Page 70 of Agent Zero
“Does it matter?”Harshly, because the lump in his throat wouldn’t retreat.“It’s happened.The weather’s turned, we have to get out of here.”
Holly tilted her head.Even covered with sweat and sickness, she was still so beautiful.“It’s all melting out there.”
“Warming up.I can smell it, too.”
“Do I still smell good to you?”
More than good.“Yeah.”
“Are you...is this Cal guy...”She pursed her lips, maybe not knowing what she wanted to ask.
Cal chose that moment to step out of the bathroom, the picture of sheepishness, slicking his hair back with damp fingers.“Sorry about that.I’ll, uh, just start the dishes.”
Holly backed up a step.Two.As though she was waiting for Reese to say something.
He opened his mouth to try a plea, an apology, God only knew what, but she whirled and headed toward the couch.She handled the new suitcase carrying her clothes easily and vanished into the bathroom, slamming the door a little harder than necessary.He could probably chalk it up to not understanding her new strength.
Which brought up an interesting question: How strong was she likely to get?She felt just as soft as ever, without an agent’s leashed force.There hadn’t been much on the female subject in the files that wasn’t crossed out, but?—
“She okay?”Cal started stacking plates, and Reese wrestled down the urge to walk over and give the man a shot to the kidneys.
“Don’t know.Rough time for her.”The bathroom door was a blank face, giving nothing away.Deathly silence before the shower gurgled into life.“Adjusting, I guess.”
“That’s one word for it.”The other agent balanced a pile of sticky plates in one hand, his back broad and tense under a flannel shirt.It had to be a deliberate movement—you just didn’t turn around like that, especially when you knew someone else was armed and twitchy.“She’s gonna bolt, man.”
As soon as Cal said it, Reese knew he was right.“I know.”And I’ll bring her right back, goddamn it.
There’s no way she’s getting rid of me.
FORTY-FOUR
The stuff wasall over her.Crusts of sweat salt and various other effluvia fell away, melting like cotton candy.The water was warm enough, if mineral-tasting, and the toiletries smelled kind of familiar—he even knew what soap she liked, for God’s sake.
Standing under hot water, the coffee sinking in and her stomach feeling weirdly distended from the sheer amount of food she’d consumed, Holly had to admit she felt...pretty good.
Which was troubling.She’d been really, really ill.Sick enough to die.And now she felt a bit shaky, but clear and strong in a way she hadn’t since...well, ever.Maybe as a teenager, with her whole life ahead of her and the body and metabolism to meet it head-on.
Funny, her memories of that were darkened, too.As if looking through smoked glass.
She touched her belly, her digging fingertips in.No thrumming, dense vitality like Reese’s muscles; no six-pack, no sinewy heaviness.Which brought up another interesting point.
We didn’t use protection.It hadn’t seemed to matter, since she was terminal anyway and he...
Was that what had...infected her?After a lifetime of being careful.Kind of funny.
You know what else is a real laugh a minute?You’re out here in the middle of nowhere with Reese and his buddy.
Except the word for that wasdangerous.A “fellow agent”, huh?It didn’t make sense for the man to have found them unless he was somehow Reese’s friend.
Now that he had backup, would he still drag Holly along?Or would she wake up one morning to find him gone?
“Time for me to start thinking,” she murmured, putting her face under the mineral-smelling water.She could taste traces of...copper?Other things, a whole palette of earth and stone, fluid seeping underground, filtering through layers and pipes.Individual drops on her skin, her heart working steadily, the flashes between her nerves tiny lightning strikes building chains of reaction in the dark.
She surfaced with a jolt, shivering even though the water was still perfectly warm.Had she lost track of time?
Mitochondrial DNA...other effects...you heal quicker, more flexible, greater endurance.She’d gotten more over breakfast with Cal than from however long traveling with Reese.You get smarter, too—damn near genius where you were smart before, but you get some blind spots.
What were Reese’s blind spots?
