Chapter 11

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"We have to save the samples!" She shouted in despair. They can't lose the samples, not now that they might have the primordial strain of the virus. Finally, after all this time.

"Leave the box! Let's go!" She heard Quincy's voice, recognizing the panic in the tone.

"Let's go! Right now!"

She grabbed the case under her arm and began running from the noisy helo hovering over their location. And as she ran as fast as she could, she felt the small pops hit the snowy ground as they were being fired at. Feeling her heart stomp in her chest as she moved her legs forward. It had to have been the adrenaline rush going through her body that kept her moving since her entire body had actually been stiff due to the cold temperature.

One of the pops got to her, grazing through her jacket at her side and she fell down. She managed to breath still despite the shock of the situation. She assessed the injury quickly in her mind as she crawled to the case that had slid away from her hands. The injury wasn't hurting that much so it had to be a flesh wound. She got back up and kept running, trying to avoid getting shot one more time. The second bullet might not be a miss.

Luckily the Navy SEAL's that had been assigned to protect her and her mission, not that they knew about the real mission, had saved her and Quincy. She was staring at all of them inside the helo as they were returning to the ship. Noticing the scared looks they held, the speculations running high in the air as to why they had just been attacked by the Russians. She suddenly felt like she was choking, she was full of secrets and Tom had already asked her the other day if she had something to hide. He would be all over her when she got back.

"I told you, I'm fine. Just hurry up." "Where's Quincy? I need my samples." Rachel leaned on a crate as a personnel of the Navy was patching up her side. She winced as he placed the bandage on.

"You don't get your samples until you tell me what's really going on!" She then heard Tom enter to the room and his voice echoed through the air in the hangar.

She was startled a bit as he continued raising his voice, now clearly quite angry as she heard his rough voice shout "Everybody out!"

"I don't have time to give you an explanation. I need my samples. Now." She turned around and stared at him, noticing his demeanor rather furious at the moment. The case was beside him on a table.

"We may have just gone to war with Russia, and they were clearly after you." Tom pointed a finger at her and added "Mike was right all along. What are you hiding from us?!"

"And no more goddamn secrets!" He shouted.

She remained silent. Glancing at the case and Tom. Hesitating in what she should do. What she should say.

"Tell me about the cure." He then said with a calmer voice and she felt her heart racing in panic. The Russian prisoner.. He had told Tom about the cure.

Rachel glanced at the case again and then continued to lock her eyes with Tom. She wasn't allowed to speak about her mission, but this was Tom. It wasn't an unknown Captain in front of her right now. Throwing in talk about authority over who, wasn't going to help her. It was Tom. She owed him the truth, and quite frankly, the tangled web of lies she had created around them.. Was beginning to have its toll on her. Perhaps it was time to clear her conscience, but would it help her to let go of her guilt? Her regrets?

"Seven months ago, outside Cairo, there was an outbreak, a virus of unknown origin."

"It's genetic structure was like nothing any of us had ever seen. It swept throughout the village, killing everyone that it infected." She began telling him as she walked back and forth in front of him. Needing to keep moving or else she just might freeze right there and then out of fear. This was Tom, and she had been lying to him all this time. To her surprise he listened quietly as she told him about the virus and how it began spreading and mutating.

"It was my belief that we needed to find the primordial strain here in the Arctic." She got to the point in the story that explained why she was here. In the Arctic.

"The birds.." She heard his low voice and met his gaze briefly before continuing.

"They're just the carriers. They pick up the virus from the melting permafrost."

"We finally found their feeding ground." She said forcefully.

"So you have what you need to stop this thing?" Tom stepped closer keeping his eyes on her. He couldn't believe that she had been lying to him and to the entire crew this whole time.

"I need to analyze the samples to know for sure. We're running out of time." Rachel stopped in her tracks and gestured towards the case. Tom glanced down at it too.

"The virus back home is moving quicker than any of us could've imagined." She then added. Knowing that there would be more agitation ahead. She hadn't been at EMCON, she had been in contact with the labs back home.

"How would you know that? We've been radio silent since we left Norfolk." Tom gave her a puzzled look.

"Because I have my own sat phone." She replied.

"We were at EMCON so no one would know our position!" Tom raised his voice again and stepped even closer to her. She felt her breathing getting heavier, like something was blocking her airway. Panic? Fear? She didn't think he would lay his hands on her, but he was angry. She had never seen this side of him.

"We were at EMCON to protect my mission, not yours. Orders came from the White House!" She raised her voice equally all the while staring at him. Not wanting to give away her fear in the moment.

"Well, you led the Russians right to us and endangered my entire crew!" He stated and shook his head in disbelief.

"It was imperative that I stay in contact with the labs back home, to keep them informed of my progress." She explained.

With a slow voice she added "I don't think you understand what we're talking about here."

"Enlighten me then." Tom replied with a defeated look.

"When we left Norfolk, the virus was at Phase Two, limited to small clusters in Asia and Africa."

"We are now at Phase Six, global pandemic."

"80 percent of the world's population is infected. The world is sick.. Tom.. Very sick." She slowly reached to touch his overarm but he stepped away from her, before she could touch him.

"Are you telling me the whole world is dying, and they send two people to save it?" He asked.

"It was after several of weeks of trying to prove my cause that the government finally send me here, and even then it might have been too late. Most of my colleagues thought that I'm insane." She said.

"Are you?"

"I told you. That what's in that case might be the only hope that we have." She shared a look with him.

After a moment of silence he asked with a low voice "Is there something else you want to tell me? Are you done with all the secrecy now?"

Rachel swallowed hard and met his gaze. She hadn't never seen him this emotional before, this angry. Angry at her. Disappointed at her. She wondered if he regretted ever knowing her? Loving her? She had betrayed him before, but this was a whole new scale of betrayal. As her mind went through the years, she wondered if it was time. Time to tell him. Time to give him yet another reason to hate her.

There was a heavy silence in the room and as her gaze wandered a bit before connecting with him again, she barely got the words out of her mouth "I got pregnant." "We have a child together." Her deepest secret she had been carrying around all these years, was now in the open. Perhaps all the dishonesty between them would be over now, when he finally knew everything.

He looked at her, not sure if he had heard her right. "I got pregnant. We have a child together." He had his mouth open but there were no words. He was stunned and speechless. First she tells him that 80 percent of the world's population is dead or dying, probably his own family included. And now this. All this time she has been keeping this from him. They have a child together, a child whom he never knew about. And she never tried to contact him and tell him.

The door opened behind them and Mike came interrupting their talk "Captain, we have the President of the United States on the vidcom."

He stared at her, squeezing his hands into fists beside his body, getting rid of some of the tension he felt inside of him, right now he felt like punching the wall. Had he ever known this woman?

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, about everything." She quietly added with a soft voice.

"Tom?" Mike asked again and he began retreating backwards slowly and left the room with Mike.

What have I done? Rachel thought as she leaned to the table holding on to the case. This was just the start of a one hell of a storm.

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