Caleb frowned and pulled his light free. It didn’t work, though. He took a guess. “Victoria Steen?”

  He got stony silence in answer and knew he had it right.

  From the other side of the library, fresh fire started up. Someone came around the far corner of the library building with a light—civilian clothes. The light spilled across them, then dropped slightly as a pair of men came toward them. Two of Samuels’ people. Two more moved in from the other side. “Team on the roof,” one of them said. “Should be—”

  The gunfire abruptly stopped.

  “There you go. That’ll be that.”

  Caleb stared down at Victoria for a moment—her face was bloody, her hair matted to one temple where some of it had come loose as Derek pulled her helmet off. He knelt slowly beside her, smirking at the anger on her face. “I’m guessing our previous debacle landed you a demotion. How about we have a nice long chat about everyone’s options, Miss Steen?”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Apex Headquarters, CO

  Tuesday July 31st, 9:39 pm MST

  Alan Trusk sat perfectly still, watching the screen where three pale orange shapes had stilled after clearly being apprehended by several others. The infiltration team had been out of contact for over half an hour now. Thirteen percent. That had been the estimated failure margin for the entire operation. The first phase had been whittled down to a mere five percent margin.

  It just went to show that five percent could make all the difference.

  “Uplink is still out,” Rena muttered, shaking her head. “Some sort of equipment failure, TARA’s working on a solution but… Sir, I don’t know if we can expect to get the connection up and running again.”

  Trusk rubbed his forehead. “I suspect you’re right. Any data on what caused the failure?”

  Rena shook her head. “TARA has it marked as an anomalous equipment failure. Possibly the hardware was damaged?”

  He pinched his screen, zooming out to take in more of the region. Clusters of heat signatures stood out around Springfield. Ambush zones for the battalions still keeping their distance. TARA’s tactical feed showed in the upper right-hand corner, where the AI was currently silent in the absence of new data. It hadn’t recommended the assault be moved up after the failure of the first team.

  So far, the three signatures he had to assume were Traeger’s people remained isolated. But they would be questioned soon.

  Glancing briefly at Rena to see that her attention was on her own tablet, he brought up the roster and isolated the five names from the infiltration team, then turned just enough that Rena wouldn’t be able to see his screen as he accessed their tracking implants. Without a working uplink, the signal was faint from each of them, but TARA was able to connect to them once he reoriented one of the stealth drones circling the settlement to move closer.

  He considered that for a moment. The other equipment had malfunctioned, but not all at once. Each malfunction had coincided with an encounter with someone in Springfield. Trusk closed his eyes and let his mind turn the problem over, examining each possible solution as it occurred to him. Only one stood out significantly.

  He cued up the specs for the implants. Each one was coated in a body-safe nano-carbon material to keep it from being degraded. Beneath that was another layer of an alloy intended to conduct electricity from the nervous system into the implant.

  “It was an EMP,” he murmured.

  “Sir?” Rena asked, looking up from her tablet.

  “A short range EMP knocked out the team’s equipment,” he said without looking up. “The implants are still online, but disconnected from the uplink units and relying on RF broadcast. The implants are cased in carbon, with graphite conductors internally. A short burst, close range EMP wouldn’t knock them out.”

  Rena blinked, then returned to her screen. “I’ll feed it to TARA if you’re sure.”

  “I’m reasonably certain,” he said as he dismissed the specs and pulled up the roster again. He pulled up the implant controls and tapped in his executive clearance code, then waited for the tablet’s camera to confirm his facial recognition. When it cleared him, he hesitated just a moment before issuing the termination order.

  “Tell TARA to move up the full assault. Highest probability of success within the next twenty-four hours, and have it account for a high chance of communication failure.”

  “What about the team inside?” Rena asked. “Should I input a chance of compromised intelligence?”

  Trusk shook his head slowly. “That won’t be necessary,” he said, his tone purposefully easy and relaxed. “Our people won’t talk. They’re well trained.”

  Luckily, that was enough for Rena. She rarely questioned his decisions. And that was just as well, because he didn’t intend to explain this one.

  People tended to work a little less efficiently when they knew they had a kill-switch hovering six inches from their hearts.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ELIZABETH

  Springfield, CO

  Tuesday July 31st, 9:47 pm MST

  Elizabeth stood outside the door to the jail with Caleb, staring at the three Apex agents through the window where they sat in the forward cell inside. The attack had been ended, thanks in large part to her daughter and Derek, and the small unit Lana had put together, apparently.

  But during it, Apex had undermined the communications and proven that if they wanted to get people inside, they could. There hadn’t been any more violence, and the radios were back up—but it was still difficult to accept that there weren’t more of them somewhere inside, even as they spoke.

  “How did they get in?” she asked.

  Caleb shook his head and swigged from the water she’d brought with her once the all-clear finally came across the radio channel. She couldn’t abandon her post for long, but hadn’t been able to stop herself from rushing to find out if he was okay once she heard he and Lana were involved.

  “No one’s sure,” he admitted. “We don’t even know how they knew where to find the council chamber, or the laptop. We could have a mole, but… I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right. Samuels ordered a sweep of the perimeter, but until it’s light out it’ll be hard to find anything. He’s pretty badly hurt, but he’ll live. Doctor Herndon is still unconscious.”

  Elizabeth winced. “And Thurmond?”

  Her husband’s face turned grim as he eyed the prisoners through the window. “He didn’t make it.”

  She didn’t know Thurmond well—she didn’t know anyone in Springfield particularly well yet—but the news made her stomach clench. People from Apex had snuck into the town and killed someone. Injured others. And there was still no telling what other damage they’d done.

  Lana and Derek had been in the fight as well, but were already back outside the walls at the eastern ambush point. It took everything Elizabeth had not to rush there next and check on her, but Caleb said she wasn’t injured.

  Inside, Victoria Steen raised her head and gave Elizabeth a blank stare. She rubbed her arms from the chill that ran through her. “So, what now?” she asked, tearing her gaze away. “You’ll question them?”

  “We’ll try,” Caleb said, handing her back the empty water bottle. “Hard to say if they’ll be willing to answer any questions. Whether they think they need to or not. Steen knows us, though. She might be willing to take our terms back to her people.”

  Elizabeth snorted. “What’s she even doing here?”

  Caleb watched the woman through the window, unflinching from her stony expression. “Best guess? She got demoted, and she was the one that lost the laptop. But she hasn’t said more than two words since we rounded her and the other two up.”

  The other two in the cell with her were both slender types, the sort who Elizabeth supposed were good for things like covert stealth missions like the one they’d tried to pull off. A black man with a spatter of pale skin across the left side of his face, and a red-haired white guy who had a familiar military cut. Something about that one said he was ex-military of some kind. He had a sort of look and posture most of the military types she’d met shared, including Caleb. “Is she even in charge?”

  “Doubtful. But none of them have identified themselves. So, we’ll take them one at a time and see who wants to be the messenger.”

  Boots crunched, and they both turned to see President Daniels coming their direction. He wore an expression of abject worry, one arm in an improvised sling. Samuels trailed behind him, face pinched with pain.

  “You should be in a bed,” Caleb told the security head as he and Elizabeth moved to meet them.

  Samuels snorted, glancing down at the bulge under his shirt and jacket. “I got patched up,” he growled. “I’ll be fine. Had worse.”

  Elizabeth tried not to roll her eyes at the man’s bravado, and put her attention on Daniels. She didn’t have to ask what he was worried about. “How’s Pete?”

  “Made some noise, but still unconscious. He’s alive, though. That’s what matters. It could have been a lot worse.”

  “I’m glad he survived,” she told him, and winced at his arm. “Are you hurt badly?”

  Tom glanced down at the sling. “Just a flesh wound,” he said, chuckling.

  She raised an eyebrow at that. “What?”

  He sighed, rubbing gently at a spot on his coat where a singed hole showed dark bandages beneath. “Just thinking of all the times someone took out a cell phone and my secret service detail lost their minds, is all. I used to get irritated by it. Always figured I was so moderate that… no one would bother taking a shot at me. Never quite imagined myself in this situation, is all.”

  Having been shot at quite a lot since the impact, Elizabeth thought maybe the former president was in shock. Still, he seemed to be holding up. “You got lucky,” she told him.

  “Not lucky,” he said, shaking his head. “If not for Lieutenant Machert, we wouldn’t have made it out of there.”

  Elizabeth didn’t miss the way Samuels’ face tensed at that. She didn’t know everything that had gone down, but Caleb had given her a general rundown, and it sounded a lot like Samuels had only barely managed to get the surviving council out of harm’s way. “She takes after her father,” she said.

  Tom pursed his lips. “I suspect she’s got a lot of both of you.”

  She glanced at Caleb, a half-grin starting to twitch into her lips. “Fairly certain she gets the heroics from—”

  “What the hell?” Samuels growled. He made for the door.

  Elizabeth looked inside the window again to see the two security members inside rushing toward the jail cell, where the three prisoners were sprawled on the ground. Caleb flung the door wide and rushed in. Samuels followed. Elizabeth and Tom went in after them.

  “Get that open,” Samuels snapped at the guards, who were already working on it.

  Worried about being in the way, Elizabeth stood by what she guessed was once a deputy’s desk as the guards wrenched the door open. Tom stood beside her, and they watched as Samuels and Caleb moved in and knelt by the fallen Apex agents. Caleb checked at Victoria Steen’s neck, brow creased as he searched for a pulse. In a moment he looked up, puzzled. “Nothing,” he said, looking up at one of the guards. “She’s gone. What happened?”

  A youngish man, no more than twenty at the most, his dark hair under a ragged skullcap, put his hands up. “I don’t—nothing, sir,” he stammered. “I swear. They didn’t move, didn’t say anything. One second they were sitting up, the next they just… dropped.”

  “No wounds,” Samuels muttered, his voice taut with pain. He tried to roll one of the agents over but hissed and flagged down the other guard to help. In a moment, they had the red-haired agent on his back. Samuels opened his mouth and felt around inside, grimacing before he withdrew his fingers and shook his head. “Nothing. No missing tooth, no swelling, no sign of poisoning. Did they move at all? Put their hands to their mouths? Yawning, maybe, or coughing?”

  The guard across from him licked his lips. “I don’t… I’m not sure?” he said. “I don’t think so, sir.”

  “They didn’t move,” the other one said. “And didn’t make a sound before they fell over, either.”

  Elizabeth shivered. Three people just dropped dead at the same time? How was that possible? Suddenly, she felt terribly exposed. It felt like an attack. Like at any moment, the rest of them would drop dead as well, and she swallowed against a dry throat as she glanced at the ceiling. Some kind of satellite weapon, maybe? A drone? They had no idea what Trusk was capable of.

  Except, the two guards were fine. At least for now.

  “People don’t just die,” Samuels was growling. “You had to have missed something.”

  “Oh, God,” Elizabeth breathed, a hand going to her mouth as an awful thought occurred to her.

  Tom frowned, and put an arm behind her as if to lead her away. “Let’s get out of the way,” he said softly. “We don’t need to be here for this.”

  “No,” she said, taking a step toward the cell. “What if Trusk set off some kind of… remote? We know they track their people. What if they can do more with it? Lana was sure she had a chip.”

  The realization made her almost sick. She took the radio from the guard by the cell door, turning away as he made a surprised noise, and lifted it to her mouth. “Lana?” she said. “Lana, it’s your mother, over. Lana, answer me!”

  In a few seconds, Lana’s irritated voice came over the radio. “Mom,” she growled, “you have to stay off the general comms. What is it? Over.”

  The relief that flooded through Elizabeth nearly made her fall to her knees. As it was, they were as shaky as her hands as she depressed the button again. “I… just needed to hear your voice,” she said. “Sorry. Is your arm covered?”

  “Covered?” Lana came back. “What, the chip? Yeah. Why?”

  Caleb reached around her and gently took the radio from her hands. “She’s safe,” he said gently as he radioed Lana himself. “Lana, the three agents we took captive are dead. No apparent cause, and it’s… possible it was a remote activated kill switch. Doubtful whatever chip they injected is big enough to do anything, but make sure to keep it covered just in case.”

  There was a long pause before she answered. “Good chance it got fried while Diego and I were working on the EMPs,” she said. “But I’ll keep it wrapped up. Did… are Doctor Herndon and Pete okay?”

  “They’ll live,” he said. “Stay safe out there.”

  “Will do,” she replied. “But… if Trusk did execute his people… well he wouldn’t do that unless he thought they were compromised, right?”

  Caleb’s lips thinned. He glanced at the two guards, considering, but ultimately shook his head. Elizabeth thought she knew what he was thinking—that neither of these men likely triggered whatever it was that happened to the guards.

  “I think we have to assume Trusk has some high-tech surveillance at his disposal. Could mean your position is compromised. All units listening, assume Apex knows your locations, and act accordingly.”

  A series of clicks came in, acknowledging the update.

  Elizabeth felt her chest constrict. Bad enough Lana was on the front line out there, but if Trusk had some means of telling exactly where Springfield’s defenders were, it could mean all their planning was for nothing. It could mean there was no hiding the children, no evacuating them safely if it came to that.

  As Caleb handed the radio back to the guard, he looked more tense than he had before. He ran his fingers through his hair, staring down at Victoria Steen’s body. “You might be right. If you are, whatever Trusk is watching us with, it’s got to be live intelligence. Damn it.”

  Elizabeth looked up at him. “What do we do?”

  Samuels was on his feet again, looking pale. “Same as we planned.”

  Caleb nodded. “All we can do is fight,” he agreed, and turned to Elizabeth. He kissed her so fiercely and deeply, in front of the others in the room, that it made her face warm.

  When he let her go, he looked scared—genuinely, truly scared—for the first time… maybe ever. “Get back to the evacuation route. And be ready. If Apex knows the infiltration team failed, they could pull the trigger any second. It might get bad. Fast.”

  For several seconds, she stared into his eyes. This was it, then. Possibly the last time she looked at him. That was the fear he was feeling. She knew, because she felt it, too. Assuming she survived, this might be the last image of him that she had. She hadn’t even gotten a chance to see Lana again.

  And that thought should have terrified her. It did terrify her, but something else seemed to swell up beneath the fear. Something solid and certain. There was a plan. She had a part to play in it. So, that’s what she would do. That was all she could do.

  Elizabeth put her hands on Caleb’s face, ignoring everyone else in the room. “I will see you after all of this,” she told him.

  “Yes. You will. I love you, Elizabeth.”

  “I love you, Caleb,” she whispered.

  And then she turned and left the jail to return to the evacuation route. Because if she didn’t leave at that very moment, she might have lost the will to do it.

  As she left the jail, she heard Caleb’s voice turn hard. Tactical. “Trusk could send his people in any second. Get everyone to their posts. And see if you can round up a couple of generators and as many portable lights as you can. Flood lights are ideal, there’s got to be some around here used on early construction projects…”

  The door closed behind her, and she took a shaky breath.

  Caleb had his job, and he was doing it.

  She had hers. It was time to focus on that.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  LANA

  Springfield, CO

  Tuesday July 31st, 9:58 pm MST

  Lana grazed her fingers over the aluminum foil taped to her arm. As much as she wanted to believe her father’s assessment that her chip—if it was even still there and functional—couldn’t do her any harm, that didn’t lessen the feeling that she had a bomb buried under her skin. First chance she got after this, that thing was coming out. She didn’t care if she had to dig it out with a knife.