“It sounds like Gutierrez is on their wish list.” Nate’s mind churned with the new information. “And perhaps the O’Reilly girl too.”

“Well, maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Jeff said. “If we can’t figure out what’s going on through our own internal machine, let’s see what we can learn by observing O’Reilly and Gutierrez.”

Nate smiled. “Are you authorizing 24/7 surveillance?”

“Yes, let’s put a couple hooks in the water and see what we catch.”

Chapter Fifteen

Frank O’Reilly ached from head to toe as he walked toward pasture number five. And yet it was good to be out and about. In a way, the pain felt therapeutic.

Jasper raced beside him, leaping through the tall grass with the energy of an overgrown puppy.

“Jasper, you also glad to finally be out of the house?”

The dog woofed in affirmation and went bounding about, chasing after whatever imaginary things caught his attention.

Frank stretched his back. “Been too darn long in that chair is what it is.”

Despite his aches, the shooting pains were finally beginning to subside—which was why he’d finally left the house. Megan was still worried. She kept touching his head and warning him that he had a fever. But he didn’t feel sick. Well, sure he was sick, but not that kind of sick.

She did manage to convince him to call the docs at the VA to let them know. After all, they were running a test, right? They’d want to know how it was turning out. Earlier in the morning, he’d spent a good ten minutes trying to reach them. But nobody answered the direct number he’d been given for the trial administrator, so eventually he just called the main number at the VA and left a voice mail for that Dr. Müller.

At the gate of pasture five, the heifer that Buck had isolated from the herd a week earlier came over to greet Frank. Buck had been worried that she’d caught red nose. Normally Frank would have put the animal down, but she was carrying a calf, so he’d held off until they were sure. Still, she couldn’t be with the rest of the herd and risk contagion.

Jasper barked at some unseen thing deeper in the pasture and raced off to chase it.

Glancing at a bale of hay, Frank scratched the side of her head. “How you doing, girl? You eating okay?” The animal’s nasal passages did look inflamed. That worried him.

The heifer nudged him with the side of her head.

He smiled. “Listen, girl, if you get better, we’ll put you back in with the rest, but not before. You just keep eating and drinking…”

Frank’s voice trailed off as he glanced at the thermos he had clipped to his belt. He smiled.

Worth a shot.