Indispensable Party (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller No. 4) by Melissa F Miller

whether to bug out or bug in. Bugging out is what Leo was
talking about. Grab your go bag, your family, and a container of extra fuel and
jump in your car, headed for your secure outpost, away from society and all the
chaos.”
    “And bugging in, I assume, that’s
sheltering in place?” Sasha asked.
    Naya nodded. “Bar the doors and
windows, fire up your generator, keep your weapon handy, and hunker down until
everyone else dies or whatever.”
    Sasha considered this
information. “So, Celia Gerig may be affiliated with a group of preppers. Do we
think she’s dangerous?”
    Naya shrugged. “It looks like any
other group, Mac. Some people really seem to be throwing themselves into it:
they’re organizing meet ups, making up secret passwords, and sending coded
messages. They talk about converting their currency into gold bars or silver
ingots and learning how to field dress deer. Some people are dabbling—they want
to plant a garden, can some vegetables, maybe learn how to purify water. I’d
say based on what I’ve seen, Celia Gerig, if this is even her, was in the second
group. But, I don’t know for sure. She could be skinning a rabbit somewhere as
we speak.”
    Sasha grimaced.
    Connelly cleared his throat. “There’s
nothing inherently bad in preparing for a disaster. That’s a good thing,
actually. But we need to find out, fast, if Celia Gerig was actually a member
of a fringe group.” The muscles under his cheeks twitched.
    Sasha cocked her head and took in
his grim expression. “These preppers are on some kind of list, aren’t they?”
    When Connelly had still been
working for the Department of Homeland Security, she and he had engaged in
several heated, ultimately unproductive, debates about whether it was
appropriate, or even useful, for the government to surreptitiously gather
information about private citizens based on, say, their membership in an
environmental group or their ethnic-sounding surname.
    Sasha’s defense of the First
Amendment had repeatedly bumped up against Connelly’s commitment to national
security, and, finally, the subject became one of those topics that couples
just avoid. Only, in their case, it kept popping back up at really inopportune
times—like when a rogue employee disappeared with an indeterminate number of
government vaccines needed to prevent a pandemic.
    Connelly exhaled and glanced down
at her. “Can I use Naya’s office? I have to make some calls,” he said, by way
of answer.
    That was fine with Sasha. She had
some calls of her own to make. She nodded, and he walked across the hall,
stopping only to kiss the top of her head as he passed her.
    As the door shut behind him, Naya
pounced.
    “What’s going on, Mac? This is
obviously more than an employee helping a competitor.”
    Sasha flung herself into her desk
chair. “That’s for sure, but, to tell you the truth, I have no idea what’s
going on. We think ViraGene’s behind it. But if Gerig is a prepper, who knows?
All we know is she’s missing, along with a bunch of vaccines.”
    Naya pulled out the chair across
from her. “She stole vaccines?”
    “We think so. Not just any
vaccines, though. The vaccine for the Doomsday flu. The government’s
stockpiling it at Fort Meade.”
    Naya narrowed her eyes. “Well,
ViraGene makes an antiviral, right? It makes sense that they’d want to screw up
the contract for the vaccine. And having the shipment show up short would go a
long way toward doing that, don’t you think?”
    “I do. At least that’s what I did think. But, this prepper stuff adds a wrinkle.”
    “First of all, we don’t even know
if Gerig is a prepper. And, say she is, it could just be a hobby, unrelated to
her corporate espionage career.” Naya cracked a smile.
    Sasha’s return smile was weak. “Or
it could be the beginning of another Ruby Ridge. You know that’s what Connelly’s
thinking.”
    “What are you thinking?”
    The question stirred up all the
anxiety and worry Sasha had