his eyes at the men until they settled down. It was kind of comical, but then, she assumed these Special Forces types weren’t all that accustomed to working with women.
“Since we’re all here,” Matt Sykes began. “I’d like to start this session by thanking Officer Petit for joining our team. I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to talk to you before this, ma’am. I’ve just been cleared to brief you on things we weren’t sure you’d need to know before. The powers that be finally consider it important for you to have all the available information, which, for the record, I was always in favor of. I don’t like sending anyone into the field with only part of the story.”
Sarah was surprised by his vehemence and his words. What more was there to know? Could it be any worse than learning there were actual zombies in the world and their mad scientist creator was after her? She was almost afraid to listen.
“You’re probably wondering why a navy commander is involved in what appears to be strictly an army mission. The short answer is that the problem started on my base. The first victims of this contagion were marines stationed at Quantico, my current duty station. We thought we’d eradicated the problem with the help of a Navy SEAL—someone like you, who was immune to the contagion. The science team that inadvertently created the problem was disbanded and sworn to drop the research. Most of them found other jobs and we thought the problem was solved for good.”
Sykes’s expression darkened as he sat back in his chair.
“Since then, we’ve discovered that some rogue members of the scientific team have started up the research again. Specifically, there have been two known flare-ups—the one here and one earlier at Fort Bragg that wasn’t discovered until most of Captain Beauvoir’s team was gone. He survived and I was called in to lend assistance once they realized what was going on. That problem is still ongoing and we have a team in the field working to destroy the remaining creatures as we speak. We’re spread thin because of the need to send Captain Beauvoir up here to settle this problem. Which is why your help is invaluable, Sarah. We literally don’t have enough qualified people to deal with two outbreaks at once.”
“Is it getting any better back on base?” Xavier asked, concern lacing his voice.
“Marginally. We still haven’t tracked down the source of the problem. Which is why we need to tie up this outbreak as soon as possible.” Sykes turned his attention back to Sarah. “Captain Beauvoir is a very rare commodity—as are you, Sarah. You’re both immune. We don’t want to send any more men to their deaths. Only those who are immune are being sent into the kill zone. They’re the only ones who stand a chance against the creatures when a scratch or bite can be fatal.”
“Xavier explained all that to me,” Sarah said, nodding. “I just didn’t realize there was another outbreak other than here on Long Island. I guess I assumed Xavier had been bitten during some initial action that was now over.”
“Unfortunately not.” Sykes leaned forward again. “I’m only here for this meeting. I came to get a sitrep from your team before I head back to North Carolina and the problems waiting for me there. I’m hoping that something you’ve uncovered might help shake loose the sticking points in my own investigation.”
“Well, we know for sure the scientist behind this outbreak is Dr. Sellars,” Sarah told him. “He tried unsuccessfully to get blood from me in the hospital,” she put in. “He also left a DVD addressed to me with an invitation to give myself up so he could study why I survived the bites. Xavier and I found it at the last location we searched, along with a phalanx of zombies, which we darted and marked.”
Xavier tossed the disc in question onto the table, in front of Sykes. “You can have the original. I downloaded the files and my team already has them.”
Sykes placed the DVD in his briefcase. “Lieutenant Archer played the video for me right before you arrived.” His expression darkened. “I want you to be careful, Sarah. Under no circumstances do we want anyone who survived the contagion to be captured or even sampled by the enemy. We don’t want them figuring out a way to make just a select few people immune. From what I saw on that video, Sellars doesn’t