Her lips formed a drawn-out, “Oh,” before she moved back into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. “Interesting idea.”
“Like I said, it’s my worst-case scenario plan. I don’t know if it would work. I’m not even sure if we should try it. Ultimately, we’d have to disappear.”
“I’d hate to take you away from your family.”
“I’d do it for you.” Cam pressed his face into her hair, inhaled deeply and memorized her wonderful scent.
Ria’s arms tightened around him. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Cam’s communicator beeped. He took it off of his belt and read the text. “They’re at the house. Jack is ready to go in and start testing.” He moved back to his desk, tapped some keys. The computer monitor blipped to a clear image of a door. The image shifted left, then right, taking in a mailbox on one side and a small potted tree on the other.
Cam said, “Can you hear me, Jack?”
“Yep.” The younger man’s voice came through the speakers loud and clear.
“Go on in the front door. It should be unlocked. Take a reading as soon as you step inside.”
On the monitor, Jack’s gloved hand reached for the knob, turned it, and the door swung open. The view moved with Jack as he stepped inside and briefly looked back to close the door. He held the box up in view and pressed the blue button. The screen on the box registered the sample as non-toxic.Good. Maybe it isn’t airborne.
“Where do I go next?” Jack took a few steps further into the house.
“Looks like you’re in the living area. Go to the center of the room and take another sample.”
“Okay.” Jack took another sample, which also came up as non-toxic.
“Head for the kitchen. Test some stuff in the refrigerator. Maybe something is spoiled, but not visibly bad.”
“Will do.” Jack checked the entire kitchen area, but nothing came up toxic.
Cam noticed through Jack’s helmet camera that the slider that led from the kitchen to the backyard was ajar. “Hey, Jack. Head outside. Maybe they grilled something.”
Jack opened the slider and walked out onto the back deck.
Immediately, it was clear something had gone very wrong here. Six place settings had been laid out on the picnic table. Plates half-filled with food, a partial platter of some sort of grilled meat—chicken, maybe—BBQ beans, corn on the cob and an untouched pie in the center of the table now provided a grand feast for a cloud of flies and lines of marching ants.
The grill lid was closed, but smoke filtered from beneath the hood.
“Check the grill. Maybe they got some bad chicken.” Food poisoning was the best option at this point.
Jack opened the grill, exposing almost unrecognizable chunks of some kind of meat. The little lumps looked like charcoal on the grill, smoking and inedible, whatever it had once been. “Put the probe into one of the charred pucks and see if it’s bad meat.”
Jack pushed the button. As soon as the results flashed on the device’s screen, Cam straightened in surprise.
“Squirrel?” Jack said. “They were eating squirrel? How is that even possible? Everyone knows squirrel meat is poisonous to Alphas.”
They’d found that out the hard way. About eighty years back, early colonists figured they could chow down on whatever the locals did. They couldn’t. Alphas couldn’t tolerate squirrel meat, at all. It led to a slow, painful death if not treated early enough.
Beside him, Ria huffed. “EvenIknow squirrel meat is poisonous to Alphas, and I’ve known that since I was four years old.”
“At least now we know why they’re so sick,” Jack said. “That just leaves, did they eat it willingly or was someone trying to kill off the whole family? Why would they all eat something they knew was poisonous?”
“No clue,” Cam said. “But I’ll tell Gage what we think it is so he can get started on their treatment.” Cam messaged Gage, who responded with incredulity, but indicated he’d start the regimen immediately.
“Can they recover?” Ria asked. “I always thought eating squirrel was a death sentence.”
“It’s very bad for the Alpha system, and eventually will kill whoever’s fool enough to eat it, but it’s not a fast-acting toxin. They are probably going to hurt for a long time, though.”
Cam linked his fingers with Ria’s and led her from his laboratory to the medical facility.
