At the sound of the door opening, Juan lurched up from his cot. Nate had entered the examination room, carrying a duffel bag.

Juan glanced at his watch. Six a.m. “Nate? When did you get here?”

“Just landed about ten minutes ago. Came to see you first thing.” Nate limped to a chair and set his duffel on the table.

“What’s wrong with your leg?”

Nate waved dismissively. “Nothing, it’s just a sprain. So—I’m actually on my way to a meeting with the bigwigs. But they asked me to come by first and see how the vaccine is working.”

Juan gulped, feeling nauseated with concern as he rubbed at his burning eyes. “It’s not a vaccine, it’s—never mind. Like I told you before, this’ll be our first attempt at a DNA therapy reversal procedure, but call it a vaccine if you want. And I don’t know if it’s working yet. I gave the second dose about nine hours ago. I’m still waiting to see results. Next dose is in three hours. Speaking of which…”

Nate patted the duffel. “Got the stuff right here. Your team’s been busy. I’ve got four more doses ready for each of the O’Reillys. Oh, and we’ve been able to track down blood samples for about eighty percent of the others. We’re still working on the last twenty percent.” He squinted at Juan. “Hey… you know you look like shit, right?”

Juan scowled. “So I’ve heard.”

###

Juan felt a pain in his side—as if something was burrowing into him. And the pain was growing more intense.

He opened his eyes. He’d fallen asleep on the satellite phone, and the vibrating object was digging into his ribs. He rolled over and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Elimination plans are underway. Juan, you need to get out.” Paul Hutchison’s gruff voice was matter-of-fact.

Juan felt a wave of panic. He glanced at his watch. It showed only 6:45 a.m. “I don’t understand. I thought we had more time—”

The door slammed open, and Kathy burst into the exam room, tears streaming down her face. “Juan!”

His heart fell into his stomach. “Kathy? What is it?”

“They took my temperature as I left my bunk and it was normal!”

A warm flush of emotions surged inside him as he blinked away unbidden tears. “Are you sure?”

She sniffed and nodded. “They checked twice. I don’t have a fever.”

Juan held up his index finger and put the phone to his ear again. “Hutchison—”

“I heard. That’s great news. Talk about waiting till the last second, though. I’ll reach out and spread the word. But you confirm those findings and check on the girl’s father. I’ll buy you some time while you confirm things.”