Nexus

4 THE NOOSE

Sam swam slowly back to consciousness. Darkness. Her eyes were closed, head slumped. She stayed that way. Better to feign unconsciousness as long as she could, and learn the situation. There were voices around her. People talking.

"So she's, what, a DEA agent?" That was Rangan Shankari, the DJ.

"Not DEA," a voice responded slowly. "Homeland Security. Emerging Risks Directorate." That deep bass. Watson Cole.

"ERD?" Ilya Alexander spat it out. "Fuck."

Rangan spoke again, "So, this Samara from the ERD, you think she's alone?"

"Her name's not Samara." That was Kade. "It's Samantha. Samantha Cataranes. She had some way of hiding it. Her memories were a mask somehow. The group meditation messed it up for her."

They know my name, she thought to herself.

"She's awake," Ilya said.

Sam's muscles rebelled, then. Against her will, her head jerked up, her eyes opened. Someone was in her mind, controlling her body. That realization snapped her to alertness, sent a jolt of fear up her spine. These were very dangerous people.

She was in a cluttered storage room, sitting in a straight back chair, arms tied or strapped behind her back, ankles tied to the chair legs. As if those restraints were necessary when her Nexusdosed brain was splayed open to those around her. Her left side ached where Wats had landed his blow. Internal bleeding likely.

Eyes shifted to her at Ilya's pronouncement. Rangan stood above her and to her left, arms crossed in his ridiculous Sufi robe, eyes angry and intent. He was the one in her mind. Ilya had fists clenched at her sides. Wats was to her right, an ugly bruise already covering one side of his face where Sam's boot had slammed into him. His eyes were cold and hard.

Behind them, slumped in a chair, ice pack to his head, was Kade, staring at the floor.

Rangan spoke again, "You'd better start talking, girl."

She felt a jolt of pain as he spoke, and a compulsion to speak. He was twisting something in her mind. All four of them were opaque to her. Sam could feel the hard external shells of their minds, and the hard tendril inside her own, but nothing more. She felt a brief longing for the communion she'd felt at the height of the party. It nauseated her.

Sam cleared her throat and wet her lips. She tasted blood. "Rangan Shankari, Ilyana Alexander, Watson Cole, Kaden Lane – you're all under arrest."

Wats shook his head slowly, the corners of his lips turning up slightly in admiration of her audacity. Rangan made a small noise in his throat. Ilya just stared.

"You're under arrest for the crime of trafficking in an ERD Alpha Class Prohibited Technology and a DEA Schedule I controlled substance. In addition to that, development and use of a coercion technology, attempting to construct an unlicensed NonHuman Intelligence in violation of the Chandler Act, kidnapping, and interfering with an officer of the law."

Rangan blanched.

"No Miranda rights?" Wats asked. "No right to remain silent? What if I want to see a lawyer?" He sounded coolly amused.

Sam locked eyes with him. "Those don't apply. Your research is designated a potential threat to humanity. You have no rights in that situation. Your best option is to give up now. It'll go easier on you if you surrender. If my support squad moves in, I can't guarantee your safety. They won't hesitate to use force."

Wats' eyes narrowed. He turned to his compatriots. "See what I mean?"

Rangan cut in, speaking to Sam, "Your transmission didn't make it out of the building. There's no cavalry coming. You're stuck here with us."

Sam tried to shake her head, found that Rangan's vice-like mental hold wouldn't let her. She spoke firmly, with more confidence than she felt.

"Think it through. The ERD knows I'm in this building with Kade. They know that you're here too. By now they know everyone that's gone in and out of this building for the last week. Eventually my backup will come knocking. And if I disappear, they're going to tear this place and all of you apart looking for me. The kid gloves are on right now. They won't be on for long."

Always project confidence, Nakamura had taught her. Even when they have the physical upper hand, you can have the psychological advantage.

Ilya turned to Rangan. "What can you do to her memories?"

Rangan thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head and turned behind him. "Kade?"

Kade didn't reply. His eyes stayed glued on the floor.

"Kade," Ilya snapped. "Focus. Can you erase her memories of tonight? Fuzz them out?"

Kade looked at Sam for the first time. Their eyes met. Sam wished again that she could feel his mind. She hated that fact.

"Nothing subtle," he said. "Probably nothing very effective. And it might do some other damage along the way."

Sam didn't like where this was going. That cold chill was creeping further up her spine. She broke Kade's gaze, looked hard at Ilya. "I thought nonconsensual mindfucking was rape? Isn't that what you wrote last year? The worst kind of violation possible?"

Rangan rolled his eyes. "Oh, this bitch is good."

Ilya looked at Sam. She looked hard and aristocratic. "I'd rather wipe your memories than kill you. Be grateful." Her Russian accent was flaring up.

"There will be no killing here," Wats pronounced.

Kade spoke up. "It doesn't matter. They know she's here. They know who we are. We're made."

"So what's the alternative, Kade?" Ilya asked.

Wats cut in. He spoke slowly, firmly. "We need to evac according to our plans. Her memories are irrelevant. It's time to do what we've prepared to do – leave here for a safer place."

Ilya laughed nervously. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," Wats replied. "Kade is right. This woman isn't here on her own. She was sent. Secrecy has been compromised. That means we're all in danger right now. At this point, every second counts. If we act immediately, we might slip the net. The longer we wait, the worse our odds."

Sam spoke up. "Listen. Just stay calm, OK. You're not going to make it out of here. This place is under a magnifying glass right now. My team has been tracking me constantly. There'll be stealthed ERD scopes aimed at every exit. Running is not going to help. Give up, and it'll go easier on you. Try to run, or mess with my memories, you'll get the book thrown at you."

"She's lying," said Rangan.

"I'm not lying."

"Then you're holding something back. What is it?"

Sam took a deep breath.

Rangan pushed against her thoughts. Something in her mind bent.

He's doing something to my mind…

She found herself speaking again.

"It's Kade," she told them. She looked at him. "My superiors want you to do a job for them. My mission here was twofold – to get intel on what research you were really doing, and to get leverage that could be used to compel you to take part in an upcoming ERD mission."

Kade looked surprised. "What do they want me for?"

Again she felt the pressure from Rangan. She tried to resist. Words tumbled out. "We want him to get close to someone. Someone building a mind control technology, possibly based on Nexus."

"I won't do it," said Kade.

Ilya rounded on him. "Wait, Kade, think about it. If they want you for something, that gives you leverage. You can negotiate to get the charges dropped."

"What about everyone else here?" asked Kade. "All the people who came to the party?"

"We're not local cops," said Sam. "We're ERD. We care about the technology. If you cooperate, your guinea pigs here probably aren't in much trouble. If not… you and everyone here are in a deep pile of shit."

"I want them all off the hook. Rangan and Ilya and Wats too. No arrests, no jail, no probation, nothing."

Sam wanted to shake her head again, but couldn't. "I'm not the person for you to bargain with. Surrender and come in with me. Just you four. No one else has to even know what's going on. Then we can negotiate."

Wats spoke to Rangan. "Can you blur her senses? Make it so she can't hear us? Can't read our lips?"

Rangan nodded. Sam started to object, found that she couldn't speak. Her vision started to fail. It narrowed into a tunnel, grayed out, then simply vanished. She didn't see blackness. She simply didn't see. Sound disappeared. She was blind and deaf.

Sam fought to choke down a rising panic. Few nightmares were worse for her than losing control of her mind and body. Breathe, she told herself. She could still feel her body, still feel her chest rise and fall, still feel her arms tied behind her back and her feet tied to the chair. She clung to that solidity.

Wats exhaled slowly. How to convince these kids of what was necessary? "Listen, this woman will say anything to you to achieve her goals. She's lied from the beginning. She's going to keep on lying. Once the ERD have you in custody, you're theirs. You won't get a lawyer. They can do whatever they want to you, and you won't ever get out from under it. You understand?"

He looked around the room. Ilya met his eyes. Rangan was nodding, his face pale. Kade still had his eyes on the ground. Wats could feel their emotions. Rangan: fear and anger. Ilya: defiance. Kade: guilt and self-doubt. He was reprimanding himself for creating this situation.

"Kade. Sit up straight, my friend. It doesn't matter how we got here. We're here." Wats saw Kade nod at his words, felt the kid get fractionally more of a grip on his emotions. "Look, our getaway plans are solid. If we stay, they have us for sure. If we bolt right now, we have a chance. It's a deep dark hole or a chance at getting out. We've got to do the sensible thing."

He paused, looking around. Rangan was ready. He didn't know what to make of Ilya and Kade's emotions.

"OK, you all ready? Rangan, can you knock her out and leave her that way for a few hours?"

"I'm not going," Kade said.

Wats paused again. Then, "Kade, if you stay, it's over. You won't ever get free of them."

Kade nodded. "I know. It's just… If we run, what happens to everyone else here? Antonio, Jessica, Andy… The volunteers that measured out the doses and hooked up the repeaters. Do we tell all of them to run too? They don't have fake passports. They don't have someplace to run to. They just get fucked. Hell, what about Tania, Wats?"

Wats flushed. "If you stay here, you get fucked too," he replied.

Kade shook his head. "Ilya's right. If they want me for something, then I have leverage. It's a bargaining chip. I can get other folks off the hook."

"You have bigger things to attend to," Wats replied.

Now Kade exuded anger. "That's a cop-out, Wats. We created this situation. It's our responsibility." He calmed himself, spoke more softly. "Actually, you know what? It's my responsibility." He shook his head.

Wats let his breath out slowly again. He had to reach this kid. "Kade… It's important that you get out of here. All three of you. What you're doing here is powerful. It has potential. It can save a lot of lives. It can end wars. It's bigger than you. It's more important than just this party. You're more important."

"I'm not more important than the hundred people out there," Kade said sharply.

"Your work is."

Ilya cut in. "Wats, we can't let the ends justify the means. These people haven't done anything wrong. We haven't done anything wrong. We have to fight. We can take this public, take it to the press…"

Wats shook his head. So naïve. "Ilya, they're not going to let you, don't you see? You have no rights in this country, not as of tonight. They're not going to let you near the press. And even if they did, no one would care."

Ilya stood her ground. "We have to try. We have to stand up and fight for what's right." She exuded resolve, defiance.

This wasn't going to work, Wats saw. As much as he'd tried to educate them on the realities of the world, they wouldn't ever understand until they'd experienced it first hand.

He turned to Kade.

"Then give me the code," he said. "The design, the blueprints, the recipe, all of it. If you disappear, I'll get it out into the world."

Kade shook his head. "It's not ready yet."

"Kade, if you go to jail, it'll never get out. This may be your only chance left to make a difference with it."

Kade kept shaking his head. "It's too easy to abuse. Look at what we're doing to her right now." He gestured towards the now blind and deaf ERD agent tied to the chair. "If we let it out now, people will get hurt."

Wats kept his breathing steady, held onto his calm. "Then I'll find someone trustworthy to keep working on it until it is ready. Don't let it go down the drain."

Rangan interjected, "I'm not staying either."

Kade turned and looked at him. There was no surprise there. He just nodded. "OK. I'm the one with the bargaining chip. The rest of you get out of here. You too, Ilya."

"I'm with you," she said. "We have to fight for what's right."

Wats relaxed fractionally. Rangan had the full code and design. If Rangan got out too, then all was not lost. Then he looked again at Kade and at Ilya. These were his friends. The best friends he'd made since he'd left the Corps. He doubted he'd ever see them again. He let his eyes drink up the sight of them.

Wats picked Kade up in a bear hug. Kade winced, then relaxed into it. Wats moved on to Ilya, picked her up off the ground and twirled her around. She squealed, despite the grave circumstances. There were tears in her eyes. Then Rangan said his goodbyes as well.

At the door, Wats turned and soaked up the sight of Ilya and Kade once more. "I won't forget you," he promised. "Good luck." Then he and Rangan were gone.

Saturday 2040.02.18 : 2108 hours

Department of Homeland Security – West Coast Tactical Situation Center

Three hundred and fifty miles to the south, ERD Special Agent Garrett Nichols watched the developing situation with some interest. Five of them clustered in the command and control room at the Department of Homeland Security Tactical Situation Center outside Los Angeles. The Drug Enforcement Agency liaison and the Department of Homeland Security Counterterrorism Division liaison sat quietly behind him. This was a joint operation, but given its nature, the Emerging Risks Directorate of DHS had operational command.

His two analysts sat at the consoles in front of him. Half a dozen giant screens filled a wall that all of them could see. Screen 1 showed overhead false color visual of Simonyi Field, as seen from the Coast Guard's HQ-37 Sky Eye flying silent circles one thousand feet above it. Hangar 3 was their focus. Lights illuminated either end of the vast building. Cars in the nearby parking lot shone in infrared, their engines still warm.

On screen 2, a running stream of tagged identities of attendees. Every vehicle arriving was having its registration quietly interrogated. Every person who stepped out of a vehicle was being optically faceprinted. Their profiles streamed across the screen. Almost every one was an associate of targets Alpha through Delta.

Screen 3 showed the status of their two ground units and the squads within them.

Screen 4 showed the status and location of California Highway Patrol and Mountain View Police units standing by to assist.

Screen 5, where the stream of data from Agent Blackbird should be, was blank. It would update when she left the EM shielding and her surveillance devices uploaded what she'd seen and heard in the intervening time.

Being out of contact with a field agent always made Nichols nervous. Tonight was no exception.

Sight and sound slowly faded back into Sam's reality. She heard her own breathing, first. Then saw the tiniest hint of light. Shapes. A wall. She blinked, and the world came back more strongly. She was still in the same room. Kade was here, slumped in a chair. No sign of Wats, Rangan, or Ilya.

She tried to wiggle her toes. Nothing. Fingers. Nothing. Still paralyzed.

Nichols and his team watched the hangar closely, waiting for Blackbird to emerge. It might be hours yet until the Nexus party wound down.

On scope, a small number of people came and went from the party. A cluster of smokers emerged around the east exit. Three couples snuck out to find private time outside the structure. A dozen stragglers arrived late and were let into the building. Seven individuals left in the same timeframe. All groups were faceprinted. None were among the primary targets.

A young man emerged in a hoodie, his face hidden from the aerial camera, his body glowing in infrared. There was a tense moment as he crossed towards the neighboring golf course. Then he pissed on a bush and strolled back to the party.

Just after midnight another couple emerged and strolled in the same direction. Faceprinting identified one as Tania Wellington, a martial arts instructor residing in San Francisco. The other's face was shielded by a hooded sweatshirt. He was a large man, tall and broad. Could that be Cole?

The two figures crossed slowly across the golf course, making no move towards the road or Sunnyvale. Eventually their stroll led them to the edge of the San Francisco Bay. IR showed their forms entwine, their faces meet, their clothes begin to come off.

Three individuals came out the east entrance, walked past the smokers, headed towards a car. The first two were ID'd successfully. The third kept his face in the shadows of the hoodie. The car door opened, and light momentarily illuminated him.

Rangan Shankari.

"Get CHP on that car," Nichols ordered. "Just follow. I want to see where Shankari goes."

"Roger that," Jane Kim called out.

"Why'd you do this to us?" Kade asked. He was slumped in the chair across the room once more, the ice pack to his head.

Sam took a breath before answering. "What you're doing is illegal. My job is to uphold the law."

Kade shook his head. "That's no answer. Why'd you choose this job?"

"Because what you're doing is dangerous. That's why I care. You're playing with fire."

"This isn't a weapon. It's a new way to communicate. It connects people. You saw that. You felt it."

Sam had felt it. She'd loved it, until she'd been horrified by it, by the discovery that she was not who she thought she was. She dodged the topic.

"It can be abused. Maybe you wouldn't use it to hurt people, but others would."

"It's not like that," said Kade. "It's a way of bridging the gap between people. It makes us smarter together than we could be apart. It can raise collective intelligence, collective empathy. Ilya talks about…"

Sam cut him off. "Ilya talks about creating things that aren't human, Kade. Non-human intelligences."

"Groups of humans," Kade retorted. "Human networks."

"Hive minds. Borgs. Super-organisms," Sam spat out. "What if they don't like us?"

"How could they not like us? They'd be us." Kade was getting heated now.

"And what if I didn't want to join a hive? Would I be forced to? Assimilated? Could I keep up if I didn't? Would there be a place for ordinary humans?"

Kade exhaled in frustration. "Look, that's all paranoia. There are positive effects too."

"It's not just paranoia, Kade. You have me under your thumb right now. You can make me do whatever you want. Rangan could too. That's coercion, Kade. You've built a coercion technology. A way to control people. And you tell me this isn't a weapon?"

Kade shook his head. "It's just a safety precaution. This is still experimental."

"Just a precaution, huh? Do other people have this back door in their heads? Can you paralyze any of your friends out in the party? Can you read their minds?"

Kade said nothing, just looked down at his hands.

"You can, can't you?" Sam continued. "Do they know? Have you told them that taking part in your little experiment hands you and Rangan the keys to their heads?"

Kade shook his head, still not looking at her. "It's a safeguard, that's all. We'd never release it like this."

"How can you be so naïve, Kade? You're a good guy. I've felt that. But what about other people who get their hands on this? You think they won't reverse-engineer it? You think they won't make slaves out of this? Suicide troops? Sex slaves? Worshippers?"

Awful memories were rising up inside of her. The ranch. The cult. The way her parents had become cattle, or worse. She wanted to push them at Kade, couldn't. He was opaque to her. She was cut off from his mind.

Kade bristled. "This is stupid. You can hurt people with guns. You can get them to do awful things with words. Books are as dangerous as anything I'm doing. We need this. 'Our current problems can't be solved by the level of thinking that created them.' Einstein said that. This can take us to a new level of thinking."

"Kade, it's going too fast," Sam replied. She fought down the pain and despair of old memories, hardened herself. She despised the longing she felt to touch his mind and show him. Hated the weakness of it, the wrongness of it. Damn this drug. Damn this mission.

"You're talking about changing everything about people, the way we've been for a hundred thousand years, in a heartbeat. You can't know the consequences, you can't understand how people will abuse this, you can't know that humanity will survive this. We have to slow down the rate we're becoming something that's not human."

Kade glared at her. "You're one to talk. You're not quite baseline human yourself, are you?"

Nichols turned his attention back to the couple at the edge of the water. The red blobs in the IR scope were bent over, making odd motions. What were they doing?

It clicked. They were taking off their shoes. And now their pants. A little rendezvous on the beach. The couple now appeared to be kissing passionately, red lines blurring in IR, only heads and limbs distinguishable in the image. He was about to look away, when they did something he didn't expect. They turned, hand in hand, and ran into the Bay, water splashing up around them. They ran till they were hip-deep, the lower halves of their bodies disappearing from IR view, and then dove head first into the water, and vanished under the waves entirely.

"Isn't that water a little cold for a swim this time of year?" Nichols asked aloud.

"I was just thinking the same," Bruce Williams replied. "Can't be much more than fifty degrees."

On screen, twenty feet further out, the head and shoulders of one of the red blobs. Nichols held his breath. Wait for it… Wait for it… Nothing. The other was nowhere to be seen.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed. "Get Mobile 2 there now! Scramble the mini drones. Light that place up. Find that guy!"

Kim and Williams furiously hit keys. On screen, Mobile 2 turned on its lights and spun tires as it accelerated to the spot, leaving the road and crashing into the manicured greens of the course. A narrow beam spotlight shot out from the overhead Sky Eye. The naked figure in the water turned, put her face in the water and kicked towards shore.

"And pull over the car with Shankari in it!" Nichols called out.

"Yes, sir," Jane Kim replied.

A tense minute passed, and then another. Mobile 2 arrived at the scene and took Tania Wellington into custody. Yes, she confirmed, that had been Cole. And no, she had no idea where he was going.

Cole was gone. If he had a rebreather or had undergone black market blood hyperoxygenation, he could stay down for hours. He could come up anywhere. Unless they were very, very lucky, he was gone.

California Highway Patrol had more luck. On screen a cruiser pulled in behind the vehicle carrying Rangan Shankari. Moments later, they had him in custody.

Sam took her time in replying. "I'm human, Kade. I've made compromises. I've accepted things that are necessary for me to do my job, to help keep people safe."

"Funny," Kade said, "I don't feel any safer with you around."

"You don't see the things we do on your behalf."

"I saw what you did tonight."

"There are monsters out there, Kade," Sam said. "We have to stop them."

"I'm no monster."

"You're no monster," Sam agreed, "but they're out there. There are people who would do awful things with this technology."

"There are people who would do wonderful things with it, too," Kade replied. "We'll put safeguards in. That's always been the plan. We don't want this used for mind control any more than you do."

"Other people will reverse-engineer the technology. They'll remove the safeguards, or figure out how to build a clone system that doesn't have them. That's how it always works. Once the genie is out of the bottle, you can't control what they do."

Kade threw up his hands in frustration. "You can't control what people do with phones, or planes, or the net," he replied. "People do terrible things with all of those, but the good things outweigh them. Should we take all of those back too?"

"Those don't change what we are. We're still human."

"You get to decide who's human? Pretty damn arrogant."

Sam tried to stay cool, didn't entirely succeed. "Arrogant? You're the one who's taking risks that could affect billions of people. You're the one threatening to make real humans obsolete. Do you have any idea the danger you're putting the whole world in?"

Kade shook his head bitterly. "You have this so backwards. I'm not making choices for anyone. I'm giving people options. I'm giving them new decisions to make for themselves. You're the one taking people's freedoms away. You're the one locking people up for doing the wrong science, or for trying something new." He stabbed an accusatory finger in her direction. "If there's any monster here, it's you."

The state trooper placed Rangan in the back of his squad car. Bruce Williams patched Nichols into the CHP comms system.

Nichols put on his headset. "Rangan Shankari?" he asked.

Silence. On the screen, Rangan looked towards the floor of the vehicle, making no sign he'd heard.

"Mr Shankari, you are now in the custody of the Emerging Risks Directorate. My name is Special Agent Nichols."

More silence.

"Mr Shankari, is Samara Chavez still inside Hangar 3? What's her status?"

"I want to see my lawyer." Rangan uttered the words without looking up.

"Mr Shankari, you're under suspicion of very serious crimes in breach of the Emerging Technological Threats Act. Under these conditions you don't have the right to a lawyer."

Silence.

Nichols continued. "What I care about is the safety of Samara Chavez. Is she still in that building? What's her situation?"

Rangan said nothing.

"Mr Shankari, I have a team of men ready to knock down the door of that building and do whatever it takes to get my agent out. There are also at least a hundred civilians in the building, many of whom are your friends. If we go in with force, some of your friends could be hurt. Do you understand me?"

"Suck my dick."

Nichols was irritated now. "Rangan, you may think you're accomplishing something with this, but you're not. If you're covering for your friends, we already have Watson Cole," Nichols lied. "What we want is to know if Samara Chavez is still alive, and a way to communicate with the people inside that building to get her out."

Rangan said nothing, but shifted slightly in his seat.

"If you don't help me, we're going in, and people are likely to get hurt. People might get killed. You understand that?"

Rangan shifted again. "I want my lawyer."

"You're not going to get one. Are you going to help us, or do we kick in the door and start shooting?"

Rangan visibly hesitated, then spoke. "They're going to let her go in a couple hours."

Nichols leaned back in his seat. So, she was alive. And being held.

"Let's end this now," he said. "Not a couple hours from now. You're going back in there, and here's what you're going to tell your friends inside…"

Fifteen minutes later, a black SUV deposited him outside the hangar's back entrance.

"…if there's any monster here, it's you!"

The handle of the door to the storage room turned. Both Kade and Sam turned, startled, to see Ilya enter, a glum look on her face, trailed by Rangan, dressed in a grey hoodie and jeans. Rangan looked pale and unhappy. His eyes were fixed on the ground in front of him. Party sounds followed them in.

"They caught me," Rangan announced. His voice shook.

Kade could feel the bitterness of it. The words tasted like ashes in his mouth.

"They sent me back in to deliver a message," Rangan said. "They have this place surrounded. They have Wats too."

"Ugh." Kade felt it like a blow.

"They want the three of us to come out, with her." Rangan nodded towards Sam, still bound to the chair. "They want us to shut down the party, send everyone home with some excuse, and surrender ourselves. Just us. We're not to mention the ERD at all. If we don't come out in thirty minutes, they say they'll come in here with guns out."

"What about everyone else here?" Kade asked.

"As long as we surrender, everyone else can go home."

"I'd rather make a scene," said Ilya. "Force them to arrest a hundred of us. Take it public. Show people what they're doing. That's how we fight."

"Everyone knows what they're doing," Rangan said. "No one cares. We're just druggies to them."

Kade spoke up. "I don't want other people going to jail because of us. That was the whole point of not running."

"That was part of the point," Ilya said. "The other part is standing up for what's right. We've done nothing wrong. The ERD are the bad guys here. We can show the world that."

Kade shook his head. "No. This is our fall to take."

"I'm with Kade," Rangan said softly.

Ilya bowed her head. She didn't look convinced. Her mind felt angry to Kade, defiant.

"Fine," she said. "I'll go start shutting things down." She left through the open door.

Rangan looked at Kade. "You OK?"

Kade nodded but said nothing.

Minutes passed. They waited in silence.

What's taking so long? Kade wondered.

Just then, through the door, they heard the current track fade, Ilya's amplified voice, something about a noise complaint, the party over, time to go, drive safe.

Ilya returned shortly after that. Her eyes were wet. Had she been crying? He wanted to comfort her, but she felt hard and angry.

"I left Antonio in charge of clearing people out," she said. "That'll take a while. We might as well go now."

"They said to head out the side entrance and walk towards the golf course parking lot," Rangan said.

Ilya untied the rope around Sam's feet, helped her up with a hand on her bicep.

Sharp pains lanced up Sam's left side as she rose. She ignored them. The four of them walked out of the storage room, turned and took a hallway away from the main hangar area. A minute later Rangan opened the side door of the hangar and they emerged into the cool night air.

Sam's contacts immediately lit up with the positions of the DEA SWAT team that was providing her support on this mission. The two vehicles were a hundred yards ahead. Two agents were with the vehicles. Four more in a loose perimeter blocking possible escape. All showed ready to fire, half with lethal loads, half with tranq. A green handshake glyph showed that their tactical systems had registered hers as well.

She looked to her right at Rangan, squinted to illuminate him as a target, then Kade on her left, squinted, and hit the fire icon with her eyes. Rangan started to turn, the start of a frown on his face. Sam felt him tense in her mind. Then tranquilizer rounds shot out from two agents and hit each men in the neck. They went down like comic actors, hands rising to the sudden wasp stings at their necks, gurgling cries of surprise, then eyes going glassy, balance lost, toppling into loose-limbed heaps.

"Bitch!"

Sam felt Ilya grab her physically from behind, her arm around Sam's throat. Sam spun to present a clear shot on the woman to the shooters, heard the thwap of a silenced tranq dart, and a moment later felt the grasp around her neck loosen and Ilya's limp body crumple to the ground.

Watson Cole came up for air under the Dumbarton Bridge. He slid his body slowly into the shallows where it came to ground in Menlo Park, gradually letting just his face rise above the level of the water. With luck, the bridge would shield him from any cameras, IR or visual, searching for him from above. He'd swum more than six miles underwater, an exhausting feat in the best of times. He needed time to let his blood hyperoxygenate again. He rested a moment, then started the pressure breathing that would accelerate his uptake of precious oxygen. He had miles to go before he slept.