The Gender Game by Bella Forrest (historical books to read txt) 📗

glass looked much thicker, even reinforced. Perched in a tall, black metal tripod was a silver egg. The silver egg. I moved up to the cabinet and stared at it. I couldn't believe it was just here… visible to anyone entering this lab. Just a few feet away from me.

I turned to Lee in confusion. "So this is definitely it?" I asked.

He nodded. "This is the egg."

"Can't you open this case?" There was a number pad next to it.

He grimaced. "No. I'm not high up enough to access the code."

I dared reach out and touch the glass. "But it's just… glass. Couldn't it be broken easily?"

Lee reached for my hand and pulled me back. He began leading me to the other side of the lab. He didn't answer until we'd exited and returned to the corridor.

"We ought not linger in that room," he whispered as we made our way to the elevators. "As for the glass, yes, it could be broken if enough force was applied. You're talking about explosives, though. That glass is tough as hell. It wouldn't be so simple as smash and run… and then"—we moved into the elevator and he hit the button for the ground floor—"of course, you'd have to escape Patrus… Trust me, if it was simple, I would have done it already. Remember also that we cannot get caught—neither you nor I. If one of us was, they would quickly place the blame on Matrus."

I was mired in confusion. We had to retrieve the egg from the glass cabinet, but at the same time, nobody could suspect that it was us? What about when we suddenly went missing? Even if Lee didn't come with me, but stayed behind, what about me? I'd had these doubts before, and Lee still had not clarified them.

"You'd better start giving me details," I said irritably, no longer able to hide my frustration. I was fed up of being led blindly along.

"I will," he said. "Tonight, when we get home."

The elevator reached the ground floor and we stepped out. "For now," he said, his tone raising and brightening, "I ought to take you to briefly meet my colleagues." He glanced down at me, an artificial smile on his lips, clearly indicating that I assume the same. "We got married today, remember?"

Right.

He led me across the reception area toward a pair of double doors. Before pushing open the door, Lee whispered, "The head scientist of this lab is in here. My boss, Richard. He's the overweight one."

He replaced my arm through his and walked me inside.

A group of ten men were gathered around a billiards table, all of them older than Lee—I suspected in their mid-forties—except for one, who looked about the same age, perhaps in his late twenties.

My eyes lingered on the short, rotund man with blond hair and a thick mustache. Richard.

"Lee!" the youngest man cheered.

"This is your girl?" another man spoke up. "Violet, did you say her name was?"

"Yup. My wife," Lee said through his plastic smile. He displayed my ring finger to them.

"Good man," the younger guy said, patting Lee on the back.

"Thanks, Simon," Lee said.

Richard and the others weren't nearly as informal as Simon. They nodded politely and murmured, "Congratulations."

Lee took a seat with me on a couch, accompanied by Simon and three others who abandoned the game. Richard also strolled over.

"How many more days of leave will you be taking?" Richard asked Lee, his voice rich and throaty.

"Oh, I'm not entirely sure, Richard," Lee replied. "As you can imagine, Violet and I have a lot to catch up on and a number of things to adjust around the house."

"I understand. Let me know once you have a date."

"Of course."

Lee fell into five minutes of small talk, throughout which nobody bothered to address me. If I wasn't a guilty spy on a hazardous mission for Matrus, I would have been annoyed by that. As it was, I was relieved that the attention was kept off me and Lee tackled all the questions.

Lee stood up. "Well, we're off to have dinner,” he concluded. “I'll catch you around."

"Where are you going to eat?" Simon asked.

"Uh…" Lee said, slipping a hand into his pocket. He bobbed thoughtfully on his feet.

Before he could reply, Simon suggested, "How about The Red Boar? We were planning to go there ourselves tonight. I'm pretty starved now, in fact. You could join us."

Lee hesitated, but apparently struggling to find a polite way to turn Simon down, replied, "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

Other than Simon, four others accompanied us: Luke, Frederick, James and Rocco. The others remained in the billiards room, except for Richard, who headed home.

Lee pulled back with me as the men exited. "The restaurant's not too far from here," he said beneath his breath, "about twenty minutes by car. Though it's in an area I'd hoped to avoid. Not the end of the world though, as long as you stick with me."

On exiting the lab, we headed to the parking lot where Simon offered to drive us in his vehicle. I sat in the back, while Lee sat in the passenger's seat next to Simon. We drove out of the lab compound and passed road after road that was teeming with life. Men with their wives and children populated the sidewalks, milling in and out of shops and restaurants. These were the same streets that had been almost empty earlier in the day.

I sensed us approaching the river that encircled the palace by the subtle change of atmosphere, the breeze seeping through the car windows becoming crisper. We reached a parking lot at the end of a long promenade, beyond which were the river's gushing currents and the tall, well-lit walls of the palace. On our side was a long line of bars and eateries. I immediately noted the lack of women and children in this area.

"There's the place." Lee pointed it out to me. A bright red sign depicting a muscly boar hung above a large, dimly lit restaurant,