Page 2 of The Hero Within
And she was down to her last box of antibiotics. She'd been expecting a truckload of oral antibiotics a week ago, but there was no sign of the regular smuggler.
Maybe Absolution's not the only place that's hard up at the moment....
Whispers kept coming north from the slaver towns down along the southern border with New Mérida of the plague running rife through the local populations down there. Entire slaver cities were burning as they tried to contain the spread. The thought of slavers dying didn't bother her—healing oath or not—but her heart ached for the slaves.
"We have to quarantine the town," Meredith said, folding her arms across her chest.
"And what about the outriders?" Not all of them had made it back to Absolution, despite the recall.
Meredith looked uncomfortable.
"No," Eden said sharply. She agreed with quarantine and had set up this facility in the outskirts of Absolution, but to lock down the entire town? Leave the rest of their people out there among the monstrous wargs and reivers that stalked the Wastelands? Not acceptable. "You're not just going to leave them out there. They'll be better off taking their chances with the plague."
"The council is meeting later this afternoon," the councilor warned. "Something needs to be done. We've all heard the rumors coming from the south. This could impact upon everyone. If we move too slowly...."
Eden turned on her. "What do you mean they're meeting?" She was part of that council, damn it. "Who called it?"
"Bart."
Of course. The bastard thought he ran the place. "Why am I only just hearing about this? And what time? I've been trying to get in contact with the Confederacy enclave. Our scheduled radio contact is this afternoon."
She needed to warn them. The secretive Eastern Confederacy had started making overtures toward the Wastelands and its people of late, and while Bart had shot down the deal she'd been trying to make with them—the mining rights to the old abandoned Copperplate mine nearby in exchange for vital medicines, food, gasoline, and technology—they were still surveying in the area.
Bart was practically rubbing his hands together at the thought of driving the deal up, but Eden had met with the enclave. Miles Wentworth, the man in charge of the surveying team, didn't strike her as someone who kowtowed to Wastelander scum. His words, not hers.
The last time Bart tried to add conditions to the exchange, Miles simply gave her a thin smile and told her he'd be in touch.
That had been three weeks ago.
"Meeting's at three."
"Which is exactly when I'm scheduled to radio them." Eden seethed. "How convenient."
Meredith had the good grace to look embarrassed.
What was more important? "I have to call in with the Confederacy." It was ethically irresponsible to not warn them, despite the fact their medical team had advances and technology she could only dream of. "Tell Bart if he makes any preemptive moves I won't like, he'd better damned well hope he doesn't get the plague. Remind him he might be at my mercy in the next week or two."
As far as threats went it was weak—Eden couldn't turn someone away who needed medical attention—but Bart had always been a little scared of her.
He might believe it.
"Eden!" someone called from several tents over. "I need you urgently."
Maggie Carpenter, if she wasn't mistaken.
Eden glared at Meredith. "Don't make any rapid decisions. We can still lock this down. We just need to work out how the plague's being spread. I'll discuss this with you later."
"What doyou mean we've got an urgent case that needs my review?" Eden asked as she strode along in Maggie's wake. "I've got to radio in to the enclave. Can't Lou-Ann look at it?"
Diagnosing the plague was well within Lou-Ann's capabilities, after all.
Maggie led her toward the tent at the end, glancing over her shoulder. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Meredith, because she'll run straight back to Bart."
Maggie might have been Bart's younger sister, and a town councilor, but she and her brother were as different as night and day. Barely a year apart, she and Eden had become fast friends over a decade ago.
"What do you mean?" Eden's voice lowered. "What's going on?"
"We had a rider come in. He's got an unusual case of the plague, and his timeline doesn't match up. Asked to speak to you, and you alone."
