“Regret isn’t even the word,” Kate said, feeling like she’d repeated it so many times now that it had lost its meaning.
“Dammit, Kate,” Stella said, standing and walking to the locked door, shaking the handle. “Isn’t it a little too late for that?”
“Stella,” Lynn said wearily.
“She’s right, Mom,” Kate said. “I delivered you right to them. I did the same with William. I thought I was doing the right thing. For the country, for my family—”
“That’s crap,” Stella snapped.
“Stella, enough,” Lynn said.
“Listen to your mother, girls,” Roxy said. “We can’t exactly call in a family counselor right now. Let me tell you something: When everyone thought William was dead and everything really went to hell, your mother didn’t drown in the mess this family can be. She got on a plane and flew to the middle of literally nowhere and faced something horrific. Don’t you dishonor her by squabbling right now.”
Stella took a deep breath. “All I can think about is Anne. She’s surely seen Mom at that protest, and that a storm hit the building. She has no idea that her son was beneath that building too. And that her father—”
She covered her mouth. “Mom, I’m sorry—”
“Tom was her father,” Lynn said. “In almost every sense of the word. Steven just helped bring her into the world, that’s it.”
Her voice broke a bit when saying his name. She looked to Kate. “Why was Steven there, Kate? How did he end up with William?”
“I don’t know. In the brief time that I got to speak with him, he was so angry… he wouldn’t say much, especially with the agents nearby. He was really sick, Mom. When that storm blew in, I think his heart just couldn’t take it.”
Roxy reached out to place her hand on Lynn’s leg. “What did he give you?”
Lynn reached out to place a flash drive on the coffee table in front of her. From her pocket, she pulled out another to set it beside the other. “To think… we once coveted our paper files. There were mountains of them. Now we scurry around with these to contain our secrets. Steven will never know what I found, and I doubt very much the SSA is going to provide me a laptop to learn his.”
“Bastards,” Stella muttered, once again shaking the door handle. “They better be scouring that building to make sure William is OK. You said he was really down there deep. He should be safe from that storm, right?”
Kate nodded. “I hope so. It didn’t appear the building collapsed. Agent Hallow said something about him creating the storm—”
The sound of a series of bolts unlocking came from outside, and the handle turned. Stella took a few steps back as a tall man with gray hair stepped in the room, wearing a heavily decorated military uniform.
“Now, who the hell are you?” Roxy asked.
“This is Mark Wolve,” Kate said, crossing her arms. “Apparently, he’s a general. You look a bit different out of your black suit.”
“Unfortunately, deception is sometimes necessary to serve our country,” he said. “I am told none of you were injured leaving the building? The underground tunnel leading to our parking garage was intended to provide security, but I’m thankful it was there. Otherwise, none of you could have escaped—”
“Not all of us did,” Lynn said sharply, sliding the flash drives into her pocket while standing. “My grandson. Is he alive?”
The general exhaled. “The area where he was being protected is now underwater.”
Roxy gasped, but the man held up a finger. “But a plane rented by Quincy Martin is now airborne. Security footage from the private airstrips at Dulles International show five people entering a hangar. Your grandson was easily identifiable.”
“Well,” Roxy said, quickly composing herself. “Looks like stashing innocent people in government cells underground doesn’t always work, now does it.”
“Innocent?” The general raised an eyebrow. “Who do you think brought that storm? Who do you think is bringing widespread disease and murders? And raging wildfires? That little protest you staged to sneak him out has now unleashed the most dangerous people in the United States.”
He looked over to Kate. “Perhaps it’s sinking in now. Why the military had to infiltrate the SSA. This is way beyond people disappearing. What’s happening now all over the world is a full-scale war on the people of this planet. And William Chance was our only chance of stopping it. And now you’ve set him loose.”
“Strange,” Kate said, taking a step towards him. “Agent Hallow let it slip that the military had even greater designs for him and the others. Are you worried because you think he’s dangerous, or because you’ve just lost your most powerful potential weapon against your enemies?”
“Agent Hallow spoke out of turn and is now relieved of his duties.”
“Small loss there,” Roxy muttered.
“It frankly astounds me,” Lynn began, “with everything that is happening, all over the world now, that the focus of our military is to use my grandson and the others in a war on other countries. Can you truly be that blind to what’s happening?”
“I’m not spending a lot of time on this, given that should your grandson trigger you, ma’am, then God knows what could happen to anyone near you. I can see by your expression that you understand. The world’s militaries have joined the small pockets of SSA agents in scrambling to find the individuals causing these disasters. What do you think power-hungry governments will do with that? Take North Korea—besieged by hurricanes. If they find the person causing them, what would they do with that kind of weapon?”
“My God,” Lynn’s hand rose before her. “This isn’t an attack on just one country. This is a global crisis—”
“And the United States will not fall. We had a real chance of stopping this until you undermined every effort to protect this nation. Four of them were gathered. We had a chance of determining what it is inside you that’s making this happen, maybe even remove it—”
“You can’t,” Lynn said, biting her lip.
The general stopped. “Whatever you know, Mrs. Roseworth, you’re going to tell us. Including the location of Don Rush and his sister Barbara. I think you understand why it’s vital we find him as well. You’re all going to tell us everything you know. Every one of you will do exactly as I direct from now on.”
“You don’t know us well. None of us takes orders from men very well,” Roxy said.
“We’re tracking that flight carrying your nephew. We have suspicions as to where they’re going. And it’s where you’re going to go to convince your grandson to turn himself in. That storm is just a taste of what he can do with those people. He has to be stopped. Don’t you see: He’s gathering them, just like we think they want him to do. He is not who you think he is at all.”
NINETEEN
The devil was coming.
Juan Rodriguez knew it, judging by the intensity of the smoke smudging the skies, smearing the sun. He watched it from the flatbed of the Ford, repeatedly jarred by the perilous terrain of the dirt roads woven among the orchards. The others attempted to continue sleeping, their mouths covered in cheap surgical masks, but not him. He’d actually slept last night, given it was his turn for the single bed. He’d collapsed into it and didn’t stir until the sound of the truck arriving.
And the truck always came, even as the valley burned.
“We just can’t let it all die,” Patrick said a few days ago, clapping him on the back.
Juan looked from the skies through the sliding window of the truck to see the back of Patrick’s thick neck. Even in a loose-fit unbuttoned shirt, a fat roll still extended just above his collar and beneath his short-cropped gray hair. The fat always spilled over when Patrick strained his neck to wave to his wife, honking the horn while driving by their sprawling ranch home. That was before he sent her and their daughters away when the flames appeared on the horizon.