The team of scientists and Five-O arrived at the facility without further incident, and Danny heaved a sigh of relief. He made a mental note to give in and start hiking with Steve on a regular basis - this job was always going to involve treks in the jungle, apparently.
Dr. Huntington stepped up to the elaborate keypad and video screen at a small, narrow door. He keyed in a sequence of numbers, and the video screen flared to life in a burst of static. A young woman's face appeared.
"Dr. Huntington," she sighed.
"Jamie," he said quietly. "I'm sorry. How are you and Paul holding up?"
"We're fine for now," she said. "Barely symptomatic; just some fatigue."
"The others?" he asked.
"We've got three in early stages - fever, chills, mild respiratory and cardiac elevation," she said. "And two in . . . well, it's bad."
"We have supplies," Dr. Huntington said. "Oxygen, morphine . . . plenty of morphine, Jamie."
They could see her brush tears from her eyes. "Enough? For all of us?"
"More than enough, for all of you," Dr. Huntington said, his voice breaking. "I'll stay. I don't . . . I'll stay, Jamie. I'll see you and Paul through, I'll initiate the sterilization protocol."
Steve held up a finger, and Dr. Huntington pressed a mute button on the video screen.
"Just so we're clear," Steve said quietly, "you're offering to . . . oversee the final . . . treatment, of their symptoms, and then - what? Burn the place to the ground?"
"Yes," Dr. Huntington said simply. "I'll ensure they do not suffer, and when they've passed, I'll initiate the protocol that incinerates the entire facility."
"How will you get - oh," Steve said. "You don't plan to leave."
"The risk of contagion would be too great," Dr. Huntington said. "This was my facility, my research, Commander. Don't tell me that you don't understand that level of responsibility, because I can see in your eyes that you do."
"You never intended to leave here, did you?" Steve asked.
"No. The last person standing is likely to suffer greatly," Dr. Huntington said, "if they are too confused or disoriented to administer the . . . adequate dosage of morphine. I can't let the last person standing be one of my people."
Steve looked at him for a long moment. "I understand," he said quietly. "Okay, we can get you into the building."
"Steve -" Danny started to protest, but stopped short and sighed. It wasn't like he didn't understand. "I know. I'd do the same if it was our team."
Dr. Huntington released the mute button. "We have someone here who can get us into the building."
"Very unlikely," Jamie said. "I'm afraid you've come this way for nothing. It's impenetrable, and there are so many layers of code, of security . . . even if you'd brought camping gear and worked around the clock, I don't see how . . ."
"Let us worry about that," Chin said, peering briefly over Huntington's shoulder into the camera.
Riley placed her pack on the ground near the control panel and began looking carefully at the device.
"Are all of your people accounted for? Inside the facility?" Steve asked, looking into the small camera.
"Yes," Jamie said, surprised. "Paul and myself are still in the lab. The others are in a quarantine area."
"And you're sure all five are there?" Steve demanded.
"Quite sure," Jamie insisted. "Why do you ask?"
"There was someone, in scrubs, tracking us on the trail," Steve said. "I lost them when they went over a waterfall."
"Oh for crying . . . I'm sorry," Jamie said. "We had a drop shipment of food and new clothing come up missing. We thought animals had destroyed it, but . . . there were times, when we were outside of the facility, that we had a sense that we weren't alone on the island. We asked one of the local ship captains who ferried our supplies for us, and he said there have always been rumors of random people hiding out here."
Riley smiled to herself, thinking of how much Jerry would love this whole scenario - minus, of course, the reality of people actually dying. She had selected a set of cables and was busy connecting a portable keyboard and small screen.
"Are the doors wired with explosives? Gas? Shrapnel?" Riley asked, popping her head up into view of the camera.
"Are the - excuse me?" Jamie asked. At her side, well out of the view of the camera, her hand gestured wildly to Paul. She stalled a minute to buy more time, so that he could get a good look at their objective. "Explosives? What on earth?"
Riley shrugged. "Usually, a place that's this heavily secured, has some sort of physical deterrent, in the event that an operator gets past the codes. Explosives, gas, shrapnel, for example," she listed slowly.
"We . . . no," Jamie said. "I'll let you get to it. I appreciate everyone going to this much trouble, but I really don't think it's going to work." The screen flickered and her image disappeared.
Steve turned his attention to Riley. "Can you break the codes?"
Her fingers were flying over the keyboard. "Hmm, that would be a good question if there were codes to break. In this case, the computer program itself is the only entity which knows the codes."
Steve laughed softly. "I worked with a gunny sergeant once, had a rule for everything. His rule for keeping secrets was, 'best way to keep a secret is keep it to yourself - second best, tell only one other person'."
"Well, the computer operates under the best practice," Riley said. "See, it's a self-generating random sequencer."
"Okay, I get that," Steve said, nodding.
"Right," Riley said, "so what I have to do is circumvent the sequencing program altogether, it's pointless because the self-generating is also self-replicating, so every keystroke triggers another sequence, and without a finite boundary protocol, the possibilities are . . . well, they're literally infinite. And people use that term, but they don't really mean it. What they really mean is, improbably large, possibly impossible to calculate, but ultimately - finite. This, however, is truly infinite."
Steve, with his Naval intelligence training, could follow most of what she was saying, although his brain was scrambling to keep up with her pace. The rest of the group stared at her in amazement.
"So . . . you're saying you can't hack it?" Steve asked.
"Exactly," Riley said. Dr. Huntington's shoulders slumped in defeat. "So, I'm just gonna hotwire it," Riley added cheerfully. "It's going to take me a few minutes, though. This is a really complex system."
Chin leaned against the wall and shook his head as Steve took a moment to stand in the shade with him. "Steve," he said, "you're probably going to want to put some sort of plan in place so that she doesn't ever get . . . bored."
"Yeah," Steve said, staring at his sister with a mixture of fondness and alarm.
#*#*#*#*#
Jamie's heart sank as she heard the massive deadbolt tumbler whirl through an improbable number of turns, and then release. She had secretly hoped that this wunder kid, whoever she really was, would find it impossible to overcome the lockdown protocol. Jamie wrapped her hand around the syringe in her pocket. The young woman had overcome the protocol, though, and she'd been told that in that event, the DNA sequencing and enhancements were still effective, and that this last ditch effort to find a vaccine and cure might just work.
Dr. Huntington sighed in relief - for what everyone assumed was thankfulness that he could alleviate his team's suffering. This was it - his last hope for redeeming his program. When former Director Garrison had contacted him, from his secure rehabilitation center, he'd scoffed at the idea. But after reviewing what had been salvaged of the former Shelburne Project, Dr. Huntington had signed the non-disclosure agreement with the CIA and perpetuated the ruse. And after seeing McGarrett firsthand, he'd understood the absolute necessity for the deception: McGarrett would have simply burned the island to the ground - with Huntington on it - before he'd allowed Riley to serve as a host for the virus.
"I can't believe it," Jamie said, as the door swung open on perfectly balanced hinges.
"Well, we do our job," Steve said tersely. He had placed himself adjacent to the doorway, allowing just enough room for Huntington and the other scientists to slip through. He ignored their gear bouncing off his elbow and hip, and didn't budge. "Huntington, I'll set up a pick-up with the Coasties, provide a way that you can contact them twenty-four seven, when you're ready for your team to be retrieved."
Dr. Huntington locked eyes with Jamie and nodded imperceptibly.
"We have a problem," she said. "Our sick team members are in quarantine area."
"Which is good," Steve said impatiently. "We'll get out of your way so that you can get these supplies to them."
"That's the problem," she said. "Same protocol. Same lock. Same system. Please," she continued, her voice breaking. "I can't bear the thought of Paul and I dying peacefully, while they die -" she broke off. "They're my friends. They're good people."
Steve hesitated and glanced at Chin, Danny, and Kono. They tried to keep their faces impassive, to follow his lead, but he saw the bright shine of tears in Kono's eyes, the sad resignation in Chin and Danny's - what if it were Kono and Chin locked in quarantine, and he and Danny able to help . . .
"Shit," he swore quietly. "Okay. We'll get you in. But you and the other guy - you keep your distance. And you wait until we are clear of here before you actually open that door, understood?"
"Of course, Commander," she said. "Thank you. Thank you so much. It's just right this way."
The hallway was narrow, and Jamie led the way, with Huntington on her heels. Steve and Riley followed.
"Watch them," Steve murmured to Chin, Danny, and Kono, tilting his head toward the scientists who were unpacking and organizing their supplies.
"Understood," Chin nodded.
As the four neared the locked door at the end of the hallway, they could hear . . . sounds. Very disturbing sounds.
"What the hell?" Steve hissed at Dr. Huntington.
"It's the fever," he sighed. "I told you - disorientation, confusion . . . the two first infected are in severe pain by now, and probably confused as to why. You see now why I was so desperate to at least try to administer some pain relief, some sedation."
Steve hesitated, his large frame blocking Riley's progression down the hall.
"Please," Jamie said, her voice breaking again. "That's going to be me and Paul in a few days. I know it, I've accepted it. Please, don't make us listen to that, listen to it get worse, locked out here, helpless, waiting our turn. Please, just unlock the door, so we can at least give them some pain relief. Some measure of dignity in their death."
Steve still hesitated.
"If it was your team," Jamie said, holding out her hands to the door. "Just unlock it. I swear, we won't turn the handle until your entire team is back outside. Surely, she can lock the doors behind you."
Steve sighed and looked at Riley.
"I can reengage the system," she said quietly. "When I do that, though, it will literally fry the circuits. No one, not even me, will be able to open it a second time."
Dr. Huntington nodded, and Steve stepped in front of Huntington, blocking him from Riley, and let Riley slip by him on the other side.
The sounds of horrific suffering of her colleagues had steeled Jamie's resolve, and the moment Riley was within her reach, she struck. Adrenaline fueling her system, she overcame every hint of fatigue and pain, and the jet-injection syringe made contact with Riley's neck in a split second. She depressed the plunger and heard the distinctive hiss.
It was done.
Jamie dropped the syringe and held up her hands, backing flat against the wall, as Riley gasped and raised a hand to her neck.
"What the hell did you do?" Steve roared, his voice echoing down the narrow hallway as he pulled his SIG and shoved it in Jamie's face. "What did you do?"
Riley looked at the door. There was no control panel, no video screen . . . no evidence of a lock.
"Steve," she said quietly, pointing.
"I knew it," Steve ground out. "I knew it, I knew something was off. What the hell did you do to my sister, hunh?" He flicked off the safety of his gun and grabbed the front of Jamie's lab coat, pushing her hard against the wall and holding the gun to her head.
"Commander McGarrett, you do not want to break her skin," Dr. Huntington said, slowly and carefully. "Jamie is infected. You are in no danger, as long as there's no blood exposure, remember? But if you shoot her, or even punch her, here in this narrow hallway, her blood spatters on you, me . . . your sister. So I suggest you put the gun away."
Steve heard the rapidly approaching footsteps of the rest of his team, and reluctantly flicked the safety back on his weapon and holstered it. He turned and put his hands on Riley's shoulders.
"Riley, are you okay? What . . ."
"Riley has been infected with the virus," Dr. Huntington said calmly.
"Don't touch me," Riley said, horrified, trying to get away from Steve. "Stay back, don't touch me, please, Steve, don't get sick."
"Shh, Riley," Jamie said. "You're not contagious. You're no where near contagious. The injection syringe didn't even break the skin, it's tech that MIT has been developing . . . it went straight through your skin, highly pressurized, at a microscopic density. The virus is only bloodborne, and there's zero exposure. Not airborne, not saliva, not urine, not feces." Her voice softened as she looked at the tears streaming down Riley's cheeks. "Not tears."
Chin, Kono, and Danny stood, frozen in horror. The sounds behind the closed door were nightmarish - low moans and broken sobs, with the intermittent shout of confused anger.
Steve looked at the door and back to Dr. Huntington and Jamie. "Why, for the love of God, would you deliberately infect my sister?" he asked, his voice breaking. "Is this . . . are you working for WoFat? Is this revenge?"
"Revenge?" Dr. Huntington said quickly, "No, oh my God, we aren't complete barbarians. As you pointed out, this isn't a weaponized drug."
Kono stifled a sob and reached for Riley, who pulled away, still terrified that she would make others sick.
"Is there enough morphine for me, too, then?" Riley asked, in a quiet voice.
"You don't understand," Dr. Huntington said. "The virus won't kill you. We've studied your DNA, don't you see? You will develop antibodies strong enough to overcome the virus. No one else can, but you are . . . special. You'll be able to. And from those antibodies, we'll develop a cure, and a vaccine . . . it's going to be one of the single most significant breakthroughs in virology -"
Dr. Huntington's eloquent speech was cut short by almost two hundred pounds of angry Navy SEAL throwing him bodily down the hallway.
"Cuff him," Steve yelled, and while Danny and Chin each held a shoulder, Kono had Huntington's wrists slapped in cuffs before he could take another breath.
Steve ignored Riley's soft protests and pulled her against him, tucking her face into the crook of his neck, his hand cupping around the back of her head.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "Riley, I'm so sorry. We'll figure this out, I swear. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. We'll . . . I don't know, they can filter your blood out, transfuse you with mine, something -"
"Noble but unnecessary," Huntington said. "She's not going to die. Her DNA and her physiology is enhanced."
"We killed the nanobytes," Steve yelled desperately. "She doesn't heal like that anymore."
"No, but many of the enhancements are hardwired in her DNA. They were never dependent on the nanobytes," Dr. Huntington said. "Surely you know this much."
Steve took a deep breath. "We were told that her body had to be strong enough to tolerate what the nanobytes could do."
"Exactly," Dr. Huntington said. He sounded as if he were in a lecture hall, not handcuffed in the hallway of a research facility, with ghastly sounds echoing around them. "The virus won't kill her. But we need to move quickly. Because of her enhanced DNA and physiology, she's likely to start exhibiting symptoms on an accelerated timeline."
"Symptoms?" Danny growled, giving Huntington a good shake. "What do you mean?"
Dr. Huntington looked at them as if they were being deliberately obtuse. "Fever. Chills. Joint and muscle pain. I've listed the symptoms several times."
"It won't kill me," Riley said quietly. "He said it wouldn't kill me. He didn't say it wouldn't make me sick."
Steve pushed her hair away from her face and looked at her anxiously. "How sick?" he growled.
Dr. Huntington shrugged. "We will, of course, do what we can to mitigate the worst of the symptoms. It's difficult to say, her metabolic rate is abnormal, obviously."
"I would stop talking," Chin said quietly, taking note of Steve's growing rage.
"How sick?" Steve asked Jamie through clenched teeth.
"They'll give her morphine," Jamie said quietly. "They promised me . . . I'm so sorry, Commander."
He stopped short at her use of his title. She'd used it before. "You knew," he said. "You knew all along, that's why you had the syringe. You called me Commander, before we even breached the . . . you played along with this whole god-forsaken plan."
"I've watched this virus wipe out entire families," she said. "If we can get a cure, a vaccine . . ."
Steve looked back at Dr. Huntington. "Playing God, aren't you? What are you, really? CIA? SAD?"
"CDC," Dr. Huntington said.
Steve scoffed.
"Working under the oversight of CIA project manager Garrison," Dr. Huntington continued.
The team fell into shocked silence.
"He's in a secure rehabilitation unit," Dr. Huntington said. "A burn specialty unit."
"If Garrison survived, then Shelburne may have survived," Riley said quietly.
"I don't know about any of that," Dr. Huntington said, "but I do know that if you want to get Riley back to the CDC on Honolulu before she starts exhibiting symptoms, we should move quickly."
"No!" Riley shouted. "No, you can't take me back onto the island. You have to leave me here, Steve, you have to. And get Catherine . . . she can drop a sidewinder on the facility, or something, you can't -"
"There is a highly sophisticated, completely secure isolation lab at the old Coast Guard station on the Kure Atoll," Dr. Huntington said. "They are fulled equipped and prepared. They're waiting for us."
"Jamie is sick," Riley said, and if the situation hadn't been so dire, Danny would have been amused at the similar set of Riley's jaw. Enhanced or not, there was no denying she shared Steve's DNA. "She should come, too."
"I can't," Jamie said gently, smiling at Riley. "But maybe . . . maybe they'll find something. In time."
"Then we should hurry," Riley said quietly, squaring her shoulders.
Steve stared at her for a moment.
"They've really not left us any other options," she said. "We both know it. Unless you want to reconsider my original idea - leave. Leave me here. Get Catherine to call in a - a strike, or whatever."
"Even if you could convince the Navy to do that," Dr. Huntington said, "what a waste. What a waste of life, of talent . . . of potential."
"Shut up, you miserable son of a bitch," Steve ground out, glaring at him. "We've heard enough of that rhetoric to last us a lifetime." He looked helplessly at Danny.
"I think we have to take her to that place, babe," Danny said. "If she's been exposed, infected -"
"She has," Jamie said softly. "I wouldn't lie. It's . . . she's our only chance."
"Then, unfortunately, they hold all the cards," Danny said. Chin and Kono nodded. "They're the only ones that can help her."
"I just want to take her home," Steve said.
"No," Riley protested. "I'll get sick and I'll give it to you and kill you. Let them take me away. You and the others, go back. Go back to the palace, to your lives, to . . . it's - it's no good. I'm no good. I can't do normal life, normal people. Even before the virus, I'm . . . lethal. This is for the best." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Let them take me."
"They're not taking you away from me," Steve said. "You're not going anywhere without me."
"Goes for the rest of us," Kono said firmly, lifting her chin.
"A helicopter is coming for us," Dr. Huntington said. "There's only room for me and Riley."
"Fuck there is," Steve growled. He turned to Chin. "You'll get the pilot back to wherever he needs to go. You get the governor up to speed, because once Riley is okay, I am going after Garrison, and whoever else is pulling all these strings, and I'm ending this. They're not going to do this to her, she's not a damn lab rat."
"Understood," Chin said.
"Come'ere," Danny murmured, reaching out and hugging Riley close despite her protests. "You're gonna be okay, kid. Knock that virus and save the world, yeah?"
#*#*#*#*#
The helo pad was on the flat roof of the facility. Steve had steadfastly refused to allow Dr. Huntington to be released from the handcuffs, so the entire team trudged up and waited.
"Call Catherine, just in case I can't," Steve said, looking at Danny. "Maybe she can do something through Naval channels. The program was disavowed, there's no way Garrison should still be able to do this. I can't . . . I can't believe this is sanctioned, so he must be off the reservation."
"We'll find everything we can," Danny assured him. "Look after Riley, we'll take care of everything."
"Mary," Steve said softly. "Danny, should we call Mary?"
"You're being ridiculous," Dr. Huntington said. "I've told you, the girl is going to be just fine. The virus will run its course, she'll -" He stopped short as Steve stepped into his personal space and glowered down at him.
"I'll call Mary," Danny said. "If we need to send for her, I'll get Catherine to help."
"I'll go talk to Jerry," Kono said. "He's going to be worried."
"And curious," Riley added, managing a smile.
Steve nodded, satisfied with the plan, as the sound of approaching rotors caught their attention. The pilot settled the massive machine onto the roof expertly, and made no move to exit. Steve ducked under the rotors and approached, with Danny and Chin shoving Dr. Huntington after him. Steve wrenched open the pilot's door.
"I'll be going along," Steve said.
"Sorry, man, it's a tight fit for three, no extra passengers," the pilot drawled, moving to pull the door closed.
Steve's hand wrapped around the door frame. "Good thing I can take your seat then. Put in the coordinates and get out."
The pilot glanced at Dr. Huntington, who nodded tersely. "These gentlemen will get you back to Oahu."
"Okay," the pilot said, taking off his headset, "but I expect full payment."
"I expect you might get drop kicked off this building," Danny said. "I'd get out of the way and shut up, if I were you."
"Okay, uncuff him and shove him in the back," Steve said, walking back toward Riley. He reached her in a few long strides, standing with Kono.
"See you soon," Kono said firmly, wrapping her long arms around Riley.
Steve took Riley's hand as they walked toward the helicopter. She ducked instinctively at the same time he did, and he remembered that she'd spent a great deal of time with Frank. He saw her eyes moving over the helicopter wistfully, and an idea came to him.
"Wanna fly her?" he asked.
She looked at him in surprise, then grinned. "Yeah. Can we have fun with the asshole?"
"They're smiling, why are they smiling?" a nervous Dr. Huntington asked, as Chin and Danny shoved him unceremoniously into the back.
"For a reason that does not bode well for you, I am sure," Chin said.
"Have a safe flight, you miserable son of a bitch," Danny added cheerfully.
#*#*#*#*#
"Nicely done," Steve said, as Riley bounced the helicopter to a skidding landing.
"Oh my God," Dr. Huntington moaned in the back seat. "Let me out, I'm gonna be sick."
"Sorry about the landing," Riley said. "I'm rusty. Haven't flown in . . . wow, years."
Steve hauled their beleaguered passenger out of the back, thumping him soundly on the shoulder. "She's talented, isn't she? You knew that, of course, you know everything there is to know about her. I swear to God, I should've let her drop you right out of the back into the Pacific."
Dr. Huntington staggered away from the helicopter toward a group of lab-coated individuals waiting at the edge of the landing area.
Riley fought off a wave of dizziness as she climbed out of the pilot's seat and carefully replaced the headset. She tried to chalk it up to the rough landing, and she closed her eyes and leaned against the open doorframe, waiting for it to pass.
"Hey," Steve's voice was soft behind her, just barely carrying over the sound of the slowing rotors. "Look, I can fly you to Pearl, see if -"
"No," she said, turning quickly. It proved to be a mistake, and she clutched desperately at the door as the world tilted wildly around her.
"I've got you," Steve said, his strong hands catching her at her elbows.
"No, we can't go anywhere else, it's not safe," she said. "Promise me you won't let them use me as a weapon. I don't leave this island unless it's to take back a cure or a vaccine. Understood? And you don't get exposed to it. If that means you need to leave me here, and go, that's what you do."
"Riley, I can't -"
"Yes, you can," she said firmly. "You can and you will, because you are not going to leave Mary. You understand me? You will not do that to her, Steven."
He had to smile. "Yes, ma'am. But it's not going to come to that. Dr. Huntington may be an asshole but I'm sure he's right about the science. You're going to be fine, and there'll be a cure and maybe even a vaccine."
"Okay, let's admit it," Riley said. "We're both more than a little curious about the science."
Steve stared at her, emotions warring across his face. He never would have chosen this for her - never would have considered offering her - but in the absence of choice . . .
"A little," he admitted.
"You liked science, in school," she said. "You were good at it. I . . . your report cards were in the photo albums, Mary . . ."
"I liked science," he said. "Studied it at Annapolis, too, as my electives."
"Shelbur -" she stopped. Her face softened. "Olivia, when she was Olivia, taught me as much science as my brain could hold. She knew . . . maybe she even knew this was coming. So, I'm a little bit interested . . . this could work, Steve. If I can survive the virus, if they can replicate the antibodies . . . this could work. And maybe even in time to save Jamie."
"Okay," he sighed. "If you're sure."
"There really isn't another option, other than you taking me and dropping me off at the mountain house, and then dropping a sidewinder on top of it," she said seriously. "That's the only other option I can think of. And we don't know how fast this is going to progress, and what if I started bleeding on the way there, and you were exposed? So I think we're down to this because -" she stopped as another wave of diziness washed over her. "Because I think it's progressing pretty fast, actually."
He started to lift her into his arms, but she protested.
"No. I'm walking in under my own power, anyway," she said, and they started walking toward the cluster of people who, to Steve's surprise, had kept a respectful distance. "And no hospital gowns. Sweats, or scrubs, but not one of those blasted gowns. I hate those. And the jiggly stuff. The green flavor. Rebecca always made sure I had -" she stopped, her voice breaking.
"Riley," Steve said helplessly. "Tell me what I can do . . ."
"And a laptop," she continued, forcing her voice to be strong and level. "I want a laptop, until I get goofy, and then take it away from me so I don't do anything stupid. Although I could move money, a lot of money, into everyone's accounts, if you wanted, and then if it was ever questioned, you could say I was delirious?"
"Riley -" Steve said, shaking his head. They'd arrived at the edge of the landing pad and could hear Dr. Huntington launching into instructions with the group clustered around him.
"Shut up," Steve said. "Which of you is the doctor? The medical doctor."
"I'm Dr. York," a young woman said, timidly raising her hand.
Steve nodded gratefully. She reminded him of Rebecca, that was good. "Okay," he said, gentling his tone. "She's already starting to feel dizzy, so I guess we really don't have any choice but to cooperate with you at this point."
Dr. Huntington started to say something, and Steve silenced him with a violent poke to the center of his chest.
"I told you to shut up," Steve said. "You may think you're in charge of the science, but I can assure you, you are not in charge of Riley. And she's pretty much the only priority I have here, so this is how it's going to go."
He turned back to Dr. York. "She will not wear one of those damn hospital gowns. Sweats or scrubs. She wants green jello, she knows it stays down when she's sick. She's not here as your lab rat. I find out you're doing anything - anything - other than taking care of her, and looking for antibodies for this virus, I will get her clear and I will burn this place to the ground. And then God have mercy on your souls, because I won't. We clear?"
The entire group nodded vigorously.
"And one of you, get her a laptop," Steve ordered.
His hand was warm on Riley's back as they walked toward the low, cinderblock building. He hoped that the slight tremor he could feel in her muscles meant that she didn't notice that his hand was shaking.