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to him for a change. This could not have a beneficial outcome. If they were burning here, what was the point of running to Arizona?
    “Well there goes the excuse of burning against a virus from Hurricane Sandy,” Steve said, uncovering the man. I was shocked when he stood up; he was just a kid. We moved aside, trying to help my dad while Carin ran to the field to tell Mike and corral the boys somewhere out of sight. Our spacious new digs suddenly seemed too small.
    We moved him toward the house just as Mike joined us.
    “He needs medical care,” he said, looking the young man over after mouthing I’m sorry to me.
    “We need to find an underground hospital,” Kelly said. “We wanted to take him to an ER but he refused.”
    “If they’re burning here, the hospital is probably already gone, like it was back east,” I said, motioning for Mike to follow me back outside.
    “What is it?” he asked, clearly concerned, thinking.
    “We need to move on from here,” I said.
    “I gathered that. Let’s go back inside so I can question him.” He turned and left me on the deck. I went to the door and called for Elise, but she was occupied with Chris. Carin came to the screen.
    “Mom, I’m worried about this. Why’d we come here if the same thing is happening? We’re no safer here then we were back east.”
    “Come out here please.” She stepped out onto the deck and fell against me. My children suddenly needing me again scared me. “Tell me what happened?”
    “We were driving, trying to find a store that was open, and like Kelly said, we saw this burned out neighborhood. It was a trailer court. But Kelly wanted to see more, so she turned down a side street.” Hearing this made me angry. Why would she risk my kid’s safety? Quickly learning to prioritize, I decided not to say anything to her because they were okay now. But in the future, she wouldn’t be put in the position to make decisions about my girls.
    “How’d he end up in the car?” I was unable to keep an angry tone out of my voice.
    “We stopped and helped him, Mom. We couldn’t just leave him there in the street. He refused to go the hospital, saying that he’d get in a lot of trouble if his dad found out he crashed the plane and didn’t complete his mission . That was the word he used. Mission.”
    “Did he know he might be killing innocent people?”
    “No, I don’t think so. He was talking about the virus. ‘We have to eradicate the virus.’ He said this area is vulnerable because the farm workers lack of health care will be prime for spreading the disease.” Chilling words, my heart was pounding. Of course, a large commercial production farm would be a target! What were we thinking? My father was confident that whoever was responsible for the burns would spare food-producing areas. It appeared he was wrong.
    “Let’s go inside,” I said, looking over my shoulder. All I wanted to do was to run from Tulip.
     

Chapter 7
    It was after midnight and Victor Garrison knew from experience that once he woke up in this state of mind, sleep would not return for hours. It was usually his most productive work time, with no distractions from Katherine or emails or phones. Sliding out of bed, he glanced over at Katherine. The day had been hell for her, waiting for the return of Miranda’s body.
    “I want to see her for myself,” she said. Although Victor worried about the consequences, he was relieved that in twenty-four hours, they’d made the decision to forgo a funeral and have a small memorial for friends and family. Whoever could have a throwdown for her in Washington, D.C., if they wanted to.
    Not bothering to turn on lights, he crept down the staircase, listening for the other children, Lexie snoring. She didn’t go back to school, deciding to sit out the rest of the semester, the trauma of the home invasion still giving her nightmares. Their son, Danny arrived home from Michigan as soon as he heard the news, but was out with friends