“And what is acceptable?” one of the doctors asked.

“As to the harbor,” Ethan Gray said, “you are allowed to transport your men by launch and launch only to Commonwealth Pier. After that, it’s BPD jurisdiction.”

They looked at Danny and Steve.

Danny said, “It’s in the best interest of the governor, the mayor, and every police department in the state that we not have a general panic. So, under cover of night, you are to have military transport trucks meet you at Commonwealth Pier. You can unload the sick there and take them directly to Devens. You can’t stop along that journey. A police car will escort you with its sirens off.” Danny met Major Gideon’s glare. “Fair?”

Gideon eventually nodded.

“The State Guard’s been notified,” Steve Coyle said. “They’ll set up an outpost at Camp Devens and work with your MPs to keep anyone from leaving base until this is contained. That’s by order of the governor.”

Ethan Gray directed a question to the doctors. “How long will it take to contain?”

One of them, a tall, flaxen-haired man, said, “We have no idea. It kills who it kills and then it snuffs itself out. Could be over in a week, could take nine months.”

Danny said, “As long as it’s kept from spreading to the civilian population, our bosses can live with the arrangement.”

The flaxen-haired man chuckled. “The war is winding down. Men have been rotating back in large numbers for the last several weeks. This is a contagion, gentlemen, and a resilient one. Have you considered the possibility that a carrier has already reached your city?” He stared at them. “That it’s too late, gentlemen? Far, far too late?”

Danny watched those muscular clouds slough their way inland. The rest of the sky had cleared. The sun had returned, high and sharp. A beautiful day, the kind you dreamed about during a long winter.

The five gravely ill soldiers rode back on the launch with them even though dusk was still a long way off. Danny, Steve, Ethan Gray, Peter, and two doctors stayed in the main cabin while the sick soldiers lay on the port deck with two other doctors attending. Danny had seen the men get lowered to the launch by line and pulley. With their pinched skulls and caved-in cheeks, their sweat-drenched hair and vomit-encrusted lips, they’d looked dead already. Three of the five bore a blue tint to their flesh, mouths peeled back, eyes wide and glaring. Their breaths came in huffs.

The four police officers stayed down in the cabin. Their jobs had taught them that many dangers could be explained away—if you didn’t want to got shot or stabbed, don’t befriend people who played with guns and knives; you didn’t want to get mugged, don’t leave saloons drunk beyond seeing; didn’t want to lose, don’t gamble.

But this was something else entirely. Could happen to any of them. Could happen to all of them.