Ray stepped back from the monitor and the image of Zed's face still burned into his mind, and turned to Ferris with a warning already forming in his throat."We might not be safe here," Ray said. "Not anymore because If he saw that camera, if he even suspects we're close, he'll come looking. He doesn't miss things like this."Ferris didn't flinch at the warning the way Ray half expected. Instead, she gave a short, grim nod, like she'd already been carrying that possibility for longer than Ray had known her."We've prepared for worse," she said. "Come with me, there's more to this place than the cellar you walked into."******She led him and Jane through a reinforced passage Ray hadn't noticed on the way in.It was past a checkpoint manned by two armed survivors who nodded Ferris through without question, and into a wider corridor lined with makeshift lighting strung from salvaged wiring.Three people were waiting near a table covered in maps and supply logs, and Ferris introduced t

Ferris moved fast once she understood what was happening, pulling maps and old survey notes from a locked cabinet in the security chamber while Ray paced.Every second feeling like a second that was too long and too still to be standing in this underground town instead of racing back toward the camp."There's a facility a few miles out," Ferris said, spreading a marked map across the table. "It was an old military installation, mostly forgotten once the outbreak. My people scouted it months ago and found something worth remembering.""What kind of something?" Jane asked."Two fighter jets," Ferris said. "Still under cover, still serviced and one of my old contacts used to work maintenance there before everything fell apart, he kept them running out of habit more than hope, I think they're Military grade and fast enough to close distance, nothing else we've got could manage."Ray's pulse kicked up at the thought of it, some faint, desperate hope flickering to life at the idea of actu

Ray gave the signal with a raised fist, and Mattias's team moved like they'd rehearsed this exact fight a hundred times before.He reached for his control ability first, pushing everything he had left toward the nearest fifth stage soldier standing guard near the injection line.It didn't freeze the creature the way it once might have. It stumbled instead, head snapping sideways, confused for two full seconds before its balance returned.Two seconds was enough."Now!" Ray shouted.Gunfire opened up from both flanks at once. Mattias's fighters split quickly into their assignments, half of them driving hard toward the second bus before it could pull away with its cargo of freshly turned prisoners.The other half tearing into the injection line itself, cutting down the fifth stage holding the bound civilians before they could react.Jane broke off from the group the moment the fighting started, cutting a straight line toward where Reeves still stood near the driver's door.********The

Zed didn't wait for Ray to answer to answer the question.He reached down, almost casual about it, and took Priya's bound hand in his own. She tried to pull back, but the grip held her still, and before Ray could take a single step forward, Zed drew the blade across her smallest finger in one deliberate motion.Priya screamed.The sound ran through the clearing and through Ray at the same time.He was moving before his mind caught up with his body, closing the distance in a dead sprint toward Zed, toward Priya, toward anything that might undo what had just happened.He didn't make it up to three steps.Mattias grabbed him first, both arms wrapping around Ray's chest, and Jane was there a half-second later, adding her own weight to hold him back.The voth of them strained against the raw fury driving him forward."Let me go!" Ray shouted, thrashing against their grip. "Let me go, I'll kill him, I'll….""You'll die," Jane snapped in his ear with his voice tight and desperate. "Ray, lo

Ray had Jane's radio in his hands before the static from the transmission had even fully settled. He was working the dial with shaking fingers to try to catch a second pass of the signal that never came."Mara," he said into it, with urgent voice. "Mara, if you're on this frequency, please I need you right now."Static answered for several long seconds before her voice broke through, distant but steady. "Ray? I'm here, go ahead.""We caught a transmission," Ray said. "Wolfe's voice, clear as anything, talking about Priya's research. If we can trace where that signal came from, we might find wherever he's planning to use it.""Send me what you've got," Mara said. "I'll run it against what Ada and I have been building since you left, just give me time."*****It took most of the night.Ray stayed by the fire the whole time, Priya was sleeping fitfully nearby under Nichole's careful watch.Jane was pacing a slowly and restlessly with circuit around the camp's perimeter while Mattias'