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He’s not like you, Coop ol’ dawg … Doc Feely doesn’t leave anyone behind …

“Uh, what you did back there … thanks.”

Tim’s smile faded. “I don’t want to think about that. Not ever again.”

He pointed across the store to where Otto and Klimas stood along with two other men. Cooper recognized Bosh, and also that big SEAL — Roth, was it? — who for some reason was decked out in Bears gear. Ramierez sat by himself against a wall. Sleeping, maybe. And that infected lady, watching everything. She had a gag in her mouth and was practically buried in a pile of women’s coats.

“Come join us,” Tim said. “Time to talk about how we’re getting you out of here.”

•  •  •

Cooper listened to Klimas lay out the idea. Tim’s idea, maybe, but Klimas was in charge so it was his no-bulls.h.i.+t voice that outlined what would happen next.

Whoever came up with it, the idea sounded insane.

Everyone looked at Clarence Otto, waited for his response.

The man stayed silent for a moment. His jaw muscles twitched. There was murder in his eyes.

Otto raised a hand, pointed a finger — right at Cooper.

“He’s got the hydras, too,” Otto said. “Why don’t we use him?”

Oh, f.u.c.k that. This lovesick idiot wanted to save that diseased wh.o.r.e?

“Because I’m not one of them,” Cooper said. “Your wife is. Deal with it.”

He stared at Otto until the bigger man looked away.

Tim sniffed. “Margaret’s already lost. We can’t save her.”

Otto stared at the floor. “She’ll get those blisters, right? Isn’t that enough? Between her and Cooper, isn’t that enough?”

“It’s not,” Tim said. “Based on what we learned from Candice Walker, it will be another day, maybe two, before the pustules form on Margaret’s skin — if they form at all, because she’ll be dead by then. We just don’t know. What we do know is she already has the hydras in her blood. I know this is hard, but you … we don’t …”

Tim ran out of words. He looked at Klimas, maybe trying to get help. Cooper noticed that the SEAL had his pistol in his hand, down low against his thigh — subtle, but ready to go if Clarence got crazy.

“Using Cooper isn’t an option,” Klimas said. “We’re not putting him at risk so he can pop his zits on the bad guys. The weapon we need is inside of Margaret. We need her blood. All of it.”

Otto looked up. He was a man destroyed, a man gutted.

“Can’t you all hear how insane this sounds? This is barbaric. You want to put my wife’s blood into a fire truck? What the f.u.c.k are we, vampires?”

Tim pulled his fur coat tighter.

“Call it what you will,” he said. “If we do this, then even if we don’t get Cooper out alive, we can still start a plague that might kill them all.”

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