Her face was the picture of disappointment and confusion. She’d thrown herself at him, and he had rejected her.
Sean doubted many men would have done the same thing. She was better than that, though. And she deserved better. He’d met her several weeks before, and they had gotten to know each other fairly well so far. But he didn’t want to ruin that. He hoped that, someday, they could venture into a physical relationship. Maybe he was old fashioned. At least he thought he was, more so than most people in an age of Internet dating and sexting.
She pushed open the door and disappeared inside, a dejected look washing across her face. The door clicked shut, and Sean remained standing on the threshold of his own room. He owed her an explanation. He knew he did. Maybe later he would try to tell her how he felt, what he wanted.
He banged his head against the door slowly a few times. “What is wrong with you, Wyatt?” he said quietly to himself. “What are you doing?”
Sean unlocked his door and slipped inside.
The room felt like many other hotel rooms he’d stayed in before. At their core, they were all the same: just glorified bedrooms. Sure, there were different coats of paint or fancy wallpaper, tiled floors or hardwood, lush sofas, and dozens of decorative pillows. In the end, though, he just wanted a decent place to sleep. None of that over-the-top stuff really meant much.
He had to admit that the room was different than most he’d stayed in. The interior decorator had decked out the Arabian architecture with an array of colors and hues that pleased the eye, but wasn’t so distracting one couldn’t relax.
Sean turned on the shower, one of the more ordinary places he could find in the hotel. The tiles were beige, filled in with a dark grout. It had no doors, only an entrance into the shower with a short, tiled wall going up one side to protect from splashing onto the floor of the rest of the bathroom. He let the hot water soothe his senses for several minutes before cleaning up and getting out to dry off.
He threw on a t-shirt and boxers then noticed his phone lighting up on the dark cherry oak dresser across from the bed. It was a text message from Adriana. Sean hesitated before unlocking his phone to read it. He wondered if she was going to say something about the uncomfortable exchange in the hallway from earlier. Shrugging it off, he opened the phone’s interface and read it.
“I have information on Lindsey you need to hear. Come over ASAP. PS, I’m sorry about earlier.”
Sean smiled at the text, glad she wasn’t angry at him. Putting himself in her shoes, he actually felt a little bad for her. It had to be awkward.
He pulled on some jeans from his bag and went across the hall. When she opened the door, she was dressed in a snug, red t-shirt and some gray pajama pants.
She still looked a little uncomfortable, and bit her lower lip in a cute gesture. Before she could say anything, he beat her to it.
“Look, Adriana. I want to…I really like you. And I am definitely attracted to you.” His words made her face light up slightly. “But we have a lot going on right now, and I don’t want to jump into anything with you. I just want to get to know you and not have this turn into some one-nighter because we got caught up in the moment. Understand?”
“Yes,” she nodded, still smiling. “I do.”
“When all this is over, I think we should just get away from everything and get a little alone time. Sound good?”
She nodded again.
“Okay,” he still beamed at her. “Now, what did your father say?”
Sean stepped into the room that looked almost identical to his own. He was almost a little disappointed at that fact. A tiny part of him had hoped each room was uniquely decorated.
Adriana sat on the edge of the bed and picked up her phone. Sean assumed a casual seating position on the nearby sofa.
“Father has many contacts in the United States. It turns out, our friend Alexander Lindsey has his hands in many pies, as you Americans say.” Sean raised an eyebrow, impressed with her use of the expression. “No one has been able to prove anything in regards to Golden Dawn and their direct operations, but it seems Lindsey and the same collection of men have accounts that get distributed into a network of investments and legitimate businesses.”
“I’m listening,” Sean crossed a leg over his knee and leaned back.
“These men have a secret meeting place, much like the Bildeburg group, with the exception that they meet in the same place every time and the Bildeburg group always changes the location, annually.”
Sean’s interest was piqued. But he wanted to know something more specific. “You said these men and Lindsey are all wealthy, and they have lots of businesses. Anything I might have heard of?”
She nodded slowly, accompanying it with a sly grin. “Most of their network is small to medium-sized organizations. Some are even at the local level. But there is one that stands out far above all the rest. Father believes that this umbrella company feeds into most of the others, providing them an in house way of laundering money and increasing their distribution channels.” She paused for dramatic effect, but Sean didn’t bite. He waited patiently for her to finish.
“Have you ever heard of Biosure?” she asked, crossing one leg over the other and resting both hands on a knee.
“Yeah. They’re one of the top producers of different kinds of pharmaceuticals or something like that.”
“True,” she confirmed. “But they are also the largest provider of influenza immunizations in the entire world. Biosure distributes sixty-five percent of the world’s flu shots to more than thirty-four countries.”
Sean uncrossed his legs. His mind had started working on what Lindsey was up to in conjunction with the information Adriana’s father had provided.
He rubbed his face while he verbalized what he was thinking. “It’s flu season right now. That would mean Biosure will be shipping out tons of the stuff as we speak.” He couldn’t quite connect the dots on what all of it meant, though.
“What do you think he’s planning?” Adriana wondered aloud.
He wasn’t sure. There was something missing from the equation, and it was driving him nuts that he couldn’t figure it out.
“We have to think about what it is that Lindsey is looking for,” he said after a moment of silent contemplation.
“The tree of life,” she shrugged. “A source of immortality. But how does that figure in?”
The lights went on in Sean’s mind. He stood up and went over to the sliding door that led onto a small balcony then paced back and forth in front of it. He stopped in the middle and looked over at her.
“What if this thing that is hidden in the ark, this tree, what if it can heal anything? Sickness, disease, anything.”
Adriana uncrossed her legs then re-crossed the other leg over top. “A cure for everything,” she realized.
Sean pointed a finger at her. “Exactly. We need to find out what is in those flu shots.”
“I doubt my father can do that, but I can see.”
“Don’t bother,” Sean stopped her. “I have someone that might be able to do a little snooping around for us. Did your father say where Biosure’s main distribution facilities are?”
She confirmed with a nod. “He said they have one in Utah, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago.”
“Atlanta?”
“That’s what he told me.”
Sean’s grin grew wider. “I think I know just the person for the job.”
Chapter 22