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“Don’t have to block the canyon anymore,” Lucas said. “The woman’s dead. We skinned the bark off a tree a half-mile down the hill, she’s right up the mountainside from there. Nobody can be allowed to go near the body. I don’t think anybody will because it’d be hard just to find her. Just in case…where’s your fourth man?”
“He was asleep and he’s on his way. I’ll put him down by that lady’s body.”
“Tell him to climb far enough up the hill that he can see her body, and not go any closer,” Rae said. “This is scary shit, man. Guard the bus until some federal biological people get here. They’re in a helicopter and on the way, should be here anytime.”
Letty: “We need to get up to Catton’s house.”
Tank pointed up the parking area and said, “That dirt road goes up the hill to her house. Steeper’n hell, the last part of it. You could make a ski run out of it. There’s a big stone building on the right side of the road as it goes up. Her place is maybe three or four hundred yards higher, after the road goes to one-lane. It’s a red house with black trim, two stories, concrete block lower level holding up a chalet-style house. The windows are black, that black glass. It’s the only place like it on the road.”
Lucas said, “If it’s only a few hundred yards, we should walk up…”
“I wouldn’t. It’s a real climb,” Tank said. “There are some places to park up there, you’d be better off driving most of the way, then walking the rest. You’ll be close to ten thousand feet when you get there. If you’re not acclimated, you’d be panting like golden retrievers.”
“All right,” Lucas said. He handed the M4 back to Hawkins. “You got your shit back together?”
“No. But I can function,” Hawkins said.
Letty swatted him on the butt. “Let’s go scout it out.”
—
They piled intoLucas’s SUV, leaving Tank guarding the RV, drove up the steeply pitched dirt road to the stone building on the right. They could see a point ahead where the road narrowed and decided to leave the SUV outside the stone building.
“If it’s got black windows, we won’t be able to see inside,” Hawkins said. “Might have to break in.”
Letty: “Let’s wait until the Detrick people get here. There’s no rush now—if there’s anyone in there, they can’t get past us.”
Rae: “I agree,” and Hawkins nodded.
They found the house, and settled in to watch, with Rae and Lucas on one corner, looking down the east and north sides, and Letty and Hawkins on the opposite corner, looking down the west and south sides. They were hooked together with their cell phones, which were now working well off the village phone link. They’d been sitting, watching for twenty minutes when they heard the helicopter coming in.
Letty called Lucas and said, “I should go down and talk to the guys on the chopper. Tank doesn’t know enough to fill them in.”
Lucas: “Go.”
Letty stood up and said to Hawkins, “I don’t think there’s anyone in there, but if you have to…”
“I will. I can,” he said, with another gloomy smile.
“See you in a bit,” she said. She reached out to stroke his cheek. “You’re gonna be okay.”
They’d been sitting on a rock above the house, and she hurried down to the road, then jogged past the stone building to the RV. The chopper had circled the village, and as she got to the bottom of the road, she saw it hovering over the wide parking area, between her and the RV.
Tank was standing on the other side, holding his hat on his head, like people do when a helicopter is around. She could see the pilot looking down at her, and her phone rang, and when she answered it, a man said, “My name is David Underwood. I’m in the helicopter and I was told that a young woman would be meeting us. Is that you running down the road?”
Letty said, “Yes. I’m coming. That RV has three people in it, alive, but I believe they’re suffering from Marburg or the effects of a Marburg vaccine. Or it could be a Marburg-measles hybrid.”
“Okay. Then we’re in the right place to set down?”
“Yes. I’ll be there in one minute.”
—
A minute later,the helicopter, which had the name “Firehawk” on the side, was on the ground, the prop whining as it wound down. Two men and a woman were clambering out. Letty jogged up and said, “I’m Letty Davenport, DHS. We’ve got the body of a woman down the hill who was inside the bus with the sick people, and not wearing anything protective—no protective clothing.”
“How sick was…” the woman began.
Letty: “We don’t know. We shot her. She’s dead.”
