"Sis," he said finally, "there're only so many risks I can take for you, and they have to be about something that matters. Forget about Kristen. Nothing can save her now. But I'm offering to help you get out of here before they go any further. I can't be seen helping you, but they've started you down a road that you don't want to go, believe me. I got you into this, but if there's still time, I want to try to help get you out." She didn't know what was going on, but if Grant of all people was freaked about what Karl Van de Vliet had in store for her, then maybe she'd better take it seriously. But she was through relying on him for anything. "Okay, but I want to call somebody to come and get me." "Are you referring to that reporter, by any chance?" he asked. "The guy who drove you here? W.B. hates him." "Yes." She was puzzled that he would know about Stone. "How do you--" "Bartlett has him." "What do you mean?" "He's radioactive now. I actually kicked him out of here myself yesterday. This is not a moment for press freedom. He could screw up everything. W.B. said he's doing a book. No way is that guy going to be allowed human contact with anybody till the sale of Gerex is in the bank. He had a run-in with Bartlett in the city and they took him somewhere. I don't know the location. And I don't want to know." "Oh my God." "He's most likely okay. It's just temporary safekeeping." "All the more reason I'm not leaving till I see Kristen." "There's no way you're going to get into where they're keeping her, Ally." "All right." There was no arguing with him when he was this freaked. "What do you want me to do?" He pulled a plastic card out of his jacket pocket. It was white, with THE GEREX CORPORATION embossed on one side and a magnetic strip on the other. "This is a master key to this place. Because of security, you can't just go out the front, through the lobby. But if you take the elevator down to the first floor of the basement, where the lab is, there's a fire exit there, in the back, that opens onto a path down to the lake. If you'll go out that door and wait right there, I'll come around and get you to the parking lot. I know a way that will miss their surveillance cameras. I'm scheduled to go back to the city now and I'll take you with me." "But if I wanted to see Kristen?" "You'd have to go into the laboratory and then take the elevator that's inside there. Don't even think about it. It's way too risky." She looked at him, trying to gauge his sincerity. Had he become a new man, finally caring about somebody other than himself? Or had a glimpse of whatever had happened to Kristen scared the hell out him and awakened the specter of being part of a felonious enterprise? "Why are you doing this?" "To make up for a few things," he said, turning to leave. With that, he walked out and quietly closed the door. That remains to be seen, she told herself.