No one had an answer, but everyone was clearly unsatisfied.

  “I want our people returned. I may be able to accomplish that without trading him, if you prefer that Adrian is kept to face a Safe Haven trial.”

  Again, mutters and grumbles and no satisfaction. Angela led them into the option she needed them to pick. “We could trade him, get our people, and then snatch him away at the last minute. Or kill him while he’s in their custody.”

  “We can’t leave him for them to use anymore,” Greg said lowly. “I say we use him and then dole out Safe Haven justice when it’s all over.”

  There was a feeling of stress easing as Angela topped it off with, “My justice, if you like. It isn’t gentle.”

  They knew that too well from the last days and even from before that, when she’d brought Adrian out of Little Rock and then kept them alive through nature’s fury.

  “I agree. Use him to trade and we’ll do a snatch-n-grab they won’t be ready for. I’ll lead it if you want.”

  Hearing Zack would be going along also helped.

  “Same here,” Daryl called. Cynthia, under his arm, added her agreement.

  Neil and Jeremy were relieved that Angela hadn’t made it all about sacrificing Samantha, but they were still terrified that she wasn’t coming home.

  “You’ll get another chance for answers,” Angela told them. “We all will.”

  She moved into the filthy command tent as the crowd slowly broke up.

  Angela couldn’t respond the way she wanted to. That had been one of the hardest parts of this scheme so far, telling them about Adrian. It was right behind the dozens of men and women they were missing and presumed to have lost.

  Angela waved her top men to the table that had surrounded her with their bodies as the crowd outside had gone from tired fighters to mob.

  “If I had done this any other way, we would have buried our entire camp and those with us. I started the fight. I drew them here. I wiped them down to the same levels we’re at. The playing field is level now. You’ll only have to deal with the threats one at a time. React as I would. After that, they’ll leave us alone for a long time.”

  Neil wasn’t sure why she was telling them these things, but the other men had already caught on, including Jeremy, who had noted that same expression on Samantha’s face right before she left for this run.

  “Things will go fast once the chopper lands. He won’t spend extra time or let himself be taken. None of you are to interfere.”

  “But we could overrun one chopper!” Neil exclaimed. “And then have Donner to–”

  “Do you think the bunker will trade our freedom for Donner’s life?” Angela demanded coldly.

  Neil wanted to say yes, but couldn’t. He shook his head.

  “Neither do I,” she said, sinking further into her depression. “I’m trading for all our lives, including my own. Do as I tell you and let him take us out of here.”

  “What does it accomplish?” Shawn asked, knowing Marc would want that answer.

  “I have several things to try when he gets here, but I expect all of them to fail. Going with him will allow everyone a safe pass off this death zone and give Marc time to convince the soldiers on the other side of that gate to join us. When that happens, come get me.”

  Angela waved them out when they would have argued, calling for Cynthia. “I need a few minutes, gentlemen.”

  The males left the tent grumbling, but satisfied she still had their best interests at heart. As long as they could tell Marc it had been for the good of the camp, he would let them live.

  “Something went wrong on Jennifer’s end of the plan,” Angela stated lowly as soon as they were alone. “She won’t be here.”

  Cynthia frowned. “Is she okay?”

  Angela nodded, packing thing into a small kit. “Yes, and so is the baby, though the same can’t be said of Lilly. She planned to take Jennifer’s child to Donner and trade for a pass to the bunker, but Autumn had a better idea.”

  Cynthia didn’t ask what would happen to Lilly once Jennifer got her daughter. That scene would be uglier than what Angela had done here.

  “I think that too,” Angela agreed. “We’ll proceed without her.”

  “But she’s your guard and escort, and then Marc’s right hand.”

  Angela glanced up pointedly.

  Cynthia realized the duty was now hers. “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”

  “Good. Would you like to go over it with me to be sure we’re together?”

  “Yes, that’s a good idea.” Cynthia didn’t let herself worry over the change. Angela had told them adjusting would be necessary in places.

  “The hardest part first,” Angela instructed, scribbling on a notepad.

  “I have to handle Marc.”

  “Yes. He has to read this before he leaves the gates.”

  “And if I can’t, then I have to handle his duties.”

  “And you can,” Angela supported. “This isn’t the first time you’ve saved lives.”

  Cynthia smiled in pleasant surprise as Angela handed her the note.

  “Stay with Marc through this. He’ll have Kendle if he wants her, but he’ll pick anyone else if he has the choice.”

  “I will,” Cynthia vowed. “We’ll have work for her. If she returns.”

  “She and Kevin’s team are close. They had to wait out the explosions and it’s not safe for them to come out yet. They’ll be in soon though. It might trigger a new fight at the gate. Make sure you’re ready for that.”

  Cynthia took out her notebook and wrote it down, then placed the message to Marc inside. She’d already memorized it in case her book was damaged, but she was dreading that moment. It wasn’t a nice note.

  “It has to be harsh,” Angela explained, hearing the rumbling blades of a helicopter. “Our camp surviving depends on it.”

  4

  “I don’t want to go. I request sanctuary.”

  Those words drew frowns from Adrian and Conner, who were in the canvas behind the command tent together, cuffed to the table.

  Angela had just come in and the Sergeant hadn’t wasted a second.

  “Please.”

  Angela was aware of time now running faster and raised a brow. “Sell me.”

  “Donner has a secret plan to challenge the government after he claims you and Adrian. I don’t want any part of fighting for either side.”

  Angela saw no lies in David’s mind, only concern for his own actions. She was forced to adapt her plan on the fly again.

  Angela raised a hand and sent a bolt of red light that slammed into the Sergeant’s chest to knock him backwards. He sprawled awkwardly against the bars and didn’t move.

  Angela left the tent as the sound of a chopper increased to nearly deafening. The chopper could be blown up at any point. It was on the pilot’s terrified face and in the jerky downward movements of the landing in the center of her heavily fortified site. More than a hundred men were here and all of them hated the soldiers.

  The door slid open before the chopper had landed, revealing Donner, in full uniform, standing there waiting to be executed.

  In time, Angela promised herself. He had the advantage right now. If she killed him, the bunker would bomb them and he knew it. For this meeting, Donner held all the cards.

  Angela, with a group of protection, moved toward the chopper and stopped a dozen feet away as Donner came out alone. She couldn’t see inside the shadows of the chopper, thanks to his choice of an evening pickup and she stayed still instead of going to meet him.

  Donner saw it as an insult and possible trap, but he stepped onto her base with an arrogant flare and salute to the pilot.

  It was returned with a shaking arm and a pale face.

  Donner spent a few seconds scanning the people, the fierce loyalty he felt, the secrets that they held. The government is right to want you all exterminated, Donner thought. You’re strong.

  “I want to be sure they stay that way,” Angela stated coolly.

  Donner chuckled at her display, knowing it was for those people who were suddenly face-to-face with a demon from their nightmares and feeling concern for their immediate future.

  “I had trouble with Sergeant Wallz,” Angela stated, tone regretful. She was sorry.

  “Dead?”

  “Along with Heather and a few others. They thought they’d be forgotten during the trade, left to rot here. They tried to break out. I had mines in place. It wasn’t pretty.”

  Donner didn’t care if she was lying and didn’t dig. “Where are Mitchel and his son?”

  “Conner wasn’t part of the deal,” Angela pointed out. “He isn’t here.”

  Donner half suspected the lie this time, but again, didn’t care enough to pursue it. “Get Mitchel and let’s go.”

  “And in return?” Angela prompted, keeping her distance.

  “We’ll pull out and depart the state. Your people are small potatoes. They can go.”

  Behind Donner, Trey was with Becky and Samantha, knife in one hand, gun in the other. His intentions were clear. If given the order, he would shoot one and gut the other.

  “Do I know you’ll keep your word?” Angela asked. “No, I think we’ll do this a different way.”

  Donner tensed to fight, but Angela only held up a small box.

  Donner recognized the trigger to what he could only assume was a powerful explosive. He began ripping into her mental walls to discover where it was hidden.

  “Not here,” Angela answered without a strain. Her witch shoved Donner out as if he were nothing.

  “It’s in more than one place, but that’s not the part you have to worry about. It’s the weaponized Smallpox virus it will spread across this mountain.”

  Donner laughed. “I’ve been inoculated for all that shit. Try again.”

  “I accept that challenge,” she intoned, stopping his amusement. “Your vaccinations are decades old and this strain was developed in the good ‘ol US of A, a mere two years ago. Wanna bet your vaccination can stand up to it?”

  Donner fell into fast-thinking mode.

  Angela blew him out of it with, “I want Tracy.”

  Donner gaped in confusion. “Who?”

  Angela sneered, “Your man took her and you don’t even know? What kind of a leader are you, Major?”

  Donner’s ego wouldn’t let him take too many insults. Angela knew that. She would push him carefully.

  Donner slowly reached into his pocket and took out a small radio. “Bring this Tracy to the gate. And identify yourself, Soldier!”

  Awful laughter answered.

  Donner scowled. “Sherman.”

  Angela raised a brow and Donner shrugged. “A minor player.”

  “I want her back,” Angela repeated. “And then you get Adrian in exchange for letting Safe Haven go.”

  Donner had decided things had gone too far to change his plans. “No deal, Ms. White. Blow us up or get on that chopper.”

  It was the moment where time and fate stood still to witness what the choice would be.

  “I’m sorry,” Angela said softly. “I didn’t want it to be this way.”

  Her finger lowered on the button.

  Before Angela could push it, gunfire rang out. They all turned to see Bridget strolling through the camp, shooting at the chopper with a gun in each hand.

  “Where is she?!”

  Bullets pinged off the chopper, deflected into the crowd. Even Donner flinched at a near miss.

  Trey pushed the hostages back, trying to get a clear shot.

  Angela grabbed at Bridget as she came by, snatching the gun to club the heart ass woman in the temple with it hard enough to take her straight to the ground.

  In the ruckus, the detonating box had been shoved into the hands of the person closest.

  Cynthia kept a finger hovering in case Donner tried to grab it, but the Major stayed back. Watching Angela direct Bridget’s body to be bound and placed in a cell, he appeared fascinated.

  Angela started to take the box and then froze, mind going dark. Something had changed.

  “Donner!”

  Sherman’s drunken shout was ugly and loud, close by. It was a surprise to see that he was inside the camp, next to her command tent. The gun in Tracy’s ribs was little compared to her beaten face.

  “You want this bitch so bad!” Sherman shouted, motioning toward Angela with the gun as he dragged Tracy backward. “I’ll kill her for you!”

  “If he fires, I’ll blow us,” Angela warned Donner, taking the box. “You won’t make it out. There’s a charge under your chopper.”

  Now Donner had to step up and prove his leadership, but the situation wasn’t under his control anymore.

  As he moved toward Sherman, eyes starting to glow, the mercenary shook his head, gun aiming at Angela. “Not me! Her!”

  Crack!

  Sherman’s body arched. Blood burst from his lips as the bullet went through his chest and out the other side.

  Donner stared in anger at the sniper who was no longer under the cover of the overhead tram. Furious to have his man stolen from under his nose, Donner blasted the sniper with all of his pent up frustration.

  Angela screamed in denial as the blast went out. She stepped toward the woman falling from the tram as her Eagles pulled Tracy to safety, but it was too late to stop Crista from hitting the jagged cliffs below.

  “Die!” Jeff screamed, rifle coming up.

  Donner sent a blast over that side of the camp, knocking a dozen fighters into the enraged man.

  Donner spun around with a kick and sent the box in Angela’s hand flying toward the chopper. Her guards rushed to get between them as the soldiers outside the gate began climbing.

  Angela slipped and let Donner catch her as she fell, delaying. His arm snaked around her throat and the courtyard went quiet again except for the mini-battles along the weakening fence.

  “I will kill her,” Donner warned the circle of men around him. “Get Adrian on that chopper. Now!”

  During the chaos, Trey had kept Samantha on the chopper. He quickly retreated.

  Angela found Theo’s eyes in the panic. Go get her body.

  Theo nodded slowly, stunned. I will. My word.

  Adrian was rushed roughly onboard the chopper a few seconds later, but Jeff had found the box.

  He held it up. “You can’t have her.”

  Donner didn’t understand how serious Jeff was as he sneered, “You’ll be dead in ten minutes. The bunker will blast this mountain off the map.”

  “No, they won’t,” Jeff said icily. “Weaponized Smallpox will spread with explosions. It will decimate the entire country, including the bunker. You won’t get any reinforcements while I hunt you down. That was my woman. I’ll never sleep again until you’re dead.”

  “While we all hunt you down,” Cynthia spoke up, also furious over Crista. “You can’t hide from us!”

  Donner began to understand that striking out at their sniper had been a mistake, but there wasn’t a way for him to back down now. He dragged Angela toward the chopper, grip so tight she was almost passing out.

  Jeff, grief-stricken, wasn’t bluffing. Those who knew him fled toward the gate, hoping to escape the coming conflagration. It started hysteria and the entire camp fled toward the only exit that Donner’s chopper was blocking.

  Donner let go of Angela, lunging for the box as Jeff turned toward Crista’s body.

  “Stop!”

  Alarms began sounding from every radio tuned on–loud, piercing waves that halted all activity in the effort to make that one sound go away.

  When it did, the replacement wasn’t better.

  “We wish to speak with Angela White or Adrian Mitchel. Please comply immediately.”

  Angela, who’d been pulled to safety behind a wall of Eagles, croaked out the obvious.

  “It’s the bunker, Jeff! Answer them before they bomb us.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Taken or Infiltrated?

  1

  Jeff stayed close to Angela as she answered the call, not sure if he might blow it all anyway. Losing Crista was devastating now that he’d accepted the inevitable settling into kids and a wife. He’d almost convinced himself that he wanted it. Jeff couldn’t resist swinging on Donner when he walked by to listen to the call.

  Donner hit the ground, prepared to brawl, but Jeff stepped back. He would take his rage out one swing at a time if that were the only way he could get it, but his mind was already telling him that after it was all over, Donner could be hunted.

  “I’d help with it,” Angela stated lowly. She hadn’t foreseen Crista’s death, though she’d had bad feelings and ignored them in favor of the more obvious threats. She also hadn’t accounted for Bridget’s growing insanity and it had cost them all.

  Donner stayed outside the tent, armed and ready to kill. Trey kept the hostages in the chopper, though the two females weren’t allowed to come to the door, preventing foolish rescue attempts. Trey knew these two women were the only things between him and certain death. The mob in Angela’s camp was as dangerous as the one he’d quelled in Donner’s camp.

  “I repeat, put Mitchel or White on with us. We can see your location, hear your transmissions. Comply now.”

  The routine male voice was nearly a computer. It added a sense of calm to the situation.

  Angela keyed the radio. “You’ve got me. What?”

  The bunker man was startled into a laugh. “Am I bothering you?”

  “We are kind of busy right now,” Angela confirmed, rubbing her throat as her men shot glares of hatred at Donner. Having him here went against everything they’d been trained for.

  “Yes, we’ve noticed,” the man replied sardonically. “You will get onto that chopper, Ms. White. All of your people can go free, but you and Mr. Mitchel have things to answer for.”

  Angela’s response wasn’t what her fighters were expecting.

  “I accept your terms. It is witnessed by hundreds here and across the country. If you break your word, the war will resume and the bunker will be first on our lists.”

  “We have no intentions of continuing this war, Ms. White. Nor will we allow you to detonate a biological weapon on US soil. Should you do so, we will target your location and use enough force to obliterate the virus and your meddlesome interference.”