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No hands went up.

“All right. Chloe’s group, take a right at the end of this hall, and then follow the circular corridor until you reach the elevators.”

As Chloe was about to leave, Ash stopped her. “You’re okay to do this, right?” he asked.

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seem a little off, is all.”

“I wish people would stop saying that. I’m fine. Really,” she said, and then hurried after her team.

Ash knew she was hiding something. He just hoped it wouldn’t interfere with the mission. To his team, he said, “Pick a partner and spread out. Let’s move.”

__________

H
ARDEN JAMMED THE
receiver down. That was the third call he’d fielded since the red and white alarm lights had begun flashing throughout the control center. Mercifully, the siren was only a background drone here, but every time he took a call, he could hear that wasn’t the case elsewhere.

As soon as the alarm had been triggered, one of the monitors on the wall had started blinking the message:

ALARM ACTIVATED

LEVEL 10

SECTION 7C

The first thing Harden did was to consult the schematic for level ten. He discovered that section 7C was near the hallway to the auxiliary tunnel Chloe’s team was using. So, either the team had been spotted or it had tripped the alarm.

He tried to reach Ash via radio, but since the captain wasn’t close to one of the elevator shafts, the layers of ground between them prevented the signal from getting through. The only reason Harden kept answering the phone was in case it was Ash or someone else from the Resistance.

When the call from level six had come in, he’d been searching the computer for the alarm controls in hopes of turning it off. He retuned to the task now, quickly shuffling through screen after screen. Finally, he found a link to
ALARM ACTIVITY
. Clicking on this brought him to a new screen that listed recent alarms. The current one was right at the top. When he double-clicked on that, a new screen appeared. The
LOCATION
box was filled in with
7C
, but the others—for
CAUSE
,
FOLLOW-UP
, and
RESOLUTION
—were blank.

At the very bottom was a button labeled
DISARM
. He clicked it, but instead of the alarm turning off, a large rectangular box appeared, and above it the word:

AUTHORIZATION

Playing a hunch, he touched the box with his thumb and then quickly removed it. A message appeared at the bottom.

INSUFFICIENT DATA POINTS

Just like he thought. A thumb scanner.

Harden dragged the unconscious guard over to the station and plopped him in a chair. He pressed the man’s thumb against the screen.

The rectangle disappeared, and then mercifully the flashing lights and screeching alarm ceased.

__________

A
S SOON AS
the alarm
began to blare, Reni raced to the elevators and jammed her thumb against the recall button.

Her new theory was that the men masquerading as security personnel had arrived via the auxiliary tunnel, too. After they had subdued Reni’s colleagues, they had gone back for the rest of their people.

What she hoped this meant was that they hadn’t risked going all the way up to the security control center on the transition level and she could meet up with the two men on duty there. It was even likely that the team on night patrol was still in town, unaware of what was going on. If she could hook up with them, too, that would make seven of them. More than enough to deal with these scumbags.

The moment the elevator doors opened, she jumped through and pressed the button for level one.

When the car began moving, she leaned against the back wall, exhausted.

It’s going to be okay
.
Once I’m with the others, we’ll be able to handle this. Everything will be back to normal before the sun comes up.

She was just starting to relax when the alarm cut out.

__________

A
SH’S TEAM WAS
still in the process of clearing the first set of rooms when the flashing lights blinked out and the blaring siren fell silent.

Most of level ten turned out to be storage rooms or active equipment areas where things such as generators, air recyclers, water pumps, and the like were bolted to the floor. His team found a total of seven people, five of whom had been asleep in a single room, while the remaining two had been servicing one of the machines. A quick interrogation revealed all seven were members of the maintenance staff.

Sealy found a room near the west elevators that would work as a holding cell. After Ash had escorted in the last prisoner and zip tied the man’s wrists and ankles, the door was secured from the outside and the team moved on to level eight.

__________

C
HLOE’S TEAM WAS
too big to fit in one elevator car. She went up to level nine with the first group, while a second waited for the next ride.

With every step she’d taken since entering Dream Sky, her sense of dread had built until it wrapped around her like a thick blanket.

When they stepped onto nine, she sent two-man scout teams off in both directions along the curving hallway.

Outer loop
, she corrected herself.
That’s what it’s called.

While the level-nine corridor felt familiar, she knew this was not the level she feared most. That, she now recalled, was level five, though she wasn’t sure why.

The elevator doors opened again and the rest of her team piled out.

After the scout teams returned and reported all was quiet, she split everyone into five groups. “My group and this one,” she said, indicating the trio standing next to her, “will go left.” She pointed again. “You two will go right and split at the first corridor.” She looked at the last group. “We need you to set up a detention room. You should be able to find a suitable location down the first hall on the right, second door in.”

Just as she finished speaking, the alarm went off.

At first, she thought that was why she was getting so many surprised looks, but then she thought about what she’d just said and realized how specific her instructions had been.

“No time to waste,” she said, and then headed left.

12

NB016, NEW YORK CITY

2:41 AM EST

“D
IRECTOR JOHNSON?” DALTON,
the newly appointed operations manager, said.

Celeste rubbed her tired eyes. “What is it?”

“We just received an alarm signal from Dream Sky.”

Celeste shot forward in her chair. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s a general alarm, initiated on level ten.”

“Are they under attack?”

“I have no other information. I was just about to contact them but thought you would want to be on the line, too.”

“Yes, yes! Do it.”

Celeste donned her headset as Dalton conferenced her in and made the call. The line rang six times before someone finally answered.

“Yes?” a male voice said.

“This is Operations Director Dalton from NB016. I have Director Johnson on the line with me. We received notification that an alarm went off there. Can you confirm this?”

“Uh, yes…a malfunction. It’s already turned off.”

“Hold on, please.” Dalton muted the call, brought up a new window on her computer, and consulted it. She looked back at the director. “He’s right. The alarm has been deactivated.”

Celeste unmuted her own mic and said, “Who am I speaking to?”

“This is, um, Lochmere.”

“Where’s Supervisor McHenry?” she asked. She didn’t know the names of the security heads at all the bases, but she definitely knew the man who had the job at Dream Sky.

Another pause. “I don’t know, ma’am. I’m the one on duty at the moment.”

Her brow furrowed. “Don’t give me that crap. I want to talk to McHenry right now. Get him.”

“Well, um, okay. Sure. Hold on.”

DREAM SKY

H
ARDEN HIT THE
hold button.

Son of a bitch
. Given the attitude of the woman on the line, he figured she must’ve been pretty high up. He quickly consulted the base directory and saw that McHenry was Dream Sky’s head of security.

He thought for a moment and then clicked the line back on. “Director Johnson?”

“I don’t hear McHenry,” she said.

“He’s on level ten, supervising the investigation into what happened. It appears to be an electronic issue and is also affecting our internal comm system. I can’t loop him in at the moment, but I’ve sent someone down to retrieve him. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

The woman was silent for a moment. “The second he gets there, have him contact me directly.”

“Yes, ma’am. I will.”

The line went dead.

NB016

C
ELESTE STARED ACROSS
the room.

While it made sense that McHenry would be personally investigating what had gone wrong with the alarm, she was extremely skeptical that an electronics failure would cause both a false alarm
and
a communications glitch. Systems at Project Eden bases were purposely built to work independently.

And then there was the fact that Dream Sky’s alarm had been triggered on this night of all nights.

“Ms. Dalton,” she said.

The operations director turned.

“I want you to dispatch the Montreal strike team to Dream Sky.”

Dalton consulted her computer. “I’m sorry. They’ve already been moved to Toronto to deal with the problems there.”

“Then who’s closest? Boston?”

Dalton hesitated. “We haven’t been able to establish communications with the Boston team for almost six hours.”

Celeste felt blood rushing to her head. “Why wasn’t I told this?”

Another pause. “It was in the report I gave you an hour ago.”

The report had consisted of several pages on all the areas where there had been trouble. Celeste had tried to read it but stopped when the words had begun to swim.

“Then what team is closest to Dream Sky?”

“The only team within a thousand miles that isn’t otherwise engaged or, um, unaccounted for is Commander Vintner’s squad, ma’am.”

Vintner’s strike team was the one assigned to protect Celeste there at NB016.

She thought for a moment. There had been no problems here and no signs of impending attacks. And because of NB016’s unique high-rise location, none were likely. If anything came up, the standard assigned security force could handle the situation until Vintner returned.

“Send them,” she said.

“But—”

“I said send them.”

13

DREAM SKY

2:43 AM EST

R
ENI PEERED OUT
the open elevator onto level one.

A handful of people stood in the waiting area, looking anxious. She knew several of them from her rounds—medical personnel mostly and a few administrators.

One of the men recognized her as she stepped out. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Instead of answering him, she raised her voice and said, “Everyone, please return to your rooms and stay there until you get the all-clear.”

“But the alarm’s off now,” another person said. “Doesn’t that mean—”

“It means nothing,” Reni told her. “Now, please, for your own safety, back inside your rooms.”

“Safety from what?”

Reni didn’t want to cause a panic but she needed to get them moving. “Outsiders have entered the base,” she said. “We’re dealing with the problem but we need the hallways clear. Go now. Please.”

Most didn’t need to be told twice, and those who looked like they did were dragged away by their friends.

She sprinted to the elevator that went up to Transition and entered the waiting car. The ride up took fourteen seconds. As the doors opened, she eased out, her rifle moving in sync with her eyes as she scanned the space. She saw no one but felt an unexpected chill in the air.

Curious, she moved over to the surface-access ladder and looked up the shaft. The hatch was open, allowing the cold from the surface to drift down. Leaving it like that was completely against regulations. The only time it was to be opened was when people were passing through. No exceptions.

Gripping her rifle tight, she turned toward the control center door.

__________

H
ARDEN DESPERATELY NEEDED
to get ahold of Ash.

As much as he wanted to believe he’d fooled this Director Johnson, he was sure he hadn’t. Additional trouble was likely to arrive soon.

He flipped through the security cameras trying to locate the captain. From the corner of his eye, he caught movement on one of the smaller monitors. Looking over, he saw an armed woman sneaking up on a door. It took him a second to realize the door in question was the one directly behind him.

The missing security guard
.

Crap.

He grabbed his pistol and turned toward the door just as the woman started to pull it open.

“Drop it!” he yelled, as her rifle nosed into the room.

She fired.

Harden dove to the side and double-tapped his trigger, aiming in the general direction of the door.

Slipping along the desk, he worked his way to the side until he could see the rest of the room. Once he was sure she hadn’t sneaked in, he looked back at the monitors.

__________

R
ENI HAD NEVER
before heard the voice that yelled at her to drop her weapon. Realizing the control center was also in the hands of the infiltrators, she let off a shot and then hurried back to the transition room.