Vi stood beside Mary in Command Central. All teams were wheels up. The briefing had been shorter than she would have preferred, but they’d regroup once everyone was in position. HERA snapped satellite imagery of the three encampments in Afghanistan and Jian’s suspected location in Dover. Four simultaneous strikes with eight teams. Possible problems crawled through her mind like an army of unwanted spiders spinning hideous webs of calamity, chaos, and catastrophe.

The door to the room opened. Jud and Jacob entered. The latter set his laptop down where Cord typically sat and plugged in like he’d done it a thousand times. Vi raised her eyebrows and looked at Jud, hoping he got her what the heck look without her having to vocalize a harsh reality—his nephew had zero business in this operations room, especially for this particular mission. There was no certainty they’d find his father. If they did…

Well, sometimes it was better not knowing.

“You two will have your hands full. Jacob and I are running point on compound security. I’m ground operations, he’s back office.” Jud’s authoritative voice rumbled into the room, delivering the first bit of calamity.

Vi looked at Mary, who raised her eyebrows. The truth was she hadn’t considered compound security when every team they had went wheels up. She ran her hand down her neck and assessed the situation. Her first failure reared its head and snapped through the room.

“I sent a text to Bree and Rhea. They’ll be here in a few minutes,” Mary commented. Her gaze settled on Jud. “You think whoever is after us will strike while everyone’s away.”

“I would.”

“Yeah,” Vi admitted. “We’ve got new recruits not on teams here, along with one potential team leader. Marcus Salazar. He’s a solid recruit out of the Rangers.”

“I’ll get everyone to meet us in the debriefing room. No one’s wheels down for a while, so we’ll sort the plan for here and then refocus on the missions.” Mary typed away on her phone.

Vi set a hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get setup so you’re ready when everyone arrives.”

“So I’m ready?”

“Yeah, like your uncle said, you and him are in charge of compound security until everyone gets back.” She forced a smile despite the unease consuming her thoughts.

She’d been so focused on the missions she hadn’t seen the obvious. No, she’d gotten cocky. She had assumed HERA was good enough to hold anyone back. No wonder Marshall and the guys were all so growly earlier. They knew the compound would be weak once Gage and Addy went wheels up.

Marcus and nine new operatives arrived on the heels of Bree and Rhea, who both wore white lab coats when they entered.

“What’s up?” Bree asked.

“Yeah, I’m afraid I’m low on time. Dallas and the guys cleaned me out of all the darts and juice I had. I need to get more made,” Rhea said.

“Have a seat,” Jacob ordered. “This won’t take long. Uncle Jud, you want to start?”

Jud chuckled as he remained standing in the front of the small room. “I’m thinking everyone here knows all the teams went wheels up and will likely be gone for some time. Gage’s and Addy’s teams will be back first, but it’ll be a while. That leaves this compound very low on security.”

“Pfft, it’s fine. Drones are flying and HERA will tell us if we have trouble,” Bree said.

“I’m thinking he’s expecting trouble and we’re here for the when, not the if,” Marcus said. “I’m not sure everyone in here’s heard about the contract.”

“Contract?” one of the men said.

“The details don’t matter,” Vi replied with an edge in her voice. “Jud’s right. There’s a high likelihood we’ll get visitors, very unfriendly ones with their eyes set on getting HERA.”

She didn’t mention the primary objective of killing her and Mary. Most of the operatives in the room were green and spooked easier than the ones they worked with on a regular basis. Any firefight they might encounter before the teams returned would likely be their first, except for Marcus and a couple of the others.

She looked at Jud. The worrywart in her brain, the small voice doubting everyone and everything, screamed this was a bad idea. What choice did she have? They could have left Addy’s team here, but that left Gage’s going into a potential shit storm alone. She’d rather risk her and Mary’s safety instead.

But The Arsenal facility was more than headquarters. It was the Mason ranch.

Civilians.

Retired soldiers in various stages of recovery and re-acclimation to society.

“Mary and I will have our hands full leading eight teams striking four positions. Jud is in charge of compound security. Jacob here will handle back office surveillance and planning. I need you all to give them whatever assistance they need. You’ll likely be pulling some long shifts until Gage and Addy return with their teams.”

“A few of the Warriors Path Project participants can probably help fill in gaps,” Marcus said. “I’ve spoken with quite a few. I can see who we can get for secondary support.”

“Good. Do it,” Jud said.

“Draw Doctor Sinclair into the decision, though. We can’t risk any of them regressing,” Mary said.

Vi called up HERA’s schematics of The Arsenal compound. Green circles appeared on the projection. “These are the active drones and the area they’re covering. We can double up, expand outward half a mile around the entire perimeter.”

“I wandered around this morning.” Jacob pointed to the buildings. “We need sniper positions atop these two buildings, minimum. Uncle Jud could handle one, but we’d be stronger with him fluid in the field. He’s a one man army.”

Vi wondered how the young man knew so much about Jud’s experience and strengths. She couldn’t imagine a lone wolf like him sharing much in the way of details. Men like Jud, the silent and deadly variety, didn’t have long chats about their strengths and weaknesses. Jud’s brows furrowed. Lips thinned, he remained stoic.

“I can help,” Bree announced, excited. “I have some new toys. They haven’t been field tested yet, but they’ve fared well in the lab.”

“What sort of toys?” Rhea asked, concern evident in her voice.

Sometimes Bree’s toys were a bit too complicated for actual execution. The woman had issues dumbing down her ideas to usable schematics. The blonde stood and headed toward the door, but Jud intercepted.

“I need to go get them. It’ll take a while to get them set up. They can cover rooftops, though. Two are long range, so they can handle first-line perimeter defense.”

Vi bit her lip. She wanted to instill the confidence and experience in Jacob’s nephew, but this wasn’t a routine exercise. It was grim reality, one she should have foreseen and made better plans to cover.

Like what?

The argumentative voice in her head sounded remarkably like Jud. It was right. The timetable on this entire nightmare was too compressed. She couldn’t have gotten secondary teams in place.

“I’ll speak with Riley,” Marcus offered. “Some locals might be able to come out and pitch in.”

Vi didn’t like the idea of using locals, mainly because she didn’t want any more innocents between her and the bastards determined to kill her. She remained silent, though. This was Jud’s play, not hers. She was glad he’d stepped up and taken control of compound security, even if it made the twitchy paranoid part of her uneasy. Hopefully this would be nothing more than a just in case exercise.

“Let’s see what we get from the Warrior’s Path participants first. Sometimes too many unknowns on a field is more of a risk than having no one.”

Vi smirked. Such a typical lone wolf mentality. He’d likely prefer fighting whoever came at them alone. He had a hell of a rude awakening ahead if he thought that’d happen.

“We’ll round everyone up and run drills. We can lock everyone in the mess hall if an attack comes. We’ll need four guards, but can probably pull those from the Warrior’s Path participants,” Jacob said. He looked up from the schematics he’d leaned over. Cheeks flamed red, he looked around, then at his uncle. “Right, Uncle Jud?”

“Sounds smart,” he replied. “Let’s get to it. Bree, why don’t you show me those new toys. Jacob and I can help set them up. He’ll need to hook them into HERA, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” She looked around from where she’d been halted by Jud’s presence in her only exit. “Or, I can run them manually myself.”

“Pains me to say this since I’m a lone wolf by nature, but we don’t need unknown combatants on the field if shit hits the fan. I need Jacob fully aware of the situation so I don’t kill friendlies by mistake.” He looked over at Vi.

Her pulse quickened when she noted the intensity in his gaze. Heat rose in her cheeks when everyone’s attention settled on her.

“You have enough equipment to dole out to everyone? Are there trackers or something where Jacob and I can see who’s a friendly? I won’t be going for soft take downs if an attack happens.”

“Sure.” Vi pointed to Marcus. “Marcus and the guys know where the gear is. He can get you and everyone else sorted. We should have enough. Bree and Rhea over order.”

“We prepare for any eventuality,” Rhea argued.

“Yeah, like armoring the entirety of Texas,” Mary muttered with a chuckle. “Vi and I need to get back to the teams. Come back to the theater when you’ve got the ground teams sorted, Jacob. We’ll leave monitors and equipment open for you to use.”

“Right. Sure thing, Edge.” His voice bubbled with excitement, anticipation.

She followed Mary out and Jud and Jacob continued the debriefing.

“You sure about this?” Mary asked.

“Hell no, but we don’t have much of a choice. We should’ve left one of the teams behind.”

“That wasn’t an option, we both know it. Marshall and Dylan knew it, too. They weren’t pleased we had to delay our application exercise the other day. They’ll be chomping at the bit to get it done once this mess is clear.” Mary motioned toward the room. “What’s up with you and Romeo wolf in there?”

“Nothing,” she hedged.

“I heard there was some tonsil hockey over coffee. That doesn’t sound like nothing to me,” Mary said. “What Dylan and I ran across before that wasn’t either.”

“Fucking Addy.”

“She’s worried. So am I. He moves fast.”

“He said he’s used to making life and death decisions in seconds. He’s tired of watching life pass him by while he’s staring through the sight lines.”

“What about you? You haven’t talked to Doctor Sinclair yet. Now we’ve got everyone we care about in the field and a big target drawn on an almost empty compound.” Mary squeezed her arm. “Talk to me.”

“I’m okay, scared and more than a little pissed that I screwed up again. I realized we’d be without teams here, but didn’t even consider the contract.” She lowered her voice. “I didn’t think Jud would stay behind. He said he’d trust our teams to get Danny out, that his only mission was keeping us safe.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” Wow indeed. “I’m not used to someone wanting to be between us and trouble, you know? It’s always been you and me engaging the enemy in the first round. I’m not used to all this.”

“All this being Dylan, Marshall and everyone here, too?” Mary asked.

“Yeah.”

“It’s scary and wonderful all at the same time, like driving a car on a freeway for the first time without anyone else there.” Mary hugged her. “We’re going to be okay, this is where we should be. This is our home now.”

Home. Right. Vi clung to the word, then released it quickly. She didn’t have time for foolish notions. She had four compounds to storm and eight teams to get back safe.

To their home.

Which meant it was time to implement one of the many contingency plans she thought up last night. “I want to read Zero D into what we’re doing. If things go south, which we know is likely at some point, she’s in a unique position to help us.”

“Zero D. That’s the hacker who helped take down the child pornography rings on the Deep Web a few months ago, right?” Mary scrunched her eyebrows. “I didn’t realize you knew who Zero D was.”

“I didn’t at the time, but the work was stellar enough to get my attention. I did some digging. Zoey Danworth works for the NSA, intelligence analysis.”

Mary whistled. “She’d be a good contingency to have at the ready. Let’s do this.”

Vi was relieved Mary was on board. Reaching out to a potentially new asset was often problematic. There was a fine line between offering enough insight to facilitate a beneficial relationship and sharing too much intel. Knowledge was power and trusting a veritable stranger with anything right now could bite them in the ass. They already had Jud in the mix.

She pulled up the information she’d gathered once they returned to the operations room. Mary scanned the information and nodded her approval as the phone rang.

“Hello?” The hesitant voice sounded from the overhead speakers of the room.

Vi remained standing as she waited for HERA to signal she’d verified the location of the call. Once the system chimed, she responded. “Hi, Zoey. This is Viviana Chambers, though you may know me as Quillery. I’m here with my partner, Mary Reynolds, aka The Edge. We’d like to talk to you about a few things if you have a moment.”

“How did you get this number? No, wait.” The woman huffed a half-laugh, half-sigh. “You’re Quillery. That’s how you got this number.”

“Sorry, we typically use less invasive tactics to secure a new asset, but we’re low on time. My system indicates the number I called is secure. Is that the case?”

“Yes,” Zoey replied hesitantly. “I’m at home alone, but you probably already know that. What’s up? Is there another perv ring to take down?”

“I’m loving this woman already,” Mary replied with a laugh.

Before she second-guessed her gut instinct, Vi offered the woman a brief overview of what they’d uncovered and what they were about to embark on. A couple beats of silence ensued when she finished.

“So you two are leading eight teams through an international four-pronged attack of a drug lord’s operations and an international trafficking ring while freeing any hostages or prisoners you may encounter. Did I miss anything?” Zoey’s voice pitched a couple beats higher at the end. “I…I don’t even know where to begin. You mentioned the FBI, so I’m ignoring the stateside operation altogether. The other three prongs are problematic at best. Have you verified the data with satellite imagery yet?”

“Yes, and we have friendlies en route to recon with drones,” Mary replied.

“Okay.” The woman dragged the word out. “Why the call then?”

“Contingency,” Vi replied. “I’d like to send you what we have gathered so you can verify it with whatever intel you might have access to?”

“You mean the intel you’ve likely already pulled with that fancy system I’m hearing about?”

“We both know there’s always more data than what’s buried in surface level data banks,” Vi said. “Edge and I are after the blood and bone, not the skin.”

“Fine, send it over, but I’m not making any promises. Honestly, you two have lots of people in the intelligence community mighty twitchy, but I admire the hell out of you both. I did before you took those scumbags at Hive down. People are running to ground, though. Lots of letters had themselves tied up with those assholes and they’re scurrying to keep out of your wake.”

“We aren’t hunting for trouble, just taking out the trash after us,” Mary said. “If you’d prefer to play it safe, we’ll find a new secondary plan.”

“But we could use your help. We’ll have six teams in harm’s way over there, seven if you count the backup team. Most would declare Edge and I idiots for taking this on alone, but the teams are the best around.” Vi settled a hand on her hip and gave voice to her concerns. “It’s my job to get them back in one piece, but I need your help in case things go sideways. We need someone scanning the chatter, watching for fallout in places we won’t have time to worry about. More importantly, we need you keeping our satellite access secure and verifying the data HERA’s gathered with what you know. I know you’ll have access to more data than we could get.”

“Send what you have, the more you share the more I can help. You’ve clearly looked into me and though we’ve worked together a couple times, you don’t know me. So I’ll say this. I won’t share what’s going down unless I get your permission first. I know things are hot right now, so I’ll do what I can. Like I said earlier, I admire the hell out of you for taking Hive down. I know it came with a cost.”

Zoey was a hell of a woman. Vi suspected as much based on the sleuthing she’d done earlier, but the conviction and determination in her voice confirmed it. Mary offered her gratitude and forwarded all the data they’d gathered.

“Thanks, Zero D. We’ll be in touch,” Vi said as she ended the call.

One contingency plan in place. It was better than nothing.

* * *

Jud waited until the perky blonde was off the rooftop before he made his call. It wouldn’t matter if Bree heard the conversation, but he didn’t want to play twenty questions afterward. His skin crawled as he scoped the situation. The teams had left The Arsenal in a hell of a defensible position, one most military compounds couldn’t secure. The facility was at the end of a looped road—a road no stranger had a business wandering down. Drones covered every inch of the facility and signaled if any abnormalities were encountered.

Jacob had learned how to switch the sensitivity of the drones and had cranked it down really low. Now something as simple as a cow wandering out of its established perimeter sounded an alarm he and Jud heard. Marcus had recruited five men from the Warriors Path Project with Doctor Sinclair’s permission. Rhea had rounded up Riley and her mom and given them a head’s up. Together the three women ran drills for getting everyone into the mess hall if the breach alarm was sounded.

All in all, Jud could defend the compound and everyone in it from just about any attack. But he couldn’t shake the unease crawling through his skin.

Something stunk. The conversation he’d had with Marla grated his insides. The Collective wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines for long because HERA was in play. The more he thought about it, the more he realized they’d make a play to get the system.

And the women behind it.

The line connected. A gruff voice offered nothing aside from, “What?”

Kristof Lavrov was a long-term associate turned friend, the only relationship he’d consistently maintained over the years. The man was the only one he trusted outside family. Though he was in The Collective, he was also a broker like Jian. He was a very sought-after procurement specialist with a unique moral code only he understood. He’d done right by Jud over the years, which was why he deserved a head’s up.

“I heard it was going to freeze tonight. You’d best take your plants inside,” he suggested. In terms of coded messages, it was pretty obvious, but Jud didn’t give a shit.

“I’ve got all mine covered, man. I’m more worried about yours. You’ve been busy. Are you sure you don’t need help getting yours covered?”

“I should be good, but I’d appreciate a head’s up if you see otherwise.” He looked around. “I’m in Texas for a while, thinking it’s time to move.”

“But you’re pruning and weeding first,” Kristof said. “Be careful. It’s a tough job to handle alone, some would say an impossible one.”

“Nothing’s impossible if you’re motivated enough.” Jud thought of Danny, the fact The Collective allowed Jian to take him. The fact they probably had more to do with it than they’d admit. “I’m plenty motivated.”

“You need help, let me know. I appreciate the freeze warning, man.” Kristof ended the call.

He took the stairs down to Command Central two at a time. Jacob was in the midst of whatever made his geek brain happy. He tapped his foot in time to Vi and Mary, as if intentionally mimicking their every move. The three sat side by side in the control room, each working on something for the upcoming missions. Gage’s and Addy’s voices filled the overhead as they bantered back and forth.

All teams were in position. The overseas arm of the operation had run through enough dry runs to feel somewhat comfortable to proceed. Translation—they’d run out of time. Sundown yawned over the horizon, which meant the Mason teams overseas would be hitting the camps just after sunrise.

“We’re a go in thirty,” Vi stated over the com.

Mics checked soundlessly as dots appeared beside the teams. Both Dover teams checked in first. Jud felt helpless as everyone waited. He should be outside, stalking the perimeter, searching for whatever made nervousness settle around him like a second skin. They’d set six of the monitors aside for Jacob. He’d left the farthest exterior drone surveillance up on four of them and alternated between the rooftop drones and the other exterior building drones on the other two. He wondered which of the women had gotten him up and running. Although he sat to the side, both women looked over and scanned his monitors every few seconds, as if preparing to leap to his aid if needed.

“Do we want to know what Bree’s new toys are?” Vi asked. She flashed a smile.

“Jesus, you’re letting her test new toys while we aren’t there?” Addy asked. “Not smart, Quillery.”

Quillery didn’t have much of a choice. Jud was glad the woman offered them up. He wasn’t entirely sure what they did, but the blonde assured him they’d cover the perimeter line easily even though she’d been short on specifics. He hoped to hell so. Neither of the women would leave the room anytime soon and even though his time would be better served ensuring the perimeter was secure, he found himself heading toward the mess hall instead. They needed to eat. His nephew needed to eat.

Riley and another blonde worked alongside an older woman with the same expressive green eyes as most of the Mason brothers. Their mom. He offered a polite smile as she focused on him.

“My word, you’re a handsome one,” she commented. “You must be Jud. Everyone around here calls me Momma.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am. Afraid I’ll have to stick to Mrs. Mason. My momma wouldn’t be too thrilled if you took her place.” He motioned toward the plate she handed to him. “Though you’re a better cook, but don’t tell her I said so. I came to get Jacob, Vi and Mary some grub.”

He took the bagged-up plates Momma Mason handed him with a smile and a thank you, then headed back to the computer trip he’d left.

“If I wasn’t engaged to the best man in the world, I’d kiss you,” Mary declared. “Please tell me one of those is for me.”

“It’s for you,” he said with a chuckle. “Make sure Viviana here eats something. I’ll be back later. I’m going to walk the perimeter.”