Page 80 (1/1)
"It may not tilt the balance fully in our favor, but it will help," added Dr Kimberley "Your death was too well publicized, and you’re too well made There’s no way you can be written off as a hoax once you get to the proper people And if you can’t find the proper people, we’d be happy to provide the political ploy to seize control of the CDC?"
"Do you really care if it is?" asked Gregory
Trying to think about this was starting to make my head hurt I decided to try another approach "Did I hear Rick? I reory That was a surprise I’d been half expecting them to lie "He was able to sneak away tohis visit"
"Vice President Cousins has been very concerned about you," added Dr Kimberley "He’s the one who approached the EIS about infiltrating this project He was able to get my security clearance improved--that’s hoe could pull off this little ruse in the first place"
"Not that it’s going to do us any good if you don’t recover fast enough for us to break you out of here," said Gregory He turned to look at one of the monitors "Your systeet so I want," I objected "I want to knohat the hell is going on"
"And that’s why you need to sleep" Gregory se "I’m afraid you don’t have all thatto your IV line We’ll see you in a few hours"
"What--?" My eyes widened "You bastard"
"My parents were married"
"You could have… could have askeddown I didn’t knohether it was psychosomatic or just very well timed, but either way, I was pissed
"You would have said no," said Dr Kirasp on the sentence as the dark reached up to takeThat didn’t hting wasn’t going to do o and let it pullmy name, and no one else was in the room; I was alone in my little half-folded hospital bed, with a yellow blanket pulled up around my shoulders I was so used to CDC white that the color was al position with shaking arone, replaced by a set of pale blue surgical scrubs More color After so long in a world without it, even those little splashes were enough to makemy feet around to the floor--h rabbed the bedrail, intending to stand, and paused as I saw the gun resting on the bedside table I picked it up, hand shaking slightly, and relaxed as the weight of the gun confirmed that it was loaded They hadn’t left me defenseless after all I tucked it into the waistband oftwice to be sure the safety was on before I tightened rasp on the bedrail, took a deep breath, and stood
I didn’t fall That was a start There was no ih most of me was sore, and various parts oftubes and catheters Necessary evils, but not things I really wanted to dwell on
There was a door on the far side of the rooo of the bedrail and started to shuffle forward, slowly at first, but with increasing speed as an to fade a little as I stretched thestill too long
I rasped the knob, honestly expecting it to be locked Instead, it turned easily, and I stepped out of my small recovery room into what looked like the central lab Dr Ki test results with two of her technicians All three of the
For aat one another Dr Kimberley was the first to recover "James?"
"On it, Doctor," said the technician, and stood, hurrying over to a serator He opened the door and produced a familiar red and white can, which he carried over and offered to ood to see you awake"
I took the Coke without a word, popping the tab and taking a long drink The soda burned the soreness in my throat All of them watchedI will do--the first thing--is have, I don’t ith you people I don’t give you anything You’ll need to shoot et aith it twice Clear?"
"As crystal," she said, nodding "We’re playing fairly Not because we’re innately fair, but because at this point, it’s in our best interests to do so… and it’s the only thing left that distinguishes us froht, then How much time do we have?"