“Are these two facilities connected in any way?” I asked.

  “Why would they be? They’re two different companies. They’re competitors.”

  “Maybe there’s a clue in the Phalanx Code. Maybe it’s something beyond a simple kill list,” I said, frustrated with the conversation. It seemed circular.

  “Perhaps,” she said.

  “You have doubt in your voice,” I replied.

  “Is that what it is? Doubt?”

  “You’re not convinced.”

  “You’ll understand if you ever meet Aurelius. He’s … not a violent person. I have a hard time imagining him wreaking all this havoc on the world. He would go after one person, maybe if there was a good reason, but not on this grand scale that we seem to be witnessing.”

  The rhythm of the conversation and the fact that we were landing caused me to not focus like I should have on her last comment. The wheels rolled smoothly onto the airfield in Bordeaux, ostensibly one step ahead of the Phalanx teams hunting for me. Perhaps being with Evelyn made them more careful about who they killed. When we pulled into the garage, armed guards were standing at the four corners with long rifles and Charles was waiting for us next to an armored Cadillac Escalade. He pecked Evelyn on the cheek, hugged his mother and Colette, then looked at me and nodded before whisking us away in the SUV. The driver wound his way through the streets like any good graduate of a defensive driving course. We pulled into the garage and soon were in the Champollion family home. Charles had increased security to the point that I could see guards in the front and back yards as well as one winking sniper’s scope on the roof.

  Evelyn looked at me with tired eyes.

  “I need some crew rest,” she said.

  “I think we’re all a bit smoked,” I said.

  “Join me for a nightcap?”

  I nodded. We said our good nights to everyone. Marguerite and Colette were already crawling into separate twin beds in the same room. Charles and his dogs were fast asleep. The security teams switched out. Evelyn and I sat in a small alcove of the large guest bedroom sipping Irish coffee she had concocted. The moonlight showed bare vineyards stretching into the horizon to the east. It was 3:00 A.M. local time, and I wondered about my children and Dagger team as Evelyn nuzzled her nose against my neck.

  My OptiPhone buzzed in my pocket. It was Reagan.

  “Rea, you guys okay? Refueling?”

  “Yeah, Dad, just following orders here. We made it all the way to Jackson, and Joe and Randy met us at the airport. We’re in an SUV headed somewhere.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. My two most trusted operators were watching over my children. The world was righting itself just a bit.

  “Okay, babe. Brad okay?”

  “Yeah, he’s been writing. Says he’s pissed off he left his guitar in his car.”

  “Sniper fire will do that to you,” I said.

  She chuckled, and it was good to hear. “Dad, come on. This is super serious.”

  “Yes, I know. So serious that I’ve got two of the best soldiers in the world protecting you.”

  Evidently I was on speakerphone, and I heard Van Dreeves say, “Man, I’m telling Mahegan that shit. He isn’t even on the list.”

  “Randy, you know what I meant.”

  “Sorry, boss.”

  “Okay, guys, you have some precious cargo in that vehicle. You have the conn,” I said.

  “We have the conn,” Van Dreeves said.

  “Love you, Dad.”

  “Love you guys, too, Reagan and Brad.”

  “But not us, boss?”

  “Do push-ups,” I replied, and hung up to the delightful sound of Reagan laughing.

  I leaned back and closed my eyes, holding the phone in my hand.

  “A quoi tu pense?” she asked.

  I paused, wrapped my arm around Evelyn, and pulled her close. Her warmth felt good. On some level I had been hoping that the spark I had felt amidst the chaos in Africa last year was mutual.

  “What am I thinking? Well, I can’t tell you how happy that conversation makes me,” I said. “My children and my team are all secure. And I’m thinking about how I left all of that to come find you.”

  She ran her hand along my chest.

  “When I did leave Drewson’s headquarters, I told them that there is nothing more important than them and that they should go home to their families. I’m glad they didn’t, though.”

  “I imagine you mentioned that you are all one big family, no?”

  “We are,” I said.

  “Then you can understand if they’re confused about what they should do,” she said.

  I nodded even though she wasn’t looking at me. “I know they are confused. The team is all they’ve ever known.”

  “And yet you left them to come get me.”

  “As a matter of national security.”

  “You know how to flatter a woman.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do.”

  She kissed my neck and said, “Let’s go to sleep. I put just enough whiskey in the coffee to knock us out. Tomorrow morning, we will do three things: call Mitch and get me connected with Misha so that I can get back into the Phalanx Code; let you talk to your team so you can get an update on their status; and have my team confirm the location of your half uncle. My hope is that he truly is in New York City. I hear Le Prophète is playing at Lincoln Center.”

  “We all have our motivations,” I said.

  “Indeed,” she replied, standing.

  Evelyn pulled me toward her and onto the bed.

  16

  THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT, I woke to the sound of a guard’s footsteps on the roof or a dog barking in the distance, but mostly, I slept soundly with Evelyn’s head on my chest.

  I awoke the next morning to her body enmeshed with mine, and we took quick showers, scarfed down a breakfast made by their family chef, and transitioned to a basement where the family office was the equivalent of a crypto mining data center replete with liquid immersion cooling tanks holding their mini server farm. The tanks looked like large photocopiers from the outside but had coolant running through ducts that surrounded the red-hot servers and routers of the family compound.

  “Saves on energy,” Evelyn said. “When I’m cracking codes and doing my thing, I’m burning fuel, and I do care about the environment as much as I care about my wallet.”

  “From the looks of it, your wallet is just fine. Private airplane, vineyards, mansion, security, hired help. What am I missing?”

  Evelyn looked up at me with her steady gaze.

  “Our family’s fame and fortune come with a price, Garrett. Deciphering the Rosetta Stone was only a small part of my ancestors’ work. The trademarks and patents that followed have locked down a substantial amount of income so that we are financially independent. Being so, of course, allows me to focus on the things that matter most to me. You, for example. Helping Mitch and his Web 3.0 enterprise. Figuring out what in the world Aurelius is up to. When you have the two biggest tech moguls going up against each other, something’s not right. I know them both, and as someone who makes a living solving puzzles, I’m stumped here. Why would Blanc want to dominate the world and hurt Drewson’s people? Everyone is just trying to do the right thing, no?”

  We sat at a small conference table and sipped coffee, this time with no alcohol. The lack of sunlight was compensated for by monitors on the walls that showed beaches and mountains, as if we were looking through windows. I sipped my coffee.

  “We have a different worldview, I suppose. I’ve been confronting evil all my life. You’ve been solving puzzles.”

  “We’re not so different,” she said. “On the battlefield, you have many puzzles to solve. I simply translate.”

  “That’s not true and you know it, Evelyn. Your mind is like a microchip.”

  She nodded, then turned to a large monitor at the end of the conference table which sat above a fireplace. Its natural gas flame flickered and produced welcome heat against the bitter cold outside.

  “One of our priorities is to find Aurelius. My network places him in New York City, as I had hoped.”

  “Your network never ceases to amaze me,” I said with a fair amount of sarcasm.

  “If you must know, our family office owns a private security company that works closely with the French government in places such as Senegal, Mauritania, and all the other godforsaken places our leadership has attempted to conquer, colonize, or otherwise corrupt. The name of the firm is Pierre-Tranchante.”

  She laid a business card in front of me. It read SHARPSTONE.

  The background was a dark blue rhombus, an elongated diamond turned on its southern point, like the original Second Ranger Battalion unit patch. The east and west points of the rhombus touched the left and right sides of the card. The north and south points touched the top and bottom sides. Sharpstone was indicated in a muted gray. There was something else gnawing at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t place it at the moment.

  “Yes. This is my company.”

  “These men outside are your employees, not hired help?” I asked.

  “Again, yes. We pay them well. They win government contracts. They are no different than your Academy or Triple Canopy contractor companies. Or Wagner in Russia without the ethical vacuum. Governments hire former soldiers. We happen to have the best. I believe there is a pep in their step since they know that you are involved. Protecting the former Special Operations commander of the best military in the world. All of you have a bond, no?”

  “I appreciate their efficiency. I’m assuming they have an intelligence-gathering network which is how you pinpointed Blanc?”

  “Yes. We have a satellite that has an upgraded payload on it. We can go over two hundred gigapixel on imagery resolution, which is more than good enough for facial recognition. We have voice intercept so that we can get two layers of confirming intelligence before making decisions. Protection of the people I love is paramount, and in today’s environment no one is safe. Case in point, my abduction from Denver.”

  “When do we leave for New York City?”

  “After we talk to Drewson and your team,” she said.

  With that, she scooted next to me as she pulled up an Optimus private video-conferencing application that connected us with Drewson’s Wyoming compound. Misha answered the call looking frazzled and tired.

  Her typing scrolled across the screen:

  Good to see Reagan!!! (And Bradley…) They’re sleeping and it’s midnight here. I see you found Evelyn. We need to finish the code. I’ve been trying but no luck…;(.

  Reagan had spent time with Misha after Jake had saved her from the Iranian assault force in Wilmington, North Carolina. Reagan was an empath who gained personal satisfaction from helping others, but no one should ever mistake her kindness for weakness. As she had just demonstrated, she was hardened and decisive. Eight years ago, we brought Misha and her father to the farm in Vass, North Carolina, so they could regroup and process. Reagan was only a few years older than Misha, and they had all bonded. Reagan said of Misha, “Dad, she’s helping me more than I’m doing anything for her. She … teaches me.”

  “Misha, we’ve confirmed that Blanc is in New York City at his compound there. That’s where we’re going. We’d like you to transfer the Phalanx Code to me in the dark web. Whatever chat room you’d like. And then Garrett would like to talk to Jake,” Evelyn said.

  Monster is like my shadow. Mitch’s Zebra Team already has the code ready for you. Check Optimus drive. We have level gazillion security on that.

  Then more bubbling as her eyes got wide. She squinted at the camera. Perhaps Evelyn was sitting a bit too close to me.

  Wait a minute. You guys look … different. Omg. No way.

  “Go get Jake, please.”

  OMG!!!

  “Please get Jake for the general, honey,” Evelyn said.

  Never underestimate the intuition of a teenage girl. We could see Misha’s face. Her eyes were half-lidded behind her tri-colored glasses. Her blond hair was in a ponytail, a look I had never seen on her. She was smiling and showing off her braces. She wagged a finger at us as she stood and walked to the door. She disappeared from the screen for a moment, then reappeared with Mahegan.

  “Boss,” Mahegan said. He sat down in a chair next to Misha, who beamed at him like a doting daughter might to her father. Mahegan was wearing a black long-sleeve hoodie. His massive arms and chest pushed at all the seams. He laid an M4 carbine with a three-point sling on the conference table to his front.

  “Jake. Just need a status report.”

  “We got word from the Sharpstone guys that you found Evelyn. Randy and Joe brought Brad and Reagan in. They’re sleeping and secure.”

  “Thanks for taking care of my kids, Jake.”

  “Randy said I’m not on the list of the best operators in the world,” Jake said. His voice was deadpan, and it was rare for him to joke, but here he was.

  “You’re in a class by yourself, Jake.”

  “Happy to wrestle him for the trophy,” Jake said. Jake was a North Carolina state champion wrestler in the alternative school system. At fourteen years old, he had been freakishly big and had come home to find four men from a road crew raping his mother. He killed two on the spot and a third later. The fourth had died of his own accord, but Jake had been off-ramped into the dead-end public school alternative high school system, which he miraculously survived to become a loyal and dedicated operator. His mother had not survived that attack, and I gave Jake wide berth when he left the unit to go home to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

  “I don’t want to see Randy in the hospital, Jake.”

  “We’ll see.”

  I changed the subject. “What do you know about Sharpstone?”

  “I’ve worked with them some on different ops. Quality. Mostly former Legion guys.”

  “I only hire the best, Jake,” Evelyn added.

  “Anything we need to be updated on there?” I asked.

  “Drewson’s freaking. All his employees were killed in the California data center raid. Our intel shows Phalanx moving on other Optimus 3.0 locations. Something big is happening in North Carolina near Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg. Lots of people moving around in eastern NC.”

  “Kinston?” I asked.

  “Yes, that’s pretty specific, boss. What intel do you have?”

  “Evelyn and Sharpstone have significant assets that I was unaware of until now. Satellite capability with comms and imagery payloads. Anyone go home as I requested? Or did everyone … stay?”

  “No one left. Just the opposite. Joe has Zoey and Syl on the way. Amanda called her dad, Zach, who is bringing his wife, Riley Dwyer, the shrink. The four of them are linking up in Dallas today and should be coming in the next day or two. Blair Campbell is staying. The pilot, Patch, Sean, and the others are all here. The intel we’re seeing from the Zebra team via Misha is that there is a target list, so we’re preparing. I gave Drewson a specific catalog of equipment we needed if we’re going to stop Blanc and protect the Optimus team.”

  I had mixed emotions about nearly the entire universe of people I cared about being in one location, but ultimately it was never a bad thing when family was together.

  I looked at Evelyn, who seemed to know what I was thinking. She said, “I think it’s a good thing you are all in one place together to support one another. Between the Phalanx teams and the government tactics, we are all high on the list of undesirables. We need to focus on finding Blanc and whatever it is that Mitch’s intelligence operation is seeing.”

  “More on the Zebra intel, please,” I said.

  “Drewson’s Zebra team has intel that shows dozens of four-person teams moving across the country doing exactly what happened with the massacre at the Grass Valley Optimus server farm and with Emily Sedgewick and almost with Blair, Brad, and Reagan. Assassin squads with a list. Misha says the list is in this code Zebra gave her. Until we break that, we won’t know all the targets. Once we know the targets, we can defend against the threat.”

  I processed for a moment and said, “Okay Misha, Evelyn will stay here and help decipher the code. I’m going to go to New York to find Blanc and try to cut the head off this snake. Do we have an assessment of how centralized or decentralized this thing is?”

  I was also thinking about this Zebra team. Who were they? What did they do? How come no one had ever met them?

  “They get orders from Blanc in the dark web. That’s also in the Phalanx Code. They carry out those orders and then move on to the next one. Note the simultaneity of action with Grass Valley, Emily Sedgewick, Blair Campbell, Evelyn, and even Brad and Reagan. Six teams all executing in near real time.”

  “What is the North Carolina operation all about?”

  “We’re told semiconductors, but there’s a public-private government facility there with a million satellite dishes, a two-mile runway, a rail spur, and interstate access. It’s a logistics hub with a recent significant upgrade to their communications infrastructure,” Mahegan said.

  “We may find ourselves there again,” I said.

  Mahegan said nothing.

  “Okay, so that’s the plan. Evelyn stays here. I go find Blanc. You and the team hunker down there. We stay in comms using only our OptiPhones and check in daily,” I said.

  “Roger that, boss.”

  “Misha, are you okay?” I asked.

  The screen bubbled and she typed: Are you saying I look tired, General??;)

  “No, but I had to ask.” I smiled and signed off by saying, “Until Valhalla.”

  Jake nodded and said, “Roger that. Valhalla.”

  The screen went blank, Evelyn looked at me and asked, “What’s up with referencing a Nordic mythological heaven?”

  “Just a thing from Dagger team when we were together. If we don’t make it, we’ll see each other on the other side.”

  My explanation wasn’t entirely true, and I felt the slightest pluck of guilt lying to Evelyn, but my team was my family and my trust lay with them, not Evelyn, though she was growing on me, and I was smitten. The important thing was that Mahegan and my team understood what the signal “Valhalla” meant and the actions they were intended to take.