“There’s a bio containment team on its way,” Jack said. “They’ll get you out of here.”
“I think…,” she said, “I think it’s too late.”
“We’ve got to try.”
She shrugged. “Please do. I’d like to live. I just don’t think it’s what’s going to happen.” She pushed herself to a seated position, and Jack saw more lesions on her chest. “You know, that word Copeland was trying to tell me. It wasn’t Uma ghetto. I read his files. It’s
“You were amazing. For the entire day,” Jack said. He leaned toward her, but he did not approach too closely.
“Nah, I’ve been braver since then,” she said. “Look over there.” She was pointing at a desk across the small room, closer to him than to her, where his jacket lay. “That’s my jacket.”
She nodded. “I took it at the harbor. It’s still wet. But look in the pocket.”
Slowly, already knowing, Jack slid his hand into the pocket and pulled out the vial of antivirus. “I didn’t want you to think I’d lost it. I know how important it is.”
He was holding the vial that could save her. But it could also save someone else. And somehow Jack was not surprised that Mercy had lain there dying, all the time holding on to the very substance that could have saved her.
“Mercy, I’m sorry. I was saving it for—”
“For your daughter. I know.”
“Mercy.”
“It’s okay, Jack,” Mercy Bennet said. “Really. Really, it’s okay. You said earlier that you’re sometimes wrong, but they are never right. You are not wrong now. You are doing the right thing.”
She slumped back down and coughed. When her hand came away from her mouth, it was covered in blood. “Jack, go now. I don’t want you to see me looking like that.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“If you do me one favor, do this one. Let me do this the way I want to. Take that to your daughter. It’s the right thing to do.”
Despite her request, Jack waited a few more minutes. The bio containment team arrived, and although there was little they could do for her, at least she wasn’t going to die alone.
Jack turned and ran out of the shed. He jumped into the borrowed Prius and raced home. Traffic was getting heavier, but he managed to get there in record time. If Copeland’s timetables were correct, he might have a little time to spare. But he would never know.
Jack parked the car in front of his house, dug the spare key out of its current hiding spot, and opened the door. The house was quiet. Jack hurried to the bathroom and took a first aid kit out of the closet. There was a small syringe there. He filled it with the antivirus and walked over to Kim’s room. He sat down at her bedside gently and felt her forehead. She was feverish, but he could see no lesions yet.
He had exposed her to danger. He hoped never to do that again.
While she slept, he injected her with the antivirus. She would live now. He kissed her on the forehead.
He walked out of Kim’s room and stumbled down the hall. At last he allowed the exhaustion to take hold of him. As he did, Teri came out of their bedroom, yawning. She looked at him, at his exhausted face. For a moment she looked on the verge of being angry at him for being out all night. At the last second she changed her mind and reached out, bringing him toward her with a hug. She would never know exactly what he did, or what might have been had he not done his job, but she could do this for him.
He softened into her hug. He thought of his bed, and sleep.
His phone rang. Teri did not release him. He eased himself gently out of her arms and did not look at her as he lifted the phone.
“Bauer.”
About the Author
JOHN WHITMAN is the author of numerous books and projects, including the “Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear” series,
