“Shall we begin?” he said.
Her face remained blank.
“First question, who sent the men you were with?”
She shrugged.
“How many more are coming?”
“Hundreds, at least.”
Chloe tapped Ash on the shoulder, employing the strategy they had worked out on the way up. “May I?” she asked.
He moved to the side.
Chloe smiled as she stepped forward.
The woman chuckled. “You’re not going to get any answers, either.”
“Unlike my friend, I don’t have any questions.”
Chloe’s punch came out of nowhere. Ash heard a crunch as the woman’s nose broke. She stumbled backward, blood pouring over her mouth and chin.
Chloe hit her again, an upper cut to the abdomen this time. The Project Eden guard doubled over, one hand on her nose, the other covering her stomach. Chloe grabbed her by the jacket and pulled her upright, then power-walked her backward and slammed her into the wall. The woman’s head bounced off the concrete and her eyes glazed over for several seconds.
Ash moved in behind Chloe. “Who sent those men?”
The woman blinked, trying to focus. Chloe slapped her face hard. “Answer him.”
“I…I’m not sure,” the woman said.
Chloe slapped her again.
“I don’t know. Really.”
Chloe pulled her hand back for another shot, this time closing it into a fist.
“Wait! Wait!” the woman pleaded. “He talked to someone on the phone. A Director…um…Johnson, I think. Yeah, that was it. Director Johnson.”
That jibed with the phone call Harden had fielded.
“How many more men are coming?” he asked.
“Commander Vintner never said anything about more men.”
“Vintner? He was the one in charge?”
“Yes.” She hesitated. “He’s dead, isn’t he? The crash?”
Ash ignored her question and said, “Are you sure he didn’t mention anyone else?”
“He didn’t. I swear.”
Though he thought she was telling the truth, he questioned her some more, pushing hard, but her story didn’t change.
When he was done, they left Harden alone in control and took an elevator down. Sealy and the woman got off on four, where the main detention room had been set up.
Before the doors closed again, Ash said to Sealy, “If you’re feeling generous, you can have one of their nurses look at her, but I’ll leave that to your discretion.”
Ash and Chloe rode the car all the way down to level ten. Most of the others were still there, clearing away debris in case the tunnel would be needed.
Raising his voice, Ash asked, “Did anyone find a satellite phone?”
“I think I saw one over there,” Estella said, pointing across the area where dozens of items had been set side by side.
A sat phone lay between a Glock pistol and a closed pocketknife. It was a compact model that was nicked but otherwise undamaged.
Ash pushed the power button but nothing happened. He checked the battery, found that it had come loose, and clicked it back into place. The phone turned on.
He opened the outgoing call list. Right at the top was an entry labeled NB016.
He and Chloe exchanged looks.
“I’ll bet they’re wondering how things are going here,” she said.
“I’ll bet they are.”
They gathered back in the control center. Present were Ash, Chloe, Sealy, Powell, Harden, Curtis, Tamara Costello, and a sore and annoyed Bobby Lion. Ash had also asked Robert and Estella to join them. They were the de facto leaders of the Isabella Island survivors who made up much of the force that now occupied Dream Sky.
Now that Harden understood how the Dream Sky communications system worked, he was able to use it to call Ward Mountain and pipe it through the control-room speakers.
“May I help you?” The voice that answered was understandably wary, since the call’s ID would be unknown to her.
“Crystal? It’s Ash.”
“Captain? Where are you?”
“Dream Sky.” Before she could ask anything else, he explained what he wanted.
“It’ll take a few minutes. Let me put you on hold.”
No one said anything as they waited, the room tense, expectant.
When the line connected again, it was Rachel’s voice they heard. “Captain Ash?”
From the echo, he could tell she was also using a speakerphone.
“Who’s with you?” he asked.
“Dr. Gardiner and Caleb Matthews are in the room, and we’ve got Pax patched in on a line from Los Angeles.”
“Morning, Captain,” Pax said, his connection a bit weaker than Ward Mountain’s.
“Pax, great to hear your voice,” Ash said. “How did it go out there?”
“Better than we’d hoped. I can tell you all about it later. The important question is, how did it go there?”
“We’ve neutralized the counterattack. Dream Sky’s still ours.”
“Any casualties?” Rachel asked.
“A few injured. One dead.”
“Who?”
“Gordon Blake.”
“Damn, he was a good man,” Pax said.
Rachel said, “Make sure you bring him home.”
“We will.”
“So, is Dream Sky really as important as you thought?” Pax asked.
“More so.” Ash told them what they’d found, and had Wicks add details of the base’s purpose when necessary.
“You have a thousand sedated people?” Dr. Gardiner asked, astonished.
“I think the number is actually twelve hundred,” Ash said. “That’s why I wanted you on the call, Doctor. We need someone to oversee their revival. I can’t think of anyone better for the job than you.”
“That’s…going to be a massive job.”
“Bring as many people as you think you’ll need. There is medical staff here and some of them can probably be convinced to help, but they’ll need to be watched.”
“Of course,” Gardiner said.
“I’ll make sure he’s on his way within the hour,” Rachel added.
“Good,” Ash said. “So, tell us how the disruption effort went.”
“It’s still going,” Rachel told him. “So far our people have taken over about thirty-five survival stations and Project bases. More have been severely crippled, and even at those that received only modest damage we’ve seen Eden personnel abandoning their posts.”
“We experienced some of that here in L.A.,” Pax said. “A few tried to fight back but most either surrendered right away or ran for the hills.”
“You’ve taken the stadium?” Ash asked, surprised.
“Field needs a little work, but should be ready if the Dodgers ever get back together.”
“I haven’t told you the best news,” Rachel said. “Our friends in India have kidnapped Director Mahajan.” She described what Sanjay, Kusum, and Darshana had done. “There’s a plane picking them up in…less than ninety minutes. Once the rescue team’s sure Sanjay’s stabilized, it’ll fly him, his friends, and their hostage to our base in Dubai.”
Ash glanced at Chloe and raised an eyebrow, wanting to make sure she thought they should go ahead with the idea they’d discussed after finding the sat phone. He interpreted the look she gave him as, Why is it even a question?
“Captain, are you there?” Rachel said.
“I’m here.” He paused, then said, “Rachel…everyone, we’ve already cut the Project’s legs off by taking Dream Sky and, from the sounds of it, we’ve severely crippled it elsewhere, too. If we stop here, we will be giving the leaders a chance to regroup. I think we need to finish this now. Today.”
“How do we do that?” Pax asked.
“By cutting off its head.”