So what was it?
The name, yes, but not that name, she thought. What that meant, she didn’t know. She also felt it was more than something to do with the girl’s name.
Her face? Her eyes? The way she wore her clothes?
The harder Chloe thought about it, the further the answers seemed to move away.
“You all right back here?”
She turned in surprise.
“Sorry,” Ash said. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine,” she said, then narrowed her eyes. “Should you be walking around?”
“Should you?”
She allowed herself to smile.
“You looked pretty lost in thought there,” he said. “Everything okay?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t it be? I mean, other than the world going to shit.”
“Other than that, yeah.” He leaned up against the building. “All that riding can’t be good for us.”
“You were in the army. You should be used to it.”
He grunted a laugh and said, “You never get used to it.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “So you’re the one who found the cat, huh?”
“Sorry about that.”
The cat had been a surprise to them all, Brandon keeping it under wraps until they’d been on the road for nearly half an hour. It had hissed a few times and so far was only letting the kids touch it.
“Well, we couldn’t very well leave it there, I guess,” Ash said.
She didn’t say anything. Because of her fall, she’d forgotten all about that cat. If she’d remembered, she could have been the one who brought it along.
“Brandon said you seemed to freeze up there.”
“Up where?” she asked, knowing perfectly well what he meant.
“Last night.”
She looked at the storage sheds sitting side by side at the back of the station lot. “It was cold. We were all freezing.”
“I don’t think that’s what he meant.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what he was talking about.”
“He said you appeared to be staring at Ginny right before you slipped.”
“It was dark up there. Not sure how he could tell who was looking at who.”
“Well, I’ve noticed you’ve tried very hard not to look at her today.”
“Is there a point to this?”
“Only that I’m your friend, and you seem troubled, so that worries me.”
“Then let me ease your mind.” She pushed off the building. “I’m not troubled, so you don’t need to worry.”
Without waiting to hear what he had to say next, she started to walk away.
As she came around the building, Matt said, “Ah, there you are. Have you seen Ash?”
“Right here,” Ash said, rounding the corner behind Chloe.
“You guys have a minute? I’d like to talk to you.”
“I’d have to check my schedule,” Ash said, “but I could probably move some meetings around.”
“We’ll use my Humvee,” Matt said, not even cracking a smile.
Ash was the last to climb into the vehicle.
“How are you both doing?” Matt asked, once they were all seated and the door was closed.
“Better than I was last week,” Ash said.
Matt looked at Chloe. It seemed to take her a moment before she realized he was waiting for her to respond.
“Uh, worse than I was last week.”
Matt studied them, as if assessing his next words. “I’m considering taking a little detour before heading to Nevada.”
“Detour where?” Ash asked.
“New Mexico.”
“I assume there’s a reason why.”
Another pause, briefer this time. “As you know, in the past, we were able to get some of our people placed inside Project Eden, to help us know what was going on.”
“Didn’t really do a lot of good, did it?” Chloe said.
It looked for a moment as if Matt would snap at her, but the tension in his face quickly disappeared and he sighed. “No, you’re right. It didn’t help us stop them before. But that could change now.”
“What do you mean?” Ash asked.
“Project Eden may have altered the course of human history, but I’ll be damned if I allow them to direct which way we go next. What you two did at Bluebird was a big step in that direction.”
“We failed at Bluebird,” Ash said.
“Yes, the virus was still released, but you eliminated the Project’s directorate, and that was not a failure. With the directorate gone, a new set of leaders should have been put in place.”
“What do you mean, should have?” Chloe asked. “They seem to still be operating pretty damn effectively.”
“The Project has always functioned under a group-leadership model, with one person acting as principal director,” Matt said. “This director is supposed to work in concert with the other directors. If it hadn’t been for this structure, they would have never made it this far. When it became apparent that the directorate at Bluebird was gone, procedures were put into motion to form a new directorate. Only, apparently, what happened is that the new principal director hijacked the process, and turned the set of directors below him into a rubber stamp committee.
“Right now, the bulk of the Project is operating exactly as planned. As soon as they have eliminated the survivors they feel are unnecessary, they’ll unite the remaining population and start the final phase — the next coming of man, if you will. But instead of the whole directorate deciding things, it will be just this one man.”
“A dictatorship,” Ash said.
“Exactly.” Matt frowned. “I’m not saying I’d be happier if a committee was running things. As long as Project Eden is in charge, it doesn’t matter to me who’s calling the shots.” He paused. “What does matter, though, is the opportunity this presents to us. What happened at Bluebird was a rare thing. Having the full directorate in the same facility at the same time was an act of arrogance. If they had lived through Implementation Day, we would have never seen them all in one place like that again. It made them vulnerable, and they paid the price.”
Ash saw where this was going. “A single leader has the same vulnerability, only constantly.”
“Yes, he does,” Matt said. “Hence the trip to New Mexico. One of our people inside was able to get us a message that the current principal director, a man named Perez, is operating out of a Project Eden facility near Las Cruces, New Mexico. I’m going there, and I’m taking him out.”
“But isn’t this the same problem?” Chloe asked. “If we get rid of him, won’t someone else take his place?”
“Possibly,” Matt said. “But it will be a big blow nonetheless, more so because he’s been operating so independently. And we need to start somewhere. After he’s gone, we’ll go after the next set of leaders and the next and the next. Each time we succeed, the Project becomes more unbalanced. They have already taken so much from us. We cannot let them rule the future.”
“You’re sure this Perez person is in New Mexico?” Ash asked.
“Absolutely.”
“How are we going to get in?” Ash asked. “We can’t just walk up and knock on the door.”
“There’s a way,” Matt said.
“What way?”
“It would be better if neither of you knew that.”
“Why not?” Ash asked.
Matt eyed them both. “Because when we reach southern Colorado, the two of you and the kids will head to Nevada.”
“The hell we will,” Chloe said. “If you’re going after the Project, I’m going, too.”
“I need people who can fight,” Matt said. “Not people I have to worry about because they’re already injured.”