Page 56 of Deadly Strain

Grace rolled her eyes. “It is when they’re about to do something supremely stupid.”

“There’s two kinds of stupid,” Sharp explained. “There’s dead stupid and live stupid. We’re the latter.”

She squinted at him. “I have no idea what you just said.”

“Never mind, Doc,” Sharp said. “Let’s go.”

“But—”

“No buts. We’ve got a world to save.”

Cutter opened the door while Sharp grabbed the doctor. It soothed that hurt place deep inside him to touch her warm, soft skin again, to know she was okay.

“Here,” he said, handing her a military ball cap. “Put this on.”

They stepped out into the hall to find the two guards tied up and on the floor, the rest of their team waiting for them by the door. No one said anything. They just walked out of the building and marched, with her in the middle of their five-sided formation, toward the landing field.

“Doc,” Cutter said quietly. “Do you need those other samples?”

“It would be better to get new ones,” she replied. “The old ones are still dangerous, though. They need to be disposed of properly.”

“We’ll worry about that when we’re not breaking enough orders to cause an earthquake. Do you have all the equipment you need at the village?”

“As long as no one has blown up the Sandwich or shot it all up, probably. But I have no protective gear. Do you guys?”

“No. Marshall did something with our bio-suits.”

The landing field came into view.

“So, we’re not stopping to grab anything?” she asked, her tone betraying her nervousness.

“No time,” Cutter told her. He’d stepped up the pace, leading them in a ground-eating march that still wasn’t out of place on the base.

“What about a cell phone? My SINGCAR radio was destroyed in the crash.”

“Nope. The Grinch took our phones and radios yesterday.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Grace said, no trace of a question in her statement.

Their group approached the helicopter where Smoke and Clark were talking with one of the pilots in front of an open panel near the rear rotor.

“Guys, I just got a heads-up on that mission we worked up last night,” Cutter said to Smoke and Clark. He turned to the pilot. “Marshall wants to talk to you personally before he okays the mission. He doesn’t want another bird going down.”

“No problem,” the pilot said, closing up the panel. “I’m fueled and ready to go. You guys make yourselves at home.” He headed out at a trot.

Cutter turned and said to the team, “Let’s go.”

Sharp urged Grace inside the bird. “Grab a seat.”

“I need a weapon, and—” she glanced down at herself “—everything else.”

“We’ll figure it out.” He strapped in next to her. He wanted to reassure her that everything would be fine, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even promise they’d land at the village without trouble.

The rest of the team piled into the bird, Smoke and Clark up front in the pilot and copilot seats.

The engine started and the rotors began to spin.

A couple of soldiers glanced at them curiously. Sharp grinned and waved. The soldiers returned to whatever they were doing.