What Berman was mostly thinking was what a woman she was! What a tease! She had taken him to the edge of something, and he wanted to go back, desperately, and be thrown over. His phone pinged, telling him he had a text, but what could be so important at that time of night? Berman had a sudden thought. Maybe she’d somehow gotten his private mobile number, and it was Pia texting him, continuing the evening’s entertainment.

Quickly Berman extracted his hands from the slippery nylon rope, and pulled out his phone. Damn, it was from Whitney, reminding him of the calls he had to make that morning. How did she know he was still up? The woman needed to get a life, for God’s sake. Berman tossed the phone onto the couch so recently occupied by Pia’s delightful form. In his fantasy, she was coming back, and he slouched back in his chair and dreamed again about what he was going to do to her the next time he had an opportunity. She’d eluded him twice, first of his own accord and now of hers, but it wasn’t going to happen again. A tease was fun, but there was a limit.

•   •   •

ABRUPTLY, TWO OF the lab technicians left the room, walking out through a second entrance on their side that Pia hadn’t noticed before. The other two were preoccupied, apparently attending to a problem at the side of the aquarium structure, where they had been grouped. Quickly Pia took advantage of the situation and strode over to where the medical equipment was kept. She saw all manner of laboratory and medical paraphernalia, but where were the syringes? She opened a few drawers and found them. She grabbed three and went back to the first tank, nearest to the double doors through which she had entered the room.

A quick perusal of the port and Pia figured out where to attach the syringes. She plugged one into the line, toggled the stopcock, and drew a full syringe of blood, capped it, and quickly took two more. Hazarding a glance into the depths of the room, she noticed that a third tech had left. The remaining individual was still engrossed in whatever he or she was doing, so Pia pulled out her iPhone from her pocket, opened the camera app, switched off the flash, and quickly took a picture without raising the phone above the level of her hip.