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“Thank God,” Ian responded fervently. “Phone first. And then we’re going to need a car. And you’re going to need to roundup everyone in town and get them to the closest place with a big, cold air conditioner.”

The three of them walked toward a plain one-story building with a sign out front announcing it to be a LVMPD substation.

“Nearest place with power would be LasVegas, sort of. They’ve got some back-up generators working around the city—the big casinos, hospital, airport, a few office buildings. But with the quarantine in place, no one gets in or out of there. Outside of Vegas, Caliente is the nearest town outside of the power outage zone, and it’s a couple hours north of here.”

“Get your locals up there and stick them in the coldest possible place you can find for—“ Ian turned to her. “How long would it take to make the virus go dormant?”

She shrugged. “Ebola goes dormant in under four hours of sustained cold. I’d say to give it twenty-four hours for safety’s sake.”

Ian turned back to the sheriff. “You heard the lady.”

It turned out the CDC field agents who’d gone into Las Vegas to attempt to isolate and identify the virus that had struck the city had set up a command post in the city’s police department.

Piper took the phone receiver Ian passed her and urgently relayed what she and Ian knew of the virus, and what they’d surmised about how to stop it. The CDC doctor was grateful and in a hurry to get off the phone totest the theories of external cold and internal colloidal silver. She handed the receiver back to the cop.

“Uhh, Piper? We have a small problem.”

She turned around to face Ian. His nose was bleeding.

22

Piper whipped around to face the cop. “I need a black-and-white with sirens, and I need it right now.”

The cop moved over to a wall of car keys and pulled down a set. “It’s parked out back.”

Ian tilted his head back and she jammed about a half-box of tissue into his nose before guiding him toward the rear of the building. She called out to the lone cop in the building, “If you have any food or water you can send with us, that would be great.”

She heard a vending machine disgorge cans and another one whirring as it sent food down to the slot below.

“He gonna be okay?” the cop asked, shoving an armload of soda cans, bags of chips, and candy bars at her.

She answered tersely, “Call the CDC. Tell them the virus is outside the containment area, and we’re headed into Vegas.”

“Shit!” The cop backed away from Ian hastily, eyeing both of them like lepers.

“Get your citizens and yourself into a place that’s sixty degrees or below and stay there for a solid day. That’ll kill the virus on your clothes and skin. I’m gonna have the CDC send some medicine up your way that we think will help infectedpeople. You’ll be fine!” she shouted over her shoulder as she herded Ian toward a cop car.

She guided him into the passenger seat and slid behind the wheel. Pulling the car into the street, she blasted the air conditioning for all it was worth, pointing every vent in the vehicle at Ian.

She drove onto the highway, flipped on the light bar and sirens, and floored the powerful engine.

“Easy Piper. I don’t need to die on the road when we’ve made it this far alive.”

“You’re not dying on me, Ian McCloud. Do you hear me? That’s not the virus. The inside of your nose got dried out and that’s a regular old nosebleed. You hear me? I plan to make you marry me and have your children and die of old age together about a hundred years from now.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked humorously. “How’re you planning to make me marry you?”

Never taking her eyes off the road flying past, she bit out, “If the epic sex doesn’t lure you in, I’ll trap you with a pregnancy.”

“That’s not fighting fair.”

“Love and war, big guy. Didn’t you tell me that, once?”

He grinned past the wad of bloody tissues at her. “You think we can beat the virus after it’s gone active?” he asked as the lights of a roadblock loomed ahead.

“Yes, I do. I think the man we apprehended loves his daughter enough to build in a back-door cure.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said grimly.