Page 87 of Lethal Game

“I can’t promise you one hundred percent safety,” Con said, looking unhappy about it.

Little did he know, he couldn’t protect her from the deadliest enemy she had.

Her own body.

Chapter Eighteen

There was a small riseto the northwest of the hospital tent. It wasn’t much, but it was better than flat terrain. “Let’s pitch your tent over there,” Con said, thrusting his chin in the direction of the hill. “Close enough for easy access to the hospital, far enough to see trouble coming.” He, Smoke, River, and the Marines grabbed up most of the bags, leaving just two for Sophia.

She made enough noise behind him that he didn’t have to look to know she was back there.

Once he reached the spot he liked, he dropped his bags, nodded at the men, and took hers from her.

They set up the lab tent first. It took them less time to get the structure up than the first time they’d done it, but it took longer to anchor it to the sandy ground. They had to pound anchor pins several feet deep.

Sophia wasn’t idle while they played construction crew. She pulled out the segmented furniture that unfolded into barstool-tall surfaces she calledbenches. Only these benches weren’t for sitting, they were for the pint-sized lab equipment she was going to use to determine the pathogen causing all the sickness and death.

By the time the tent was anchored, she was setting up her equipment.

Connor left her to it and took Smoke, River, and the Marines aside. “I want you on a two on, two off rotation,” he said to the Marines. “Your job is to defend Dr. Perry and her equipment. If things go FUBAR,sheis top priority. Got it?”

“What will you and Sergeants Smoke and River be doing, sir?” Henry asked.

“She’s my primary responsibility. I go wherever she goes. Smoke and River are going to go where they’re needed. You might be coming with us, or you could be staying with the equipment. It’s going to depend on what’s happening at the time. Right now, I want two of you to patrol the area. Look for places where an attack might come from. The other two can set up a tent, which we will all use for sleeping.”

“Yes, sir,” the Marines said in unison. They didn’t talk to each other, but Henry and Stalls got to work on the tent while Macler and Norton began their patrol.

They were already a team. That was a very good thing since their situation was one where no one knew what the outcome might be.

Con walked over to Sophia and crouched next to her. She was sorting through a bunch of power cords and chargers. “What do you plug all this in to?” he asked.

“Everything runs on batteries, like the ones in a laptop computer. See those black boxes?” She pointed at a row of four sitting in one of the open bags on the ground. “Those are the backup battery chargers. Between them and the batteries in the analyzers, I’ve got enough power here for about twenty-four hours of continuous use. After that, I’ll need to charge the batteries with the solar panels.”

He had to admit he couldn’t see anything he’d change with the setup. “That’s pretty slick.”

“It took a while to develop the technology for us to do this. But there’s a strong market for this kind of thing in several industries. From communications to search and rescue.”

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