Hiller was clearly uncomfortable with the plan.
“This is a unique opportunity,” Matt explained. “But one that needs to be handled in a very specific way.”
“With you going in alone.”
“Correct.”
“Sir, I can’t lie to you. I don’t like this. Have you talked this plan over with anyone?”
Matt appreciated the kid’s concern, but it was a waste of time. Taking a harsher tone, he said, “If I have or have not talked to anyone about this, it is not your concern. This is what we will be doing. Understood?”
A reluctant “yes, sir.”
“Thank you,” Matt said. He put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I’ve been at this fight a lot longer than you, so don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
“I wasn’t trying to suggest—”
“I know you weren’t.” Matt made a show of looking around the parking lot. “Now, while we’re waiting for the sun to go down, I need you to do something for me.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I need a car.”
The clear roads were a blessing and a curse. Back in the snows of Colorado and Wyoming, following Matt’s group would have been a simple matter of keeping eyes on his vehicle’s tire tracks, but in New Mexico, where the snow was only now threatening to fall, there were no ruts to show the way. So while Ash and the others could travel quickly, they had no idea if the convoy was still in front of them.
“Why don’t you call him?” Gardiner said.
“Do you really think he’d tell us where he is?” Chloe asked.
“Maybe someone else will answer.”
“Not if I know Matt,” she said. “Hell, he probably turned the damn phone off.”
“What about Rachel?” Josie suggested.
“Who’s Rachel?” Ginny asked.
“Matt’s sister,” Brandon told her.
“Maybe she knows where he is,” Josie added.
“I doubt it,” Chloe said.
Ash pulled the satellite phone out of the bag between the two front seats. “Maybe not, but it’s a good idea, Josie. We’ll give it a try.”
He punched in the number for Ward Mountain.
The call was answered with, “Can I help you?”
“Crystal?”
A slight pause. “Yes?”
“It’s Daniel Ash. Wondering if I can speak to Rachel.”
“Captain Ash? Definitely! I’ve been trying to get ahold of you guys for her all day. Hang on. I’ll go find her.”
Ash looked back at Chloe. “They’re getting her.”
“My money’s on she doesn’t know anything,” Chloe said.
Over two minutes passed before Rachel picked up the other end.
“Ash. Thank God,” she said.
“Afternoon, Rachel.”
“Please tell me you’re heading back to Nevada,” she said.
“I know that’s what Matt thinks we’re doing, but we’re not. We’re trying to catch up to him, but hoping you might be able to tell us exactly where he is.”
“What?” she said, confused. “You’re with him, aren’t you?”
“No,” he said, surprised by the question. “Matt left Chloe and me with the kids and told us to head to Nevada.”
“And he went to New Mexico,” she said, sounding as if it were inevitable.
“Yeah. Didn’t you know that?”
“He said he was going to go, but I was hoping he would come to his senses.”
“His senses? You don’t think he should have gone?”
“Of course not. He’s in no condition to be out in the field, especially if he’s going inside that damn place.”
“So I take it you don’t know where he is.”
“Somewhere near Las Cruces, I would guess.”
“Yeah, well, we knew that much. We’re hoping to avoid showing up at the wrong time and making things worse.”
“I don’t understand why you guys aren’t with him right now,” she said. “I mean, I get it with the kids, but someone else could have brought them here. You and Chloe should be with Matt.”
“That’s what we thought, too, but Matt was concerned about our injuries. Didn’t think we’d be up for it.”
Dead air, then, “Oh, God.”
“What?” Ash asked.
“Look, I’m…sure he was concerned about your injuries, but I have a feeling that’s not the main reason he didn’t bring you along.”
“Well, then why?”
“Because either of you would have stood up to him, kept him from doing what I think he’s going to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“God, I hope I’m wrong.”
“Rachel, what?”
“I think he’s going into that facility alone.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I’m sure he thinks he’s the only one who can do this.”
“Why would he think that?”
She hesitated. “Because he’s been there before. And because he thinks it’s his responsibility.”
“Why would Matt have been in a Project Eden base?” he asked.
“It was years ago,” Rachel said.
“I didn’t ask when. I asked why.”
A long pause. “Because he was part of the crew who helped build it.”
Ash put his hand over the phone and looked at Sorrento. “Pull over. Now!”
As soon as the Humvee was at the side of the road, Ash hit the speaker button. Chloe needed to hear this, and, as much as he wished he could keep it from everyone else, there was no other way.
“Rachel, tell me how Matt was involved in the construction of Project Eden’s Las Cruces facility.”
Eyes throughout the truck widened in surprise.
“Please don’t ask me that,” Rachel said.
“Too late.”
A sigh, then in a low, defeated voice, “It wasn’t just Las Cruces. He helped build a lot of different Project Eden bases. That’s why our facilities are so good. He saw what they had done, and tried to create something even better.”
“Was he on an outside construction crew, or was he a member of the Project?”
“Ash, please understand, he didn’t realize what he was getting into. It was a job offer with great pay. When you joined the Project back then, they didn’t always tell you everything up front.”
“He was in the Project.”
“Yes.”
“Is he still?” Ash asked.
“How can you ask that? After all he’s done? After all that’s happened to us?”
She was right. Matt’s actions in the last several years would not have made sense if he were still in the Project. But it was a necessary question, so he wasn’t about to apologize. “When did he get out?”
A few seconds passed before Rachel said, “There was a group of them who figured out what was really going on, and realized they had to do something about it. Most remained in the Project to do what they could from the inside.”
“Your sources,” Chloe said.
“Yes. Many of them.”
“And Matt?” Ash asked.
“He and a couple others volunteered to leave the Project so they would be freer to fight it. No one just leaves the Project, though. To get out, they would have to die. Matt’s death was the easiest, from what I was told. With the help of others who were remaining behind, he set it up to look like he was killed in a construction accident at one of the facilities. The other two were going to fake a plane crash, only something went wrong and they both lost their lives.
“Matt lay low for a while to make sure no one suspected anything. While he was doing this, he obtained a new identity, the one you know him by, and had some plastic surgery done so he could walk down the street without being nabbed. Once he was sure they weren’t looking for him, he started up the Resistance.”