Page 76 of Smoky Lake

Which brought up another question. How had he caught it? The only person he’d been in close contact with over the past few days was Ani. Close, intense, life-changing contact.

He glanced over at her. She was watching the clouds with an abstracted expression. As soon as she felt his gaze, she looked his way, and reached for his hand. They interlaced their fingers and he tried to remember a time before Ani.

A vast frozen landscape lay back there. And there was no going back.

Her cheeks colored; the intensity of his emotion must be showing. But she wasn’t looking away. The opposite. Her full lips curled in a smile and she gave him another of those lust-stirring winks. I’ll protect you. Despite everything—their different worlds, the random nature of their meeting—it still made sense. It made more sense than ever, because she’d protected him too. They’d protected each other.

“Get ready to land,” Lanie called to them as they began their descent. A few moments later, they made a bumpy touchdown on the Firelight Ridge airstrip. Spruce forests loomed on either side of the runway, and a flock of crows rose into the air as they rolled to a stop.

A military vehicle awaited them, with two soldiers posted next to it. “Is that Sergeant Thomson?” Ani murmured. “I’m so glad she’s okay.” Through the plane’s window, she waved at the woman, but Thomson didn’t relax her stance enough to return the gesture. Quite possibly, she wasn’t happy with them for ditching their guard and leaving her at the hotel.

As they came to a stop near the Jeep, Dr. Christianson stepped out of it. She wore a white lab coat and her hair was tousled by the same wind that had made their landing so bumpy.

“Come on, I’ll fill you guys in while we walk,” she called to them after they’d all climbed out of the plane. “We have a delicate situation on our hands.”

As they passed Sergeant Thomson, she shot them a hard stare. Gil paused before her. “Glad to see you back on duty, Sergeant.”

She nodded curtly. “Can’t keep me off the job. But if I ever find the mother-fucker who did that to me…”

He decided not to mention that Victor had been the one who’d knocked her out. “They didn’t know who they were messing with, did they?”

She grinned and offered him a fist to bump, which he did.

Cool. Glad that was settled. He liked and respected Sergeant Thomson and was glad she was here. He hurried to catch up with Ani and Victor, who were following Dr. Christianson toward a large military-style canvas tent that had been set up in the gravel lot.

More CDC team members were working at a long table in the tent, set up with laptops and a generator to provide power. A whiteboard was set up at one end of the table, with a map of Firelight Ridge taped to it. It was scattered with notes in black Sharpie that Gil assumed were cases of the new omegavirus.

Dr. Christianson grabbed a steel Thermos off the table on her way to the whiteboard. “Anyone need a drink? We’ve got water and coffee around here somewhere.”

They all declined except for Victor. “Water?” he asked meekly.

Gil wondered if he was still worried about being arrested. Was he going to own up to his role in this mess? Was he going to offer up his “treatment”? Whatever happened, Gil intended to keep an eye on him. He didn’t trust Victor, not anymore.

The doctor called for someone to get Victor some water, then launched into her explanation. “We think this is ground zero.” She tapped a spot on the map a few miles out of town. “A local retired miner was the first to report symptoms.”

“How did you hear about it? There’s no clinic in town,” Ani asked.

“We’ve had people here monitoring for over a month.” Dr. Christianson lowered her voice. “This part is classified, which is why I couldn’t tell you about it the last time we met. Intelligence services picked up some chatter about a new bioweapon being developed in Alaska. They were able to pin it down to the Firelight Ridge area. We didn’t want to create a panic, but we needed to keep an eye on the situation while more information was being developed.”

Gil slid a look at Victor to see if he wanted to pipe up yet. But the scientist, looking like a deer in the headlights, kept his mouth sealed shut.

“Can you tell us who’s behind it?”

“I can’t. It’s a tricky situation. There are international interests at play.”

He thought about the car with diplomatic plates at Ani’s house. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss John’s story as a complete fabrication.

“At any rate, once several cases were reported, we moved in. It’s to our advantage that summer ends early in the mountains and the flow of sightseers has already died down. Another advantage is that this is a tiny little outpost. We have a team fanning through the town locating anyone who’s experienced symptoms over the last few days.”

“That’s going to be a challenge.” Gil stroked the scruffy growth on his chin. He probably looked as if he’d spent that past few days in the wilderness. “Most people don’t live in town. There’s folks in homesteads miles away. I’m not sure even Google Earth knows everyone.”

“We have access to better tech than that.” The doctor gave a smug smile. “We’ll find everyone. Of course we’re most concerned about the elderly and the young, so we’re starting with them. We’ve asked everyone to stay home as much as they can until we get a handle on the situation.”

Ani spoke up. “How can we help? I’m a pediatrician, and Victor?—”

They all looked around, only to spot Victor outside the tent, texting frantically into his phone. Gil caught Ani’s eye—yet another moment of weird behavior from the scientist.

“Anyway,” Ani continued, “I can help with the existing cases, if you like. I have recent experience of treating one, and I believe I’m immune by now.”

---