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alone in the woods, cut off from everyone and everything. Until Sam.
    They were a perfect fit. Each damaged, each desperate. Each so very alone.
    She considered his question. Was she okay? Strangely, she’d only had a few moments today where she wanted to wash. Instead, she’d been slightly jazzed by it all. She took that as an encouraging sign.
    “I’m good. I promise. I was worried about you, too. I’m really glad you’re here, Xander.”
    She poured a cup of tea, and they settled in the living room where Xander already had the television on. Every channel was in full-on breaking-news alert. Sam had enough experience with emergency situations to know that half of the information was wrong, and the other half would change fifty times before the end of the day. What they could glean so far wasn’t much more than what Sam already knew.
    She flipped channels while Xander used her computer to surf the internet, searching for anything he could find. As a former Ranger, he had a different set of contacts than Sam. When the news broke another piece of the story, Xander would confirm or deny based on what his military brethren were saying across their message boards and chat rooms.
    By 5:00 p.m. things had boiled down to a set of certainties no one could deny. Someone had released an airborne toxin in the Washington, D.C., Metro. It caused a progressive pulmonary distress. And two people were confirmed dead.
    Everything else at this point was just speculation. The tests were being done on the toxin; so far they’d ruled out some of the obvious—the ones that would have created different symptoms. Sarin, ricin. Anthrax was still high on the list of possibles. The words made chills slip through her system.
    The problem was, testing took time.
    Just the idea of that made her skin crawl.
    Sam decided she’d had enough. She went to the kitchen and began making dinner. She’d just unwrapped a head of butter lettuce when her phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID, saw Fletcher’s number. She pretended not to notice the uptick in her pulse as she answered.
    “Fletch? Everything okay?”
    “No. I need you, Sam. I’ll be there in five minutes. Meet me out front, we don’t have much time.”
    “Need me for what?” she asked, but he’d already hung up the phone.
    She replaced the receiver and put the lettuce back in the refrigerator.
    Xander was on the laptop in her office. “Hey,” she said. “Anything new?”
    “No. Same old shit—speculation and fear mongering. No one has a clue what’s going down.”
    “I have to go. Fletcher just called. He’s picking me up in a few minutes.”
    He rolled back in the chair. “Go where?”
    “I don’t know. He just said he needed me and to meet him outside.”
    “Why don’t I come with you?”
    “I get the sense I may be a while. He sounded totally stressed-out. They might just need some extra hands.”
    “But there’s only two dead.”
    “Xander, I have no idea what he needs. I would assume it’s my services with the sharp end of a scalpel. Come out to the street with me, let’s see what’s happening. I’m sure he’ll tell us when he gets here.”
    She grabbed her bag and her phone, tossed a light sweater over her shoulders just in case. Xander held her hand as they walked down her front steps to wait for Fletcher. She appreciated that he didn’t nag her about running off with another man. He was special, he knew it, and he was comfortable with his place in her world.
    They didn’t have to wait long, Fletcher arrived with a squeal of tires a moment later. He put the passenger window down.
    “Get in, Doc. We gotta go.”
    She stuck her head in the window. “What’s up?”
    He shot a glance at Xander, who was leaning in as well, over her shoulder. His face tightened imperceptibly.
    “Classified.”
    “Come on, Fletcher. He has the right to know.”
    “Sorry. This one comes from above. You can call him later. Now, Sam. I’m not kidding.”
    She turned back to