Brett Battles - Sick

“Not at all.”

She smiled, took the chair opposite his, then held out her hand. “I’m Rachel Hamilton.”

They shook.

“You’re Matt’s wife?”

She laughed. “Hardly. I’m his sister.”

“Sorry. When Pax told me this place was yours and Matt’s, I just assumed…”

“Don’t be sorry. A lot of people make that same mistake.”

Bobbi came over, set the mug in front of Rachel, then glanced at Ash. “And how’s your breakfast?”

“It’s good. Thank you.”

“If either of you need anything, just holler.” With that, she headed back to the prep table where she’d been cutting up vegetables.

Rachel took a sip of her coffee then said, “How’d you sleep?”

“Fine,” he said. “I appreciate you letting me spend another night here.”

“We’ve got the beds. Someone might as well use them.”

“You do have a lot of space, but I’ve only seen a handful of people.”

“It’s an ebb-and-flow kind of thing around here. Sometimes the ranch is packed, and sometimes it feels like just Matt and me.”

“Pax tells me that this is a cattle ranch.”

She took another sip, then shrugged. “Yeah, we have cattle.”

Like Pax, she seemed hesitant to get into the business of the ranch.

“I hear you told Matt you’re intending to leave us this morning,” she said as he put a piece of sausage in his mouth.

He shrugged.

“I’m sure you have a lot of things to do,” she went on. “Starting with trying to find out what happened to your family. If I were you, it would be the first thing I’d want to do.” She paused. “But before you go, there are a few things you need to know.”

“What?” he said.

“You finish your breakfast first, then we can talk.”

He swallowed the sausage, then pushed his plate away. “I’m finished now.”

The room she led him to was on the second floor near Matt’s office. It was a conference room decorated to keep with the mountain-lodge feel of the place-big pine table, wooden handcrafted chairs, and a fireplace at the far end. There was also a large television hanging on the wall that was currently off.

Ash hadn’t even sat down yet when the door opened again, and Matt and Pax walked in.

“Morning, Captain,” Matt said. “Trust you slept well.”

“I did. Thank you.”

Pax gave Ash a nod.

“Where’s Billy?” Matt asked.

Pax seemed to take this as his cue. He picked up the phone on a cabinet under the TV and punched in a number.

“Why don’t we sit?” Rachel suggested.

While Matt went around to the other side of the table, Rachel took the chair next to the one Ash sat in.

“So what’s this all about?” Ash asked.

Before anyone could answer, the door opened and Billy rushed in.

“Sorry,” he said. He made his way around to sit with Matt, and placed the notebook he was carrying on the table.

Pax hung up the phone the moment Billy entered, and took the chair next to Rachel.

Matt looked around at everyone, then focused his attention on Ash. “I’ll come right to it. We think it would be a mistake for you to leave right now.”

“If I want to leave, I’ll leave,” Ash said, suddenly wary. “You already said you wouldn’t try to stop me.”

“And we won’t,” Matt told him. “But I’m hoping what we have to say will convince you to stay.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Ash asked, “So what is it you have to say?”

Matt considered him for a moment before saying, “What happened to the families at Barker Flats didn’t occur simply by chance.”

“Of course it didn’t,” Ash said. “It was an attack. Some terrorist organization trying to stir up fear.”

Matt hesitated, then stood up. He began walking toward the far end of the room. “How well did you know your neighbors?”

“My neighbors? Not well. We’d just transferred in.”

Matt stopped near the center of the table. “Hadn’t everyone just transferred in?”

“Well, yes. The base had been closed for a while, and we were there to get it up and running again.”

Matt touched a finger to the table. Instantly, a wooden flap rose and disappeared into the surface edgewise, revealing a control panel underneath.

“You’re going to want to turn around,” Matt said. He hit a button and the TV came to life.

Ash shifted his chair so he could see the screen. Rachel and Pax did the same. The image remained black for a moment, then a picture of a family cut in.

“Do you recognize them?” Matt asked.

“That’s Manny…Captain Diaz and his wife. Carol, I think. I don’t remember their kids’ names.”

“They lived next to you, didn’t they?”

“Yes.”

As Ash stared at the picture, he remembered the scream he’d heard that night while he and Brandon were being led away. It was Carol, wasn’t it? And now, if what Matt told him was true, Carol and Manny and their kids were all dead.

The picture changed to one of a man and woman.

“Lieutenant Cross and his wife,” Ash said without prompting. The Crosses lived on the other side of them.

Another picture, a couple and a teenage boy.

“The Parsons, I believe.” He looked at Matt. “What’s the point of all this?”

Matt nodded at the screen. More pictures came up. This time there was no pause for Ash to identify them, but he recognized the faces of many of those he’d seen around the base.

The last image was a collage of all the photos.

“These are the sixteen families that you lived with, the ones that were exposed to the same disease as you and your family. They all have something very important in common.”

“You’ve already told me they’re dead.”

“There’s something else.”

The picture of the Diaz family replaced the collage.

“Manny Diaz,” Matt said. “His father died when he was seventeen, and his mother a month after he received his commission. He was an only child. Carol Diaz, maiden name Yeager. Mother died when she was eleven, father two years later. She was an only child.”

The picture of the Diaz family was replaced by one showing the Crosses.

“Martin Cross. Parents killed in a car accident when he was a freshman in college. He was an only child. Emily Cross, maiden name Vernon. Adopted by an older couple, both of whom died of natural causes within one year of each other while Emily was in high school. She was their only child.”

Matt continued to go through the pictures, telling the basically same story every time. The final picture was one that hadn’t been shown before.

“Daniel Ash. Parents died in an auto accident when he was twenty. Not an only child, but his brother Jeff sustained brain damage in the accident and lives in a nursing home. Ellen Ash, maiden name Walker. Mother died of cancer when she was-”

“Stop,” Ash whispered. “Please.”

The screen went black, and the room fell quiet.

After a few moments, Rachel put a hand on Ash’s arm. “We know this isn’t easy. But we needed to show you the truth.”

“The truth of what?” he asked, shaking her off. “That everyone I used to live around lost their parents? It happens. It’s probably not as unusual as it sounds.”

“It’s not just the parents,” Matt said, still at the center of the table. He gestured at the screen. “None of your former neighbors had any close relatives at all. They were isolated.”

Ash gritted his teeth. “I have someone.”

“You do,” Rachel said. “But I think you understand the point Matt is getting at.”

He shot her a look, then let out a breath as his gaze fell to the table. “Okay. Fine. So we were all isolated. So what?”

“So that makes all of you the perfect test subjects,” Matt said.