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The rooently curved rows of chairs descending toward the hardwood floor Dr Abbey was standing in front of the screen with her arainst the built-in podiu" I held upit so she could hear the kernels rattle "You said we could stop for snacks"
"That’s true; I did One day you’ll figure out how to tell when I’m serious" There was no actual rancor in Dr Abbey’s tone I stopped being able to really piss her off the day she learned that I couldn’t a a hu in the middle of the front row She turned to look over the back of her seat Her curly brown-and-blonde hair--brown fro--half hid her face She was one of the only woed to ely on account of having a Hispanic father, a Caucasian ood skin
"Sure" I started down the steps Becks and Alaric followed me
"Hey, Dr Abbey," said Becks
"Hello, Rebecca," said Dr Abbey
"Giie I leaned over to hand her the bowl She bea
Out of all of us, Maggie was the one who didn’t have to be here Alaric, Becks, and I were the ones who broke into the CDC facility in Meht was our ally showed his true colors, and the newest member of our team was killed Her name was Kelly Connolly She worked for the CDC, and she wanted to do the right thing more than alo up on The Wall is a cri I can do about it There’s nothing anyone can do about it
Maggie wasn’t there for any of that Maggie could have said, "It’s been fun; see you later," and left the rest of us to carry on without her I wouldn’t have bla a fugitive, or sleeping on an ar When her house was rendered unsafe, she could have just asked her parents to buy her a new one She was the heir to the Garcia faer in the world, and she had absolutely no reason to be standing by us But she was standing by us, and that meant she could have all the popcorn she wanted
Dr Abbey straightened, taking the reot a few things to show you"
"We’re good," I said, dropping into a seat
Behave, said George You could learn so, and explain it toonly a cursory effort to keepwe’ve had to deal with, I guess knowing the boss is crazy isn’t such a big deal anymore That’s fine by ain
Becks and Alaric took the seats to either side ofthe popcorn with her Becks smiled at them a little wistfully I tried not to let ether once--just once--before she realized exactly how crazy I really was I hurt her pretty badly over that I didn’t e were happy to point out So to have a normal adult relationship with a woman who has a pulse of her own And then I relad I don’t have anyone left for them to take away from me
"Finally," said Dr Abbey, and pointed her re the screen with an outline of the Florida coast "Florida," said Dr Abbey needlessly She pressed a button The ie pulled back to show the entire Gulf Coast A red splash was overlaid across the characteristic shape of Florida itself, covering alhtening around a handful of popcorn with an audible crunch That was the only sound in the screening roo in the back of ave us a e before she said, "This is theTropical Stor to sequence the genetic structure of the mosquitoes involved"
"Why?" asked Becks "What does that matter?"
"This isn’t a new strain of virus, which means it has to be a new strain of mosquito If we knohat species they were derived froe they can tolerate"
A voice spoke from the back of the theater: "Derived from?"
"Mr Gowda Glad you could join us And yes, derived from Surely you don’t think this happened naturally?" Dr Abbey shook her head "Mosquitoes can’t spread Kellis-Ae You can’t make it ser mosquito if you want an insect vector"
"Yeah, because ouldn’t want that," muttered Becks
"Who made it?" asked Mahir I turned indeeply That was nothing new I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him smile