A Darker Shade of Dead (10 page)

“Good point. I'll call Simon. He'll know what to do.”

“He's going into another round of convulsions. I've got to go.” Sandra disconnected the call, discarding the phone on the floor as she ministered to Matt.

It felt like hours, but it was only about fifteen minutes later that she heard a voice call her name from the hallway. It was Simon. She met his gaze as he flipped the switches near the door that flooded the entire lab with light.

“You okay, doc?” She noticed he kept his weapon raised and ready, his eyes never settling anywhere for long as he checked every inch of the lab and connecting rooms.

“I'm fine.” She watched Simon move methodically through the room.

When he reached her side, he made some hand signals to men in the hall. Men she hadn't noticed. They looked like a cleanup team, dressed in protective gear as they moved inside on Simon's signal and set to work.

“Can we move him?” Simon asked, looking down at Matt.

Sandra still had his head cradled in her lap. His face was ashen and sweat beaded his brow, but he was quiet for now.

“Yeah. If we make it quick, I think he should be okay. We can take him up to my quarters. It's the closest uncontaminated place. I want to get him settled before any more convulsive episodes can take place.”

Simon bent and scooped Matt's unconscious body into his arms. Sandra stood and followed him to the door, discarding her outer layer of clothes and shoes just inside for the cleanup team to take care of. She'd wash thoroughly when she reached her quarters and be careful not to touch anything on the way up. She didn't want to contaminate anything, but she also couldn't leave Matt. They'd have to decontaminate her bed after she treated him, but she didn't care. She'd deal with that—and the inevitable questions—as soon as Matt was in the clear.

Simon carried Matt up the stairs and through the door Sandra unlocked for him, then placed Matt on her bed. A few moments later, another set of convulsions hit and Sandra was beside him in an instant, helping him through the agonizing episode.

“Is that normal, doc?” Simon asked quietly. She looked up at the soldier who stood at Matt's bedside, looking down at his back. Matt had curled onto his side as the last of the convulsions faded.

“What do you mean?”

“His back. You should look at this.”

Concerned, she stood and walked around to the other side of the bed, bending to examine Matt's lower back. There was a distinct bulge in the area where he'd been injured. She could see it rippling through his clothing and grew worried.

Quickly, she pulled his shirt up, tugging it forcefully from his waistband until she could see his skin. The area where the scars crisscrossed his flesh was distended and rippling slowly in an unnatural motion. She held her hand out hesitantly to touch his skin and was shocked by the heat that met her fingers. The surrounding skin was cooler to the touch, which calmed her somewhat, but she had no idea what was going on beneath the surface near Matt's spine.

“I'd heard he was injured,” Simon said from behind her. “Looks like old scarring there.”

“Yes,” Sandra confirmed, but didn't go into detail.

“Could be he's healing.”

“What?”

“Well, one of the side effects of immunity is that old injuries seem to heal. I had a bad knee—nothing career threatening, but something I had to watch out for—and now it's gone. Not even a twinge.”

“Was it soft tissue damage or bone?”

“Little of both.”

Sandra thought quickly. “Same for Matt. He had cracked vertebra and disk rupture.”

Simon whistled through his teeth. “I had a friend with something similar. He can barely walk with a cane.”

“The commander hides his pain well,” was Sandra's only observation.

Simon's phone rang and he stepped away to answer it. He came back a minute later.

“Mari's on her way. I asked Sarah to escort her. They stopped by the hospital and gathered some equipment so Mari can help you safely. Why is it you're not worried about cross-contamination, doc?” His voice was soft but his words were significant. He no doubt suspected something wasn't quite right here.

The time had come. Time for truth. Or at least a portion of it.

She didn't care anymore. Not with Matt's life hanging by a thread.

“I'm already immune. It happened in a lab accident that turned out well for me, thank goodness. Nobody knew. Until now.”

“Not even the commander?”

She shook her head. “Nobody. It was safer for me to hide it.”

He gave her a sidelong look. “I'll bet.”

Anything she might've said in reply was interrupted by a knock on the door. Simon was instantly on alert. He checked the peephole before he opened the door to admit Mari.

After that, they spent about a half hour just cleaning Matt up, removing the blood and contaminated clothing from his unconscious body and the dirty sheets from under him. The two women worked together to remake the bed with him in it as he suffered through the biochemical reactions that would leave him immune from the contagion. Matt was also suffering pain as his back spasmed repeatedly.

“Do you think it's healing like Simon suggested?” Sandra asked as they examined the lower back area. It seemed to be getting less swollen as time went on.

“It's possible. Even likely, I'd say, from what I've observed with Simon. After all, the original intent of the research was to create something that would increase the body's healing ability.”

“I'd love to try to see what's going on in there. I did some ultrasound images of his lower back a few days ago,” Sandra ventured, knowing Mari would pick up on the significance of having a recent baseline for comparison.

But Mari picked up on more than just the medical significance.

“Commander Sykes let you examine him?”

Sandra tried not to squirm under the other woman's scrutiny.

“He was experiencing some pain during our first martial arts class. I convinced him to let me take a look.” She tried to sound offhand. “I'd done some work in orthopedics early in my training. Having those images could really help us figure out what's going on. We could try to scan him again now and compare to the earlier images.”

“Where's the machine?”

“Down in the lab. I thought maybe we could ask the cleanup team to disinfect it first and bring it up here. It's small enough.”

“Let's do it.” Mari slapped her hands on her thighs and stood. “I'll call down to the guys cleaning up the lab.” She moved off to one side of the room and pulled out her cell phone, placing the call.

Sandra took the time to examine Matt more closely. She brushed his sweaty hair away from his brow. He was still burning up, but the temperature wasn't life threatening. He'd be okay for now, but she would continue to monitor him closely.

The ultrasound machine showed up shortly thereafter, hand-delivered by one of the cleanup team members, newly sanitized. Mari set things up, plugging it in and flipping switches and dials until it was ready. She positioned herself and the machine at the side of Matt's bed. Sandra was on his other side.

“How do you want to do this?” Mari asked.

“I don't want to put him on his belly with the possibility of convulsions. How about I hold him on his side while you do the scan?”

Mari agreed and they set to work. Rolling Matt was relatively easy. Keeping him on his side required Sandra to move in close to support his shoulders and hip. He was heavy and she had to bend close to him in order to get a good grip. His overly warm body was solid and deliciously muscular. As worried as she was about his condition, she couldn't help notice how good he felt under her hands.

Mari ran the scan as quickly as possible and printed out a few images. They rolled Matt onto his back within minutes. Sandra watched him carefully to make sure he was okay. She was concerned he might still be in for more convulsions, but he seemed to be resting peacefully for the moment.

The two women settled in to wait in chairs, one on either side of Matt and the bed. All was quiet while they examined the two sets of ultrasound images.

“I'll be damned.” Mari whistled softly as she passed the flimsy paper to Sandra. “It looks like both the tissue and bone are regenerating.”

“Yeah.” Sandra was preoccupied as she scanned the images.

“See the way the disk tissue that was removed is starting to fill back in?”

“I've never seen anything like it.” Sandra was truly amazed at what the machine allowed them to see in grainy black-and-white.

“Me, neither. I have to admit, it's pretty amazing. Simon has some incredible regenerative abilities, but even I didn't expect this. The commander's tissue was surgically removed. His bones were altered by a surgeon and yet they're reconstructing themselves. He's about halfway there right now, if I'm any judge. If this continues, his back could be good as new in an hour or two.”

“Wow.”

“You can say that again.” Mari sat back in her chair as Sandra kept looking at the images. After a few minutes of silence, she, too, sat back. Slowly, she became aware that Mari was staring at her.

“What?” Sandra asked self-consciously.

“Just curious.” Mari's expression spoke of suspicion, not simple curiosity. Sandra felt her stomach clench.

“About what?”

“Since I got here you haven't seemed overly concerned about contamination. Is there something you haven't shared with us?”

Sandra sighed heavily. “I guess it's obvious now that I'm immune. I felt it was safer to hide that fact for as long as possible.”

“From us?”

“From everyone,” Sandra admitted. “You have to understand, before I joined this team, I was on my own. I was working in the private sector, making my own way. I didn't want the information getting out to the wrong people. I could have made a very big target for some very bad guys if it had been known. The alternative was turning myself into a lab rat for the military. Neither idea appealed, so I forged my own path.”

“How long have you been immune?”

“From early on.” Sandra felt it wisest not to go into too much detail. “I realized pretty quickly that some of the original science team was bonkers. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, so I kept my immunity a secret.”

“You can't keep that secret any longer, I'm afraid.”

“I realize that,” Sandra admitted. “I'm just glad I was able to help Matt.”

Mari's eyes narrowed as she grinned. “So you're on a first-name basis with him?”

Sandra realized her mistake and couldn't control the telltale flush of heat in her cheeks. Mari only laughed softly.

“It's okay, you don't have to answer,” Mari assured her. “I won't pry. We all have our little secrets. This situation is hard on everyone. You and Matt deserve to have some happiness.”

“It's not like that,” Sandra protested weakly. She would have said more, but Matt began to twist and turn on the bed. His back spasmed once more, and both women moved to help him.

They watched over him the rest of the evening, but he didn't convulse anymore. His back spasmed from time to time and they took a few more images of the progress his body was making in repairing itself. The data they collected could be very valuable to her research but Sandra didn't really care. She wouldn't rest easy until she was certain Matt would be okay.

Mari was a big help. She coordinated with the rest of the team and at some point had food delivered. She placed cup after cup of hot coffee in Sandra's hands and didn't ask any further embarrassing questions about her relationship with the commander.

Sandra was glad of her presence. She wouldn't leave Matt's side until he was awake and she was sure he'd be all right.

The hours seemed to drag on until finally, just before dawn, Matt's eyes opened.

“Sandra?” His voice was raw but it was music to her ears.

“I'm here, Matt.”

His blue gaze searched for and found her. His relief was visible as the tension left his shoulders.

“You're okay?”

“I'm fine. How do you feel?”

He seemed to consider. “Not good, but not bad, either.” He sat up slowly, grimacing as he went. “The serum worked?”

Good. He remembered what had led up to this. It was a good sign for his neural activity.

“Like a charm.” She gave him a wobbly smile. Her relief was profound. Seeing him sitting up and taking stock of his internal condition was more than she'd hoped for. He seemed to be recovering much faster than Sam had.

“How's the back?” Mari's voice intruded from the other side of the room and Matt's head swiveled to her.

“Why? What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Mari assured him, stepping closer. “But one of the benefits of immunity is radically increased healing. Sandra and I monitored some rather startling changes to your lower back as your body processed the contagion and the serum. I'm just wondering how it feels to you.”

Matt shifted his hips on the bed, side to side as he took stock of his spine.

“It doesn't hurt. There's some soreness, but not the pain I'm used to.” His gaze turned back to Sandra, his eyes widening slightly with a sort of cautious hope. “Is it healed?”

“We think so, yes.” She loved being able to deliver such good news. “You'll be the best judge of how you feel, but Mari and I have been looking at the scans all night and it appears your body has regenerated the injured disk tissue. I want to get an MRI to do a finer inspection but it looks good from what little we can see using this machine.” She gestured toward the small rolling console they'd been using throughout the night.

He looked around the room. “I'm in your quarters?” he asked Sandra.

Suddenly she felt defensive. “It was the closest uncontaminated place to put you.”