Page 67 of Viral Justice

He knew the general wasn’t just referring to himself, but all of the men on the mission, and the woman too.

“I will.” He ended the call.

Tom glanced at him. “Get what you wanted?”

“General Stone is no fool.”

Tom grunted. “I don’t know about that. He sent his daughter out on a mission that had danger written on it with radioactive letters.”

“I had no idea you cared so much, Tomahawk.”

Both men turned to find Ali coming out to join them.

“It’s a lousy thing for a father to do, put his daughter in danger,” Tom told her, censure in every word.

Max winced. Ali was going to go ballistic.

“Fuck you very much,” she said to Tom. “No one has to explain jack-shit to you, but since all our asses are on the line, I’ll do it just this once. I made the request to be on this team. You know why? Because I’m a woman and women are still not allowed on active duty as Special Forces soldiers. I can beat any man out there. Itrainyou sonsofbitches. This is as close as I could get to doing the work I should have been doing years ago.”

“He’s still your dad.”

“Yeah, he is. Where do you think I got my charming personality and winning smile?” She showed off those teeth in the most dangerous smile Max had ever seen.

He cleared his throat and glanced at both soldiers. “Stone, what do you think is really going on here?”

“Colonel,” Ali said lowering her voice, “I think someone went fishing and you...wetook the bait.”

Tom nodded in agreement.

They thought he got suckered?

“I should have let a viral plague just go on its merry way?” he asked them. “Despite calls for help? Despite my team’s mission to eradicate these kinds of biological threats before they can become weapons in the hands of ruthless people?”

Ali lifted her chin. “No, you have a duty to react to shit like this, and you also have a duty to make sure your intel is high quality so you don’t lose any men or any of your fancy microscopes.”

“Sometimes,” Max said, leaning close, “no matter how much you know or how hard you try, things still go wrong. The job still has to get done.”

“Fuck, Dad,” Tom said. “You sound like a recruiting ad on TV.”

“Did you or did you not volunteer for this mission?” Max asked him.

“Stuck my hand in the air as high as it would go.” The soldier grinned. “I guess we’re all a bunch of fuckwits.”

“Lovely,” Max said, punching in the number for Eugene’s personal cell phone.

“Sir?” Eugene answered.

“We’ve run into a few problems. I’m going to need another portable lab, plus a few other things. I have a list.”

“Yes, sir.” He paused, then said, “Shoot.”

“Viral identification packages three, four, and six. The hot vaccine package and enough materials for five hundred doses.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

“Add some basic medical supplies to the drop General Stone is going to authorize shortly.”

“Very good, sir.”

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