Page 116 of Viral Justice

He prepared two hypodermic needles and, before anyone could walk in and stop him, injected himself with one of them.

There. He’d done it, and no one was the wiser.

He laid the used needle on the counter and looked around for the sharps container he’d seen not five minutes ago.

Coban came running into the room. “My father won’t wake up.”

Oh no.

Max followed the boy into the room they’d been using for sleeping and found Ferhat unconscious and burning up. At this point there wasn’t a whole lot anyone could do, but Max started an IV anyway and had Holland watch over him.

He headed back to his lab.

Ali stood next to the tray he’d left on the counter, the used hypodermic in her hands. She glared at him with narrow eyes. “You injected yourself already, didn’t you?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Yes.”

“And if you die?” How dare he do this? They couldn’t afford to lose him.Shecouldn’t afford to lose him.

“The response to that would be no different than if I died from a bullet wound or an IED.” His tone was even and his words rational, but she couldn’t reconcile how it sounded with what it meant.

He’d just given himself an injection of an untested homemade vaccine, one that would kill him, protect him, or might not do a damn thing.

Frustration clawed at her insides until she wanted to knock him onto his back and tie him down so he couldn’t put himself in more danger.

“You’re not replaceable, Max.”

“Bullshit.”

Now she just wanted to smack him. “How many doses do you have left?”

“One and a third.”

“How can you have a third of a dose?”

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