Page 107 of Lethal Game

“I’ll ask,” Len said with a laugh as plastic as his personality. “Just to cut through all this bullshit.”

“No,” Sophia told him. “Dr. Blairmore is a big boy. If he’s fluent enough to understand what this man was yelling, he’s fluent enough to ask a simple question.”

Blairmore glared at her, then haltingly asked the intruder a question.

The man spit on the sand.

Blairmore opened his mouth, to say what, Sophia wasn’t sure, but she didn’t care either. “I got it. A spit is a spit in any language.”

Blairmore opened his mouth again and again she spoke first. “Water. I threw water in his face. Clean bottled water.”

Blairmore said something in Dari to the man, who relaxed a fraction.

Blairmore looked at her and sneered. “Stupid woman. We need these people’s cooperation, if not respect, in order to continue our work here.”

“I need for someone to not stab or shoot me,” Sophia replied. “So I can do my work and leave. Now,” she said taking a step toward him, “tell me what awful thing you, and this man, thought I’d thrown on his face.”

Blairmore’s jaw sagged for a moment, before he drew himself up and retorted, “I don’t understand the question.”

“Both of you were quite worried I’d thrown something dangerous on him. Something that could pass as water, or be transported in water. What is it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sergeant Button.” She turned to Con. “Please tell us what the penalties are for impeding this investigation?”

“Penalties?” Blairmore sputtered. “What are you talking about? You’re here to helpme.”

“The United States Army Biological Rapid Response Team,” Con said in a clear, loud voice, “has been tasked with, and granted investigative jurisdiction over, this outbreak by the World Health Organization and the government of Lebanon.”

Blairmore’s jaw dropped again. This time, it stayed down.

“If you are deemed a danger to, or an impediment of, said investigation, the penalty is ten years’ incarceration in the country the offense occurred.”

“You’re here to help us,” Blairmore said in a small voice.

“Yes and no,” Sophia told him. She had no time or sympathy for idiots. “We brought food, water, support, and supplies, but my first priority is to determine the pathogen causing this outbreak. My only goal is to save lives. If you can’t or won’t assist that goal, get the fuck out of my way. If you choose to ignore this warning, I will make sure you get thrown into the deepest, darkest hole available for every second of those ten years.”

He stared at her, so silent and still he had to have stopped breathing.

“I’m waiting for you to respond with your agreement to comply or your departure plan,” she said. “Which is it?”

Blairmore swallowed so hard she could see it from where she stood. “I...I understand.”

“Good. What did you think I threw on him?”

Blairmore took a long time to respond. When he finally did, he stuttered through the whole sentence. “I was told that...that you might try to steal the credit for all the work I— We’ve done here.”

She waited.

“One of the local leaders told me you might try to test a new vaccine for Ebola here.” He shrugged with one shoulder. “He’d heard a rumor that the American military wanted to test a vaccine made from the live virus. That you needed an isolated population and that this vaccine could be delivered by mixing it with water, and consumed or even absorbed through the mucus membranes in the mouth, nose, and eyes.”

“And you believed this shit?” she demanded. “No reputable doctor would condone such an action.”

Blairmore sneered at her. “Youaren’t apeopledoctor.”

She examined his face and saw nothing but disdain colored by fear.

She would get no help from him, nor could she trust him. She took another step forward. “You are afool. Stay out of my way, stay away from this area, and if you do or say anything to jeopardize this investigation, you will find yourself in that hole.”

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