Contagious

Murray stopped talking. He stood motionless, his hands by his sides. Donald, Vanessa and Tom all turned to look at John. He took a long sip of water. What the f.u.c.k was he going to do with Hutchins’s little going-away present?

He set the water down.

“Donald,” John said. “In your position as secretary of defense, do you think these things are hostile?”

Donald nodded. “Based on what we’ve been told, yes.”

He looked at Vanessa. “And you?”

She looked as if it pained her to say the words. “I also would agree, but based on what we’ve been told, Mister President, we have to go public with this.”

“Are you f.u.c.king nuts?” Murray said. He looked at everyone in the room, then stood a little straighter. “My apologies for my outburst, but this is a bad time to go public. Doctor Montoya is developing a test that will detect the disease. We have Phillips’s team in place, and we’re actively seeking additional hosts.”

“Trust the people,” Vanessa said. “We need to tackle this as a nation.”

John leaned back in his chair. Nothing like a major, possibly historical decision to kick off his presidency in style.

“Murray,” John said. “How long until the test is ready?”

“We can’t say for sure,” Murray said. “At least a week, but we won’t know if it works until we find more hosts.”

Opening up this can of worms to the public... now might not be the time. Murray Longworth had kept things secret for five administrations; John imagined he could do the same for a sixth.

“Two weeks,” John said. “I want two weeks to evaluate the situation. Let’s get that test working and move from there. And, Murray, keep this thing quiet.”

Murray nodded. He looked pleased, as if somehow he’d known all along that this was how the meeting would turn out. John couldn’t miss his small smile.

John could also see that Vanessa didn’t miss it, either.

TAD TAKES A LEAP

They were going to get him.

Tad wasn’t going to let that happen, even if he had to kill himself.

The window slid open.

Curtains blew back, thrown by the same nighttime wind that splashed cold rain and bits of ice into the face of Thadeus “Tad” McMillian Jr.

He hoped his little brother wouldn’t wake up. When Sam woke

Mom and Dad, who wanted to get Tad.

Tad got down off of his toy box. He picked up the box and lugged it over to his brother’s crib. Carrying it hurt the blisters on his hands, but he had to stand on the toy box to reach inside the crib, just like he needed it to reach the sliding window’s latch. Tad set the box down next to the crib, stood on top and reached in to pull the blankets up tight under the baby’s chin. That would keep Sam warm. Tad gently brushed his brother’s hair, then leaned in and kissed the baby on the forehead.

“Good-bye,” Tad whispered.

He got down and lugged the box to the window one last time.

“Good luck, Sam,” Tad said quietly, looking back at his brother. “I really hope you don’t wind up like Sara.”

Tad held on to the window frame as he put his feet up on the metal sash. Freezing rain instantly soaked his s.h.i.+rt. Bits of wet ice stung his face. A gust of wind almost blew him back, but he adjusted his balance and held on.

It was better this way. Anything was better than staying here.

Tad McMillian jumped into the night.

OGDEN GETS READY TO RUMBLE

Not too far outside of South Bloomingville, Ohio, in the hushed darkness of winter woods, Colonel Charlie Ogden stood tall behind a loose line of nine men. The men were his personal squad, Fifth Platoon, X-Ray Company, Domestic Reaction Battalion. X-Ray Company was the unit’s official name, but in the usual testosterone-stoked spirit of the military the men called themselves something else.

They called themselves the Exterminators.

The boys had even come up with unit insignia: a lightning bolt hitting an upside-down c.o.c.kroach. They wore it on the right shoulder. Under it they added small black triangle patches for each combat mission, and decorated the triangle with a white X for each monster killed.

Ogden’s sleeve had two black triangles. The first triangle bore two white X’s. That was because Colonel Charlie Ogden didn’t sit in a Hummer miles from the action. He led from the front. And when you led from the front, sometimes you had to fight.

But that didn’t mean he was stupid—his personal squad was the best of the Exterminators, men who could chew rusty Buicks and s.h.i.+t stainless-steel nails. The fifth platoon of any company usually consisted of support staff, drivers, armorers—mostly noncombat troops—but since Ogden could do just about whatever he wanted, he’d given himself a personal guard that could jump into any fight at any time.

On Ogden’s left stood Corporal Jeff Cope, his ten-pounds-too-heavy communications man. On his right, the swarthy Sergeant Major Lucas Mazagatti, his top NCO. Behind him, observing, stood the overly tanned Captain David Lodge, commander of Whiskey Company, and Lodge’s ma.s.sive, intense sergeant major, Devon “Nails” Nealson.

“Give me an update, Corporal,” Ogden said.

“Third Platoon will be in position, due west of the target, in ten minutes,” Cope said. “Fourth will take up security posture to the northwest of target in twenty minutes. First and Second platoons in position just ahead of us, sir.”

The 120 men of X-Ray Company were almost ready.

“Excellent,” Ogden said. “Air support?”

“Predator drones to northeast of target,” Cope said. “Four Apaches on station one mile out. Target is painted, the Apaches can destroy it at any time. Two F-15Es with GBU-31s on station five miles out. Two more F-15Es in reserve, seven miles out.”