VANGUARD(46)

She’d lived too long not knowing if he were alive or dead…

She walked back to the bed and climbed in, trying to leave a little space between them. Sophie opened her laptop and started to work. Michael appeared lost in thought. It was quiet, but not entirely awkward. New ground, for both of them.

After a while, he slid closer to her, his leg twining around hers and his face nuzzling against her arm. She smiled. All these years, who would have known there was a snuggly Michael inside this prickly, difficult man, just waiting to come out every time he fell asleep?

“What is so funny, mana mila?”

She jumped, letting out a squeak of surprise. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Why? Because I touched you? You think the only time I wish to be close to you is when I am asleep?” He sounded distressed by this.

Sophie glanced down at him and wished she hadn’t. He looked very appealing, even sick in a hospital bed. Her cell phone rang, causing them to jump. She examined the incoming number carefully. Most of the people who had called in recent days were media looking for a scoop.

“Carter?” She could hear a strange noise in the background.

“Sophie? Is that you?”

“Yes. Remember what I told you about the phones.” She’d instructed Carter before leaving America not to use names if they spoke during the mission.

“Yeah, sure, I remember. But listen…” Sophie could hear the odd sound get louder, and she suddenly knew why he was calling. She put the phone on speaker, and the lusty bawling of a baby filled the infirmary.

“Nine pounds, one ounce!” Carter shouted over the sound. “A healthy baby boy. He’s so beautiful!”

“I can hear him, Carter! I bet he’s gorgeous. How’s Janet?”

“Janet is fantastic, absolutely amazing. You should have seen her, she was a champ. I saw him coming out, I was right there!” Carter’s joy was overflowing.

“Wait, what’s his name?” she asked when she could get a word in edgewise.

“But you said no names.”

She rolled her eyes at Michael, who grinned. “You can say your son’s name, idiot.”

“We named him…we named him Michael Raine DeVries.” Carter’s voice broke with emotion. Sophie saw Michael’s jaw drop in shock.

“Go on.” She gestured to the phone. “Say something.” For a moment, she thought he was too overwhelmed to speak.

“Sophie? Shit, Janet, I think we got cut off.”

“Watch your language in front of the baby,” Janet’s voice ordered in the background. Michael picked up the phone and brought it closer to him.

“I like the first name. The middle name is too trendy,” he said.

Silence at the end of the line.

“Sophie, who just said that? That isn’t…”

“Yeah, it is.” She smiled broadly. “He’s right here with me. We’re safe. Everything’s going to be okay.”

“Oh my God. Oh my God. I can’t believe it,” Carter said shakily. “How did you do it?”

“Long story. We’ll tell you when we get home.”

“How? When?” Michael looked at her, eyebrows quirked. Unfortunately, she didn’t have answers for either of them.

“Not totally sure yet, but I’ll come up with a plan. Don’t worry. We’re both coming home very soon.”





Chapter 10





Michael was sleeping again when everyone returned from Parnaas in late afternoon. Sophie left him in the infirmary and went back to work.

Anjali had cautiously optimistic news. In the week since they’d discovered that P. aeruginosa had caused the pneumonia plaguing the camp, they’d loaded up all patients in the Parnaas infirmary with the appropriate antibiotics. Many were on their way to recovery.

“We’ve lost six patients to it since we started the new drugs,” Anjali said, “and their situations were complicated by other health factors.” Sophie saw the unhappy set of her friend’s mouth when she said it. Losing patients was part of a doctor’s life, but that didn’t mean this particular physician had to like it.

Intimate contacts with the existing cases had been rounded up and started on antibiotics. They’d combined the medication distribution with a widespread vaccination program. “Typhoid, hepatitis, anything else that might be a risk in a camp this size. The guards don’t know we’re administering conventional vaccines; they think we’re curing the pneumonia with the shots. By the way, I’m burning through antibiotics, gloves, syringes, and hypodermics.”