The sun was barely peeking over the mountains when I pulled next to the first security stop at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Gerald, the first-shift security for Gate One, nervously scanned my badge and gestured for me to move on.

The two miles of gravel road that led to the second gate were bordered with a twelve-foot fence topped with spiraled barbed wire and guarded by armed security every two hundred yards. The men and women were dressed in fatigues and carried semiautomatic weapons. It made me wonder if this was a haven for the warworn, or a place for someone with a higher calling to waste their talents.

Like my team, for example.

Karen cleared me for Gate Two. A traffic arm barrier raised, and metal spikes retreated into the ground. I drove my ’78 Toyota Land Cruiser past an outer parking lot and administration building to approach the third gate and then the entrance, a short man-made tunnel poking out from the mountain with CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX in white painted metal letters at the top. I drove through, into the darkness, past the warning signs to follow the two-lane and signs that led to the designated parking for our department.

I was the first of the team to arrive, and I parked my truck in the center of five other empty spots.

The engine sputtered and died once I twisted back the key, and I sat alone, thinking about my night with Darby. Even after I turned in, I slept like shit. The thoughts in my head were too loud to sleep. I jumped out and pulled my pack from the back seat.

Once my team arrived, we walked into the Complex together, chatting about our evening. I tried to stay out of the conversation, but Naomi pegged me before I could finish the combination on my locker.

“You’re quiet, T-Rex. What’s up?”

“Me? Nah.”

Martinez turned to look at me. “Spill it.”

“I’m just…uh,” I sighed. “I’m staying at the hotel for now. Looking for a place. There’s all these forestry crews there for the fire. The Maddox twins are two of them.”

“The guys you were investigating for the feds?” Naomi asked. “They giving you trouble? Give me two hours. It’ll look like a murder-suicide.”

“Slow your roll, Nomes. Let’s get settled before you start a killing spree. They’re good guys. The whole family, really. They’ve been cool. It’s not them.”

“Who is it?” Sloan asked. “Because you’re vexed.”

“Vexed? What the fuck, Sloan?” Martinez said.

“Shut up, man. It’s okay to not dumb everything down all the time,” Sloan snapped.

“You sayin’ you need to dumb it down for me?” Martinez asked, taking a step forward.

“It’s a girl,” I blurted out.

“A…what?” Naomi asked.

“A woman. She’s the new front desk clerk at the hotel. She’s like a runaway bride. She bounced right before promising the rest of her life to her scumbag abusive fiancé. But he’s military. She’s sworn off us all.”

“Well, that’s just stupid,” Naomi said. “Like any large group, you’re going to have your heroes and your villains. My husband lived and breathed the Marines, and he was the best man on the planet, next to you.”

“That he was,” I said, taking a moment to miss my friend. He’d had a wife at home who he loved more than any of us, yet he jumped on that grenade without a second thought. I strived every day to deserve that.

“Hey,” Naomi said, touching my cheek. “Get out of there.” She slapped me once and then held her hand against the place she’d just assaulted. Naomi did that a lot, only hitting me hard enough to bring me back to the present. She touched my shoulder like Abrams used to do. “It happened. It’s the way he wanted it. Come back to the present.”

I nodded, turning away from her to put my things in my locker.

“Hey, Nomes. Look at that,” Martinez said. He pointed up, seeing a tag with ABRAMS etched perfectly into the metal screwed into the top border of the locker next to his.

“Son of a bitch,” Naomi said. She reached up and touched it with a smile. “They actually moved me from the little girls’ room. Matt would have hated this—having a locker…a lunch break.”

“Damn sure would have. But he would have loved paying off that FJ of yours with his sign-on bonus like you just did. Let’s get rolling. Full battle rattle. Rounds in ninety seconds,” Kitsch said, slinging the nylon strap of his weapon across his chest, checking his sidearm and sliding it into the holster, as well as touching the Taser and hunting knife in each of their spots to double-check he was locked and loaded. It was overkill for the job, but then again, the Complex was the type of facility that required nothing until you needed everything.

“Trexler, we’ve got a four ninety-nine on the south side of the Complex two clicks from the wire,” someone said through the radio. Sounded like Saunders.

I pinched the small square clipped to my collar. “Copy that.” I looked to Kitsch and he nodded.

“All right. Rounds can wait. Let’s load up.”

Sloan looked lost, and Harbinger sighed. “The Complex has dedicated codes. A four ninety-nine is a potential perimeter breach. Read your manual.”

Sloan nodded. “Yes, sir.”

We walked quickly to the Charlie corridor, took an elevator one level down, and stepped out into the massive room that served as an equipment hold. We had everything from joint light tactical all-terrains—Jeeps on steroids—to tanks, armored combat earthmovers, and Hercules recovery vehicles. We jogged to our assigned Humvee and I jumped in the driver’s seat, with Harbinger copiloting. Naomi and Kitsch were in the back seat, Martinez and Sloan in the back.

I barreled down the dirt road and crossed through the terrain to the site where surveillance caught a blur of three targets, the tires throwing rocks and dust. The smoke from the fire had been a plume the week before, now it was more like a blanket being lifted and spreading in the stratosphere. We stayed alert. Besides the blind hills, there weren’t many trees on that side of the mountain, making it easy to spot any unauthorized persons.

“Twelve o’clock,” Naomi said.

I slammed on the brakes, pushing a brown cloud around us. When the air cleared, three kids were standing inches from the bumper of the Humvee.

Martinez and Sloan jumped out, barking for the kids to put their hands in the air. Two shaggy-haired boys about fifteen, and a girl. She was blond, reminding me of my little sister. Their faces were smudged, their hair covered in a light blanket of dust.

“Easy, Sloan,” I said, stepping out of the driver’s side. “Where the hell did they come from?”

Naomi pushed her sunglasses down her nose and looked down. “They came right over the ridge. Good thing, too, or we would have gone for a ride.”

I leaned over, noticing the rocks below. “Ouch. It all looks the same out here.”

“I’m driving next time,” Harbinger said.

“Was that a joke? Are you making jokes now?” I asked, closing one eye against the sun.

Naomi nudged one of the boys’ boots with hers. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Th-there’s a party. We took a wrong turn, I think,” one of the boys said.

“No shit,” Sloan said, still on guard. “A party at six a.m.? Nice try.”

“It’s over, dumbass,” the girl said. “We were walking home.”

Naomi smiled. “I like her.” She grabbed the girl by the back of the collar and yanked her up. “Let’s get them back where they belong.”

I radioed in. “Gerald, this is Trex, come in.”

“Gerald, sir, hear you loud and clear.”

“Have the Colorado Springs police meet us at Gate One for pickup of trespassing juveniles. Just have their parents pick them up from the station.”

“Copy that, sir.”

Martinez grinned. “I think Gerald likes you.”

“Shut your pie hole, Martinez. Put the small one in the back.”

“And this one?” Sloan asked, jerking up the tall, lanky one. The poor kid looked like he was about to shit himself, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t venture so close to the Complex next time.

“They all go in the back. Check ’em first. Naomi?”

“Got it,” she said, bringing the girl to the side.

“Get your hands off me, bitch!” the girl yelled.

We all froze, waiting for Naomi to snap the girl’s neck. Or at the very least, slap the shit out of her. It took Naomi a moment to process that someone had the balls to speak to her that way—I was sure it had been years, if ever—and then Naomi burst out laughing. “I have crossed paths with my fourteen-year-old self. Incredible.” She searched the girl and pointed to the back of the Humvee. “I’m guessing your mom hasn’t spanked you lately, but if you don’t get your ass up in that vehicle, I’m going to do it for her…and it will last you a while. Move. Now!”

The girl startled and scrambled into the back with Martinez and her friends.

Sloan gestured for Naomi to go next, then he followed.

I slammed the door and revved the engine.

“You gonna try to fly off the side of the mountain again?” Harbinger asked.

“Suck my dick, John,” I said.

Harbinger laughed once, and then his back pressed against the seat as we took off toward Gate One.

“Colorado is good for you, I think. That’s a smile and a half in the same morning.”

His smile faded, and he grabbed the handle above his seat, bouncing as we rolled across the rocky terrain.

We dropped the kids off at Gate One, and I drove the team back to the warehouse. The elevator closed behind us, and it was strangely quiet on the way up. The elevator dinged just before it opened, and we stepped out into Charlie corridor.

“All right,” I said, holding my rifle to my torso. “Kitsch, Sloan, you’ve got Alpha and Beta. Harbinger, Martinez, you’ve got Charlie and Delta. Check in with Saunders in surveillance at oh-eight-hundred. Nomes, you’re with me in Echo. See you all in the office at ten, we’ll reassign and then meet for chow. Keep comms open.”

“Yes, sir,” everyone said in unison.

We spread out, walking in opposite directions. When the boots of the others fell away and Naomi and I entered Echo, she asked the question I expected. She knew as well as I did her assignment to make rounds with me wasn’t random.

“So? The girl…” Naomi said.

“Yeah. I ended up staying up and talking with her. Then when I finally went to my room, I couldn’t sleep for shit.”

“Why’s that?”

“Her ex, man. He put hands on her. She ran away, came here with nothing. She knows no one. No family, really. Her dad and brother were killed in an accident a few years back.”

Naomi sighed. “Sounds like a lot of baggage, Trex. Are you actually attracted to her, or are you trying to save her?”

“That’s the thing. She is gorgeous. I mean…intoxicatingly beautiful.” I stole a glance at Naomi, who had the expression I expected. “And all those fucking hotshots in that hotel want her. She wants nothing to do with any of us, but she’s sweet about it, you know? And I don’t wanna be that guy.”

“So, you think it’s just that everyone else wants her?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t think that’s it at all.”

Naomi stopped, her brows pulled together. “You really like this chick. How much time have you spent with her?”

I kept walking. “Like, none. It’s the stupidest fucking thing ever.”

Naomi shrugged. “You can’t control chemistry, T-Rex. You can’t explain it. Hell, Matt was a cowboy. Quiet. I could have a conversation with an inanimate object as easily as I could with him. He wasn’t funny. Wasn’t particularly interesting or a show-off. Not my type at all.”

“So why did you fall for him?”

She smiled. “Because he was a good man, humble, he didn’t play games…and he had a nice ass.”

I chuckled. “That’s it?”

“That’s it. I mean, yeah, it was nice that he knew his way around a rifle and he wasn’t intimidated by me at all. We had a few things in common. But he had his moments. Occasionally, he was charming. It really came down to him being interested in me, the way he treated me, and something else I can’t explain. Has to be chemistry. Or maybe we were meant to be.”

“You were definitely meant to be. I’ve never seen a man love a woman the way Matt loved you, Nomes.”

She looked up. “He’s up there somewhere, still loving me, just like I’m down here, still loving him.”

I nodded. I wasn’t about to argue. If our energies continued in some way, I didn’t doubt that Matt was somewhere, still in love with his wife.

“It doesn’t have to be anything specific, Trex. You can like her for no reason. You can even like her a lot for no reason. Maybe it’s just that you don’t know the reason yet.”

“Thanks, Nomes. I knew you’d help me figure it out.”

We reached a T and turned right. The air changed, prompting Naomi to hold her rifle closer.

“I think it’s those experiments they were talking about,” I said. “I’d always heard it was a bunch of space and missile nerds here.”

“A lot more than missiles going on here.”

We stopped at a large door, a red and white striped banner stretching across the middle, along with a half dozen warning signs. I touched my badge to the black square on the wall out of curiosity. It blinked red, and a single, low-toned horn sounded.

We both took a step back, a small screen near the badge reader lit up, revealing a group of armed men, standing—I presumed—on the other side. One of them stepped forward to press a button on a panel on their side, allowing his voice to be heard on ours.

“Back away, Trexler. You’re unauthorized for this area.”

“Oh. This is Deep Echo? It’s uh…not that deep.”

“I’ve experienced deeper,” Naomi said with a straight face.

The men on the screen smiled, smug. “You’re nowhere near Deep Echo. Turn around.”

“I was told I had access to the entire facility with the exception of Deep Echo,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I should yell or not, but the men on the other side seemed to hear me just fine. I raised my voice, anyway.

“Take it up with the general. Turn around, Trexler. Last warning.”

It took everything I had not to ask what they would do if I didn’t. Not a single one seemed to have a sense of humor.

“Let’s go, Trex. We’ll discuss it with Bianca.” Naomi tugged on my vest, and I followed her. “What the hell was that?” she asked once we were out of hearing range. “Deep Echo?”

“I don’t know. Above my pay grade, apparently.”

“Some weird shit going on in this place. A lot weirder than I thought. So. What are you going to do about the girl?”

“Darby?” I asked, jarred by the sudden change of subject.

“Her name is Darby?” Naomi asked. I nodded. “That’s unique.”

“It’s a pretty cool story, too.”

Naomi smiled. “You did talk. About, like…real shit.”

“Yeah,” I said with a grin. It faded. “She won’t date soldiers. Her ex is military.”

“You’re not a soldier. You’re a Marine.”

“C’mon, Naomi. How would you feel if someone got you on a technicality?”

“I’d kick his ass.”

“And we can’t talk about this job. She thinks I’m in the Forestry Department.”

“You didn’t correct her?” she asked.

I shook my head. “She’d ask questions that I can’t answer, Nomes.”

“She’s a runaway who left behind an abusive guy, a dead father and brother, Mom’s not really in the picture, and she blames all military for the ex’s behavior. You’ll have to lie by omission just to date her. You still think this is a good idea?”

I thought about it for a second. “She’s my girl—the one.”

Naomi shook her head. “You’re going to lose her.”

“What should I do, then? This is my job. I have an entire team depending on me. I can’t walk away from it, and I know it sounds crazy, Nomes…but I’ve said for years I’d know it was her when I met her. It’s her.”

“I’ve always thought you were brave. You know that. I’m not sure that’s what this is. If you really think she’s the girl you’ve been talking about since I met you, you’re risking a lot.”

“You’ll get it when you meet her.”

Naomi turned to me, flattered. “I’m going to meet her? You must really like her. Because you’re going to have to do some verbal acrobatics to explain to her who I am.”

I frowned. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Maybe I’m an old fed buddy?”

“She won’t date military, cops, firefighters…that probably includes federal agents.”

“Oh. You are fucked. You are totally fucked. She’s going to want to know about your past at some point. Then, when she finds out—and she will—she’ll hate you for not telling her and you’ll be heartbroken.”

“She might not even like me, Nomes.”

“Is she stupid?”

“No,” I said, making a face.

“Then she likes you. And she probably already knows something’s not right, that there’s stuff you’re not telling her.”

“She definitely does. I’ll explain it to her. Somehow…later. I just want her to get to know me first so she knows I’m not what she thinks we are.”

“How are you going to explain if you can’t tell her about the job?”

“I can’t tell her about the Complex. I can tell her I’m a civilian contractor.”

“She’s still going to lump you in with military. I’m sorry, Trex. I’m just trying to prepare you.”

I cringed. “Fuck, you’re right. This is going to be bad.”

“You should bail now.”

I frowned. “I should. But I can’t.”

“I know,” she said, nudging my arm.