Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (53 page)

“
I don’t want to rain on
your panic attack but the CDC investigator was more concerned about
dinner than about you,” Alex laughed. “They are amazing, the people
at the CDC, very talented, but they’re total foodies. You know we
got them reservations at Vesta Dipping Grill. Have you
eaten?”

Ava shook her head. Holding up the travel
mug with warm water and lemon juice in it, she added, “This lemon
juice sours my stomach.”

“
Maresol stopped by with
some food for you,” Alex pointed to the mini-refrigerator next to
Ava’s desk. “There are some enchiladas and more lemons in there for
you. She also said you love toast, peanut butter and
bananas.”

Ava’s eyes went big. She nodded.

“
She brought supplies,”
Alex said. “You should eat and sleep.”

“
I can’t,” Ava said.
“These men’s lives depend on me.”

“
I could order you to
sleep,” Alex said. “As Denver’s senior Homeland Security agent, I
have control over this lab. Do I need to order you to
sleep?”

Ava’s eyes filled with tears.

“
Feel helpless?” Alex
asked.

Ava nodded.

“
I’ve been there,” Alex
said. “I think as women, we’re indoctrinated that working harder
will make things happen. I’ve learned the hard way that nothing
trumps self care. We have to take care of ourselves. Will you eat
and sleep?”

“
If I take the time, I
won’t…”

“
You’d be surprised what
some sleep can do,” Alex said. “Max will wake up at five. We’ll
work out and he’ll be ready to go. Chances are, he’ll have solved
whatever puzzle he was working on when he fell asleep. Are you
stuck on a puzzle?”

Ava nodded.

“
Then sleep is your
answer,” Alex said. “I promise. I have a lot more experience in
these kinds of situations. Sleep is your answer.”

“
You’re not sleeping,” Ava
said.

“
I’m not. And that’s good
for you,” Alex said. “I’ll handle the phones. I can talk to people
when they come in and get everything set up. Think of me as your
assistant.”

Ava went to her refrigerator and took out
Maresol’s homemade bread. She grabbed her toaster from under the
cabinet and made a couple of pieces of toast. She slathered peanut
butter on the toast and added slices of banana.

“
Well assistant,” Ava
said. “Eat.”

“
I never thought you’d
ask!” Alex said. “Can I have the phones first?”

Shrugging, Ava gave her the Bluetooth ear
bud to the lab phones. Alex stuck it in her ear and held her hand
out. Ava gave her a piece of toast. Ava sunk into her arm chair and
they ate their banana peanut butter toast in companionable
silence.

“
Will you sleep now?” Alex
asked.

“
I’m not tired,” Ava said.
“I’m too wound up. Plus…”

“
You haven’t slept without
Seth since it happened,” Alex said.

Ava nodded. Being careful not to disturb
Max, Alex took a handgun out from her sacrum holster. She ratcheted
a round into the chamber.

“
I’ll keep watch,” Alex
said. “At five-thirty, men from my team will arrive. They’ll bring
breakfast and we’ll get going.”

“
I’m not…”

“
Humor me,” Alex said.
“Close your eyes.”

Ava closed her eyes and dropped into sleep.
Alex smiled and clicked off the light on the table. In the silence,
Alex kept guard over the only two people who could solve this
puzzle and save Seth’s life.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FIFTY-FOUR

Sure?

Wednesday morning — 6:10 A.M.

Ava woke with a start. Confused, she rubbed
her eyes. She was sitting in an arm chair in her office. Alex and
Max were gone. She glanced at her watch and turned to stared at the
clock on the wall

“
Oh crap, I’m late,” she
mumbled.

Semi-awake, she hopped to her feet.

“
Slowly,” a man’s voice
said. “Give yourself a second to wake up. I have
coffee.”

Ava turned to see Alex’s problem solver,
Captain Troy Olivas standing in the doorway.

“
Are you guarding me?” Ava
tried to say. She was so groggy she wasn’t sure what came out. He
smiled at her.

“
I have two cups,” he
said. “One with lemon, warm water, and some of Alex’s honey and one
with coffee and a little whole milk.”

Ava held out her hand for the lemon water.
He came into the room to give it to her. She took a sip, then
another. He sat down on the couch.

“
Alex’s honey?” Ava
asked.

“
Alex and Max keep bees at
the house,” Troy said. “They have a beekeeping club and keep bees
with Delphie. You’ll have to come over for a harvest. It’s almost a
pagan ritual.”

“
Why are you here, Captain
Olivas?” Ava asked.

“
Orders,” Troy gave Ava a
big toothy smile. She blushed at how handsome he was. “Actually,
Alex seems to think I can help. There’s a bunch of us here.
Margaret’s here to help with the Geneva contingency. Colin’s here
to help sort out the medical piece with your lab tech Leslie. Raz
is working with your computer guy… uh...”

“
Nelson,” Ava said. “And
Fran?”

“
Vince is to work with
her,” Troy said. “He can build anything anywhere. He’ll help Fran
figure out how that machine worked. Our orders are to help but not
interfere.”

“
Were you ordered to wake
me?” Ava asked.

“
I was ordered not to wake
you,” Troy said. “But the CDC is downstairs and the Geneva and
Israeli teams are on their way from the airport. We’re concerned
there will be a turf war. And…”

“
And?” Ava
asked.

“
Your fiancé is an old
friend of Alex’s father,” Troy said.

“
Oh?”

“
They served in Vietnam
together,” Troy said. “We don’t have time for turf
wars.”

“
Why are you here?” Ava
asked.

“
I’m an ‘out of the box’
thinker,” Troy said. “I have a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics. I’m
assigned to assist you.”

“
Who’s working with Bob?”
Ava asked.

“
Max,” Troy
said.

“
Is my team…?”

“
They’re due here at
six-thirty,” Troy said. “We’re having a big meeting at eight. That
gives everyone time to get their ducks in a row. Are you
hungry?”

Ava nodded.

“
Why don’t we get out of
here?” Troy asked. “You can brief me over breakfast. I’m sure
you’ll want to shower and change your clothes. Or at least I do
when I work all night.”

“
Shouldn’t I stay here?
Assert my authority?”

“
Nah,” Troy said. “Alex is
here. Turf wars are one of her specialties. No one’s going to try
anything while she’s around. There’s not a big dog in the world
that won’t roll over at her feet.”

Ava stood up and went to her desk for her
purse.

“
You don’t mind if the
rest of your team meets us, do you?” Troy asked.

“
I’d really like that,”
Ava said. “I touched base with them before they left last night but
it would be good to get a thorough update on their
progress.”

“
Good,” Troy said.
“They’re on their way to Dozens.”

“
Sounds like you’ve been
busy,” Ava said.

“
Not me,” Troy said. “Alex
and Max. But we’ll need to have something soon.”

“
Soon?”

“
The patients didn’t fair
very well overnight,” Troy said.

“
Seth?” Ava’s voice came
out in a panicked breath.

“
He’s alive,” Troy said.
“That’s all I know.”

“
I should stay,” Ava
said.

“
You need to come with
me,” Troy said.

“
Orders?”

“
Something like that,” he
said. “We’ll be back in time to get this done.”

Ava smiled at him. He escorted her through
the lab. When the elevator opened, she saw the team from the CDC
waiting there. She swallowed hard. She was about to say something
when Alex welcomed them to the lab. She and Troy got on the
elevator and went up to the first floor. She was out of the
building before she took her first full breath.

“
That was close,” Troy
laughed.

Ava smiled and followed him down the street
to the restaurant. Inside, she saw her team and the soldiers
assigned to each of them. They were laughing about something and
Ava smiled. When Bob waved to them, she felt a rush of hope.

“
I can do this,” she
muttered.

“
We’re waiting for you
to,” Troy laughed.

She smiled at him and went to meet her
team.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday morning — 6:10 A.M.

“
Jill!” Valerie whispered
and tapped on the door.

She’d crept up to Jill and Jacob’s
apartment. As if she’d been waiting for her, Jill opened the door.
Jill smiled at Valerie and gestured her into the kitchen. Jill
nodded to a bar stool and Valerie took a seat at the counter.

“
Isn’t Katy up?” Valerie
asked.

“
She and Jake are sleeping
in,” Jill said. “We were up late. Doesn’t matter when Katy falls
asleep. She’ll sleep for exactly eight hours and wake up. She won’t
be up for a few hours yet.”

“
I had the weirdest
dream,” Valerie said.

Jill set a cup of tea in front of Valerie
and poured one for herself.

“
I dreamed that we killed
the monster in Brighton,” Valerie said. “You, me, the kids, Honey,
like we did last night. I woke up with this feeling that we had to
do it. Today.”

Jill smiled and stirred her tea.

“
You don’t have to be so
quiet,” Valerie said. “I know about the twins.”

Jill’s head jerked up with surprise.

“
You do?” Jill asked.
“Jacob doesn’t even… How…?”

“
Mom told me,” Valerie
said. Jill raised her eyebrows and Valerie laughed. “When we were
kids. Not now.”

Jill smiled.

“
She told me that only
Jake could have boys,” Valerie said. “I always knew it but I was
still so devastated at losing Jack.”

“
I know,” Jill reached out
to cover Valerie’s hand with her own. “I haven’t known how to tell
you. I’m so sorry about Jack.”

“
Me too,” Valerie
said.

Jill gave Valerie’s hand a squeeze.

“
So you’re not
upset?”

“
About the twins?” Valerie
said. “No. Not at all. I’m excited to be an aunt. I’ve been buying
baby stuff for the boys. I hope you don’t mind.”

Jill smiled. The women fell silent for a
moment while they drank their tea. Valerie looked up and smiled at
Jill.

“
Mom told Jake too. He
would have a girl, a set of twin boys and maybe more later. She
couldn’t tell after the twins,” Valerie said. “He would roll his
eyes and head out to screw some other chick. It was pretty funny
looking back on it.”

“
Screw some chick? When?”
Jacob tried to sound indignant but couldn’t keep from laughing.
Wearing his pajamas, he kissed Jill good morning. “Thanks for
ruining my big moment.”

“
Which big moment was
that?” Valerie laughed.

“
My moment of surprise and
love – Twins? Us? Really?” Jacob leaned over to whisper in Jill’s
ear. “We’ll talk later?”

Jill nodded.

“
Are you here about the
monster in Brighton?” Jacob asked.

Valerie nodded.

“
I’m not going to let you
go by yourself,” Jacob said. “I doubt Aden will let the kids and
Sandy go by themselves. Mike’s going to insist on coming. And
there’s no way MJ’s leaving Honey’s side.”

“
We’d probably have to
kill Delphie to keep her from being involved,” Jill
said.

“
But we need to go,
right?” Valerie asked.

“
Today,” Jacob said. “I’m
a little surprised…”

“
Jill?” Delphie stuck her
head in the doorway. The dogs, Sarah and Scooter, came running in.
“I’m glad you’re awake.”

Scooter made a beeline for Katy’s room.

“
I can stay here with
Katy,” Jill said. “We don’t have the mitochondrial DNA.”

“
You need to go,” Valerie
said.

“
But…” Jill
said.

“
We need you there,”
Delphie said.

“
Katy won’t be awake for
another hour or so.”

“
Maria is here,” Delphie
said. “She wanted to talk to you about furnishing your nursery
anyway.”

“
So everyone knows?” Jill
asked.

Delphie gave Jill one of her flower child
smiles. Jill shook her head and Delphie hugged her.

“
We leave in a half an
hour?” Valerie got up from her stool. “I’ll talk to
Honey.”

“
The police are coming at
eight,” Jacob said. “They want to talk to everyone. That’s going to
take all morning.”

“
Sissy can’t miss dance,”
Jill said. “But I can stay here with her. She and Charlie don’t
have the DNA either.”

“
No, I think everyone has
to be there,” Delphie said. “You, Katy, Sissy, Charlie, Teddy… Yes,
we need you to kill this thing.”