there?” Knox asked again. “Some of the women. It seemed like only the really

good-looking ones got to go with Josh. I never made the cut.” “And what did they

say?” “That things got a little wild. Too much alcohol.” “Drugs?” “No, they

never mentioned that, but then they probably wouldn’t have. They have contracts

too that forbid that.” “They forbid too much alcohol too,” noted Puller. “Yeah,

you pointed that out to me already,” said Shepard sarcastically. “Sex?” asked

Knox. “There was some, yeah.” “The women and Quentin?” “No one ever said they’d

had sex with Quentin. But there was a bedroom and couples would slip off there.

It was all consensual,” she added hastily. “And no one was paying for sex.” “Did

any of your friends ever mention Myers coming into the room?” Shepard thought

about this. “Once,” she said. “It was kind of weird.” “What was?” “Well, my

friend said that Quentin spent a lot of time with her.” “Well, so what? Maybe

they’re friends.” “Yeah, but Quentin likes the young babes.” Puller took out his

phone and showed Shepard the screen grabs he’d taken from the laptop of the man

who’d met with Myers at the Williamsburg Inn. “Look familiar?” Shepard gasped.

“Where did you get these?” “Never mind. Just tell me what they are.” “They’re

stuff Atalanta Group was working on.” “Cell mutation? Organ regeneration? I

thought you were into exoskeletons and liquid armor, for the military.” “I am,

but we have a number of related projects. And in the past I worked on those

two.” “Cell mutation?” said Knox. “How does that help the military?” “Well, cell

mutation isn’t always a bad thing, like with cancer.

 

There are lots of positive attributes to the technology. For instance, it can be

used to help soldiers heal faster by bulking up levels of white blood cells.”

Puller thought about this and something seemed to click in his head. “Would any