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  He sat back in the uncomfortable chair and didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. He’d never been especially good at this.

  “I’m sorry, Keo,” she said softly.

  “Me, too,” Keo said, and let the silence fall between them.

  “No one knows who they were,” Gaby said. “They showed up about four days ago, and as far as anyone knows, Darby Bay was the first time anyone had ever seen them.”

  “How is that possible?” Keo asked.

  “We have too many people and not enough oversight,” Lara said. “I saw it coming. Years ago, when the first wave of recruits showed up. Carly and I had to scramble to put together clerks to deal with it.” She looked over at Keo. “But like you said, people could call themselves anything they want these days. They could invent entire backstories, and no one would know the difference.”

  “And we didn’t care, either,” Gaby said.

  Gaby stood on one side of Lara’s bed, while Keo stood on the other. Morning sunlight had brightened the room as well as the hallway outside, and last night’s assassination attempt seemed a distant memory. It helped that Lara looked noticeably stronger than the first time she woke up.

  “What does that mean? You didn’t care?” Keo asked.

  “Everyone was getting a second chance,” Lara said. “It didn’t matter what you did during The Purge or what you were. Everyone got a second chance. That was the whole point, Keo.”

  “I can see how that would attract a lot of people…”

  “And 99 percent of them were good people,” Gaby said. “For five years, we never had a problem.”

  “Then Loman and Biden came along.”

  “I have Malone and a team making sure everyone who is here with us now is supposed to be here. They’ll be crosschecking everyone with Carly back at Black Tide. If no one else is supposed to be here, we’ll know it.”

  “What else did you find out about them?” Lara asked.

  “Besides the fact that no one knows where they came from or when they got here? Not much else. They did odd assignments around the base, and Loman helped out with the refueling and rearming of the aircraft for a few days. Biden, meanwhile, joined the security rotation. The Darby Bay FOB didn’t exist until two weeks ago, and we had personnel shuffling back and forth between bases and the island. A lot of people came from out of state with Lara. It was a mishmash of old and new people, and everyone was too busy doing their jobs to worry about a couple of new faces. They had the right uniforms—which they could have gotten anywhere—and they seemed to know what they were doing and didn’t attract attention to themselves. Everyone just assumed they were new recruits who were settling into their roles, like they themselves were not long ago.”

  “They were good,” Keo said.

  “Yeah, they were really good.”

  “You still think Buck sent them?” Lara asked him.

  “I think Buck would have seen a perfect opportunity to cripple Black Tide,” Keo said. “Taking you out would be one hell of a crippling move.”

  “He’s definitely capable of this,” Gaby said. “A man like that would jump at an opportunity to send Biden and Loman on a kamikaze mission to take you out.”

  Lara’s face paled noticeably. Keo didn’t blame her. He knew from firsthand experience that knowing someone had your name at the top of their shit list and was willing to do whatever it took to cross it off was not a very good feeling.

  “What about you?” Lara asked, looking over at him.

  “What about me?” Keo said.

  “He’s not exactly your biggest fan, either. You don’t think Biden and Loman could have been here for you?”

  “Loman didn’t seem very shy about trying to kill me. If Buck knew I was here, he would have told them to take me alive. That…wouldn’t have been easy, but they didn’t even try. They went right for you.”

  “Buck wants you alive because of Blue Eyes,” Gaby said.

  Keo nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately.” He looked back at Lara. “I’m pretty sure this was all about you.”

  Lara sighed. “Great. I feel so honored.”

  “Did you find out if they were communicating with Fenton?” Keo asked Gaby.

  Gaby shook her head. “We went through all their belongings in the room they were sharing with four other people. If they had a radio that could make contact with Fenton, they found a damn good hiding spot for it.”

  “What are the chances this was Buck’s endgame all along?” Lara asked. “What if all those town raids were just to bring me here so I could be assassinated? Is that possible?”

  “Anything’s possible with a guy like Buck. He’s capable of just about anything.”

  “The asshole did make an alliance with a blue-eyed ghoul, for Christ’s sake,” Gaby said. “I’d say he’s capable of just about anything if he can do that. But there is one way to find out for sure. You can ask the man yourself if the opportunity presents itself.”

  “I’ll be sure to add that to my To Do list,” Keo said. “Right before I put a bullet through his head.”

  Lara exchanged a look with Gaby.

  “What?” Keo said.

  “I tried to convince Lara to tell you to sanction Buck if you get the chance,” Gaby said. “But she refused to do it.”

  “‘Sanction?’”

  “It sounded like something you would say.”

  “I told her I’d never tell you to do something like that,” Lara said to him. “That kind of order…” She paused and shook her head, before continuing. “It doesn’t matter what anyone calls it; it’s not something I’ll ever do or ask anyone else to do in my name.”

  “Maybe it has to be done,” Keo said.

  “No, it doesn’t. There are other ways to achieve the same ends. Ways that won’t compromise our principles.”

  “It would be justified.”

  “No,” Lara said. There was finality in her voice. “We’ll find another way to beat him, because we’re better than him. We have to be, if we want to keep being the good guys.”

  Keo nodded before exchanging a silent look with Gaby.

  “Now, let’s talk about ways to increase security on the base here and elsewhere,” Lara said. “I want to make sure this can’t ever happen again.”

  “I’m working with Malone to draw up some new protocols…” Gaby began.

  Thirteen

  Mr. Nosy and his partner came back exactly twenty-three minutes later. Keo knew it was exactly twenty-three minutes because he had been keeping track on his watch, literally counting the seconds.

  He had already taken up position on the right side of the door while Rita and Claire retreated to the back. Rita had her SIG Sauer with the suppressor attached to the barrel while Claire clutched the Glock he had given her. The 9mm didn’t have a suppressor so if she had to use it, he would know they were in trouble.

  Not that they weren’t in trouble already, but Keo liked to think he could deal with two stray patrolmen operating off the books. At least according to everything Claire had told him. With his MP5SD at his side, Keo pressed his back against the smooth (and slightly cold) wall, and waited. The only bright side was that he was only dealing with two human threats. So things weren’t completely FUBAR just yet, but of course it could get there pretty damn fast.

  Captain Optimism, as Danny would say.

  The only reason he could see the two women in the pitch-black hallway almost directly across from him was because he knew they were there. Anyone else—even looking through the windows—wouldn’t have been able to make them out. They were far enough in the corridor that any moonlight coming into the building wouldn’t reach them.

  Twenty-three minutes and about fifty seconds later (give or take), the doorknob moved at the same time that the deadbolt slid out of position with an echoey clack! It was probably not nearly as loud in reality, but with the absence of any other noises save for his calm heartbeat and the slightly accelerated breathing of Claire and Rita reaching out to him fro
m the shadows, any sound at all was magnified.

  Keo turned slightly so that his right shoulder was now leaning against the wall instead of his back, and lifted the submachine gun into firing position. Depending on how tall the first man was, Keo would either have to lower the weapon slightly or tilt it up just a tad. Either way, it wasn’t going to take very much to splatter the clinic’s walls with brain matter.

  “Well?” a voice said from outside. Keo couldn’t tell if that was the first one—Mr. Nosy—or his partner. From the mocking tone, it was probably Mr. Nosy’s partner. “You gonna go inside or not?”

  Definitely Mr. Nosy’s partner.

  “Give me a sec,” Mr. Nosy said.

  “What for?”

  “Just give me a sec, will you?”

  “Hey, you wanted to check the place out, so go in and check the place out.”

  “I am.”

  “Then do it.”

  “I am.”

  “So what’s the holdup?”

  Keo could hear it in the partner’s voice. He was egging Mr. Nosy on, having fun at his buddy’s expense.

  Some buddy.

  “We didn’t get the key for nothing, did we?” the partner said. “Well, did we?”

  “Would you shut up?” Mr. Nosy snapped. “You’re making too much noise.”

  A chuckle. “You afraid of the dark all of a sudden? There’s nothing out here but us. Speaking of which, I’m freezing.”

  “Don’t be a pussy. It’s not that cold.”

  “I’m warm-blooded. I get cold easily.”

  “If only you could shut your mouth as easily.”

  Another chuckle. “Go on, take a peep so we can get on with it. This is starting to get boring. And you know I hate it when things get boring.”

  The doorknob turned fully, followed by the door beginning to open. Slowly, like Mr. Nosy was having second thoughts. Either that, or Mr. Nosy liked to take his damn time with everything.

  Keo slipped his forefinger into the trigger guard of the H&K and rested it against the trigger. Across the room from him, he heard the slight ruffling of clothes as either Rita or Claire prepared themselves. He hadn’t mentioned to Claire that she probably shouldn’t use the Glock unless absolutely necessary, but he assumed she already knew that.

  That girl’s too smart not to know that without being told. I hope.

  The door was still opening, so slowly that it began to creak like something out of a bad horror movie.

  Hurry up, you putz, let’s get this show on the road!

  “Oh geez, get on with it already,” Mr. Nosy’s partner said, echoing Keo’s thoughts.

  Brilliant minds think alike!

  “Shut up,” Mr. Nosy said.

  “I will, if you hurry the hell up,” his partner said.

  “Man, you’re really getting on my nerves.”

  “Good. Because you’re already on mine.”

  There was a loud sigh before the door opened wide enough that a splash of moonlight entered the room and fell over the pillow that Claire had put on the floor. Keo had told her to leave it there, because removing it now would have only put Mr. Nosy on even higher alert.

  Keo sniffed the aroma of beef in the air, either coming from Mr. Nosy’s breath or clinging to his clothes. A burst of white cloud filtered between the ajar door as the mouth that breathed it approached, followed by the smooth, long black barrel of a rifle leading the way.

  Can’t let him use that. Too much noise. Way too much noise.

  “Nervous?” Mr. Nosy’s partner said from somewhere outside the building.

  “Would you shut up,” Mr. Nosy snapped again.

  “You’re making me fall behind schedule, man. You know that, right?”

  Mr. Nosy stopped moving, and the door stopped opening any farther. The barrel of the rifle lowered, the muzzle pointing at the floor as its owner turned around slightly to look back at his partner. “What schedule? There is no schedule.”

  “Sure there is,” the partner said. “My schedule. And we’re way behind because of you.”

  “Give me a sec,” Mr. Nosy said.

  “That’s what you said before.”

  Great. Behind enemy lines, and I’m being treated to an Abbott and Costello routine. What an entertaining development!

  Keo changed up his grip on the MP5SD and briefly considered stepping away from the wall and exposing himself to the two patrolmen and ending it. One way or another, he was going to have to hide some bodies anyway, so he might as well start the show early—

  “What the hell are you guys doing?”

  The question had come from a new voice—a third person that Keo hadn’t heard from before. It was male and had been spoken with an obvious air of authority.

  “Whoa, you scared the shit out of me,” Mr. Nosy’s partner said.

  “I asked you a question,” the newcomer said. Again with that slight annoyed edge that let Mr. Nosy and his partner know he had power over them. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be right now?”

  “We’re just checking out this building,” Mr. Nosy said, and his rifle slipped back through the ajar door.

  “What’s so special about it?”

  “Genius here thought he saw a pillow inside,” the partner said. He sounded like he was trying to keep back another chuckle.

  “I didn’t think I saw a pillow, I saw it,” Mr. Nosy said. “It’s still there. Take a look.”

  Keo glanced across the room at where Rita and Claire were hiding. He could just barely make out Rita’s outline in the shadows, along with the smooth barrel of her gun’s suppressor, but Claire was too well hidden.

  “What the fuck for? You should be on the other side of town by now,” the newcomer was saying from the street.

  “That’s what I told him,” the partner said.

  “What about the pillow?” Mr. Nosy said, and Keo could have been wrong, but the man almost sounded unsure of himself that time.

  “That’s why you stopped doing your job?” the newcomer said. “Because you saw a goddamn pillow?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Get back on duty and stop fucking around.”

  “We weren’t fucking around—”

  “Now.”

  “Yes, sir,” the partner said, and Keo turned to the window next to him just in time to see a silhouetted figure walking quickly past.

  Behind him, the door closed back up with a soft click.

  “Sir—” Mr. Nosy started to say.

  “Go do your goddamn job,” the newcomer said. Then, in a less angry voice, “Leave the key.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mr. Nosy said, before a second figure moved down the sidewalk on the other side of the window Keo was stealing looks through.

  Didn’t see that coming, Keo thought as he turned to face the door.

  If the third man was still out there, he wasn’t making a lot of noise. In fact, he wasn’t making any sounds at all.

  A full minute went by.

  Two…

  Keo glanced over at the back hallway and caught Rita’s eyes. If he could read her face at all, he’d probably see the unasked question: What the hell is going on?

  He couldn’t answer that, and he wasn’t going to be able to while standing still, so Keo tiptoed across the closed door until he was on the other side and leaned sideways to get a peek out the window.

  A lone figure stood on the sidewalk looking down the street in the direction that Mr. Nosy and his partner had gone. He was mostly covered in shadows except for some short blond hair and the long barrel of a rifle jutting out from behind his back. He was wearing a uniform, and Keo could easily make out the white M on the front of his assault vest.

  A Bucky, but not any Bucky. One with authority. Maybe even one of Buck’s lieutenants? If so, what was the man doing out here in the middle of the night? From Keo’s experience, COs didn’t do grunt work if they could help it.

  Who are you, buddy? And what are you doing out here all by your little lonesome?

&n
bsp; Three minutes had gone by since the patrol left, and about ten seconds after that, the lone figure finally turned toward the door.

  Keo pulled his head back, then slung his submachine gun and reached back for the knife behind his back and pulled it out. The blade gleamed in the moonlight. Five inches of razor-sharp silver. The built-in suppressor on the Heckler & Koch was good for close-up kills that needed to stay silent, but there was always the chance of a freak accident causing too much noise. A knife, on the other hand, would guarantee absolute silence if used correctly, and Keo was good at using one correctly.

  He turned around just as the door began opening, except this time it did so at a reasonable pace. A tall, lanky frame came into view as a man stepped inside—

  Keo grabbed the figure by his right arm with one hand and jerked as hard as he could. The Bucky stumbled the rest of the way inside, lost his balance halfway, and went spilling to the floor. The man had the presence of mind to stick both arms out just in time to save himself some pain, but not completely if the loud oomph! he let out was any indication.

  Before the man could gather himself, Keo pushed the door closed—but didn’t slam it shut—and turned around, clutching the knife in one hand. But as it turned out, he didn’t have to do anything else because Rita was already there and standing a few feet from the Bucky with her SIG pointed at his head. The man remained on the floor on his stomach, his head craned up and his eyes locked on the muzzle of Rita’s pistol.

  The sniper looked fearsome—all gun and shadows and spread-eagled legs. Keo couldn’t imagine how much more dangerous she looked from the perspective of someone lying on the floor looking up at her.

  Rita didn’t take her eyes off the Bucky when she said, “Good?”

  “Good,” Keo said. He put the knife away and hurried over to relieve the blond of his rifle and sidearm.

  “Don’t hurt him,” Claire said as she came out of the hallway behind Rita.

  “What?” Rita said while still never taking her eyes away from her captive.