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She slid her hospital gown down over her shoulder. As she’d suspected, not that bad of a wound at all. Eight st.i.tches. Could have been so much worse.

Could have been and probably was: she’d been exposed. She might test positive in a day or two, possibly even less considering she didn’t know how long she’d been asleep.

Margaret flipped the blanket from her leg, looked at her thigh. It had been neatly dressed. Black ink on the white bandage … was that writing? She slowly lifted her leg for a closer look.

For a good time, call Tim.

Margaret laughed, and even that hurt.

The trailer door opened. A man stepped in. He wore fatigues printed with a pixilated digital pattern of gray, black and blue. Nice-looking man: pale, pink skin, a heavy jaw and a chin that would have got him work in Hollywood were it not for his beady eyes, which seemed to be just a bit too close together. His right eye had a bruise under it.

The man shut the door. He took off his camo hat and held it behind himself with both hands. He stood between the beds, mostly because there wasn’t enough s.p.a.ce to really stand anywhere else. He stared at her, as if he expected her to know who he was.

“h.e.l.lo,” Margaret said. “Is there something I can do for you?”

He smiled. “Don’t recognize me without my makeup?”

The voice brought it home — it was the SEAL who had yanked her out of the water, covered her body with his own as bullets rained down around them.

“Klimas, wasn’t it?”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Commander Paulius Klimas. How are you feeling?”

“Sore.”

He nodded. “I can imagine. You went through quite an ordeal. I have a message for you from Director Longworth. He sends his best and said that Doctor Cheng is making excellent progress cultivating the yeast. He also said you’re to rest, and that he’ll video conference with you tomorrow. Which you can do right from the Coronado, by the way.”

Ah, that’s where she was.

“I don’t remember coming aboard.”

“You pa.s.sed out,” he said. “Right after you and Doctor Feely” — Klimas nodded to the unconscious man in the hospital bed — “stabilized Levinson here.”

Pa.s.sed out? Blood loss, fatigue, concussive damage, shock, stress … probably a combination of all of it.

“How is Doctor Feely?”

“Fine,” Klimas said. “He treated your leg. He was rather insistent about it, actually. He’s been sleeping ever since. Agent Otto is awake though, and he asked about you. Would you like me to bring him in?”

Why, so he can whisper more lies about how he loves me?

“Tell him I’m fine,” she said. “I don’t want to see him. How long have I been out?”

“About sixteen hours, ma’am.”

That word, ma’am: it made her instantly feel old.