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  “There are textbooks and documentaries and things like that,” Ash countered.

  “For all they’ve done to humanity, the Project understands how important actual people are. It’s their brains, the way they think. You can’t get that in a textbook. Like I said, they don’t want humanity to slip backward. They want it to take up right where it left off, only with a lot more room to breathe.”

  “Unbelievable,” Powell said.

  “So you see,” Wicks said, “if we take Dream Sky, we effectively cut the brain out of the project.”

  8

  WARD MOUNTAIN NORTH

  11:14 PM PST

  JANUARY 7th

  RACHEL HAMILTON ACHED from lack of sleep, but the way things were going, she knew it was unlikely she’d be lying down anytime soon. She had, however, taken the supervisor’s chair in the Resistance base’s comm room.

  As she scanned the room, Aiden, one of the comm operators, caught her eye.

  “Yes?”

  “Just got off with Berlin,” he said. “The main building of NB098 is on fire and it looks like the base is undergoing a full evacuation. It’s unclear where they are going, but we have people following them.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  They were in the middle of, by far, the largest operation the Resistance had ever undertaken, an operation she felt certain would determine whether or not Project Eden would lead the rebirth of mankind. There was no question that the Project’s goal of restarting humanity would be achieved. The Resistance had failed to stop that. But she’d be damned if she’d let those mass murders have anything to do with guiding what came next.

  She was cautiously optimistic. A handful of the attacks on Project Eden bases had fizzled, but many were at least putting a scare into those occupying the facilities, while a surprisingly large number had achieved even more—severely damaging bases, causing evacuations like the one in Berlin, or, like in Los Angeles, taking control of the base and either capturing or eliminating all personnel.

  Initially, all these attacks were meant only to create a large-scale diversion from the real operation to take Dream Sky. But they were taking on a life of their own, and delivering not only diversions but a solid body blow to the Project.

  As for Dream Sky, she had received very little information.

  “Try Captain Ash again,” she said to Crystal.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Crystal spent a few moments talking into her headset before turning back to Rachel.

  “He isn’t in a position to talk right now,” she said. “But I’ve been told he and a team have made it inside.”

  They’re in! Rachel felt a rush of adrenaline.

  “Keep checking with them every ten minutes. I want to be kept up to date.”

  9

  DREAM SKY

  2:21 AM EST

  MOST FUNICULAR TRAINS were single enclosed cars divided into two or three seating areas, each on a different level. Like giant stair steps.

  Dream Sky’s funicular did not have any seats or walls or windows. Rather, it consisted of two open platforms, the upper one set back and elevated a good four feet above the other. Each was encircled by a waist-high, removable railing.

  The team split between the two platforms, Chloe hopping on the lower one so she’d have a clear view of what was coming. Once everyone was on board, Robert pushed the button that started their descent.

  To Chloe the train moved at a snail’s pace. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply to ease her restlessness. When she finally parted her lids again, she studied the landing at the bottom. It was partially shadowed but the platform looked deserted. Still, someone could be waiting out of sight.

  “Keep sharp,” she said. “Shout if you see anything.”

  The train continued its monotonous voyage through pools of light and strips of shadows, until it finally neared the end of the run and slowed. As soon as Chloe felt she could make the jump, she leaped from the train onto the arrival platform and raced through the door that led from the deck into a hallway.

  Gun in hand, she cleared the area, then followed the corridor to a large, empty chamber. Once she was sure no one else was about, she lowered her weapon.

  On the opposite wall was a large, closed door that looked similar to the Bunker’s blast door back at the Ranch. Apparently the tunnel had not only been sealed at the top, it had also been cut off at the bottom. No wonder there had been no response to the explosion.

  “How in God’s name are we getting through that?”

  Chloe turned and saw Robert, Estella, and the others trickling out of the hallway.

  “There has to be a release here somewhere,” she said. “Spread out and help me find it.”

  A guy named Tanner discovered a metal box that matched the one at the top of the funicular, only this one was locked.

  “Who has tape?” Chloe asked.

  A roll of duct tape was passed forward. She used a small piece to affix a blasting cap to the box right where the lock was, and then set it off with another remote. The sound was nothing like the explosion up top, but still enough to make her wince.

  The twisted front panel of the box hung precariously by a single hinge, but there was little other visible damage. Inside the box was a softly glowing touch screen. After tapping it, a dialogue box appeared that read:

  INSUFFICIENT DATA POINTS

  A palm reader. She glanced back. “Diaz, bring your friend here.”

  Diaz led the prisoner forward. The Project Eden man’s eyes were half-closed, his mouth slack from the weak dose of sedatives they had given him to make him compliant.

  “Will your palm activate this?” Chloe asked.

  His brow furrowed. “Uh…”

  Instead of asking again, she forced his right palm against the panel. The screen brightened as it scanned the hand and then darkened again after a beep.

  For several seconds, nothing, then:

  NAGEL, TIMOTHY

  SECURITY SECTION

  CLEARANCE LEVEL 4

  OPEN

  Yes No

  Using the prisoner’s finger, Chloe touched YES.

  Immediately, the screen went blank and the door began moving inward with only a faint hum. As soon as it stopped, Chloe motioned for everyone to stay where they were and then peeked around the door into Dream Sky.

  Beyond the opening was a large, well-lit concrete room, half filled with crates. A man and woman stood by a table near the center of the room, pulling up hospital scrubs as they gaped at the opening.

  Chloe stepped out, her rifle raised. “Don’t move.”

  __________

  LEAVING HARDEN IN the control center to monitor the security cameras, Ash and the others descended into Dream Sky. Their first priority was to disable the remaining members of the base’s security team, and then subdue the rest of the Project personnel, preferably without anyone sending a distress message.

  From the base schematics, they discovered that the security team’s barracks and the apartment used by the security director were on level three.

  The short-distance elevator took them down to level one, where they switched to the eastern elevators for the ride to three.

  The doors whooshed open on a brightly lit hallway that arced to the right and left, following the outer edge of the circular floor.

  Following the directions from the map, Ash led the team to the right. For a few moments, they were the only ones there, but then, just ahead around the bend, he heard footsteps heading in their direction.

  Ash fought the overwhelming urge to pull his rifle off his shoulder, and instead tried to project the appearance of a tired and bored security guard.

  The person approaching was a woman in blue hospital scrubs, her attention focused on a tablet computer. When she noticed them, she glanced up for a brief second and then returned her gaze to her work, unfazed by their presence. Before finally reaching their destination, Ash and the team passed three other people—a man and then a pair of women
, all in the same blue scrubs, not one even acknowledging them.

  The map showed that the barracks consisted of three rooms—an outer one for storing gear, a large central room where the bunks were located, and a room with showers and toilets in the back.

  Ash quietly opened the main door and stepped inside the gear room. A dim light on the wall was the only illumination. When he was sure all was quiet, he signaled the others to join him.

  Holding on to only their pistols, night vision goggles, and individual packs of syringes, they silently removed their packs and any other gear that might get in their way.

  “The magic number is thirteen,” Ash whispered. “Any fewer and we’ve got stragglers to find. Everyone ready?”

  Three nods.

  To Powell, he whispered, “You and Sealy take the right. I’ll go left.”

  They moved over to the door and Ash cracked it open. As he suspected, the central room was dark. He lowered his goggles over his eyes and pulled the door open.

  Ash counted ten bunk beds on either side of the room, enough beds for forty people. At least three guards were snoring, while several more were breathing loudly.

  Moving to the left, Ash found the first bunk bed empty and stripped of blankets and sheets. Bunk two was also empty, though both beds were made up, so they likely belonged to two of the six guards Ash and his team had already dealt with. He came across his first occupied bed on the bottom of bunk three.

  Ash jabbed the needle into the man’s arm and emptied the syringe of the sedative it contained. The man blinked and started to speak but Ash pushed a pillow over his face, tightly enough to muffle the sound but not suffocate him. He used the same method on the two men in bunk four. Bunk five was empty, two more guards in six, and two in seven. That was it for the left side.

  He reunited with Powell and Sealy in the center of the room.

  “I had seven,” Ash whispered. “You?”

  “Five,” Powell said.

  Ash frowned. Twelve. That meant, not counting the supervisor, one more was out there somewhere.

  “Check the bathroom,” Ash said to Sealy.

  The man disappeared into the back room but returned only a moment later.

  “Empty,” he said, no longer bothering to lower his voice.

  “Dammit,” Ash said. “Okay. The regular personnel might not question who we are, but another guard will know right away we’re imposters.” He thought for a moment. “Sealy and I will go deal with the supervisor. Powell, check in with Harden. See if he’s received any word yet on whether Chloe’s been able to make it inside or not. If she has, get word to her to hold tight, then do a sweep for this missing guard. We need to neutralize him before we do anything else.”

  __________

  RENI BARTON BREATHED in the scent of the living earth in the level seven hot house. It was her favorite place in Dream Sky. While visually it wasn’t all that appealing, the smell always took her back to the garden her grandmother used to tend behind the house where Reni grew up.

  Its relaxing effect was the reason she was here right now. She’d just come off a week of graveyard shifts so her body hadn’t adjusted to sleeping through the night yet. She could have taken a sleeping pill like the rest of Tau squad usually did, but she didn’t like the way they made her feel groggy for hours after she woke up.

  She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a loose yellow T-shirt with USMC emblazed in red across the front. She’d never been in the marines. Could have been, and would have done well, she was sure, but she was recruited into the Project’s security division before she’d even made up her mind about whether or not to enlist.

  She inhaled again, held the earthy air in her lungs, and then blew it out slowly. After doing this a few more times, she thought she might finally be ready to rest, at least for a couple hours. She sucked in one more deep breath, and headed for the elevator that would take her back to level three.

  __________

  THE SUPERVISOR’S ROOM was located off a hallway closer to the center of the level.

  Ash tried the knob. Locked.

  After whispering to Sealy what he was going to do, he rapped on the door and said in a raised voice, “Sir?” He gave it a few seconds and knocked again. “Sir? I’m sorry to disturb you, but I need to speak to you.”

  This time he heard a grunt and the flop of bedding.

  “Crap,” Sealy whispered.

  When Ash looked at him, Sealy nodded in the other direction. Ash turned and saw two Project medical team members heading their way. From the other side of the door, he could hear the shuffling of feet.

  The timing was going to put them all near the door at the same moment.

  Ash swore under his breath and whispered, “You take the two.”

  Sealy nodded.

  “What do you want?” the supervisor grumbled as he approached the other side of the door.

  “Sir,” Ash said. “There’s a situation. I was sent to find out how you want to handle it.”

  The two in the hallway were only a few strides away, their gaze on Ash, apparently having heard what he’d said.

  “Why didn’t someone just call me?” the supervisor asked.

  “It’s sensitive, sir.”

  “It damn well better be!” The handle rattled.

  As soon as the door began to open, two things happened. Ash shoved it inward, catching the supervisor in the chin and knocking him back into the room, while Sealy drew his pistol and ordered the two in the hallway to drop to the floor.

  Ash followed the door into the room and slugged the security boss in the stomach before the guy knew what was happening. The supervisor doubled over and staggered farther backward. As Ash swung again, the man threw his arms around Ash’s waist, causing Ash to lose his balance.

  They hit the floor with a loud thud, the Project man landing on his back with Ash on top of him. Ash jammed his knee into the man’s stomach, then drew his pistol and shoved it against the man’s temple.

  “Think very hard about your next move,” Ash said, his teeth clenched.

  He could see the man’s mind racing through his options, and then coming up with the only one that would keep him breathing. Angry, he dropped his arms to the floor and quit struggling.

  Without looking back, Ash said, “Bring them in here!”

  As he zip-tied the supervisor, Sealy escorted his two captives into the room.

  “As soon as my security team finds you, you will regret this,” the supervisor said.

  “Your security team isn’t going to be doing anything for a while,” Ash said. “Dream Sky is ours now.”

  __________

  RENI EXITED THE west elevator and took one of the corridors that bisected the third floor to the other side.

  She was thinking about the tomatoes her grandmother used to grow and the delicious sauce they made. Reni could almost smell the spices that would fill the house for hours. She might make some after all this craziness was over. She tried to recall the recipe, listing off ingredients in her mind, and had just added sage when she heard a noise from one of the other bisecting corridors, followed by a sharp but indistinct voice.

  Thinking there might be a fight brewing—it happened now and then—she hurried forward, intending to calm things down, but when the voice spoke again, she stopped just short of the intersection. It wasn’t angry, but commanding. She crept to the corner and edged out so she could look into the hall.

  About forty feet down, two technicians lay on the floor. Standing above them, pointing a pistol at their backs, was one of her fellow security officers, oddly in outdoor gear. What the hell had these two done?

  She was about to see if her colleague needed help when she got a good look at his profile. She had never seen him before.

  “Bring them in here!”

  The voice had come from inside one of the rooms. She watched the uniformed man order the technicians to their feet and through the doorway. As they disappeared, she realized what room that was.


  Supervisor McHenry’s private quarters.

  Had the technicians tried to harm McHenry? A possibility, she thought. But who the hell was this unknown security man?

  This didn’t feel right at all.

  She glanced at the room, then toward the hall where the barracks was located. Maybe someone there knew what was going on. She hurried back to her quarters.

  The bunk room was as dark as it had been when she’d given up trying to sleep and gone for her walk. She tiptoed over to Gorgan’s bunk and shook her friend.

  “Gorg, wake up,” she whispered.

  He didn’t stir, so she shook again.

  “Hey, wake up. Something weird’s going on.”

  By now he should have at least groaned in protest, but he hadn’t made a sound. She rolled him onto his back, sure that that would do it, but it made no difference.

  “Gorg?”

  She tapped his face.

  “Hey, Gorg.”

  She reached under his blanket for his wrist so she could check his pulse, and discovered that his hands were bound together with plastic ties.

  Quickly, she checked the others. All were cuffed and as sound asleep as Gorgan.

  The imposters, she thought. They did this. They’re definitely not part of the Project.

  Her first thought was to retrieve a knife and cut everyone free, but they were obviously drugged so that would be a waste of time.

  She hurried over to the weapons locker and pulled out her rifle.

  She would have to do this alone.

  __________

  AS SOON AS the supervisor and the two people in scrubs were knocked out, Ash and Sealy headed for the elevator.

  Ash clicked on his comm gear. “Powell, do you read me?”

  The radio popped a few times, then in a scratchy, weak signal: “Go for Powell.”

  “Did you find our missing man?”