chair, aware there was a big grin on his face. And a magnificent sense of relief running through him. “I’ve got the heart of a twenty-year-old athlete.”
Charlie moved from her seat. She’d been next to him during the virtual appointment. He’d tried to convince her that no doctor tells him he needs a heart transplant during a telemedicine call. Even in the middle of a pandemic surge, they would have gone into an office for that news. She’d been so worried.
He’d been oddly calm about the whole thing. He was usually a pessimistic son of a bitch, but he’d known this would be all right.
“Well, you definitely have the libido to match.” She lowered her lips to his. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am. The doctor seemed so worried before.”
“And now he’s not.” He didn’t know why, but the last few weeks he’d felt fucking incredible. He’d had more energy than he’d had in years. The truth was he’d started worrying there really was something wrong with his heart, but it turned out he’d been right all along.
He was invincible.
Charlie sighed and dropped her head to his. “I love you, Ian.”
“And as soon as we can, you’re going to love me at Sanctum.” The vaccine would be here soon and the world would open up again. A few months more.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Charlie called.
The door opened and all their kids were there, led by Tash, who had Travis on her hip. She held the fourteen-month-old with the hands of an expert, and he clung to his big sister. Kenzie was holding Seth’s hand, and Kala brought up the rear, a worried look on her face.
They knew.
Damn it. He’d tried to keep the whole “my heart needs to be checked out” thing on the down-low.
“Is Dad okay?”
Then his heart did constrict, and he had to take a deep breath because Tasha had asked the question.
Charlie slid off his lap and reached for their oldest daughter’s hand. “Yes, sweetie. Your dad is great. We talked to the doctor and his heart is in amazing condition. He’s healthy and going to be with us for a very long time.”
He watched them all sigh in obvious relief.
“That’s good news, Mom. We were all worried about him.” Tasha smiled, a bright, happy expression. “And it’s good because he promised we could watch Ant Man again. I’ll go make some popcorn.”
She turned with the surety of a child who wouldn’t get turned down, who knew her dad would stop the world to watch a movie with her.
The kids walked out talking about snacks, and Charlie turned, tears rolling down her cheeks. “She called me Mom.”
He drew her into his arms, his heart fuller than it had been before.
It had taken awhile, but their girl was finally home.
8
Countdown: A Glimpse of a Possible Future
Countdown takes place sometime in the future.
Deep in the Himalayas
Ben Parker fired, taking down the last of the security. The black-clad guard hit the floor with a thud and Ben breathed a long sigh of relief. There had been twelve, a ridiculous number for a facility that was supposedly used to study the effects of climate change high in the Himalayas. But then Ben’s higher-ups in the CFI knew what was really going on in this remote site deep in Nepal.
The “climate” scientists were actually virologists and engineers who had seemingly made evil their minors in college. Or greed, perhaps, but given what they were brewing up here, he had to think it was pure evil.
A new delivery system for anthrax was being researched in this complex, and Canada was going to make damn sure that was one research project that didn’t get completed.
Ben was silent for a moment, waiting for any sound to reach his ear. The floors in this part of the complex were metal, and any sudden movement rattled. Nothing. It appeared the intelligence had been correct and the facility had been evacuated except for security personnel and a few lead scientists. Now all he had to do was find the big bad guy and he could call it a day.
He touched the comm system. It was sleek and small, nothing more than a dot that sat on the outer edge of his left ear. He could walk around with it all day and no one would notice. “Tim, are you there? I’m past the inner perimeter. I need the code to get into the lab.”
A garbled sound came over the line.
One of the