Page 110 of Viral Justice

Max stared at him; all traces of understanding mentor gone. “What question?”

“I asked her if this flu was a man-made weapon.”

“How would she know the answer to that question?” Max’s voice was silky smooth. Bad things happened when he sounded like that.

“Well, she’s, uh, sleeping with...you, so I figured you might have told her a few things you hadn’t told us.”

No one said anything for about three seconds.

“You’re right,” Hunt said to Ali. “He is a moron.” He glanced at Max. “I’ll back her up, if that’s all right with you, Colonel.”

Max looked at her, and she nodded.

“Yes. Go.”

Ali and Hunt headed out.

“Stupid fuck,” Hunt muttered as he left.

“Sometimes I wonder if I’m the moron,” Ali said conversationally. “I work my ass off trying to get you guys trained, but every once in a while, an asshole still makes it through.”

“I might not always like you, Stone, but I damned sure respect you. Anyone who doesn’t is too stupid for the teams.”

“I can’t be everyone’s friend,” she said, keeping her tone level. “I have to be a bitch and push people to their limits in training or they’ll never discover just how much they can do or how far they’ll go. Hell, even Max knows that and he’s not a Snake Eater, he’s Medical.”

Hunt was silent as they quickly slid around the back of the hospital and up the mountain. Where they were going offered no good views of the valley or easy trail to leave the area, but it was full of gullies and washout ravines, the perfect area to drop a small bundle of supplies.

“Deployed is a terrible time to start a relationship.”

Ali looked sidelong at the other soldier. “Really? After the conversation I just had with the moron, you’re going to say that to me?”

“I have eyes in my head, you know, and they work too.”

“So what?”

“So, you two have your own...language.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“When a man and a woman really give a shit about each other, they have a way of looking at each other. Expressions and gestures meaning something more. Code words and phrases. They talk with their eyes.”

“I had no idea you were such a romantic.”

“I’m not, but my parents are like that.”

“You think the colonel and I have...that?”

“Yeah. You both try to act professional, but to anyone who knows you, it’s obvious. You defer to him like I’ve only ever seen you do with your father. Actually, it’s more. And he, shit, he eats you up with his eyes, and when you see it, you smile. If you saw that expression on anyone else, you’d tear their face off.” Hunt chuckled. “It’s been kind of cute watching the two of you.”

Cute? It wascutewatching them? It was lucky she hadn’t eaten anything much in the past couple of hours or she would have thrown it all up right on Hunt’s boots.

It was her worst nightmare, and now it was a reality.

All the men she’d trained, all the respect she’d gained, gone.

Poof.

They could all see it. They all knew. Sergeant Stone was fucking a man who was her superior officer and the man she was assigned to protect. She’d lost her objectivity and crossed a line she’d sworn never to cross.

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