Page 60 of Deadly Strain

Cutter had died doing the right thing. Sharp had been shot, more than once, and beaten, and a higher-ranking officer had betrayed his trust. All of which happened because of her. Was she going to get all of them killed? Sharp killed?

No. She couldn’t allow herself to think that way.

What did she need to complete the mission?

Samples of the bacteria.

Safe transport to Max’s lab at the naval base in Bahrain.

Corroboration of her version of events.

She needed to make sure her friends, these men who were doing their best to help her do the right thing, the only thing that could save so many more lives, left this situation with their records clean and reputations shiny. And alive.

Marshall was going to do everything he could to bring her down and Sharp’s A-Team with her.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Grace closed her eyes, breathed deep for a few seconds, then forced her hands to open. She poked Sharp’s arm and waved him close so she didn’t have to yell so loud. “I need to talk to Max. Colonel Maximillian. He needs to be aware of what’s happened, and Marshall’s role in screwing this up.”

“We can try,” Sharp said, bending over and picking up the headset off the floor of the helicopter. He handed it to her.

It still had Cutter’s blood on it.

Her stomach rolled, but she stuck it on her head and asked, “Smoke?”

“Fire,” was his response.

A joke? Now? “I hope that means you’re paying attention. I need to get through to my CO. Can you do that?”

“Where is he?”

She told him, then waited while Smoke made the connections happen over the radio. She glanced outside. Their altitude was dropping. They were almost to the village. She wouldn’t have long to talk.

“Dr. Samuels?” Max sounded worried and pissed off at the same time. “Where the hell have you be—?”

“Colonel, there’s no time to go into detail,” she interrupted. “My helicopter was shot down shortly after we left the site. Only two of us survived, the others died in the crash or were killed shortly after by insurgents. It took us almost a day to make contact with American troops and get back to Bostick.”

She sucked in a breath and kept talking before he could interject. “Here’s what’s really important. Marshall has my original samples, but I don’t know what he’s done with them. He charged me with a bunch of bogus shit, then threw me in a makeshift brig without allowing me to talk to anyone. He blames me for the death of some of his men. Men who I believe contracted the disease from airborne spores. He didn’t even send a search team out to look for us until six hoursafterour helicopter crashed. He’s lost his mind. The A-Team I’m working with grabbed another helicopter and we’re about to land at the village, but Marshall ordered his men to fire on us as we took off and they killed Commander Cutter.” She ran out of air and paused to grab another lungful.

Max spoke in a calm voice. “Slow down. Take it easy. Are you saying Marshall ordered the murder of an American soldier?”

“Someone fired on us from the base... Who else could have ordered it?” Tears threatened to escape her tight control, but if they escaped, everything would—all the terror, fear and frustration of the past two days. Sharp and his team were depending on her. She didn’t have time for a nervous breakdown.

“I knew he was a stubborn jackass,” Max said, frustration evident in the way he clipped off the ends of his words. “But I didn’t realize he would jeopardize the situation because a couple ofquacksdidn’t agree with him.”

“Isquackthe worst thing he’s called you? It’s the nicest thing he’s called me,” Grace said with a weak laugh. “I think he’s determined to make this my fault, and I think, by extension, your fault. He’s likely to blow the whole place up, and I still don’t know how the villagers came into contact with the anthrax. I think it’s airborne, but it could also be in the water supply. This bug acts so fast, it’s impossible to know from what little investigation that’s gone on.”

“We need to know that information.”

The helicopter landed. A soldier in a bio-suit waited, crouched about twenty feet away. There was no sample container anywhere near him.

“We’re here,” she told Max. “I’ll call you back.”

“If you don’t,” Max said with a steely tone she’d seldom heard from him, “I’ll assume the worst and send a new team. That’s going to take time we don’t have.”

“Understood.” She took the headset off and dropped it on the floor.

Before she could get out of her harness, Sharp put his hand over hers and leaned close. “The samples are on the ground right next to us.” He gave her a hard look. “I’ll get them. You stay here.”