Chapter 1
"Are you lost, baby girl?"
Deanver Magallon turned off the engine of his car and turned to a beautiful lady. But when he approached the said woman, he suddenly became nervous. Just by the woman's face, it looks like she is just a teenager and it seems that she is flirting with him back.
"Hey kiddo, actually I'm right where I'm supposed to be."
He had expected that the woman would be annoyed with him for calling her a kiddo, and sure enough, he got the reaction he'd expected. The girl's green eyes flashed with indignation, and her pale cheeks turned red.
The girl gave him an evil look, then folded her arms. "Seriously, dude, what are you doing here?"
Dean got out of his Jeep. "I have an appointment with Dr. Ricafort."
Her eyes widened. "Are you a patient?"
He cocked an eyebrow. "No. Are you?"
"No." She huffed out an annoyed breath. "Fine. Come on, I'll take you to Thalia."
"Wow! You're so kind, Miss..." He waited for the girl to say her name.
"Nadine," she said grudgingly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Nadine. By the way, I'm Dean."
Grabbing his canvas messenger bag from the backseat, he trailed after the teenager, who, despite the heat, was surprisingly energetic as she led him toward the covered porch of the clinic.
It was really hot that day, especially since the sun was shining brightly as Dean traveled there. In fact, his body was full of sweat, and his chest seemed to be heaving because his top was wet with sweat. And he couldn't stand the heat anymore so he just took off his top. Every woman he passed by almost turned his back on him.
Also, the people there are not used to having a stranger's car get stuck there. Valera was one of the poorer towns in San Jose, just a small settlement at the base of the mountain. The only good thing is that the scenery there is refreshing to the eyes, because all you can see around is green. With a population of barely a thousand, the town of Valera was nothing more than dilapidated brick houses scattered, isolated farms, a surprisingly busy marketplace and this MD International clinic located on the outskirts of town.
"Thalia's in the back," Nadine said as they stepped towards the entrance of a building.
The girl stuck to a brisk pace, but Dean was still cautious around her as they walked down to the medical facility. What he knows is that the doctors at the said clinic are all foreigners, and they also move around in different places around the world.
The hallway they were walking was dark but clean. The waiting room he and Nadine passed was small, but offered rows of plastic chairs and toys for the children waiting with their parents. He also saw doors there, probably where the doctors would examine their patients. A room with swinging doors opened and Dean caught a glimpse of hospital beds inside.
"You get a lot of overnight patients?" he asked the teenager.
She turned to him. "Sometimes. There's always a few patients in the AIDS wing, but the general wing isn't usually so full."
"But it is at the moment because of the cholera cases that have cropped up, right?"
Nadine turned to him again, but this time there seemed to be doubt in her eyes. "How do you know about those cases?"
"I'm a journalist," he immediately responded. "It's my business to know everything."
The teenager was mesmerized. "You're a journalist? No way."
Despite the fact that he is lying, he still shouldn't reveal it. "Yes, I am."
"Who do you write for?" She challenged him.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Everyone. I'm a freelancer, so I'm constantly traveling the world, searching for stories."
It took him three days to travel there. But he decided to keep that to himself. He can't say, "Hey, guess what? I used to be a soldier, but now my own government hunts me down." For sure, the girl will not believe him.
Unfortunately, it was the cold, hard truth. For the past eleven months, he'd been hiding out with the two remaining members of his former unit. The ten-man team used to be reduced to three. Because seven of his colleagues were killed in their last mission in San Jose. But he knew that the death of his colleagues was no accident. After the unit had been recalled back to the camp, those men had been systematically killed off, presumably because they'd seen so much during that last op.
He almost died in their last mission, fortunately he was immediately saved by his remaining colleague Pierre Paredes and his commanding officer Guiller Tatum.
Up until three months ago, he would've insisted there was nothing off about that mission to rescue Roger Edison, the American doctor who'd been held captive by rebel fighters. But as it turned out - the doctor hadn't been a hostage at all. And the villagers who died there were not killed by the rebels, but because of the virus that the said doctor planted in them.
Unfortunately, that was all Dean knew. The key to finding out who authorized the killing of his unit was in discovering who authorized the manufacturing of a virus he still knew nothing about.
He just hope it changes today. For months on end, he and the others kept their eyes and ears focused on unusual medical developments in San Jose.
He didn't know if these cholera cases in Valera were related to Roger Edison's virus, but he was damn well going to find out. Pierre and Tatum knew that leaving their safe house in El Salvador to investigate was worth the risk, and even though he really didn't want to be exposed to the public like this, he was determined to use every second of his time.
"So what are you doing here, kiddo?" he asked in a conversational tone. "You're clearly too young to be a volunteer."
"My dad works here." Nadine said. "He's a surgeon."
"Impressive." Dean smirked. "So he just let you come along during his travels? He doesn't think school is important?"
She glared at him. "I'm homeschooled. But FYI, there are more important things than school. Like saving lives."
He wouldn't argue with that. Because it's true that human life is more important than anything else. Especially staying alive, which was his one and only goal at the moment.
Nadine took him to the room at the far end of the hallway and it opened on its own when they were about to enter it.
The slender brunette who'd slid through the threshold stumbled in surprise, then let out a laugh as her gaze met Dean's. "Mr. Magallon, I presume? I was just coming out to meet you."
"No need. Nadine was so kind enough to escort me to you," he replied and gave the doctor a charming smile.
"Nadine is so kind? I'd like to see that."
Instead of objecting, the girl just shrugged her shoulders. "You know me too well, Doc." Then she lifted her nose up and frowned at Dean. "Later, dude."