"I'm not finished, unfortunately. The last couple months have also included multiple field trips to a mad scientist's hidden lair, and my team made a couple of trips to different CDC offices. The mosquitoes carrying the virus that devastated the Gulf Coast were genetically engineered to be large enough for that purpose, and they were released immediately after members of my team broke into the Memphis CDC. A cover up, something to draw all the news coverage away. If the storm hadn't happened just then, they would have wiped out Cuba instead. All those lives, Lance. They were lost because we pried too hard into things that powerful people want hidden."

Maggie shifts so she can bury her face against Sweets' shoulder rather than just resting her head on it. Garcia Pharmaceuticals had offices there. Some of the scientists and executives she's known her whole life were among the dead. And Alaric's family, and some acquaintances, and countless strangers.