I turned back to Ian.

"You said Jason and Shawn and those guys have lunch at the house, right?"

"Yeah." Ian shook his head, annoyed that my mom was being so hospitable. "Your mom's keeping them well fed while they're on patrol."

"And Jason's the only one you know of who has a pharmacy access card?"

"Well, yeah." Ian looked at me warily. "Why?"

"Because I think I could get it from him."

He was surprised at my suggestion. "Ashley, I couldn't even get it from him. He has his whole squad to back him up."

"But what if he didn't? What if I got him alone? He's been coming on to me non-stop since the fair. And I'm pretty sure I could get him drunk, or high on those pills of his. If I could talk to him alone for even just a minute at the house, I could set something up with him to meet somewhere. I'm sure I could get him to agree if he thought I wanted to sleep with him. It's worth a try, right?"

"No way." Ian shook his head emphatically. "That's way too dangerous. You alone with that psycho? Come on. Ashley, no way."

"What other way is there?" I asked. "You said yourself you can't get the pharmacy access card from him, right?"

Ian didn't respond, but he gave me a look of frustrated helplessness.

"Well then?" I said, trying to keep my voice low so Bryce and Chris wouldn't hear me. "What's the other option? You don't have enough antibiotics to keep Morgan stable. What's your plan? Just do nothing? Just let her progress to stage three?"

"Ashley, come on."

"Give me a better plan." I stepped in front him, forcing him to stop and listen to me. "Give me a better plan, and I won't do this," I said. "Otherwise I'm getting Jason alone tomorrow, and making him think I want to sleep with him. I can get his access card. I know I can. I can do this."

Ian didn't say anything. He waved goodbye to Chris and walked me and Bryce back to my parent's house along the river. He didn't agree one way or another to my plan. But as we made our way through the growing darkness, I could tell he knew I was right.

There wasn't any other way.

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