“Doesn’t matter,” Tatiana chuckles. “You’ll always be radioactive to me.”
Camellia laughs harder, then starts coughing.
“Camellia, are you okay?” I step closer to the camera. “Maybe we should take a break.”
“No!” Camellia yells. “We’re not taking a break. We’re about togeta break.”
Tatiana points to the screen. “Well, I’ll be hornswoggled. Look at that! What is that?”
“I’d bet a thousand dollars that’s where Virgil used to live,” Camellia looks straight into the camera. “Remember he said he’s responsible for the deaths of our friends?”
“Yeah,” I say slowly.
“Look at that cabin. Doesn’t it look familiar?”
I nod. It resembles one we visited with Virgil in it. But then again, there were a lot of abandoned cracker-style cabins around those parts.
“What if Virgil was doing experiments back then? Something happened. He accidentally started the fire but couldn’t get the bad stuff out in time,” Camellia suggested. “The CDC doc said this shit can be inhaled. And every single one of our friends would have fought that fire. Inhaling radioactive smoke.”
“So, why aren’t we sick?” I ask. “I mean, before now.”
“When was the fire?”
Tatiana rattles off the date.
“Oh,” I fall into a chair.
“Yeah, OH! That was right after we both quit the team. If we didn’t, it would have killed us too,” Camellia’s voice is graver now, no doubt thinking of our friends who are no longer with us.
“We’ll need to get someone to Rip,” I turn to Tatiana. “Tarron Brenner. He is the remaining member of that team.”
“I’ll track him down and send the cabin location to the HAZMAT team,” Tatiana is already clicking away. “Not that it would do much good, after all this time, but it might help something.”
A knock on the door interrupts what I am about to say. Ryker is closest, so he opens the door, and there stands a good-looking twenty-something man with black hair and blue eyes that dart around the room.
“Help you?” Ryker blocks the doorway.
“Uh - yeah - I’m - uh - looking for Cam Saber?” He says it like a question.
“And who are you?” I narrow my eyes at this interloper.
“I’m Ryan,” he holds out his hand to shake.
“Ryan?” Camellia squeaks from the screen.
“Cam?”This RyanFuckerpushes around me to enter the room. “I heard you were in the hospital and came here as quickly as I could.”
“What are you doing here?”
I frown.
“I called your phone, and Carmen told me what happened,” he explains.
“Who are you?” I bring out my Authoritative Fire Chief voice.
“Told you. I’m Ryan,” he glances at the screen, then holds out his hand again. “I’m a - uh -closewith Cam.”
I feel as if I’m having an out-of-body experience.This Ryan Fuckeris looking at Camellia as if she hung the moon. A look I know very well. It’s the look of a man in love. I have it all the time around her. When I glimpse her face, I can see the shock etched there. Her eyes are darting between us.
