The Housewife Assassin's Garden of Deadly Delights by Josie Brown

back. The light goes out of his eyes. He topples forward—
    Onto me.
    I try to sidestep his grasp, but I can’t. I flail my arms to get my balance, but I’m caught in the forward momentum of his now-dead body. We both go over the side—
    A cloud of corn dust rises as Thomas slaps into it.  
    On the other hand, I’m dangling in mid-air, upside down, by my ankle.  
    “I thought you were dieting,” Jack mutters as he heaves me back up onto the catwalk.
    I smile. “Why mess with perfection?”
    He shrugs. “You’ve got a point. By the way, since I’m already down on one knee, will you marry me?”
    “There’s a dead body below us ready to be fast-frozen in a bag of corn kernels, and who knows how many trucks of killer seeds out there on their way to who knows where. I’d say your timing is a little off.”
    “You have a point. Business before pleasure.” He gets off his knees.
    He heads out the door.
    Maybe I was too hard on him. It would have been easy to just have said yes.
    But no. This isn’t how I envisioned his proposal would happen. Doesn’t he realize that?
    There will be a better time, and a better place, but first things first. When your business is saving the world, everything else has to wait. That’s just the way it is.

    Abu and Dominic have already taken the drivers back to Acme’s holding pen.  
    When we get back to headquarters, Ryan is watching the camera monitor broadcasting from inside the interrogation room. “Where’s Thomas?” he asks.
    Jack grimaces. “Dead.”
    Ryan frowns. “What part of ‘take him alive’ wasn’t clear to you two?”
    I shrug. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the part where he tried to rape me, then toss my body into a silo of corn where I’d suffocate to death.”
    Being fluent in Ryan’s grunts, I’m able to make out his apology.
    “There’s one bit of good news. The Acme lab rats have compared the seeds to the DNA diagram on one of the cards that was confiscated from the MSS handoff. It’s a match.”
    “So, we have the killer seeds right here,” I murmur. I shudder at the thought.
    “But not for long,” Ryan assures me. “The FDA is sending a security detail to pick it up and destroy it. Tomorrow, there will be a raid on SeedPlenish. The corn and seed in every silo will be searched, and every corn stalk in the research field will be tested. If it proves to be part of the Exodus strain, it will be confiscated and then destroyed as well.”
    “What about the drivers?” Jack asks. “Do they know anything?”
    “They’re being held in separate soundproof cells. They’re Mexican illegals, hired by Wellborne for late night deliveries,” he informs us. “They presumed you were an Immigration Service patrol, which is why they took off and ran.”
    “In other words, they know nothing about the seeds other than the destinations for their deliveries,” I reason.
    “We were able to confiscate their manifests. We can interrogate the receiving entities too,” Jack adds.
    “Abu and Dominic are on it, first thing tomorrow,” Ryan replies. “All are Big Agra farms whose corn is distributed to food manufacturers of all kinds. Chances are they didn’t know what they were getting—and wouldn’t, until it was too late.” He pauses to wipe the fatigue from his eyes. “Now for the bad news. Apparently, this wasn’t a first run, at least for one of the drivers. He did another delivery almost two months back, to an independent farmer in Dixon, right up the road.” Ryan scribbles down the address and hands it to me.
    It says Clover Hill Farms. “We’ll check it out now,” I promise.  
    Ryan nods. “Good idea, since it’s still dark. George is standing by, ready to take you by helicopter.”
    “Does the corn have any identifying marks?” Jack asks.
    Ryan nods. “Its color is almost as much orange as it is yellow, and the stalks have a blue tinge to them. Also, the kernels and husks are larger than normal.”
    “Talk about genetically