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U nfortunately, her heart wasn’t listening to her head. “I thought I’d lost you too.” Her voice quivered.

He pulled back to look into her eyes, took her shoulders in his hands and gave her a little shake. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

Shock made her sputter, “Excuse me?” Had he lost his mind?

His grip on her tightened and he snarled, “You promised you’d go straight to the lab if we got separated.”

“River was with me, sort of, so that changed the circumstances.”

“The hell it did.”

“I was safe!”

“Safe?” he asked incredulously. “You’re the most dangerous woman I know.”

“What does that—”

She couldn’t finish because he was kissing her again.

She kissed him back just as fiercely, anger burning away the last of the cold chill of the thought of Con caught in the fire.

Someone pounded on the door.

Con wrenched his head away and yelled, “What?”

“Smoke is back and he’s got a story to tell,” said a voice through the door.

River.

Con stared into her eyes with a fierce expression. “We’re not done talking.”

“We did very little talking in the first place,” she muttered.

He sent her one last glare then opened the door and stalked down the hall toward Eugene’s desk.

Sophia trailed along behind, rubbing her arm where he’d held on to her. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see the size of the bruise growing there.

Eugene, River, Smoke, and Colonel Maximillian stood next to Eugene’s desk. The first three were armed, and Maz looked angry enough to kill with a look. Smoke had a blood trail down the left side of his face from his temple to his chin. River was trying to clean it up, but Smoke kept batting him away.

“Are you both uninjured?” the colonel asked, though his gaze was on Sophia.

“We’re fine,” Con replied.

Sophia frowned at him. “Yes, we’re okay.”

Con clenched his jaw so tightly she was surprised his teeth hadn’t cracked.

“What happened?” Max asked in a tone so cold, so rigid, he had both her attention and Con’s immediately.

“Smoke woke me with a radio call, saying there was smoke coming from the lobby,” Con said. “I stepped out to check and confirmed smoke, but the fire alarm wasn’t ringing yet. It should have been. I went back into the room. The power was off, but Sophia had woken and we both grabbed our go bags and armed ourselves before leaving.

“She stuck with me most of the way to the north exit, but we got separated by a large group of people running for the way out. From there I tried to find Sophia, but was unsuccessful. She’d agreed to head to the lab if we got separated, so I worked my way out of the building on the east side. I headed straight for the gate and found Sophia and River inside the base.” Con turned and nodded at her.

She started with, “After Connor and I got separated I continued toward the exit, but I sort of crawled along the floor mostly, so I could only see people’s feet. A man went by who moved like Con, so I grabbed him. It was Smoke. He dragged me to the door, but two men were waiting there and one attacked Smoke. The other was moving in, at least that’s what it looked like from three feet off the floor, so I kicked that guy’s kneecap as hard as I could. Smoke grabbed me up and told me to run, so I did.” She stopped to catch her breath for a moment, then continued.

“I got to the gate, where River found me, and we headed toward the lab.” She was going to leave out the part where she tried to go back through the gate to look for Con. She hadn’t gotten very far, after all. “Con met up with us and we came here.” She looked at Smoke. “What happened to you?”

“Knife fight. I won.”

“That’s an awfully short story?”

“Stupid man offered a lot of money for you, Ghost.”

“He thought you were a local?” Con asked.

Smoke nodded.

“Why didn’t you just shoot him?”

“Dead men can’t answer questions.”

“Where is he now,” Max asked.

“I was dragging him back to the base when someone started shooting at us. He’s dead.”

“God damn it,” Max muttered.

“How much did he offer you for Sophia?” Con asked.

“Ten thousand.”

The men all looked grim.

Sophia frowned. “That’s all?”

River chuckled, then coughed to cover it when Max glared at him. “It’s not funny.”

“It sort of is,” River said.

“I’m insulted. I’m worth more than that. Right?”

“This is the second attempt, Colonel,” Con said. “They started a fire this time.”

“Did anyone get hurt?” Sophia asked.

“No casualties reported yet,” Max told her. “But I’ll be surprised if the answer is no.”

“Why do they want me?” She couldn’t understand it. She wasn’t the world’s authority on viruses or doing advanced research. She was smart and educated, but so were many other doctors.

Max considered her with a long look. “You’re a creative thinker with viruses, a fact that’s well known in our corner of the medical community. Perhaps that’s it. Regardless, the way things are going, there won’t be a base left if they try for you again.”

“Akbar,” Smoke said in his deep drawl, “likes to play games.”

“Agreed,” Max said. “So, what game is he playing now?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Con said, a smirk tilting one side of his mouth up. “We play our own game, and let him catch up.”

“What do you have in mind?” Max asked.

“Bait and switch.”

Max’s eyebrows went up. “How do you propose to do that?”

“Sophia will need to get a makeover, dye her hair. We take another female soldier and bleach her hair, then send her off as if she were Sophia to Germany or back to the States. Then we wait to see what happens.”

“That might draw out whoever is supplying Akbar with intel on this base.”

“The fewer who know about this, the better,” Sophia said. “But I think it might work.”

“Who is going to play you?” Eugene asked.

“One of the techs, Jones, is about my height and weight,” Sophia said. “She’s got dark hair, so she’ll have to dye it. Mine too, I guess.” She turned to Eugene and added, “If you go with her when she’s playing me, it would make sense.”

“Excellent idea,” Max nodded. “You can pretend to be his replacement. We’ll have to make up a name for you.”

“I’d rather just pretend to be a lab tech or something.”

“We should do this soon. Tonight,” Con said. “In response to this fire.”

“Go find her, Eugene,” Max ordered. “And see if she knows where to get some hair dye for Sophia and herself.”

“Yes, sir,” Eugene saluted, then jogged away.

“The rest of you are in sorry shape,” Max said. “Clean up as best you can in the washrooms.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. Sophia led the charge to the bathrooms, going into the ladies’ room with a sigh of relief. Con was behaving like he was the officer, ordering her around and getting all snarly in her face.

She washed her hands and face, then unbuttoned and removed her uniform shirt to reveal her bra and a multitude of bruises around her neck, arms, and sides. She gave herself a bit of wash all over her torso, then contemplated the bruises. None of them looked too bad. Though the only time she’d seen worse was before she went into remission.

“Holy fuck.”

Con stood behind her. He must have come in while she’d been examining herself, but she hadn’t even heard him.

She spun around and tried to pull her shirt back on, but he was there, taking it from her, putting his hands on her wrists to keep her arms from covering up what she could.

He looked at one bruise in particular on her upper arm, the shape of fingers very clearly marking her skin. He put his hand over the mark. A perfect fit.

“I did this to you?” Con’s horrified gaze met her own. “Why didn’t you tell me I was hurting you?”

“Because it didn’t hurt...much. Remember, I told you, I have funny platelets. I get bruises.”

“I didn’t think it would get this bad,” he said incredulously. “Is it like this a lot?”

“Well, no. It’s not usually this bad, but I’ve been manhandled quite a bit in the last few days.” Her sarcasm was lost on him. He was too busy staring at her black-and-blue body.

“This isn’t normal.” He traced a bruise circling her neck. “How did you get this one?”

“A guy grabbed me by the collar and tried to drag me off, but I pointed my gun in his face and he let go.”

Con’s gaze turned dangerous. “Where and when did this happen?”

“While I was still in the hotel, during the fire.”

“What did he look like?”

“Like any other local. He yelled at me in a language I didn’t understand.”

Con’s mouth tightened, but his hand was gentle on her neck. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“ You didn’t.”

The door behind Con opened. Smoke and River walked in.

“I’m pretty sure,” Sophia said wryly, “the sign on the door says women .”

“Who ran you over?” River asked, staring at her.

Smoke didn’t say anything, but he looked very, very angry.

“A whole bunch of people,” she snapped. “Now get out, all of you.” She glanced at Con to include him in the order.

He left, but there was something in his expression telling her she hadn’t heard the last from him about her bruises.

Stupid terrorists. They’d already made her reconsider her sexual explorations with Con. If they screwed up her plans to accomplish something worth dying for she was going to shoot someone.

***

C on’s stomach wasn’t happy. Hell, he was fucking furious with himself. Sophia was covered in bruises. Deep, large, black ones indicating substantial bleeding underneath the skin.

“What. The. Fuck?” River said to him.

“She says she has some kind of clotting problem, but that is...”

“Sick,” Smoke said.

“That’s one way to put it.”

“No. She’s sick.”

Con stared at him. “She said it was under control.”

Smoke shrugged.

“Would she tell you if she wasn’t?” River asked.

Sophia came out of the bathroom. “What wouldn’t I tell you?”

Con sighed. “If you were sick.”

She rolled her eyes. “I am not sick. I’m special, but I’m not sick.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I told you, my platelets are screwed up, so I get bruises. Sometimes they’re pretty scary looking, but they’ll go away eventually.”

“What the hell is taking you so long?” Max yelled.

Sophia walked away.

Con watched her and couldn’t help feeling he’d just been lied to.

Max was on the phone when Con, Smoke, and River got back to Eugene’s desk. As he was talking, Eugene came back with Jones in tow.

She looked around at all the men, weapons, and Sophia then said, “You weren’t shitting me, were you, Gene?”

“No.”

Con looked at Eugene. “Hair dye?”

Jones held up the bag in her hand.

“Did Eugene explain everything?”

“No,” the man said. “I thought I’d let someone with some authority do that.”

“The short version,” Con said, “is that you’re going to become Sophia, and we’re going to stick you on a plane heading back to the States with Eugene.”

Jones looked at Sophia. “What did you do?”

“Nothing, I mean, Max thinks someone is trying to kidnap me for my, what did you call it?” she asked Max, but he was on the phone. “Creativity in working with viruses.”

Max nodded.

“So,” Jones said. “Shit’s going down?”

“That’s what we think,” Max said as he hung up the phone. “Are you prepared to take on Sophia’s identity and act as a decoy?”

“Yes, sir,” Jones replied.

“Good. Time for your makeover. Your plane leaves in three hours.”

“I’m going to need your uniform, Doc.”

“We can change in the bathroom.” Sophia led the way.

Con waited until the two women were inside the bathroom before speaking to Max. “Sir, Sophia looks like a train hit her.”

“What does that mean?” Max asked.

“She’s badly bruised all over her body.”

“You saw her entire body?” Max asked in a dangerous tone.

Sophia wasn’t the only one who didn’t always know how to talk to people. “No, sir. I saw her arms and torso. She says it’s her medical condition that’s to blame, but the last time I saw someone bruised that badly, they’d been beaten half to death.”

Max looked thoughtful. “I’ll speak to her.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“In the meantime, get prepped to leave. There are two separate outbreaks I want investigated. At this point I don’t know if either is the result of a possible biological weapon, but the speed and mortality rate of both has me nervous. One is in Northern Iraq, the other is in a refugee camp just outside Syria. I’m sending Sophia and you three to the refugee camp.”

“That might be the best thing to do, but I have a concern,” Con said.

“Oh?”

“How the hell is Akbar getting his intel?” For him to know what he did, he had to have someone helping him from the inside.