Finding Dani (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 3) Read online

  Damon rolled his shoulders to ease the tension, now that he was sure the Sergeant wasn’t going to be a problem. “What about the others? Have you seen any of them?”

  “Just Doctor Dickhead and that stuck up chick with the dark red hair. Cara or Clarice or something.” He shook himself in a mock shiver, making the noise. “That one could freeze off your pecker just looking at her.”

  “Claire?”

  “Maybe, didn’t really pay attention to her name.”

  The urge to just shoot the idiot in front of him was getting harder to ignore, but Damon was making the effort. His mama would’ve flayed him alive if she’d ever caught him talking about women that way this sergeant was. Not to mention, he genuinely liked women, and this turd gave all guys a bad name.

  But all he said was, “What were they doing?”

  “Having an argument about something. I was too far away to hear it, but the Ice Queen looked pissed and then they went separate ways.”

  “Where were they when this happened?”

  The sergeant shrugged. “Outside the medical tent. I was headed that way to meet that nurse I was talking about. They’d just come out.”

  Damon nodded. “Thanks for the info, Sergeant. I won’t keep you from your date.”

  How the nurse in question put up with that ass, Damon didn’t know, but clearly she saw something that he was missing. A lot of the “guy” talk about women was macho bullshit, said to impress other guys in most cases. But that sergeant was the genuine article. Probably didn’t get held enough as a child.

  Putting it from his mind, Damon went in search of Hailey. No one remembered seeing her since last night and that was unusual. The tent she shared with Claire was empty. Neither woman had much, but Hailey had her stuff strewn around everywhere. He searched through it all.

  And found nothing suspicious.

  Next, he went to the first large tent that housed the grunts. Sticking his head inside, he found one of the guys reading a book. “Hey, buddy, have you seen Jenson?”

  The kid looked up. Couldn’t have been more than twenty and reading a spy thriller. “The radio guy?”

  “That’d be him.”

  “He’s in B Company. They’re in the next tent over.”

  “Hey, thanks.”

  The kid said, “No problem.” Then he buried his nose back in his book.

  Damon found Private First Class Jenson in the last cot, in the back of the tent assigned to B Company. He was asleep, but the sweat dotting his forehead and the grimace on his face wasn’t good. Putting a hand Jenson’s head, Damon felt the heat coming off of him.

  “Shit.” He shook the kid. “Jenson, wake up.”

  His eyes popped open and Damon could see the glazed look. “I don’t feel good,” he moaned. Then he rolled to his side and started puking.

  “Oh, hell,” Damon said and jumped back. This was bad. There were two other soldiers in the tent with them and they’d jumped up at the noise and were beginning to come back toward Damon. He held out a hand and motioned for them to stop.

  “Both of you out of the tent. Now. And someone go get either Dr. Nelson or Dr. Bordeaux. Whoever stays, don’t let anyone else inside this tent.”

  One of them said he would stand guard and the other took off for the infirmary. The smell of vomit permeated the air and it was a good thing Damon had an iron stomach, otherwise he’d have been retching right alongside Jenson. Poor kid puked more than a body could possibly hold, but then he rolled onto his back, one arm covering his eyes.

  “How long have you been sick?” Damon asked.

  But no answer was coming, because Jenson started jerking and wheezing. His eyes rolled back and he was in a full seizure. One hand flailed up and knocked over everything on the nightstand, so Damon pulled it away so the kid wouldn’t hit his head. He knew not to attempt to restrain him, not wishing to hurt the kid or get hurt himself.

  It felt longer than it was, but soon Dani was there with Dr. Nelson, both suited up with full biohazard gear.

  “Damon.” She breathed his name softly through her mask, but he could hear the worry. Chances were the private was infected and here Damon was in unprotected contact with him.

  “Just help him, Dani. Don’t worry about me.” Yet. But he didn’t say it out loud. Didn’t even want to think it. He just prayed Gunner’s concoction protected him.

  “Did he say anything?” she asked. Both her and Dr. Nelson had begun taking his temp and checking his vitals.

  “When I got here, he was asleep, but burning up. I shook him awake and he said that he didn’t feel good, then started throwing up, and then went into a seizure. The seizure lasted about a minute. He was never really conscious.”

  “We have to move him to the infirmary,” Dr. Nelson said.

  “That will take time, Monty. We have to have more people suited up.”

  Damon knew it was urgent to isolate the kid before infection spread, and since he was already potentially at risk, he said, “I’ll carry him. You just keep everyone back.”

  “Damn it, Damon,” she said.

  He laid a hand on her arm and looked at worried green eyes encased in those huge plastic goggles. “I’m already exposed, sugar. Might as well make use of me.”

  When she reluctantly nodded, he pulled Jenson up by the arms, put his shoulder into his stomach, and hoisted the kid over his shoulder in a fireman carry. He just hoped the kid didn’t puke all over him. “Lead the way.”

  They passed the two soldiers that had been in the tent with Jenson. Damon waved them over. “You two need to come with us and get checked out.”

  “What’s going on, sir?” The younger one said.

  “We have Ebola in the camp,” Damon said. “The three of us need to get checked out along with Jenson here.”

  The other soldier said, “Shit. How the hell did that happen? We haven’t been anywhere near the villagers.”

  “Not sure, but let’s just make sure we don’t have it, and then figure out the rest.”

  They muttered between themselves, but followed along. At a distance. The instant fear in their voices pissed Damon off. These kids hadn’t signed up for a monster with a pet virus. They looked barely out of high school. When he found who was doing this, he wasn’t sure he could wait for justice to prevail. And it wouldn’t be the first time he’d taken matters into his own hands.

  Once inside the medical tent, he headed for the heavy plastic. Dr. Monty Nelson had run ahead and was busy moving a bed over and away from the other beds. The rest of the hospital staff had been busy setting up a new infirmary on the other side of the camp for normal maladies and injuries. This tent was now the containment area.

  He settled Jenson and turned to leave. Dani’s hand on his arm stopped him.

  “I need a sample of your blood,” she said.

  He flinched, but nodded. “Alright, but be quick. I have a call to make and I need to find Hailey, since she was the last one seen with Jenson.”

  “You need to stay here with the other two soldiers, Damon. You’ve been exposed.”

  He could feel himself grimace at her words. He knew that. “This whole damn place has been exposed at this point, Dani. Jenson was a radio operator in the command tent and had dinner tonight with A and B Company in the chow hall. Who do you think he hasn’t been in contact with?”

  She sighed. “You’re right, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep an eye on you.”

  “You can keep your eyes all over me, anytime you want.”

  That dragged a reluctant smile out of her, just like he hoped. He was serious, but he gave her a wink and a smile as he sat down next to her work area. “But for now, draw some blood and let me go find Hailey.”

  “You think she did this?”

  “I think she’s on my suspect list, especially since no one has seen her for hours.”

  “She might be sick, Damon.”

  He nodded. He’d thought about that too, in which case, she needed to be found ASAP. “I’ll f
ind her, Dani.”

  “Thank you.”

  After she’d taken a vial of blood and marked his name on it, he stood and put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her in for a quick hug. “You be careful, Red.”

  “This is what I do, Damon. It’s what I’m good at.”

  “I know you are. And I’m headed out to do what I’m good at.”

  “You planning on killing someone?” Her whisper was low and playful, but he could see the worry in her eyes.

  “That’s not the only thing I’m good at. I also play a mean game of poker.”

  “And fly helicopters.”

  “See, I’m good at all kinds of things.”

  With a last squeeze of her shoulders through the bunny suit, he slipped out of the tent. He planned to avoid anyone he came into contact with, but he wanted his scope and the SAT phone.

  He had a call to make.

  Chapter 10

  The call picked up after the second ring. “Yeah?”

  “Tell me you have something for me, Mike,” Damon said. He was up on the same hill in some scrubby brush that provided some decent cover. He had the SAT phone to one ear and a scope to one eye. Night vision goggles would have been better, but he was damned good without them, so he’d just grabbed the scope for this outing.

  “I have some. I’ll have more when Zach and Jesse check in.”

  “What are they doing?”

  Mike chuckled. “What they do best. Breaking and entering.”

  Damon could appreciate the irony. As the owners of J.Z. Alarms and Consultation, Jesse and Zach were paid to break into high security homes and businesses to assess the weaknesses of the already installed alarms. They’d yet to run into an alarm that Zach couldn’t disable within three minutes. And Jesse was a genius at designing unique, and impenetrable, alarms for those same businesses. He was also good with some computer hacking.

  “And where are they breaking and entering?”

  “Atlanta.”

  Damon didn’t bother worrying about his friends. They were the best at what they did. And he had a good idea what they might be doing in the city that played host to the CDC headquarters. Because it was also home base to every member of Dani’s team.

  “You didn’t have to send them, Mike. I just needed a bit of intel.”

  “I don’t send those guys anywhere. Elizabeth and Lily just started packing and talking about shopping and maybe a trip to Disneyworld while they were on the East coast. The kids were over the moon about going on a trip.”

  Damon laughed quietly. “Leave it up to the ladies to make a family vacation out of it. So, what do you have for me?”

  “I have a couple of doctors with some interesting secrets.” The sounds of shuffling papers came through the line. “For instance, Hailey Walsh grew up in Idaho. Father is a mechanic and mother is a school teacher. In high school, Hailey got involved with a boy who would end up being the leader of a radical anti-government group. She was questioned by the local police on several occasions about him, but never gave up any useful info. Either she didn’t know anything or she wasn’t a snitch. The file was suppressed, since she was just a kid.”

  “Is she still involved with him?”

  “It doesn’t look like it,” Mike said. “He’s doing time in a Federal super-max for attempting to bomb the presidential motorcade when they came through Boise on a campaign run.”

  “Anything on Travis Millet?”

  “He’s squeaky clean, except for unexplained cash withdrawals of one thousand dollars every month.”

  “Any idea where the money is going?”

  Mike said, “None. He doesn’t have any offshore accounts or anything in his life that would lead me to believe he was being blackmailed. He pulls the money out of the ATM in two to three installments at a time. For all I know, the money is shoved under his mattress.”

  “Zach and Jess will find out.”

  “I’m still working on Claire Belgarde and Martin Graham. And as for Anuma Abenaa, you’re on your own for the moment. I can’t find anything on him, but that’s not exactly unusual for a man born in Sierra Leone. Abenaa literally means Tuesday, and from my research it’s not unusual to name an African child after the day they were born. So there are going to be a lot of Abenaas to check. I’ve got a call in with a friend at the embassy there, so hopefully I’ll know more soon.”

  “Thanks, Mike. And make sure to let the guys know how much I appreciate them.”

  “You got it.”

  Damon disconnected the call. How in the world had Hailey managed to get a job with the CDC with a checkered background? And what was Travis up to? He’d focus on those two while further information was being gathered about the others.

  And then he saw what he’d been watching for. Hailey. She was coming out of the motor pool and headed toward the center of camp.

  ***

  Zach Steele rarely worried. The one exception was his wife—and she was safe in the hotel, probably cuddled up in bed with their five year old son, waiting for him to get back. Which he was always eager to do.

  No, this worry was about his friend Damon. When Mike Hansen called and told them a bit of what was going on, Jesse and he decided to head out and get the intel needed. Damon could handle himself better than most, but training and weapons couldn’t stop a virus.

  “Well, look at what I have here,” Jesse Calhoun said.

  He was sitting at the computer of one Dr. Martin Graham and the triumphant smile on his face raised Zach’s eyebrow. “What?”

  He was meticulously going through all the books on the bookshelf, looking for anything. Why folks tended to hide things in books, he’d never know, because it was always one of the first places that got checked.

  “Dr. Graham has a secret numbered bank account and he’s getting regular payments.”

  “How much?”

  “Irregular amounts, but nothing over ten grand. But it’s been going on for the last year, and the account has about five hundred thousand dollars in it.”

  Zach paused and looked at Jesse. “Sounds like a payoff of some kind.”

  “Enough to kill a village?”

  “Who knows?” Zach looked around. The house was small but nice. The furniture was expensive but older, the paintings were prints but of well-known artists, therefore expensive. Everything was stylish and tasteful, but not luxurious. “Maybe he just wants to up his standard of living.”

  “Guy is anal retentive, for sure, but to kill a large amount of people for this amount of money doesn’t track. If it was a million or more, I could see it, but this is small potatoes comparatively.”

  Zach shrugged and moved to the next bookcase. The doc had almost as many books as Zach’s wife did, but his reading taste was vastly different. Live and let live. He was quick and thorough and left the computer snooping to Jesse, who was much better and faster at it. And they’d been illegally inside the house for only twenty minutes when Jesse scored big.

  “I know what his secret is. You gotta see this shit.”

  Zach rounded the desk and bent over slightly to see over Jesse’s shoulder. “What the hell?”

  ***

  By the time Damon got back down the hill, Hailey had disappeared. He checked her tent, but it was empty. He stopped a few of the soldiers passing to see if they could point the way, but she’d apparently slipped by them as well. Not that they’d been looking for her.

  He ended up close by Travis’s tent and stuck his head inside. He was after Hailey, but it wouldn’t hurt to find Travis as well. He was about to leave when he heard the crying. Stepping into the dark interior, he left the door ajar. It was hot inside, as none of the flaps for the windows were down to admit the almost nonexistent breeze.

  “Hailey?”

  Now the noise had moved to sobbing. He found her wedged in between the cot/bed and a footlocker. She was curled up in the fetal position on her side, one hand covering her face and the other clutching a long thin metal case.

  “It’s Hai
ley, right?” he asked, as he squatted down to get a better look at her. “I haven’t had a chance to get to know you yet.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered through the sobs.

  “Sorry for what?”

  When he moved forward, she jerked back from him. His eyes had adjusted to the poor light, but only her bright blond hair gleamed in the dimness. That and the metal box in her hands. She continued crying.

  “Hailey, what’s wrong?”

  “I didn’t know,” she wailed. “Why won’t he talk to me?” Then she pulled her knees further into her chest and the wail quieted to an agonizing moan. “I think I’m sick.”

  Damon reached out to move the hair off her face and could feel the heat coming off her skin. She was burning up. “We need to get you to sick bay.”

  “No,” she whimpered. “I need Travis…to say sorry.”

  “We’ll find him and tell him, okay?” He shoved the footlocker to the side and reached for Hailey. She was small and he lifted her easily from the ground and into his arms. She curled into his body, still crying softly. Her frame was slender, almost fragile.

  He carried her out of the tent and started toward the infirmary. “What’s in the box, Hailey?”

  “What?” She’d stopped crying, but still had her eyes closed.

  “The box in your hand, what’s inside?” He didn’t care, but he wanted to keep her conscious and talking until he could turn her over to Dani and Dr. Nelson.

  “I don’t remember. It’s so hot. Don’t feel good…” her voice trailed off. Then she went completely limp in his arms.

  He picked up his pace now that she was dead weight and he didn’t have to be as careful. He cleared the infirmary door and was immediately surrounded by bio-hazard-suited nurses. One of which was Claire.

  “Oh, my God,” she said through the mask. “Bring her over here.” She led Damon to an empty bed and he gently placed Hailey there. He turned to survey the tent. It was fully quarantined now. No one but himself and the possible Ebola victims were without masks and suits.