"We're approaching Chinese airspace. ETA thirty minutes."The pilot's voice crackled through the speakers. Jayce looked out the window at the darkness below. Somewhere down there was Santos's facility. Maybe. If they were lucky."Everyone ready?" Jayce checked his equipment one last time. "We land, we rent vehicles, we drive to the location. We search quietly. Carefully. We don't alert anyone to our presence until we're sure.""And if it's not the right location?" Leonard asked. "If it's another decoy?""Then we call the other teams. See if they've had better luck. We have two days. Forty eight hours to search five locations and find Santos before Project Rebirth launches."Victoria was studying maps on her tablet. "The location in China is in the mountains. Remote. Difficult to access. Perfect place to hide a massive facility. But also perfect place for an ambush.""You think Santos knows we're coming?""She knew we were coming to the last facility. Knew and let us walk into her trap

Jayce stood there, staring at her body. Waiting for her to get back up. Waiting for another twist. Another trap.But nothing happened. She was gone. Really gone."Is it over?" Victoria asked, clutching her wounded shoulder. "Did we actually win?""Leonard, check the systems. Make sure the virus worked. Make sure all the artificial humans are shut down." Jayce helped Victoria sit. "Someone patch her up. We're not losing anyone else today."Leonard returned to the computers. His hands shaking. "The virus worked. It spread through Santos's entire network. Every artificial human worldwide is shut down. Every facility is offline. Project Rebirth is stopped.""What about the other teams? Daniel in Alaska. Frost in Brazil. Victor in Australia. Can you reach them?"Leonard tried the communications systems. "Signal's back. Jamming is down. I'm getting responses from everyone."He put it on speaker. Daniel's voice came through first. Tired. Wounded. But alive."Boss? Is that you? Tell me you're

"His name is Marcus Chen. No relation to Victor. Age fifty three. Collector leader for the past twenty years. Specializes in biological weapons and genetic experiments."Leonard displayed Marcus Chen's file on the screen. Photos. Background. Operations. Everything they'd learned from Santos's files."He runs three facilities. One in Singapore. One in South Africa. One in Canada. Each one working on different projects. All of them horrible." Leonard pulled up images. Test subjects. Experiments. Victims. "This is what he does. This is who he is. A monster wearing a human face."The room was silent. Everyone staring at the evidence. At the proof that The Collector was still active. Still destroying lives."Where is he now?" Jayce asked. "Which facility?""Singapore. He's been there for three weeks. Overseeing a new project. Something called Operation Clean Slate. We don't know details yet. But based on his history, it's nothing good.""Then we go to Singapore. We find him. We stop him. W

"You knew."Jayce's accent dropped. No point maintaining the cover now. "You knew it was me all along.""Of course I knew. From the moment Victoria contacted my people. From the moment you scheduled this meeting. I knew exactly who you were." Marcus Chen walked around them slowly. The guards kept their weapons trained. "Victoria Walker calling on behalf of a mysterious billionaire? Please. The Collector isn't that stupid.""Then why let us in? Why play along?" Victoria's hand moved slowly toward her concealed weapon."Don't." Marcus nodded to a guard. The guard pressed a button. Victoria gasped and collapsed. Some kind of electrical shock. "You're both wearing tracking devices. Concealed weapons. Recording equipment. Did you think we wouldn't scan you? Wouldn't find everything?"Jayce caught Victoria before she hit the ground. "What did you do to her?""Just a small shock. She'll be fine. But now she knows what happens if either of you tries anything stupid. My guards have orders to s

"He knows where they are."Jayce's hands shook as he read the message again. Marcus Chen knew where Ella and Hope were hiding. Knew the FBI safe house location. Knew everything."Boss, what's wrong?" Leonard saw his face. "What happened?"Jayce showed him the message. Leonard went pale."That's impossible. The FBI protocols. The security. Nobody should know where they placed Ella and Hope. Nobody.""Marcus knows. Which means he has someone inside the FBI. Someone feeding him information. Someone who betrayed us." Jayce was already moving. "We need to get to them now. Before Marcus does. Where did Frost say they were taking them?""She didn't. That was the point. We weren't supposed to know.""Then we ask Frost. Make her tell us." Jayce found Frost treating a wounded team member. "Where did you send them? Where are Ella and Hope?""I told you, I can't tell you that. Security protocols—""Forget protocols! Marcus Chen knows where they are! He sent me this!" Jayce shoved the phone in her