Page 76 of Deadly Strain

“Marshall?”

“No, he’s got a history with Grace. But maybe someone who knows that history took advantage of it to create confusion and conflict to keep everyone from dealing with the big problem.”

“Anthrax.” Smoke sounded like the voice of doom.

Sharp nodded. “I think the picture is a lot bigger than anyone knows.”

No one said anything for a couple of minutes. Sharp gave them a chance to think about things. He wasn’t Cutter, and he wasn’t going to make decisions that could get them killed all by himself.

“The doc is stubborn,” Clark said. “She’s going to keep the pressure on. It’ll make her an even bigger target.”

Sharp nodded. “As soon as she was ordered to investigate the deaths at the village, she became a primary target of whoever wants to use the anthrax as a weapon.”

“I vote option two, boss,” Clark said. “I don’t trust Marshall to not fuck this up even more.”

Sharp looked at Smoke, who nodded, and Runnel, who grinned.

“Hernandez and March will be on board,” Clark said.

“Give them the heads-up,” Sharp instructed. Clark and Runnel split up to carry out his order.

“Smoke, go talk to our CIA friend, find out how he plans to deal with our incoming visitors.”

Smoke nodded and got to his feet.

“I’m grabbing a few minutes of sleep,” Sharp said.

Smoke nodded once and headed back into the tunnel.

Sharp rubbed his eyes and glanced at Grace. She was snoring softly and looked so damn peaceful and cute that, had they been alone, he would have curled up on the floor with her. His hands itched to hold her, to feel her softness, to capture a piece of home.

But they weren’t alone and he couldn’t afford to have the team question his objectivity. If they knew how deep his need to protect her ran, they’d question it now.

He moved to sit next to her on the floor of the cave, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. One of the tricks all Special Forces soldiers learned was how to fall asleep in a few seconds, in order to take short naps whenever needed. This allowed them to stay awake without a long period of deep sleep, for up to several days at a time.

He sank into the breathing pattern that would trigger a power nap.

***

“Sharp.”

He jolted awake at the sound of his name.

Smoke crouched in front of him and their CIA friend, Jamal, stood a few feet behind him with Clark. But it was the item in Smoke’s hand that caught his attention. A satellite phone. He glanced at Grace, but she was still out cold.

Sharp took the phone and stood, waving at the men to back away from the sleeping doctor.

Everyone moved until they were just inside the tunnel.

“Got any intel for us?” Sharp asked Jamal.

“Too much,” he said, his tone sardonic. “Everyoneis looking for you and your doctor. I’ve had two armed groups of extremists come through my compound already. I told them the story you made up about the helicopter, but I think they’re suspicious. The arrival of more Americans will attract even more attention. Dangerous attention.”

“How long until nightfall?”

“Three or four hours until full dark.”

“Okay. I’ll see if I can work some magic.”