Page 26 of Agent Zero
More than good.
There was a single potential hiding spot close by.Fortunately it was a good one, tucked in an abandoned warehouse, water and electricity still running because the squatters in the other half of the space kept it jury-rigged.The power lines overhead fuzzed out a lot of sensitive surveillance, and said squatters—different ones each time he visited—kept away from strangers asking questions.
“What are you doing?”Holly whispered.He had to tear his mind off of her distracting nearness.
“Something I’ve got to get rid of.”He inhaled, and pushed the scalpel in.It hurt, but the pain was easily shelved.
Her hissing sound of sympathy was not.“You’rebleeding.”
“Got to get this thing out, Holly.Just sit there.”
She perched on a scavenged metal barstool, the effort of keeping upright and talking probably keeping her conscious.He didn’t like the way whatever they’d dosed her with smelled as it worked its way out through her skin.Not as candy-sweet as barbiturate, probably a variant of benzo.Hallucinogenic, nervous depressant...he was lucky she wasn’t screaming and clawing at her own face.This was probably enough to give anyone a bad trip.
It also made her smell sick, but that was probably just a gloss.
“Oh.”A soft, wondering little sound.“God, doesn’t that hurt?”
He tried not to sound amused.“Only a little.”Pain suppression.One more benefit from the little buggers.How long, though?I’d probably start showing symptoms.Feel clear enough, might be okay.
He wouldn’t really relax for another seventy-two hours, though.If he made it that far with no degrade, he might conceivably be safe.
Funny how now he was feeling pretty charitable toward the virus.Damn near proprietary.The invaders were his now, and they wanted to stay alive just like he did.
Got to keep her alive, too.
Also funny how that was all of a sudden right up there with his own survival as a priority.
Yeah, hilarious.Focus on what you’re doing.
The little silver capsule squirted free, blood-greased and gleaming.Forceps were clumsy, but he caught the tiny thing, popped it into his mouth just on the off chance it needed body heat.From there it was just temporary sutures and bandaging.By tomorrow the incision should be sealed up nice and tight.
If he wasn’t losing the virus even now.
Holly watched this, her eyelids at half-mast.How fast would her body work through the stuff?She was awfully thin, and they’d given her far too much.
That wasn’t the real question, though.Just how the hell was he going to keep them both alive?Living on the run was fine for an agent, but she was a civilian, and she had a life.People who might miss her.Maybe even family, though it would have been in the file, wouldn’t it?He hadn’t had time to dig too deeply in the background stuff.
She swayed on the stool.He finished applying the semisutures, applied more disinfectant to the small wound—it barely burned at all.Then a gauze pad and medical tape.
She held grimly to the sides of the seat, her knuckles white.Behind her, an unfinished concrete wall reared, naked of graffiti.The other side of the warehouse was a shambles, but this was a bare, well-insulated shell.The squatters had either been incurious or unable to enter.
He’d stashed a few supplies here.One of the reasons it was such a great hole to go to ground was the car sitting not ten feet to Holly’s right.
A nice, respectable Taurus of indeterminate shade between black and gray, with fresh plates, a cache of ID and a weapon or two, as well as a few more welcome rolls of cash.
Couldn’t run without money, after all.
Cleaning up the blood was a few minutes’ worth of work, but the plastic wrap he’d taped down had kept his clothes from getting more than a drop or two.He balled the whole shebang up and tossed it into an overflowing metal rubbish can, glanced at pale, swaying Holly and stripped the gloves off as well.“Hey.”
She didn’t respond, just stared blankly.He smelled another drift of that weird chemical with its stench of illness, and just barely caught her as she almost went over.The beacon, tucked between his cheek and gum, had to be dealt with soon.
He held her upright, looking at the top of her head.Tangled, inky hair, the heat of her mixing with the copper tang of his own blood and her, that delicious, maddening, shapechanging smell that fused every circuit in his head, hit everywhere he wasn’t aching.And quite a few places he was, too.
“Shh,” he said, though she hadn’t made another sound.She tipped forward, her head resting against his shoulder, and Reese closed his eyes.Just for a second.Pretending.“It’s okay.You’re safe, you’re with me, it’s all right.”
“I don’t know...what’s happening.”She sounded so forlorn.
He searched for something comforting to say.“All you need to know is that you’re safe.”
