giving him up, do you? Dammit, Grace, you’re in no position to raise a kid on your own. You’re a scientist, not a woman who spends her days changing diapers and wiping up baby spit.”

“I can do both.”

“No, you can’t. Your work is too demanding.”

“No, Jonathan. Your work is too demanding. I hear there’s a semiconductor company in California looking for a person with my degrees, and they let their mothers bring their babies to work.”

Jonathan snapped his mouth shut so hard Grace heard his teeth click. He didn’t even want to entertain the idea that she might leave StarShip Spaceline.

She returned to sit by the fire in the living room and feed Baby. Her boss stayed in the kitchen. Grace knew he was silenced but not defeated. Jonathan was not a man easily thwarted; no five-week-old child, stubborn employee, or angry competition was going to get in the way of his company putting private citizens into space.