He was on a lounger, dressed in a muscle tee and a pair of board shorts, as if he’d intended to get in the pool. Lucas, beside him, wore a polo shirt and Bermudas. Both men bore the physique of the military, and for a second, she felt like she’d walked in on a clandestine planning meeting.

Then Ham nodded, gave her a grim look. “The canisters were in padded boxes. The one that was damaged had been opened, and after we gathered up all the canisters, we discovered one space empty. Either it never had a canister—doubtful. Or it went missing—more likely. Also, Roy and Logan have secured all the Russians that were at the compound. Only one casualty. The rest are hospitalized or in interrogation. No one has given up the contact Pete mentioned arriving, but we think he might have left earlier, with one of the canisters.”

“Why?”

He looked at Lucas. “Maybe to run a test.”

Cold snaked through her. “A test?”

“Yes,” Lucas said. “At some nearby event or facility. But all the camera footage was stored off-site on a digital system, and our hacker hasn’t figured out where yet.”

“You have a hacker?” Tae asked.

“Logan does,” Lucas said. “And, ironically, she’s Russian.”

“We need to be ready to spin up when she nails that location,” Ham said. His gaze roamed back to her. “We need that vaccine, as soon as you’re ready to roll it out.”

“Depends on Colt. But so far, he seems to be handling it well, and if he was exposed, he’s showing no signs of illness. We’ll keep him monitored, but I think we could petition it for use under the emergency use authorization.”

“I’ll talk to the president,” Lucas said.

Just like that. Talk to the president. Who were these guys?

“Zoey and I will get to work on creating more doses in the morning. It’ll be small-scale stuff until we’re given official authorization—”

“Tae!”

She turned and spotted Noemi running around the end of the house, breathing hard. “Colt’s having a heart attack!”

Time stopped as Noemi’s words cut through her brain. What—wait—what?

“Where?” Ham was on his feet.

Noemi bent over, catching her knees. “We were at the beach, and he came down and was talking to Range—”

Ham didn’t wait for the rest. Just took off around the house, Lucas on his tail.

No—no— “Call 9-1-1!” Tae shouted and took off after them.

The house was situated across the two-laned road from the beach, and she hadn’t put on shoes, but she didn’t care as she ran after Lucas and Ham. She was passed by Dodge, Orion, then Fraser. They held up a car and she sped over the pavement, then caught up fast when she hit the beach.