Agent Down: Region Two Series Book Two, page 8
“At least you got it back in time to toast this one,” Josh said, more willing to take things at face value.
I dug out my phone, making the quick call to the Cleaners, then texting Kimi. Tonight was her turn to sit with Bruce, my text going to her phone in case he was finally asleep.
The last treatment was completed. He’d managed the visit with his family, and they’d left days ago. The visit, the treatment, subsisting on broth and freaking medical drinks, one or all had taken their toll.
He’d visibly lost weight in the last two weeks. He had new, pinched lines around his lips and eyes. Something hurt, and sleep wasn’t as easy to come by. We hadn’t had our last appointment with the oncologist, Bruce putting it off until his family left.
I wanted to believe we’d get good news.
But I felt Bruce, and my time to figure out some miracle, slipping away.
I bent and jerked my lodged blade free, bone cracking and a bit of gray matter sticking to the knife. I flicked the gunk off, wishing I had more vampires to end. Windigos. A ghoul. Anything.
“You got this one earlier? When did she show between wounding her, you trapping the male, then finishing her?” Liv crouched by the last vampire. Her knife tracked slashes in the fallen creature’s shirt. Slashes that went through cloth, skin, and muscle, spine showing pinkish and bare.
The gashes weren’t clean enough for a blade, even one of ours.
“Excellent question,” I said.
Josh glared at the newest cadaver. “Friggin’ vampires. Now you two will have a longer report to detail. Even windigos are sorta useful, eating rats and ‘chups and shit. Ghouls eat windigos and dead crap. Vampires aren’t good for one damn thing, though.”
I froze mid-wipe, blade I was cleaning on the vamp’s shirt still. Useless vampires. I’d had the same thought. And recently. Memories snapped together. I’d thought it the day I filed the park attack report. Clicking on the footnotes. Notes that linked to the HQ Lab’s research with vampire blood proteins and DNA.
I shoved the dirty blade into the sheath, and strode past a frowning Liv. “Let’s go. Cleaners are two minutes out. We have reports to file.”
And I had a deeper dive to hack.
I rubbed gritty eyes, and reached for coffee, careful not to dislodge any of my legal pads. I scowled when the cup only held the stain of caffeine long gone.
Running my hand over the filled-up reams of paper, the first spark of hope in months kindled. Tiny, and too easily extinguished, but there.
Someone would face an Oversight hearing if it was ever discovered but the footnotes and brief on virus research led to a virtual backdoor. One that opened straight into archived abstracts, inter-departmental memos, the original tests and results, scientist’s notes—virologists, pathologists, a couple of genetics experts, and a whole heck of a lot of emergency medicine experts.
None of those files were from HQ, as I’d first assumed. The screw-up was in Oversight. I’d stumbled into the domain of the Company’s leaders, and the Assessors, our ultimate enforcers.
Oversight had conducted—possibly was still conducting because there were levels I couldn’t reach—its own research initative. With its own Labs, under their think-tank. None of which HQ had been informed of. That was Oversight’s prerogative.
If they discovered I’d found a flaw and hadn’t reported it, I’d be sanctioned.
If they discovered I’d dug and downloaded via plain pen and paper that could be destroyed without leaving a trace, and taken everything available from an Oversight cell far above my clearance level, I’d lose my C.O. position.
If they discovered what I intended to do with the stolen research, I would be the first Company agent ever executed. I’d become the whispered legend, the boogeyman used as a lesson for all cadets.
I wasn’t telling Liv, Kimi, or Josh about my plan. Only Bruce. If I was exposed, the worst the Company would do was cut him loose, a civilian asset who wasn’t yet a full Company agent and a dying one at that.
Not so with the team.
If they remained ignorant, they’d be safe, their commissions and lives unsullied by my punishment. For the first time in our lives, I was going to lie to my family. Lie to and defy the Company. The two most important things in my life.
The chance at saving Bruce was worth any punishment.
Compulsively, I paged back through labs and reports, stopping finally at the private correspondence between the two lead scientists.
We all understood how vampires were created. The human needed to have lost blood almost to the point of death, then the missing blood was replaced by infected blood from a vampire at least a decade old.
The virus DNA held a sequence to kick healing into high gear, replenishing blood at an astounding rate. Healing the wounds, repairing the infected host’s injuries.
The research teams hadn’t been able to isolate the sequence in the alleles or markers within the virus responsible for regeneration. Yet. The research that originally began as an initiative to discover the means to stop the virus from taking hold had shifted to emergency applications. From tests on newly infected subjects to more theoretical work, sequencing codes. I hadn’t been able to find a way into those records.
They’d theorized that if an agent had abnormal red and white cells, the virus DNA would immediately target the abnormalities, repairing them. And, theoretically, any associated cellular abnormalities.
They’d pivoted and refocused on wounds and regenerating injuries beyond the help of current medicine, not diseases.
I’d spent all my non-mission time gathering everything I could on cancer, on Bruce’s type. Sending questions to our year-mate, and having virtual face-to-faces. She was humoring me out of kindness.
The result? I understood enough about cellular damage, unregulated cellular growth, to grasp that some cancers, like Bruce’s, were abnormal blood cells, at their foundation.
If the treatments had done their job and killed most off, virus DNA might push the job over the edge. Right into a solid win.
If the treatment hadn’t…I curled my fingers in, nails nothing but bitten back memories. Shoving the raw terror and tears back.
If the chemo hadn’t worked, another course and the virus could, theoretically, work together. Kill the bad, let the virus find the few remaining healthy, original cell structures.
The researchers tried blood, tissue, stem cells, saliva. The virus mixed with a carrier. Blood administered as an inhalant. That had been the closest to a success, leading to instructions for setting up an oral testing plan, hopes for an oral form. That was where I’d hit the wall I couldn’t hack past.
Oral though—vampire blood taken by mouth—that I could manage.
I exited the files as Liv poked her head in, closed doors a thing of the past. Mine was always open, listening in case Bruce needed me. The rest of the team had followed suit on their own.
“It’s nearly eight,” Liv said. She came the rest of the way in, and set a cup beside me. I scooped papers up, tapping them into a neat pile.
“Still obsessing over that wounded vampire?” She asked.
“I know I wasn’t the one who cut her up. Plus, the newbie I questioned swore the majority of the nest abandoned them, or left fast. He was babbling about Il Creatore, but that didn’t sound like he was their nest Master.” All true. And something was off. I felt it, like another layer of dread, right under the dread of losing Bruce.
“It’s almost time for the appointment.” Liv’s words might as well have been in all-caps.
The Appointment.
Was Bruce getting better.
Or were we going to have a permanent, unfillable hole in the team.
I chugged my coffee, scalding my tongue, and shoved the reports in a drawer. “I’m hitting the shower. Get the travel kit ready?”
“Already done. Fresh bags and wipes and ginger caps, plus cough syrup, are inside.”
I hugged my sister, her grip equally strong. We hung onto each other for a moment before separating, because Bruce was her family now too and she loved him in the same way as she did Josh.
Chapter 12
Bruce
The compound gates slid sideways with a low chime, allowing them back in.
That was the first sound that had intruded on their silence, neither saying anything, after Bruce told the doctor that he would let him know within twenty-four hours if he chose to do a second round of chemo.
He didn’t need the gentle discouragement in the specialist’s voice to know the oncologist saw little point. Bruce knew the stats by heart. He’d heard how high his virus load was. Higher than when they began.
He also didn’t need a professional opinion to know that he hurt. An all-over pain, worse on some days than others, but always present.
Vee’s hand was wrapped around his. Just shy of too tight. She’d driven in silence, one hand on the wheel, the other around his. Taking her cue from him.
She met him as he opened his door. Taking his hand again, not able to endure the few feet and few seconds of separation.
He understood. The thought of leaving Vee…he swallowed hard, then rubbed below his collarbone, feeling as if something was lodged there and in the way. Tumors. Unstoppable and multiplying. The Arizona sun danced along his skin, obliviously cheerful.
He tugged Vee’s hand when she tried skirting the plantings in the yard, headed for the stairs to the walkway and their common area.
“Sit out here with me for a few minutes.” She tensed and he ran his thumb over the back of her hand, aware of her thoughts like they were printed on her forehead for him to read. “I can make the climb. I’m not that tired.” Yet.
He sat on the bench, the warmth welcome, taking a second to admire the succulents and flowering cacti, the way Kimi had arranged darker to lighter in a harmonious tapestry. The birdbath sat in the center, like the ruler of the planting.
“Are you okay? Do you need another hoodie?” Vee dug in the damn bag she and her sisters kept stocked with everything they could anticipate him needing.
“Not right now. Vee, I know you don’t want to hear this. Hell, I don’t want to say it. Neither one of us hide from reality or hard choices though.”
“I’m listening.” She edged against him, and when he didn’t complain, wrapped both arms around him.
“We need to make some decisions. Let me talk without interrupting.”
She nodded, cheek sliding against his bare skin. The beard was long gone, shaved at the same time he’d shaved his head, the clumps of hair on his towel that day his warning of what was coming. Josh had pulled out a razor and joined Bruce, shaving his head alongside, probably breaking bullshit Company rules.
“I can go home to Westchester. Mom is a senior partner—she can take off as long as necessary. Marisa has already lined up her paperwork for a temporary leave. I can also go to an inpatient hospice.”
Vee’s arms tightened, then relaxed a fraction, like she was fucking afraid she’d break him.
“This isn’t what you want to hear, but things will get ugly.” He sighed, fucking hating the idea of not having Vee with him, by his side. Of not turning his head and seeing her asleep beside him. Not having her curled around him like she was a fucking shield as they watched shit movies, or read, or just sat together.
Being alone, without the other half of his soul was, to date, the worst, most unbearable thing he had to look forward to. It stole his breath.
He loved her in a way he’d never loved anyone else though, and he’d spare her seeing him die slowly.
“What I’ll need—before long, I’ll need someone there with me at all times. Not even the way one of you hangs out here when the rest are training or patrolling, but full time. Do you understand?”
She nodded again, short and jerky.
It fucking broke off a piece of his heart, but he said it. “All right. Think about what I’ve said, then we’ll decide.”
“Can I talk now?”
“Yes.”
“If you want to be with the rest of the family or in hospice near them, I understand.” She loosened her hold and pulled away.
Fucking killing a bit of him, but he’d told her the truth, and this was her choice to stay.
“I’d like to go with you though.”
“Vee—” Relief and regret swamped him in equal measures.
“Unless you really don’t want me there, and forbid it, I’m—I want to go. I’ve talked to your Mom, and she says we’ll always be family, and I can stay with her and your Dad. Marissa said the same. So now you listen.” She looked him directly in the eye, for the first time since the doctor visit. “We’ve already discussed this and talked to support group people and the online forums, and all of us want you here. We will make arrangements to be here and get and do everything you need. Everything.”
He tried again. “Do you really want the next few months to be spent seeing awful things? Having to do awful things for me? Those will be your last memories of me, and of us.”
She locked gazes, determination blazing off of her. “Yes. I treasure every second we’re together. Every heartbeat. We don’t run from hard things.”
“Fuck, Vee—”
“It’s still my turn. I’d like you to consider this last treatment.” She swiped at her face. “I know now what I’m asking. Okay, not know-know. It’s freaking—it’s a heroic effort. It is. And I’m selfish because I’m asking you to make the call tomorrow and say yes anyway. B, there’s hope. I need to tell you—”
He touched her lips then ran his fingers over her cheek. “This will impact the team.” He touched her shoulder and the damn gash she’d come in with the night before. “It will impact you. Lack of sleep alone—”
“I have hope.” Her head was already swinging in denial. She glanced around and lowered her voice, leaning in even closer. “B, there’s another possibility and—”
He kissed her. Savoring her fierceness and dedication. “You have hope for both of us. That will be your job. Mine will be chemo. I can’t do both. This is assuming Kimi, Liv, and Josh even agree. We need to discuss the decision with them because they are impacted, too.”
Metal bonged above them. Bruce lifted his gaze to the metal walkway. Fucking knowing what he’d see.
“Guys, it’s okay,” Vee said, no surprise evident. She’d already known this part, as well.
All three rounded the corner into view. Eavesdropping. No, scratch that. They were executing some damned pre-planned maneuver. This—this wasn’t just Vee. This was a team op.
They came down the steps and made a circle around him and Vee.
Josh elected himself spokesperson, all trace of his everyday irreverence and laid-back persona gone. “We already talked about all that too. If we need to take a sabbatical and HQ send in a support team for the Region, we’ll do that. You’re one of us, you are one of the team. We will have your back. We don’t let family face monsters alone.”
“Jesus F Christ,” Bruce half-swore and half tried not to cry. He’d keep fighting, because, yes, he was part of the team. They always grabbed life and fought to hang on no matter how shitty the odds or how high their probability of leaving this world too soon.
He wouldn’t be any less brave. Fuck if he was dishonoring them and the contract he’d signed that promised he was in this for life.
He stood and hugged his brother, Vee and his sisters linking arms and pressing in, turning it into a group hug.
His family had grown, and he’d almost missed the miracle.
Chapter 13
Vee
I pulled our bed’s blanket higher, tucking it around Bruce’s shoulders. Careful not to jar him and wake him up.
From the lines marring his forehead, even asleep he didn’t escape the pain he’d finally admitted to. A pair of new medications had joined the mini pharmacy on our nightstand. At least they let him sleep.
He’d finally drifted off, head in my lap. A new screen on the opposite wall reflected back a ghost version of us. Sitting through gaming battles or movie nights had stopped, even the lumpy couch too uncomfortable for Bruce.
So Josh had bought and installed the giant screen in our room, maxing out video games, streaming services, movies—anything that might distract Bruce for an hour or two.
Instead of him reading for the kids, Liv sat in here as long as Bruce would allow, reading to him. Kimi kept up with meds, and kept him company. Having their own conversations they kept strictly private.
I pulled my phone, my newest compulsive habit.
The one freaking time I needed a vampire, they disappeared. In the last three weeks, we’d had dozens of windigos, ghouls, and false starts, and only one vampire call-out. Josh had taken it out from a distance as it attempted to sneak over a rooftop to avoid me and Liv.
I’d finally cobbled together how to keep one alive and put aside. There was a sedative in one of my BDU pant’s pockets, chains stashed in the SUV and Liv’s truck, and one of our bare-bones tertiary sites ready. It held a cage and more chains.
My shaky extraction plan hinged on lying about HQ requiring a vampire specimen, then telling the team I’d take it to HQ myself. Quietly dropping it at the site, and swearing it had gotten free in the SUV, attacked, and I’d been forced to eliminate it.
Assuming Liv didn’t decide to include the incident in her obsessively thorough reports, a quick side-note that would result in questions and a call from HQ. Ditto Kimi and her insatiable curiosity, checking HQ for what the vampire specimen was to be used for, because she had five minutes to kill and was bored.
Now I needed a vampire. Fast.
This round of treatments was so much worse than the last. I smoothed over Bruce’s shaved head, and lightly across his face. His cheekbones were stark hollows, eyes looking like he’d been punched. The contrast between the dark circles underneath and his chalky pallor gave him a bruised effect.
He was fighting so hard, because I’d asked him to. He was the one suffering because I was selfish. I couldn’t even tell him why I’d asked him to endure this torture. He’d said he needed all of his energy for the treatments. Sometimes, hope really was exhausting. Too much to look at.
