Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(41)

Hope’s Smarty Pants was showing through. She’d done this all their lives. She always knew more than Faith. It was best to brush it all off. “Well, you’ll get the chance to delve into his background soon enough. I think Dad’s security team will have the reports in the next few weeks. He won’t send the plane out until he’s satisfied. Score one for controlling fathers.”

“And that’s a bad thing? You can’t blame him after what happened to mom.”

They sat for a moment, their shared loss between them. Faith’s mother had been killed in a mugging. While their father had been on the road campaign stumping, Alice McDonald had chosen to stay behind with her sick daughter. The way she’d been told, Faith had taken a fever and her father had a very important speech to give the next day. He’d left Alice with the girls in a hotel in New York, not wanting to put Faith on a campaign bus. Alice had gone to get a prescription filled and was murdered by a man who took her purse and left her to die in an alley.

When she thought about it, it made sense her father was a bit overprotective. He’d lost his wife and then nearly lost her when she’d been taken in Ghana.

“My friends are all right. They’ll pass any tests Dad puts them through.”

Hope sighed. “Good. Now tell me how the vaccination program is going. I heard you had some trouble. I promised my company good press from this. What’s happening?”

“Ebola was happening, sis. Sorry a little hemorrhagic fever outbreak messed with your PR plans.” It actually felt better to get back to their semi-caustic relationship. Anything was better than the web of grief that came down on them when they talked about their mother.

“Well, you would think those poor people would appreciate our efforts.”

“I’m sure they would if they felt like they could actually make it to the clinic.” It had been the hardest thing to deal with all year. Even harder than dealing with the outbreak was knowing a whole group of children was being exposed to illnesses they didn’t have to because their parents were terrified of coming to the clinic. She’d even tried to go door to door, but many wouldn’t open their doors for fear of infection.

They’d lost five babies she knew of to preventable illnesses. And two of those babies had actually had vaccines, which made her worry.

“How much do you know about black market vaccines?” Faith wasn’t sure she wanted to have this conversation with her sister, but she needed a few answers.

“I know it’s a growth industry since big pharma stopped producing them. Especially flu vaccines. We’re down to what? Two producers? Which is why you’re lucky my company is one of them and you should give us good press. We went into the red to help you out last season. If you can’t give marketing a boost by telling the world how kind we are, they might not send you another.”

She nearly growled. “I’ll do whatever you need me to, though this year’s batch will likely go almost unused. Even the ones I did end up using were oddly ineffectual. I lost several kids and three elderly patients to influenza and they’d been vaccinated.”

Hope shrugged. “You know it doesn’t catch them all and the vaccine isn’t one hundred percent.”

“I had them typed after death. The vaccine covered the flu strain these patients died of. I know it’s still not a hundred percent, but it shouldn’t be this bad. I can see one or two patients, but I need to know what went wrong. I have my suspicions.”

“Which are?”

She looked over to ensure no one was listening. She didn’t want her time with her friends taken up with yet another case to investigate. If Erin heard word that Faith was anxious, she would go and talk to Theo, who would talk to Ten, and they would take over. They would take care of her, but she could handle this one all on her own. “I think the shipment was derailed at some point and I got fakes.”

Hope went still. “You think someone stole our shipment and sold them on the black market in Africa?”

“I think someone stole them and sold them here in the States. There was a shortage last winter. They could make infinitely more money selling them here. I think they were likely switched before they ever made it out of Kronberg facilities.”

“You think we have someone working on the inside?”

“Well, I think the criminals do.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “Funny. I can’t imagine it. We have about a million security protocols. And how are you going to prove it? You probably ran through that shipment in a month.”

Hope never did listen carefully. She’d probably been thinking about getting into Theo’s fatigues. “Hello, Ebola. People stayed away from the hospital. I have half the shipment left. I’m waiting on the test results. I sent a couple of vials to a testing facility I know. They’re slow though. I should have an answer in a few days.”

A look of pure disgust crossed Hope’s face. “I can’t believe they would do this. I swear to god I’m going to take someone’s balls off over this.”

“I’ll hand you the scalpel.” Because hey, she’d taken the Hippocratic Oath, too, but Hope had never taken oaths very seriously. If Hope wanted to bust some balls, Faith would give her the big old thumbs-up.

“Are they shipping the results back to Africa? I want to know what you find out as soon as possible. If someone’s f*cking with vaccines, who knows what else they’re capable of screwing with. We would have to check and recheck everything that has gone out in the last year.” Hope had turned a nice shade of white. “God, our stock could plummet.”