by Julie Rowe
River closed his eyes and focused on the sounds around him. All the conversation he could hear was in English. The sirens of police and EMS vehicles was uniquely American. He opened his eyes to see Lee taking Ava’s temperature.
“Where did she find the bomb?” River asked, forcing words out of his desert-dry mouth.
“I don’t know that, either.” Fuck, Lee looked ready to rip his hair out. “When I realized she was gone and I hadn’t found the bomb, I decided to follow her. She was coming out of the building, and when she saw me, announced she had it like she’d found her keys or something.”
“What about the second one?”
“Didn’t know a thing about that one.”
River sat down on the edge of the cot. He should probably be helping Rodrigues, but he needed to sit, to listen to her breathe, and convince himself that she was going to be okay.
Dozer walked up to the tent. “Is she…?”
“Unconscious,” Lee replied.
The agent nodded, but didn’t say anything, his gaze sharp on River and Ava.
River met the other man’s assessing gaze. “Thanks, by the way. You helped save a boatload of people.”
The other man snorted. “Boatload? I thought you were Army.”
“Yeah.” He ran a hand over his short hair. “Speaking of Army.” River gestured at Lee. “Henry Lee Sergeant, Special Forces, retired, this is Homeland Agent Dozer.”
The two men shook hands.
“Retired?” the other man asked, giving Lee a once-over.
River had to admit, the guy hadn’t let himself go. He looked in top shape and had sprinted like a man who could have done it for miles.
Lee rapped a knuckle against his left pant leg. The sound of metal made Dozer’s eyebrows go up.
“IED convinced me a change in occupation would be a good idea.” He shrugged and turned his attention to the IV, continuing absently, “Though, I have to admit, I miss the adrenaline rush.”
“How long until we know?” River asked as he watched Ava’s face, unwilling to consider the possibility she might not wake up.
“I don’t know. Hours, maybe.”
River inspected his uniform. He looked as if he’d been wrestling with a porcupine and lost. “I guess I should talk to Dr. Rodrigues.” He glanced at Dozer. “What about you? You want to go back to the police station?”
“There’s a travel ban in effect,” Dozer countered. “Now that we’ve stopped the terrorists, we should probably follow the rules, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Look, son,” the agent said, crouching next to River. “I’ll stay and watch over Dr. Lloyd while you talk to your boss. How about we do that?” He thrust his chin at Lee. “Mr. Lee can assist as needed.”
Henry looked momentarily surprised, then came to attention and barked, “Aye, aye, sir.”
Dozer rolled his eyes. “I can do without the flirting.”
River shook his head and got to his feet. “Okay, I’m going before you two pick out the china.” As a joke, it was a weak effort.
He didn’t move for a couple of seconds, then gave both men a nod and left.
Behind him, he heard Dozer ask Lee, “What are her chances?”
River walked faster and managed not to hear the answer.
He found Dr. Rodrigues in the same room he’d left her in, a room with walls now decorated by whiteboards. One detailed the University Medical Center’s infected and casualty numbers while another provided the stats of other hospitals from around the city. Another board had been turned into an evolving timeline of both the infection and the explosive terrorist attacks. He stared at the boards and compared it to his mental timeline of events. Could Palmer have any other accomplices?
Dr. Rodrigues joined him. “There was an explosion outside as well?”
“Yeah. Ava found a bomb in here somewhere and gave it to Henry Lee. He managed to throw it into the sewer system in the street outside the hospital,” he told her. “How many did we lose here?”
“None.”
At his frown, she said, “I don’t think the bomb was meant to kill anyone outright.”
“What do you mean?”
“It didn’t cause a lot of damage, and we found something in the debris that tells me this bomb’s real goal was to spread the infection.”
“Did it?”
She gave him a sad smile. “If Ava hadn’t moved it, it would have exploded in the middle of the bull pen. It might have killed people, but it would have certainly infected many, many more.”
“How?”
“Neisseria can produce spores. They were inside glass pressure tubes, so when the tubes shattered…” Her hands pantomimed an explosion.
“The bathroom kept it contained.”
“Yes.”
Okay, so, she did good. Was her heroism going to kill her? “I took her back to the cot Henry set up for her.” River had to clear his throat. “She’s not doing very well. High fever.”
“I’m sorry.”
If he thought about Ava, he wasn’t going to be able to do anything useful. “I left things at the police station a bit unresolved.”
“Don’t worry. A Mr. Ken Sturgis contacted me. He’s put the four college boys into the lockup at the station, left one FBI and one Homeland Security agent behind to make sure no one gets in there to kill them, and is now on his way back here. He says you have his bus.”
No one gets in to kill them? “Have threats been made?”
“Somehow, the information on the four was leaked to the media. We’ll be lucky if a lynch mob doesn’t storm the police station and hang all four of them.”
“Leaked, huh?”
“A lot of people are very angry.” Rodrigues’s eyes looked grim, and she looked him over. “You’re off duty until I say otherwise.”
“Mind if I hang out over by Henry’s lab? I’d like to be there when Ava wakes up.” He saw the objection on her face. “I promise to sleep.”
Rodrigues closed her mouth and studied him for a moment. “We don’t know if the combination of drugs Henry is giving her is going to work. The FDA still hasn’t made a decision about allowing us to use the combination to treat people. Success in the lab and success in the real world don’t always equate.”
River left the room and went back to the tent outside Henry’s lab. He stood over Ava’s cot and watched her breathe for a long time. Sweat had darkened the roots of her hair, and a shiver rolled through her. And kept rolling.
Seizure.
“Shit.” River turned her onto her side so if she vomited, she wouldn’t aspirate it.
Henry appeared next to him and stuck a digital thermometer in her ear. 105 °F.
A fever that high was enough to freeze his insides solid. “A febrile seizure? I thought that only happened to little kids.”
Henry darted a glance at her. “She’s got meningitis. That changes the rules.”
“Could this result in brain damage?” He should know this, but he was too tired, too worried, and too…everything…to think straight.
“It doesn’t usually cause any damage in kids,” Henry said. “But, she’s not a kid.”
Ava’s body finally stopped shaking.
“We’re in a wait-and-see holding pattern,” Henry told him. “We have to give the antibiotic and its friend some time to do their work.”
“If they work.”
Henry didn’t respond. What would be the point? They both knew it was a shot in the dark.
“Okay.” River nodded. “Rodrigues told me to rest. Got another cot or something I can sleep on right here?”
“I found a camping mat. Just give me a second.” Henry left the tent. He came back with a roll and handed it to River.
“You wake me if anything changes,” River ordered.
“I will.”
River unrolled the mat on the ground next to the cot, lay down, and closed his eyes.
If Ava didn’t wake up, he wasn’t sure what he’d do
with himself.
She was amazing. Smart, funny, and so fucking cute. He couldn’t wait to see her naked, wanted to touch her, stroke her, and taste her all over. The taste of her he’d had only a few hours ago was enough to make him ravenous for her. He wanted all of her.
She got him. Every sarcastic, geeky comment and joke.
Twice, Henry came over to check on Ava. The second time, he hung new bags of fluid on her IV pole. River stared at them, invisible fingers wrapping around his throat and closing it tight.
This was his fault. All of it. He’d gotten her blown up four times, kidnapped by terrorists, and infected with this killer bacteria. He’d treated her like another soldier, but she was a fucking doctor. Trained to investigate disease, not assholes with guns, bombs, and a cavalier disregard for life.
He wanted her. All of her, but he sure as hell didn’t deserve her.
Dizziness crowded his vision, but his lungs wouldn’t work, those ghostly fingers strangling him.
He pushed to his feet, sat on the edge of the cot, and took Ava’s right wrist in his hand. Her pulse was strong and steady. He closed his eyes, focusing on the rhythmic throb under his fingers. She was alive.
The pressure on his neck lessened enough to allow him to suck in a breath.
Footsteps approached. Dozer. River didn’t move, didn’t release Ava’s wrist. The song of her pulse brought him a comfort he wasn’t ready to give up yet.
Dozer entered the tent, then crouched on the ground a couple of feet away from River and the cot.
“We searched Palmer’s apartment,” he said, then sighed. “This guy’s been planning something big for years.”
Years?
River shook his head. “Asshole.”
Dozer grunted. “Yeah. It didn’t become a terrorist-style attack until a year ago. That’s when he recruited all those college kids, including his brother. Before then, he was on his own.” Dozer paused to sit on the ground. “Typical serial killer stuff. He had a couple of huge bulletin boards full of antiestablishment bullshit and a list of people he wanted to murder up close and personal. There’s a ton of explosives in his place, which we are now removing very carefully.”
“What about this outbreak?” River asked. “What info did he have on that?”
“Surprisingly little. There were instructions on how to spread the bacteria around, but no actual information on the bacteria itself. It was like he ordered it ready to go off the internet, and it came with an instruction booklet.”
“What the fuck?” River tried to merge the two goals in his head. “So, he’s been building up to a mass-shooting scenario for years, but adds bioterrorism to the plan only in the last year? Was there any evidence of why he decided to play cult leader and recruit other people and form a terrorist cell?”
“Not that we’ve found, but it’s going to take some time to go through everything. There’s enough material in his apartment to keep a half-dozen behavioral analysts busy for a long time.”
“So, did he come up with the bug on his own, or did he have outside help with that part?”
“That’s a question a lot of us want answered.” Dozer glanced at Ava. “How is she?”
“Still unconscious.” He cleared his throat of the sudden lump stopping him from speaking. “Is the quarantine doing any good?”
“Hard to say. The number of new cases arriving at the medical center has dropped, but the death toll is still climbing.” He stood and waved his hand toward the IV pole and the bags of fluid hanging there. “If this doesn’t work, we could lose thousands.”
“Right now,” River said, his voice sounding rough even to himself, “I only care about one.”
Dozer looked at Ava’s wrist locked in River’s grip. “I hope she makes it.”
River’s first response was to tell the other man to fuck off, but he managed to keep his mouth shut. She was going to be fine. No other outcome was acceptable.
“You get any sleep?” Dozer asked.
“Some.”
“Good. I could use your help. We’re short of intelligent people who don’t panic easily.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere with me.”
“How about a direct order?”
River stared at Ava’s pale face and didn’t answer.
“You’ll drive yourself crazy if you sit here and mope.”
River grunted out a noncommittal sound.
“You might as well keep busy until she wakes. You can get all mopey dopey then.”
He didn’t want to leave her, but Dozer was right. If he didn’t keep busy, he’d go mad. “All right, let’s go.”
He got up and followed the other man out of the tent, away from the one person he never wanted to let go.
Chapter Thirty-Four
9:16 p.m.
Ava could hear voices, male, talking somewhere close, but quietly. Her skin felt clammy and sticky, and when a breeze swept over her, she shivered.
The voices went quiet, and she sank down into a dark place, floated there, but something caressed her skin. The touch brought her out of the darkness and closer to the light. It left again, and she let sleep take her.
It was the scent of decomposing flesh that woke her next. It roiled her stomach until she feared she’d vomit. Breathing through her mouth, she opened her eyes. White, everything was white. No, this was a tent, and she lay on the cot Henry had set up outside his lab. She turned her head, but the front of the tent had been closed, obscuring her view. The smell lingered. Had the CDC been forced to store the dead outside? How many dead bodies did there have to be for them to stack them outside somewhere? She couldn’t hear anything that might indicate the public in a panic. The only EMS sirens seemed to be coming from far away.
She let herself fall into a light sleep.
A slight tug on her arm woke her. Henry was hanging new IV bags.
“Hey,” she said, though it came out more of a croak.
“Hey.” He studied her face. “You look better.”
She raised a brow. “Right.”
“You didn’t see yourself about eight hours ago.”
She snorted.
“High fever, sweats, and a seizure. We couldn’t wake you.”
“We?”
“River and I.”
A quick look around confirmed the obvious—River wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“He wouldn’t leave.”
“Who wouldn’t leave?”
“River. He slept on the mat next to your cot for a few hours, then he sat with your wrist in his hand so he could feel your pulse.” Henry said it as if it was a strange thing to do.
“What’s unusual about that?”
“He sat there for an hour.”
He what? Ava found it hard to breathe. As much as she admired River for his intelligence, dedication, and creativity, and despite how attracted to him she was, he also scared her. Because, if she let him in, if she allowed herself to fall in love with him and he died or he left her, she’d break.
She wasn’t strong enough to go through what she went through with Adam again.
“You look like a spooked horse,” Henry said. He studied her for a moment. “Are you going to run?”
When she didn’t answer, he asked, “You want to keep him in the friend zone?”
She shook her head. “That’s not it. I…don’t know if I can trust…”
“Him?” Henry asked. “He’d die for you.”
She raised her gaze to meet Henry’s and whispered, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
…
River spent the next ten hours keeping the crowd of sick people and their family members from rioting outside the emergency entrance to the medical center. He was given a few hours off to rest, so he went back to Henry’s lab and the tent next to it. Ava was asleep, more of the antibiotic and its buddy dripping into her veins. He slept for four hours, got up, ate, and went back to crowd control.
Dr. Rodrigues announced the FDA had approved the use of two medications t
o treat the outbreak, but only in a test group of twenty. She asked for volunteers spanning a variety of ages, as well as men and women.
That request almost caused the riot his boss was so afraid of.
When he went off duty next, Ava was gone from the tent. Henry told him she’d been sent to Atlanta to recover at a CDC facility. She’d regained consciousness and was still very sick, but they wanted to see how the antibiotic and the inhibitor worked for themselves.
River pulled out his phone to text her and discovered she’d beat him to it, having sent a text to tell him getting ahold of her would be difficult for the next few days. She was in an isolation room, and cell phones weren’t allowed.
He was about to text her back, catch her up on everything, but stopped himself. Maybe this was the best way to protect her. Stay away from her, keep her out of his violent world. Keep her safe.
He had himself three-quarters of the way convinced of that when Dr. Rodrigues put her job offer to him in writing.
Well, fuck. Two days ago, he’d have taken it without hesitation. Now, though… So, he delayed giving her an answer.
Three days later, he sat in a camp chair outside Henry’s portable lab, sucking down a bottle of water. It was late, and he’d probably be back at it in only a few hours, but he wanted some time to think.
Henry came out to sit next to him in a matching chair. “I hear you got an offer from Rodrigues.”
“Yep.”
Henry turned to look at him. “What’s the holdup?”
River shrugged.
Henry’s gaze sharpened. “Ava?”
Nosy bastard.
Henry never let up on the stare. “She not good enough for you?”
River gave the veteran soldier a glare. “Fuck you.”
Henry just grinned an I’m about to start shit smile. “So, the problem is with you.”
“Yeah, it’s with me.” River dropped his head back to stare up at the night sky. “I got messed up during my last deployment.”
“Said every soldier ever,” Henry muttered. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“Fuck if I know.”
The silence after that was a long one.
Finally, Henry asked, “Are you a danger to yourself or others?”
