Page 65 of Convergence

“You thought killing off most of the population was herkink?” Nate asked incredulously.

“No, man! She would talk sometimes about me getting her pregnant and her being the only woman that a bunch of guys had kids with.” Everett rubbed his hands over his jeans like his palms were sweaty and shifted in his seat again. “It sounded like orgy stuff. But I never really thought about it.”

“I knew there was something wrong with that chick,” Nate said.

“Yeah, right,” I laughed to diffuse the tension.

“Anyway, we think her job was to keep you three focused on her. If you focused on her and all her antics, you had less time to focus on each other and people outside of your house,” Jimmy continued.

“She was always trying to make me and Nate jealous of each other,” Everett said and took Nate’s hand that wasn’t holding mine.

“She tried to make me think you guys would never like me and I shouldn’t try to be your friend and especially not more than friends,” I said, looking to Nate, who had seen the texts.

“We’ve seen her texts and pictures to you three and her flirting nature to each of you have us thinking that she was trying to keep you occupied, as separate as possible, and loyal to her,” Jimmy said, and his tone suggested finality to the topic.

“Good thing none of it worked,” Nate said with a relieved sigh.

“For long, you mean,” Everett corrected.

“Eh, I think having to blow up a building before going on the run constitutes as too long,” I mumbled. I heard Jimmy huff a laugh in response while both Ev and Nate looked gloomily out the windows.

26

Jimmy dropped us off on the helicopter pad of a hospital in New York City with the instruction to go with the person waiting for us. We landed smoothly, though it was still a nerve-wracking experience. Once we settled on the ground, we looked out the windows and saw three New York City police officers waiting. My stomach churned, and I reached for my guys.

“What the hell?” Everett demanded of Jimmy. His voice was harsh and angry. “I thought we had clearance!”

“You do, for now, until you can prove otherwise,” Jimmy said easily. “The cops in the city have been briefed on the situation. Going forward, you will work with them to not only catch the group that Daisy and Hoffmann are a part of, but to prove yourselves innocent. Good luck.”

And with that, we hopped out of the helicopter and the police escorted us into the lab in the hospital's basement. Nobody spoke on the way, and it wasn’t a comfortable silence. In the basement, they had sectioned a part of the lab off with clear plastic for us to use. A few lab techs were there, but only glanced at us as we entered. They must have known we were coming.

“You are to identify the samples in there and let us know if they are your bacteria,” one cop informed us.

“How were these samples found?” Everett asked as we suited up. “I mean to ask- how were the samples gathered? Saliva? Blood?”

“Petri dishes,” another cop replied.

“Wait, they were already plated?” Nate asked, getting his gloves on.

“We found them in a location that one suspect had been hiding,” the first cop elaborated.

My stomach jumped at the thought of them being close to catching Daisy or Hoffmann. My hands shook slightly as I put my gloves on and I closed my eyes to take steadying breaths. It was looking at some slides and running a few samples through the PCR machine. I could do this.

We worked quietly and diligently as we ran tests on the three samples they had supplied us. We ran the tests a few times to be sure and only found three common bacteria. They could make someone sick but were not life threatening. Basically, what they found in Hoffman or Daisy’s hiding spot were three strains of bacteria that would give someone a cold or an upset stomach.

“Why would they have those?” a cop asked us after focusing his body camera on us.

“Well, it’s hard to say exactly.” Everett ran a hand over his hair and sighed. “Maybe they thought they had something more dangerous. They could be looking for co-infections, so bacteria that will infect a person at the same time as our bacteria and potentially make a person sicker. Or they could be trying to release something that presents with similar symptoms as our bacteria to incite more panic. Honestly, it’s difficult to figure out without knowing what their plans were in the first place.”

The cops were satisfied with his answer and asked nothing else before escorting us out of the hospital. We walked with our three police escorts to a hotel a few blocks from the hospital and up to the fifth floor. One cop opened the door and gestured for us to enter.

“How long are we here for?” Ev asked, holding the door open.

“I don’t know. My orders were to keep you three here until further notice,” one of the police said.

“Are we being arrested?” Nate asked.

“Not currently. You’re still people of interest and also assets to the investigation, so we’ll always have police outside this door. If you think of anything integral to the investigation, let one of us know. Otherwise, we’ll let you know when something comes up,” the cop said before closing the door with a “Oh, and uh, Merry Christmas.”

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