Sick

has been eliminated, you and your team are to report to Bluebird.”

“Understood.”

“Good,” the doctor said, then hung up.

As Major Littlefield replaced the receiver in the cradle, his gaze returned to the napping form of Captain Ash.

“Enjoy it,” the major said to the TV. “It’ll be your last one.”

5

Tonight.

It could mean so many different things.

Was it a warning? Was tonight the night they changed the sleeping gas to something stronger? Or was the sender going to try to contact him? Or was it just a joke and didn’t really mean anything at all?

Ash wasn’t sure if he should be looking forward to finding out or dreading it. But there was one thing he couldn’t do-stop it from coming.

He kept to his schedule. Eating lunch when he usually ate, exercising again in the afternoon, then pacing until his stomach began to growl, signaling it was time for dinner. Twice the voice had asked how he was feeling, and twice he had ignored it.

When the lights flicked off then back on, he knew the wait was almost over. In ten minutes they would go off and stay that way until morning. Again, he did what he always did, brushing his teeth using only his finger and water from the sink, then relieving himself in the toilet. The only change was the ripped-up note he slipped into the bowl just before he flushed.

As he lay on the cot, he felt tense, suddenly sure the message had been a warning. He tried to stay awake, fearful that if he closed his eyes, he might never open them again. It wasn’t that he was scared of death, or that the thought of being with his family again didn’t appeal to him. But it was because of his family that he needed to live. He had to find who had done this to them. He had to make sure whoever it was had been properly dealt with, and if they hadn’t, he had to do it himself. After that, he didn’t care.

But then the gas must have come, because his eyelids grew heavy, and then the next thing he knew someone was shaking his shoulder.

“Wake up, Captain.”

The male voice seemed distant, as if it were coming from another room.

“Give him a second,” a second voice said, also male and muffled. “The shot takes a moment to kick in.”

Shot?

Ash peeled open his eyes, but could see nothing in the darkness. His hand slipped as he tried to push himself up and he fell back onto the bed.

“Easy there, Captain,” the first voice said.

Ash turned toward it. “What’s going on?”

“Later. Right now we have to get you out of here.”

“Out of here? I’m…what?” He knew he wasn’t making sense, but they weren’t making sense to him, either.

“We can talk later. Right now you need to do exactly what we say and keep quiet.”

“I don’t under…?”

What was this guy talking about? All Ash wanted to do was put his head back on his pillow and shut his eyes. But gloved hands were under his arms now, lifting him to his feet. As he staggered, someone grabbed him and kept him from falling.

“We’d love to give you a few seconds to wake up, but we don’t have time,” the second voice said.

Ash looked to his right and could barely make out a dark shadow of an oddly shaped person. Suddenly, he felt an arm wrap around his back.

“Just hold on,” the man said, his voice still sounding farther away than it should have been.

They exited the cell into a dark hallway. That seemed odd to Ash. Surely, there should have been some lights on.

“Clear,” the first voice called out from the distance.

“We’re going to move fast, Captain,” the man at his side said. “So keep a hold of me.”

As Ash grabbed the man’s back, the material of the guy’s shirt confused him. It was thick and kind of rubbery. But Ash barely had time to register this before the man began half-pulling, half-dragging him down the corridor. It was all Ash could do to keep from slipping to the floor.

After what he guessed was probably thirty seconds, they mercifully stopped. He heard a knob twist, then a door open, but he still couldn’t see anything.

“Straight ahead a couple feet, then we go to the left,” his human crutch said.

As they eased forward, Ash asked, “Why are all the lights off?”

“Quiet.”

Once they’d made the turn, they picked up speed again, moving quickly down the new corridor and through another door.

“Can you stand on your own?” the man whispered to Ash.

“What? Uh, yeah. I think so.”

“Okay. Stay here.” The man let go of Ash and stepped away.

“Wait. Where are you going?” the captain asked.

“Don’t move, and you’ll be fine.”

“I don’t understand. Why are you-”

A torrent of thick liquid engulfed him from every side, the flow so strong he could hardly breathe. There was also an overwhelming disinfectant smell, which didn’t help. He coughed several times and tried to step away.

“Don’t,” the first voice ordered. “You’re covered with the bug. It’s either this way or we will be forced to terminate you.”

Terminate? Ash stayed where he was.

Soon the spray stopped.

“Remove your clothes and throw them behind you.”

Ash hesitated for only a second, then stripped.

Once more the flow commenced, followed by a strong stream of odorless water.

As soon as it shut off, the first voice said, “There’s a wall three feet to your left. Follow that toward my voice about ten feet. There you’ll find a towel and some clean clothes. Please hurry.”

Ash did as instructed. As he was toweling off, he heard the sprays come on again. Judging by the sound, though, it wasn’t flowing over flesh.

Decontamination suits, he realized. Like the ones the people who’d come into his house-so long ago, it seemed-wore. That’s why the guy’s shirt had felt so strange.

The clothes waiting for him were not the flimsy garments he’d been given while in his cell. There was a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a pullover sweater, socks, and a pair of sturdy but flexible ankle-high boots.

“Ready?” the first voice asked a minute later, no longer muffled by what must have been the hood and mask of the suit.

“Yes,” Ash said. He finished tying his last shoelace and stood up. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”

“Not until we get out of here,” the other voice said.

A door opened, but the lack of light remained unchanged.

The two men led Ash away from the room, one always keeping a hand on the captain’s arm.

They’d been fast-walking for nearly three minutes when the guy in the lead let out a very low “shhhh.”

They stopped in the middle of the hall.

“Over here,” the lead guy whispered.

Ash was ushered through a doorway, into a space that was barely big enough for the three of them. The door then clicked shut.