Page 108 of Deadly Strain

“All of them? Huh, I guess I scared someone pretty bad.”

“Several someones.” Including him. Sharp shook his head. “You’ve got a nose for trouble, Doc.”

She winced at something the doctor or the nurse was doing. “I wish I didn’t.”

“How’s her infection looking?” Sharp asked the doctor. “She had a fever before.”

“It looks okay,” the doctor said after a glance at Grace’s face and her nod. “I’m going to give you a liter of saline to get you rehydrated,” he said to Grace. “Keep taking those antibiotics.”

“Of course,” she replied. “Can I go back on duty as soon as that liter is infused and I’ve had something to eat?”

“No,” Sharp said. “You need eight hours of rest, minimum.”

“He’s right, Grace,” the doctor said. “Sleep is your next order of business.”

She looked from Sharp to the doctor and back, then rolled her eyes again. “Fine.”

The doctor walked away from Grace and stripped off his gloves. “Angie is going to put a new dressing on that and get the IV started.”

“Thanks, Ted,” Grace said. She looked at Sharp. “Could you hunt down some food? You should eat too.”

“Sure.”

Sharp sent Hernandez and March to get food for everyone while the nurse got the IV running in the back of Grace’s hand.

Sharp pulled the curtain aside so Smoke and Clark could join them. A few minutes later, March came back with a couple of trays piled high with sandwiches and bottles of water. Sharp took way too much satisfaction in watching Grace eat.

He was such a Neanderthal.

“March, how’s your shoulder?” Grace asked while they ate.

March paused in his shoveling of food into his mouth. “Fine. Doc cleared me for duty.”

Grace frowned at him, but didn’t say anything more.

When Hernandez came back, his face was so carefully blank Sharp knew shit had hit the fan somehow.

“What?” Sharp asked him, setting his meal aside.

“Her bio-suit has been punctured in multiple places,” Hernandez said. “It’s useless.”

“Marshall hid ours somewhere, track those down.”

“They’ve been destroyed too.”

“Fuck me,” Sharp hissed. When were they going to catch a break with this bug baker?

Grace looked pale. “Sabotaged? When?”

“Don’t know,” March answered.

“General Stone and Colonel Marshall need to know.”

“Fill them in, Hernandez, then get your butt back here.”

Hernandez saluted and jogged away.

Sharp studied Grace’s expression. She was staring into space, her mind obviously working.

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