Chapter Twenty-Six

The sun was rising the following morning before Riley stopped moving.

She had done everything she could think of for the moment. The quarantine zone was in place. It was being fenced now, but there were enough men on the ground to ensure that no one was getting out of town. Riley was expecting reinforcements in around midmorning. She’d be back for that. Everything else she could do had been set in motion. A supply of bottled water. Food. Restraints. Body bags. They were all on their way. She could take a few hours off, and she wanted to talk to Eli.

There had been three more deaths in the night, and she was sure today would bring a flood more. Things were going to get bad, and somehow, they needed to keep control. There would no doubt be panic once the town’s inhabitants realized how serious the disease was. It was important they keep that to a minimum. People were being told to remain in their homes. Stations would be set up around the town where people could get the supplies they needed and medication—if Eli and his people came up with anything that worked. Trucks would drive around the town and pick up the seriously sick. The clinic was already out of space and supplies, but she’d spoken to Shelly, and she was setting up an emergency medical center at the high school. Equipment and staff were on their way. They should be up and running by midday.

A firewall was being put up around the town. No one wanted this out. Not as long as they could keep a lid on it. That would no doubt fuel the panic once people realized they were isolated. She expected some to try to leave—it was inevitable. Her people had orders to stop them by whatever means possible. But no direct contact. The personnel inside the hot zone would wear protective gear. Those on the perimeter would not.

The sky was just lightening as she pulled the vehicle to a halt outside the mobile lab—she’d been up all night but she felt wired rather than tired. She often got like that. Then, at some point, she would crash.

Hopefully not yet. Because there was one more thing she needed to do. She’d given Eli a blood sample last night when he’d gotten back from town. While she didn’t know whether he would have had a chance to look at it, she needed to know. Because not knowing was driving her crazy.

Her phone rang. She glanced at the screen. It was Nick.

She’d called and updated him last night when Shelly had confirmed that there was a very high probability that they were dealing with the same thing. He’d been quiet. She hoped he was calling now with some new information. They could do with a break.

“Hey,” she said.

“I’m landing at Del Rio Air Force Base in about an hour. Can you meet me there?”

“What’s this about, Nick?”

“I’ll tell you when I see you. And come alone, Riley—keep this to yourself.”

He ended the call before she could ask anything else. She sent a quick text to Shelly telling her she’d been called away but shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours. To call if anything important came up. Then she set off.

An hour later, she switched off the engine and watched as the helicopter came in to land. She sat, fingers gripping the wheel as Nick jumped down, a briefcase in his hand. He stood for a moment looking around, then his gaze settled on her vehicle and he headed over.

She climbed out and stood waiting for him. He halted in front of her, then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s good to see you.”

Placing the briefcase down on the ground, he shoved his hands in his pockets, a little line forming between his eyes. It wasn’t often she saw Nick uncertain, but now he appeared unsure what to say to her. She frowned. “What’s going on, Nick?”

“I need to know if there is someone on the medical team you can trust.”

“Trust with what? You can’t expect me to answer that unless I know something of what’s going on here.”

He ran a hand through his short hair. “When I was transferred to military intelligence ten years ago, the first case I worked on was something called Operation Snowcap.”

She’d never heard of it, but she at least had an inkling where he was going. “It was biological warfare? You think this is Snowcap?”

“Truth? I don’t know for sure. The program was closed shortly afterward due to policy changes. But the time line matches, and something in the initial reports must have flagged up the military connection. I don’t believe in coincidences.”

She was struggling to get her head around this. The implications. “Jesus, Nick. All those people. Dead. The children.” She turned away for a moment, leaned against the vehicle, closed her eyes to give herself time to process. When she turned back, he hadn’t moved. “How could it have gotten out? Is it deliberate?” Christ, the questions were circling in her head, the possible answers churning her stomach.

“I told you—I don’t know. The file is closed, and right now, I don’t have the authority to open it. I’ll keep digging. In the meantime, there are people dying, and from what you told me, there are going to be a lot more.”

Something occurred to her then. “Wait a minute. You’re doing this on your own?” He gave a brief nod. “You’ll be court marshaled if they find out.”

“Hence why I asked if there was someone you could trust.”

Was there? Her mind went immediately to Eli. Could she trust him? She’d known him for only a few days. She scrubbed her hand over her face. If she said no, would Nick get back on his helicopter and take whatever was in his briefcase with him? He was taking a huge risk here. She could take one as well. “Yes, there’s someone I trust.”

“Good. Then, you give them the contents of the briefcase—instructions are in there. Give it to some of the patients. Find out if it works, and if it does, then between the two of you, come up with a viable story of where it came from.”

She looked at the briefcase, then back at Nick. “I can do that.”

“And keep me informed.”

She picked up the case and slid it into the passenger seat. “You’re a good man.”

“I’m beginning to believe there is no such thing.” And he turned and walked back to the helicopter.

…

The camp had sprouted up overnight. It looked almost identical to the one they’d left yesterday in Mexico, just a bigger version. Riley headed for the mess tent and found Adam and Leo sitting with a laptop between them, empty coffee mugs littering the table. They both glanced up as she entered and gave her nods of acknowledgment but no smiles. Granted, there wasn’t a lot to smile about. They looked tired, slumped low in their chairs, and they were still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. Had they been up all night working on their simulations? She assumed so, and that the results were not good.

She couldn’t think about that now. The case in her hand was burning her fingers—she hadn’t dared leave it in the vehicle. She felt as though she had a big sign on her saying…she wasn’t quite sure. Guilty? But of what?

“Have you seen Eli?” she asked.

Leo nodded. “He’s at the lab.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t wait, just turned and headed out and across the camp to where the mobile lab was parked up on the periphery. Eli and Shelly stood close together, talking, and Riley’s fingers gripped the case harder.

Shelly glanced up and gave a tight smile. “The results are negative for the team. We’re in the clear.”

Christ, she’d forgotten about the test. She blew out her breath. “That’s good.”

Shelly turned back to Eli. “Just get me something I can use. Maybe this is the breakthrough we’ve been looking for. Don’t let me down.”

“I’ll do my best. But don’t put too much hope into this.”

“Buy us some time: that’s all I ask.” She rubbed a hand around the back of her neck. “I have a meeting I need to be at, but get me those answers and we’ll talk later.” She nodded to Riley, then walked away.

Eli pulled a bag of candy out of his pocket, popped one in his mouth, and winced. “Want a skunk-spray-flavor jelly bean?” he asked, holding the bag out to her.

She shook her head. “I’ll pass.” She waved a hand after Shelly. “What was that about? Have you found something?” Maybe he’d gotten a cure and her case wouldn’t be needed and she could hide it away along with the high probability that these deaths were all caused by her country.

He stuffed the bag back into his pocket. “I got the preliminary results from the gene sequencing from my lab.”

She knew he’d been waiting on them. “Why does it take so long?”

“The sequencing itself doesn’t take that long. It’s the analyzing the data and getting something useful from them that takes the time.”

“And have you?” she asked. “Got something useful, I mean.”

“Maybe. The virus isn’t on any of the databases. It’s entirely new.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Not good, no, but at least we know more about it. We’ve identified proteins that resemble those found in retroviruses.”

“And that means…?” She had no clue.

“A retrovirus is a single-stranded positive sense RNA virus with a DNA intermediate.”

What the hell? “I have no clue what any of that means.”

He grinned. “Well, at least you’re willing to admit it. Most people just stand there and don’t say a word.”

“So explain—in words of one syllable. Pretend I know nothing.”

“You know what DNA is?”

“Just about.”

“Well, DNA stores genetic information in the nucleus of a cell. But there’s also RNA, which encodes and transmits that information to the cytoplasm as it’s needed. The ‘retro’ in retrovirus really means ‘reverse.’ Most viruses are made up of mainly DNA. They invade a host’s cells and then convert their DNA to RNA, which they use to force the cell to make more viral protein. That’s how they reproduce. Retroviruses do it backward. They’re made up of RNA, and they enter the cell and use an enzyme called reverse transcriptase to convert its own RNA to DNA. They integrate this into the host’s cells, and that allows the virus to replicate.”

It kinda made sense. “What sort of viruses are we talking about?”

“HIV is one of the retroviruses we know of.”

“That sounds bad.” There had always been rumors that HIV was a man-made virus. That it had been developed, and weaponized, and then gotten out of control. “There’s no cure, is there?”

“No, however we do have drugs that can control the disease. Antiretrovirals. They work in different ways. Some are specific to HIV and target stages in the viral life cycle, but others are more general. Reverse transcriptase inhibitors are one group. They block the enzyme that converts the viral RNA to DNA so it can’t be incorporated into the host cell—basically it can’t replicate, and the viral population drops.”

“It doesn’t cure it?”

“No. The virus remains in some cells and can reemerge if treatment is stopped. That’s actually my other main area of research. I’m looking at ways to cut the viral DNA out of the host’s cells. Get rid of it for good.”

“Could that help with our virus?”

“At this point, no. Unfortunately, I still don’t have a reliable way to make it work in all the infected cells in a body, and until I do, it’s of no use.”

“You think these drugs might work here?” Her hand tightened on the handle of the briefcase. Was there an alternative? Christ, she had no clue. She shouldn’t be making this decision.

“Truth? I don’t know. While we might need to make adaptations, that should be relatively easy now that we have the genome mapped out. But this thing is a completely different beast from HIV. It kills quickly. I don’t know if there’s long enough for the drugs to work and get the viral numbers down before the host succumbs and dies.” He smiled. “Hey. It’s a place to start and more than we had. We’ll run with it. While it’s unlikely to help in the later stages, maybe if we catch it early enough…”

The worst-case scenario was still a possibility, though. “How soon until you know?”

“Maybe a day to get a drug we can try, then it’s just a matter of administering to the infected and seeing what happens.”

So it could be days. How many people would die in that time? She couldn’t put this off. Screw it. She would keep Nick out of it if she could. He’d already made the decision to give her whatever was in the briefcase.

“I’m going to head back to Baltimore,” Eli said. “I can do more from the lab than here.”

“I’ve got you a flight out of Del Rey Air Force Base.”

“Good. Thank you.”

“Can I talk to you first? In private.”

He studied her for a few seconds, brows drawn together, then waved a hand toward the lab. She followed him in, then stood just inside the doorway.

His frown deepened. Obviously she was giving off vibes. “What is it?” he asked.

“Look, don’t ask me any questions, because I don’t have the answers. But I do have something you can try.” She lifted the case and placed it on the desk.

He looked from the case back to her. “What is this, Riley? Where did it come from?”

“I don’t know. And I can’t say. Just have a look, see what’s in there. It might be nothing.” Or it could be everything.

He closed the space to the desk, flipped up the catches on the case, and opened the lid. Syringes full of a pale-yellow liquid. She counted ten. That wouldn’t go far even if it did work. A typed paper was in the pocket of the case, and he pulled it out and scanned it, then looked at her.

“You have to tell me where this came from.”

“I can’t, Eli. I would if I could, but I just…can’t. And you can’t tell anyone else about it, at least not until we know if it works.” Then they would do whatever was required to get this to everyone who needed it—whatever the consequences.

“Jesus.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, turned away, walked the length of the lab, and came back to her. The expression in his eyes… Anger? Dislike? And maybe it was justified. But why blame only the military? It was scientists like Eli who had developed this thing. Did that mean all scientists were evil? Nick had risked his career to give her this; she didn’t need Eli to go all high-and-mighty on her now.

“Can you test it?” she asked. “Or rather…will you?”

He glanced away, then back, and gave a quick nod. “Of course. I’ll tell Shelly I’m testing one of the antiretroviral drugs. Administer it before I leave, get someone monitoring the patients. But I’m taking one of these back to Baltimore, will get it analyzed, start reproducing it. Christ, I don’t know whether I want this to work or not. Except that’s not even true. It’s maybe the only hope we have of fighting this thing in time. But…fuck. I hate this. I hate that our own people might be responsible.” He drew back his fist and punched the wall.

Ouch.

She moved toward him and rested a hand on his arm. “I feel the same. Let’s just get this done and then worry about the rest.”

…

Two hours later, Eli followed her out and through the camp. They didn’t talk on the way. He wasn’t sure what to say. His mind was alternating between a whirling mass of chaos and numbness.

If Shelly had been surprised that he wanted to try a new treatment, she hadn’t shown it. He’d selected six patients at varying stages of the illness and administered the injections. Then set up a monitoring schedule with Shelly. Now they had to wait. It could be hours. It could be days. Without knowing what was in those syringes, let alone exactly what they were dealing with in terms of the virus, he had no idea what to expect.

Once he got in the jeep, he rested his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He hadn’t slept all night.

They’d been driving ten minutes before he straightened in his seat. She gave him a quick sideways glance.

“Thanks for the ride,” he said. He’d already decided he wasn’t mentioning the case and its contents again until they knew more. “I’m sure you have more important things to do than chauffeur me around.” Like clandestine meetings with people with mysterious briefcases.

She shrugged. “I needed to get away for a while.”

He bet she did. She had the appearance of the shell-shocked. Where had she gotten it from? She hadn’t been away from camp long enough to go far. Someone must have met her. Given her the case.

“If it works, can we use it to stop the disease?”

“I don’t know. It depends how fast we can get a supply. It could take days to set up mass production.” Unless the government already had a supply. If not, Henry could help with that. Except he still hadn’t been able to get ahold of Henry, and it didn’t look like he would be visiting anytime soon. “I’ll put things in motion right away. Considering the speed this virus kills, we can’t afford any delays. Hopefully Shelly will call me if anything changes.”

“She’s going to set up a video call, probably tonight. You’ll be looped in on that.”

If the virus had been made by the government, how did it end up in Iznájar? Where the hell had it come from? Had it been deliberately released as some sort of test? It just didn’t feel right. And presuming Iznájar was ground zero, and they were sure they had the village locked down tight, how had it jumped from there to here? And to Japan? As far as they could tell, while Aiko Yoshi had visited Mexico, she had been nowhere near Iznájar. Had they—and who exactly were “they”—he had to presume the military—released it in other locations?

They must know the repercussions. That it could decimate the entire planet. Maybe the virus had been stolen, and it wasn’t their own government doing this after all but rather some terrorist group. While that didn’t completely exonerate them, it was marginally better.

Really, though, none of it made sense.

“I want you to come to DC with me,” Riley said.

“You do? Why?”

“When you get the results. I’m going to talk to Nick—my ex. He was the one who sent me to Mexico.” Was he also the one who had given her the briefcase? “And I’d like you to come along. Explain things. Because you know this enemy like no one else does. You understand what we’re fighting. You’ll convince Nick what needs to be done.”

“You think this was released on purpose?”

“I hope not. Maybe by accident? I honestly don’t know what to think. But we need to accept the possibility, and I’d rather talk to Nick face-to-face.”

He sighed. “Let’s wait and see what happens. We should know by tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. The really fucked-up thing about all this is that right now a military connection would be a good thing, because at least then we’d have a chance of fighting it. So when and how? I need to set things up with my people. Get some tests underway.”

“Tomorrow, if you think you’ll know more by then. I have to finish the setup back in Rosewood anyway. I don’t trust Dyson not to fuck it up and get the hell out of there. I need to put safeguards in place. After that, I won’t be needed on-site. I’ll get a flight into Baltimore as soon as I’m done, pick you up, and we’ll drive down to DC.”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting.” He leaned back, tried to clear his mind, then shifted slightly so he could watch her. “You know, I was hoping to spend more time with you. Just maybe in…better circumstances.”

“You were?” She’d stopped at a red light, and a slow smile curled her lips, the first he’d seen since she turned up at the lab with her briefcase of tricks. “I thought you didn’t do relationships.”

“Hell, I doubt we’re going to have time for anything as serious as a relationship. But if this is it, then why not spend some time with a pretty girl?”

She snorted. “A pretty girl? It’s been a long time since I was called that.”

“Okay, a badass army captain. Way sexier.”

The light changed, and she turned away and drove on.

“The trip to DC fits in with me anyway,” he said. “I want to go see Amber.”

“Just in case you don’t get another chance.”

“You like to tell it like it is, don’t you? But yeah. I’m going to call her tonight. Tell her…”

It was totally against protocols to reveal information to outsiders, but again—the normal rules seemed irrelevant at this point.

“I’ll tell her to stay in,” he said. “Keep away from people. Christ, I don’t know. I’d like her to get the hell out of the city, and to persuade her to do that, I need to see her. I just haven’t decided where might be safe. Maybe nowhere. At least it might keep her alive longer, and that might give us some chance to find a way to defeat the virus.”

“I have a cabin,” she said. “In the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. Very isolated but only a three-hour drive from DC. She’s welcome to use that if it helps.”

“Really? It sounds perfect. If I can persuade her.”

She pulled up at the checkpoint to the base, opened the window, and gave her ID to the guard. He glanced at it, then handed it back, and the barrier rose. She drove through and followed the sign to hangar three. A military plane was sitting on the runway outside the hangar. “That looks like your ride.”

“Did I ever mention the fact that I hate flying?”

She smiled. “You might have.” She got out and waited while he grabbed his bag, and then she walked with him across the tarmac.

A guard stood at the bottom of the stairs, and he saluted as they came to a halt in front of him. “Ma’am.”

This was it. Time to say goodbye. There was something he needed to say. “We’re all to blame in this,” he said. “Every last one of us. We let it happen.”

“Hey, it hasn’t happened yet.” Ignoring the guard, she reached up, rested a hand on his shoulder, and kissed him lightly on the lips. “We’ll sort this out. It’s not over yet.”

Then she let him go and moved away. He could sense her watching as he walked up the steps without looking back.