Icy Control by Elizabeth Lapthorne Read Free Book Online Page B

every inch of the hallway. The keypad on the wall appeared state of the art. Clearly when it came to their security everything was very top line. Modern technology was now well in evidence.
    Understated, traditional wealth filled the offices she’d been in, opulent, unashamed expense and technology clearly reigned, at least in this corner of the Agency.
    “It was easier to create a small lab on site, rather than have us commute back and forth to somewhere outside the city,” Rob explained. “Especially since all too frequently, time is a critical factor in any job we’re doing. We’re not equipped for some of the more specialist testing that sometimes occurs, but our technicians can jerry-rig almost anything pretty quickly. And have other experts or equipment couriered in at a moment’s notice. To date we’ve never had something we couldn’t handle—and I hope we never do.”
    El and James remained a pace back from the door. El and Rob looked silently at each other for a moment. El waved her hand to the door with a small smile. Sally watched as Rob stepped up to the keypad and after a moment’s pause typed in a complicated sequence of numbers.
    Sally blinked, stunned. Although she hadn’t counted, it had seemed like the pass code had been twenty or even more numbers long. She knew full well she was not some mathematical genius, or even particularly savvy when it came to that sort of thing. But between her work and personal email accounts, her three bank accounts and her parents’ security code alarms and her two PINs, she often had to resort to little rhymes and memory tricks to recall a given security number. And that didn’t even include phone numbers and the like.
    For the first time ever, she wondered if her oldest and dearest friend was even more of a superhero than she’d already believed him to be.
    Rob seemed to catch her impressed glance.
    A small beep signaled his password had been accepted and presumably recorded. He held the door open for them and Sally stepped forward, caught somewhere between surprise and wonder. She lifted her eyebrows and gave him a cheeky grin as they entered.
    “I was muttering a rhyme,” Rob whispered.
    Sally chuckled, still charmed by his skills.
    She entered the large area and, after a few steps to make room for the others, stopped suddenly. The room was enormous and had clearly been renovated in the not-too-distant past. It appeared as if a number of offices had been demolished, the interior ripped back to the structural bones and a large, airy, thoroughly modern lab built in its place.
    Work benches were laid out in an orderly manner, some scrupulously clean, others cluttered with numerous cool-looking—but mystifying—pieces of equipment. Sally couldn’t even name most of them, but she could tell this was a place of learning. It had that light, positive feel to it. Answers were found here. Puzzles solved.
    Three men in lab coats were gathered around an island bench. A large lamp shined brightly onto the canvas spread out on the table.
    “We couldn’t possibly flake off some paint samples.”
    “Oh, come on, like they’d ever know.”
    “Maybe we should. I’ve read that latent irradiation in many of the older lead-based paints—”
    “We are not taking samples, Thompson. End of discussion. Now, perhaps if we—”
    El cleared her throat. One of the men lifted his head, then the others followed suit. They all had varying degrees of guilt written across their faces.
    “Ben, let me introduce James Waters and Sally Langtry. They’re both consulting with us and have come to help with the Cezanne.”
    “A pleasure,” Ben said as they exchanged handshakes. “This is George and Tim.”
    “I’ve brought some tools I thought might be helpful,” Sally said. For a moment she felt the smallest bit shy. She was an artist, and a damn fine one too, but for the first time in forever she wondered if she was out of her league.
    Not wanting to step on toes, or offend the