Page 86 of Smoky Lake

She shook her head.

“Honestly, we don’t have the resources to send someone on a goose chase into the wilderness.”

“Of course you do. A military helicopter came to pick up me and Gil, they found us with thermal imaging. A whole group of kids would be even easier.”

“Not my call,” he shrugged. “I’m just a medic. Mindy’s back now, so if you want to leave and?—”

Just in time, she remembered that she had the sat phone the sergeant had given her and cut him off. “Thank you. I need to make a quick call. I’ll be back when I can.”

Someone with a gruff voice answered. She explained the situation.

“Is the threat contained?” he asked.

“Contained?”

“Any chance they’d be out infecting other people? Our priority right now is containing this thing.”

“I mean…probably not, if they’re camping in the wilderness. But they should be back by now?—”

He cut her off. “I’ll run it up the chain.”

“Okay, so does that mean you’ll look for them?”

“It means I’ll pass the information along to the decision-makers.” And he was gone.

Ani nearly swore at the phone. The man was right, in a sense. There was likely no public threat from a group of kids on a wilderness trip. But what if they’d gotten sick and didn’t have enough supplies with them? What if they were low on water?

The sight of Bear’s truck heading toward her interrupted her worrying. “Bear!” She waved her hands and ran after him, telling her hip to shut up and cooperate for once.

He pulled to a stop and she jumped into the cab. “Have you heard anything about the group of kids who went camping a week ago? The group is called Wilderness Alive.”

“Nope. Not a word. But the usual grapevine is disrupted. Ready to go see some patients? They’re the grapevine anyway.”

“Sounds good.” She fastened her seat belt. Something was nagging at her. She thought about the kids she’d just seen. Nothing stood out about any of the four cases. If she’d seen them back in Barlow, she would have sent them home with instructions to rest, drink fluids, and take plenty of Tylenol.

So what was bugging her about this situation? It was something important. It danced at the edge of her mind, but she couldn’t quite pin it down.

41

Behind the wreck of the Institute, Gil shrank back into the darkest shadow of the spruce grove while Victor scrambled down the metal staircase to shore. Lucky for him it had survived the blast, as had the dock.

The floatplane drifted toward him. Gil saw men with guns inside. No surprise. A firearm would be nice to have right about now.

He’d just have to do without.

Under cover of the forest, he crept as close to the meeting as he could. Something about the way Victor had said “the whole town could be in trouble” had struck him as off. The town was already dealing with the omegavirus, quite competently as far as he could tell. Was there something even worse on the horizon?

On an overhang with a direct view of Victor, he lay flat on his stomach and focused all his attention on the voices drifting across the water. A man in black combat gear stepped out of the plane onto the dock. He held a gun lowered at his side.

Victor stood at the head of the dock, holding that gun in his shaky hand. If he’d been smart, he would have given it to Gil. “I need guarantees,” Victor said. Or at least Gil thought that was what he said; he could make out only every other word or so. “Or I won’t get on the plane.”

“You’ll get in.”

Another mercenary, thought Gil. Victor would be no match for the man.

The gunman gestured him toward the plane. “Get in or you die. That’s your guarantee.”

“You can’t kill me!” Victor’s voice rose to an aggressive pitch. “You need me. I’m the one who did the work. None of my research will make sense to you.”

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