Page 77 of Lethal Game

“I’ll meet you at Eugene’s desk.” He turned and headed for the door.

“Con?”

He turned. “Yeah?”

“I haven’t forgiven you.”

He grinned at her. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

***

Sophia wanted to kissthe smug smile off his face. Or cry. Or scream the rage out of her body. There were too many emotions churning inside her, all of them looking for an exit, only there wasn’t one.

Her unit of platelets finished infusing. Time to go.

Only there wasn’t much time left for her to do anything. No time left to make her mark or enjoy the full sexual experience with the aggravating, amazing man who’d just left.

Perhaps she should tell Max about her low cell counts, let him really send her home. But if she did that she really would leave him with too few specialists to do the work he and the Army needed to do.

The door to Max’s office opened and Max walked in, shutting the door behind himself. He didn’t say anything as he came over and began the process of removing the intravenous line.

“I think you should request more specialists,” she said to him. “You don’t have enough teams.”

“Getting more teams put together is going to take time.”

“Then take the time.” She put her hand on his arm, bringing him to a stop as he was putting a Band-Aid on the back of her hand. “Akbar is only one man, but the threat only begins with him.”

He frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

“We’re fighting terrorists. They’re going to use every weapon they can to inflict damage and terror to anyone who doesn’t bow down to them. Biological weapons are the perfect terror weapon. Killing slowly, horribly, and without mercy.”

“I requested more staff and specialists two months ago, but there’s a shortage of everyone.”

“Is that why you’re not sending me home for real?”

Surprise made his eyes widen momentarily before he laughed and shrugged. “Yes.” He gestured at the bag of platelets. “You shouldn’t need this, Sophia.”

“I’ve never been within normal ranges in anything.”

“No, you haven’t.” He paused, then continued with, “I trust you to look after yourself while on this mission, because the men going with you need you.”

“You think the threat is real?”

“I do. Akbar is playing a lethal game. I need you to use that brain of yours to out-think him.”

“He’s willing to die, Max. He might even want to die. He’ll take risks no sane person would, and I think that might make the difference between winning and losing.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve been there. If you accept that death is inevitable, there is an intellectual freedom in it. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.” She knew, she was already risking her life.

“Where have I heard that line before?”

“Brigadier General, retired, Chuck Yeager.” Con walked all the way into the office and shut the door. “You two were taking too long.”

Max grunted. “I suppose a test pilot needs to have accepted the inevitability of death in order to take the risks he does.” He turned to Con. “What do you think?”

“I think she has a point. We’ve got to assume he’s going to do crazy suicidal shit.”

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