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[talien]

“What the hell was that?” asked Hammer.

Fiona sat in the middle between Hammer and Jim-Bean. She was still coming to. Archive drove and Guppy sat in the passenger seat.

“I think that was patient zero,” said Jim-Bean. “Whatever it was, it’s been dead a long time.”

“And infected with Sapphire,” said Hammer into his cistron. “Site compromised. Initiate PURGATORY. Repeat: PURGATORY.”

“I remember that,” said Jim-Bean, “wait, you’re not…”

“I am,” said Hammer. “The entire site has to be wiped out. If that gorilla makes it out into the wild…”

“But the evidence!” shouted Jim-Bean. “We can trace this back to the Karotechia!”

“No time,” said Hammer.

Jim-Bean focused. He might not be able to gather evidence physically, but he had his own ways of gathering information. He concentrated.

Horst Jaeger was screaming frantically in German to a laptop microphone and webcam. A bandaged figure, with the same pale blue eyes as the big Nazi they encountered at the chemical plant, barked a command. Jim-Bean’s remote viewing couldn’t make out the location of the Nazi, but he could see his name written at the bottom of the screen: REINHARD GALT.

Jim-Bean didn’t speak German. Galt’s speech was slurred and there was interference in the wireless feed. He could make out the words “The Doctor” and “Rosetta, Texas.”

The signal suddenly went out. The laptop rattled. Jaeger looked up in fear…

And Jim-Bean was back in his own body, just in time to see the breathtaking sight of two black fighter jets shriek overhead, their sonic booms rattling the car as they passed. Jim-Bean craned his neck to track them as they passed beyond the car.

FWOOSH! Each jet released two missiles. They spiraled and ignited, pirouetting up into the heavens and then down onto the military facility. The annihilation was instantaneous. A small mushroom cloud billowed up behind them.

Fiona slowly came to, her head leaning on Hammer’s shoulder. She looked up at him.

“You saved me,” she said with a smile.

"Wow," said Guppy. "We really did wipe your memory, huh?"