“Oh, crap. I didn’t even think about that. I don’t think so.” Juan leaned back against the leather chair, the fatigue of having been up through the night hitting him like a brick. “Sorry, I think the agent who brought it to me had also been up for a very long time and neither of us considered checking for prints. I’m running on thirty-six hours without sleep. I’ll call the agent about that—”

“No need,” Hutchison said. “I’ll call my contacts. No need to discuss it further. I need to talk to them anyway about other things.”

Juan turned to Winslow and asked, “So, is there any chance that this box is a legit AgriMed product?”

“No chance,” Winslow replied with an angry expression. “We only use items like that on animals. Any controlled trials we participate in are highly monitored and we’d never let an auto-dose unit like this out in someone’s home on a clinical trial. It’s too easy to accidentally dose non-patients, or for the person to drink too much or too little of the water, thus affecting their dosage.”

As Juan wondered about the seemingly innocuous black box sitting in the lab, a sense of foreboding washed over him. “What the hell is being dosed out of that thing?” he wondered aloud as he stifled a yawn.

Winslow hitched a thumb toward the coffee machine behind him. “Want me to pour you a cup?”

“No, I just need to get to bed. Speaking of which, I appreciate the hotel room, but when can I go back to my apartment?”

Winslow turned to Hutchison, who remained silent for several long seconds before saying, “I’ve talked with some of the folks you’re working with at the Bureau. We agree that it’s best that you stay put for now. The hotel is safer.”

The ex-Army investigator was clearly not telling him everything he knew. But while that bugged Juan, he also thought it might be for the best. He’d had nightmares about German-speaking people breaking into his apartment. Maybe he’d rather not know just how much danger he was in.

“Well, I guess I should shred these,” Juan said, standing up and nodding toward the photos. “I’m pretty sure I’m skating on the edge by having printed those out in the first place.”

Hutchison quickly scooped them up. “I’ll take care of it.”

Winslow came around the conference room table and patted Juan on the shoulder. “You really do look exhausted. Why don’t I get Carl to take you to the hotel?”

Juan pictured the large former Navy SEAL and shook his head. “Thank you, but I don’t need you to bother Carl. I’ll get there just fine.”

But as he left the room, he thought he heard Winslow whisper something that sounded very much like, “Have him followed.”

###