Crusher drove to where the former SEAL stood near the tail of a small jet.
Hammer smiled at Marta. “Glad they got you out. Were you able to get the antiviral?”
Marta held up the pouch. “I did.”
He waved her toward the plane. “Find a seat. We leave for Vienna as soon as everyone’s aboard.”
“What about me?” Cate asked and shot a glance from Hammer to Draco and back.
Hammer nodded. “Cate Marsh, I presume?”
She lifted her chin. “That’s right.”
“You can stay in Zurich with my team,” Hammer said.
Cate shook her head.
Marta stepped forward. “Cate has been working with me for the past forty-eight hours. She has a stake in this game Vasquez and Teuling are playing.”
Hammer nodded toward the gate they’d passed through moments before. “Or you can come with your father to Vienna and see this through. But there are risks.”
“I know,” Cate said. “If that virus gets loose, we could all be infected and die a grizzly death. I still want to go.”
“Are you sure?” Marta frowned. “As much effort as we put into recreating the antiviral, it might not be enough. The virus Krauss has been working on could already have mutated.”
Cate squared her shoulders. “Then we all have to make sure that virus doesn’t get out.”
A vehicle pulled through the gate and came to a stop beside the truck.
The front fender had a deep dent and scraped paint, and the front headlight was broken. However, the people inside emerged uninjured.
Fearghas, Catya, Phantom and Marsh joined them beside the plane.
“We lost them,” Phantom announced with a grin. “It helped that we smashed them into the side of that building. Apparently, it bent the axle, and they couldn’t catch up to us.
Devon Marsh folded Cate in his arms and hugged her tightly. “Thank God,” he murmured over and over.
Cate wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m okay, Dad. Thanks for coming for me. Next time, don’t trade someone else for me.”
He leaned back and stared down into her face. “I couldn’t lose you. You’re all the family I have left.”
She hugged him and said into his shirt, “Because it worked out all right this time, and I got to meet the great Dr. Hale,” she shot a smile toward Marta, “I’ll let it slide. Just don’t do it again.” Cate stepped away and held out her hand to Draco. “And thanks for coming in after us.”
Draco dipped his head.
“We need to go,” Hammer said.
Crusher reached for Marta’s hand and helped her up into the plane. He found a seat for her and sat beside her. After they buckled themselves in, he reached for her hand again, not wanting to let go. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.
She squeezed his hand. “For what?”
“For sending you with Marsh.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
Crusher shook his head. “My gut told me it was a mistake.” He lifted her hand to press a kiss against her knuckles. “I didn’t listen.”
“You came for me,” she said. “That’s what counts.”
