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“Son,” said the original voice, “I don’t believe you want to i we don’t get to knoe found, even e have a ide audience that really, really wants to know?” Shaun asked, folding his ar into a hip-shot pose that seeh to see how pissed off he was “That doesn’t scream ‘freedom of the press’ to me”

“It won’t say ‘freedom of the press’ to our readers, either,” I said

“Miss, there are things called ‘nondisclosure for them before you take step one outside of this property”

“Well, sir, thatour report live all along,” I replied “If you don’t believe me, hit our Web site and see for yourself We have a live feed, a transcript, the works” There was a pause before the sound of h the loudspeaker Somebody looked online I allowed myself to smile “If you wanted this kept secret, you shouldn’t have left it for the journalists to find”

“And what I’d like to know,” said Senator Ryman, in a voice that was suddenly colder than it had been before, “is what gives you the authority to seizefull disclosure to me, as the owner Especially if said hter and her grandparents”

“All sealed hazard zones—”

“Reinal owners, who must continue to pay taxes but will not benefit from any natural resources or profitable develop look S serenely, he said, “Secor v the State of Massachusetts, 2024”

“That aside, covering up evidence is rarely smiled upon in this country,” Senator Ryman said “Now, I believe what you intended to tell these nice folks was that they were free to leave the zone as soon as they’ve passed theire, given as how they found it and it was found on my property”

“Well—”

Senator Ry with a senator—especially one who intends to be president, if only so he can make you realize what an imbecilic move this was—is not the best way to further your career”

There was a longer pause before the first voice spoke again, saying carefully, “Well, sir, I think perhaps you’ve gotten the wrong idea about this situation ”

“I hoped that was the case I assuo?”

Now falsely jovial, the first voice said, “Of course! My men are just there to escort them to their blood tests Men? Get those citizens out of the field!”

“Sir, yes sir!” barked the soldiers The Secret Service just looked faintly disgusted with the entire situation

The soldier who asked lasses consulted with the speaker on his shoulder before saying, reluctantly, “If the three of you would retrieve your weapons and followand release Please don’t attempt to touch the article you re to contest the phrase “the article” by bringing up the fact that we’d re from the outbreak site Since I didn’t think the cat would be happy to be dissected by arlared at nored hi our weapons back up took longer than putting them down, since all the safeties had to be checked The area was certified as clean as was reasonable under the Nguyen-Morrison—as clean as any area where you found a syringe full of potential live-state Kellis-A yourself in the foot in the vicinity of a recent outbreak still strikes me as an all-around rotten plan Our escort waited as we arates, where, I was pleased to see, Steve and two otherwith the blood test units

I caught ed Shaun without the big guns, there, Steve-o?”

Steve cracked a thin sht”

“My brother’s never been all right, but Rick and I are clean,” I said, holding out ht hand “Rock me”

“My pleasure,” he said, and slid the box over e fro as often as thirty percent of the time, to the ultra-advanced ger false positives as they pick up the live Kellis infection harbored by nearly every human on Earth The most advanced handheld kits are the Apple XH-237s They cost more than I care to think about, and since they’re field kits, they can only be used once without replacing the needle array, a process that costs more than most independent journalists h Needles so thin they can barely be felt, hitting at sites on all five fingers, the palm, and the wrist Viral detection and coht the right to use several of Apple’s patents after the XH-237 came out

Shaun and I carry one—only one—in the van We’ve had it for five years We’ve never felt rich or desperate enough to use it You only use the XH-237 when you need to be sure, right here and noith no in for error It’s a kit for use after actual exposure The are Somehow, they knew The i