Page 119 of Lethal Game

He frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Len laughed. “She means you’re crazy.”

Rage transformed Akbar’s ordinary face into that of a monster as he yelled at Len in Dari.

Len looked utterly surprised for a moment before he managed to control his reaction.

“Now do you see what I see, Len?” Sophia asked. “Do you see death on his face?” She moved her gaze from Len’s face to Akbar’s. “He’d kill the whole world if he could.”

Akbar controlled himself enough to let his facial muscles relax and settle into a cold expression devoid of emotion.

His eyes couldn’t hide it though, his hatred for everything and everyone. When his family died, any conscience this man had died too.

He walked toward her, stopped a couple of feet away, then hit her hard enough to knock her off her feet.

Stunned, she lay on the sand, one hand landing in part of the blood pool that had belonged to Stalls, the other braced to defend herself from another strike.

“Now you will listen to me, you stupidwoman.” He said the last word like it was something dirty. “You will do as you’re told or I will kill you and the remaining men who came here with you.”

She stared up at him and tried not to give away how ridiculous she thought he was. She wasalreadydying.

But Con, Smoke, and River might still be alive. She would have to play his game until she knew for certain what their conditions were.

“I’m guessing you want me to manipulate your rabies virus in some way?”

He nodded.

“That is not a fast process, nor is it an easy one to control.” Disgust and contempt stretched the muscles of her face. “Besides, it looks to me like you have a perfectly good killer virus as it is.”

“No, it’s missing something.”

“Like what?”

“Easy transmission from person to person.”

Good God, combined with its rapid onset and death, that would give it the potential to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth. “You don’t need me for that. You did a good job of speeding the lifespan of the infection up.”

“Methods of transmission was one of the key things you studied in your PhD dissertation,” Akbar said. “Some of your conclusions would have required a deep understanding of how the rabies and related viruses are transmitted. Some are transmitted more easily than others.”

He’d read her dissertation. That was unfortunate. She couldn’t hide what she knew and didn’t know. What she didn’t know was how to change a rabies virus’s mode of transmission. It wasn’t something she’d even thought of at the time.

“That’s true, but I don’t know how to change the ease of transmission for rabies. It doesn’t survive well outside the body.” She glanced at the hospital. “Humans die from it, they can’t carry it like some bats or foxes can. It’s just not a good candidate for causing a pandemic.” What she couldn’t understand was why he’d chosen it in the first place. There was a legion of more easily transmitted deadly diseases. “Why rabies?”

“Death is painful, for both infected and non-infected,” he said like he was some kind of emotional vampire, excited at the prospect of feeding off other people’s pain. Then he looked at her again and said, “You will work on the problem or you will die.”

“How am I supposed to do that? My little lab is great for diagnostic work, but not research. Not for what you want me to do.” It would also take time. Time this nut bar didn’t have. If she and Connor didn’t report in, Max would know there was something wrong and investigate.

“Don’t worry, Dr. Perry, I have additional equipment waiting for you at another location. As soon as my transportation gets here, we’ll be leaving, but you can start now.” He strode closer and she shrank away. “You’re smart for a woman. Figure it out, make progress, or I will kill one of the American soldiers right now.”

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