Counters were set throughout the room, and notations were on every available surface. File cabinets lined a side wall.
Sami turned to Jax. “We need Lynne here.”
The Vanguard leader looked around and then nodded. “Yeah. All right. For now, go see what else is hidden in those computers.”
* * *
Tace checked on the wounded again before grabbing two coffees from the cafeteria. Real coffee with real creamer. He wondered what the Bunker folks had planned to do in a year or so when supplies ran out. Was there an underground bunker somewhere filled with coffee, creamer, and doughnuts? At this point, he’d believe anything.
His hand shook, and the toes on his left foot had gone numb. An episode was imminent, and his chest felt so heavy he wondered if his heart was fibrillating.
But he shoved the panic down and strode into the computer command center to find his little hacker hard at work and muttering to herself. “You need to eat something.” He placed a coffee and what looked like mac and cheese in front of her.
She glanced down. “I love mac and cheese.” She grabbed the carton and dug in with a spoon, humming softly as she ate.
He grinned and ran a hand over her hair. Loose and long, the waves fascinated him. “How’s it going?”
She smiled up at him, her eyes concerned and the grin forced. “Great. I’m zeroing in on the other Bunker locations, I hope.”
“Excellent.” He sipped his coffee and enjoyed the moment with his woman. “What’s that?”
“I was trying to determine the schedule for surveillance. They had cameras all over California, and they’ve been watching several groups on a rotating schedule.” She brought up Vanguard. “Look. It’s home.”
“Interesting.” He leaned in and pointed to the options. “Narrow in there, would you?”
“Sure.” She typed several commands, and a camera focused on the rear corner of Vanguard territory. “Whoa. Who is that?”
Tace leaned over her shoulder. “Can you sharpen that?”
“Yeah.” She sharpened the video until Joe Bentley, the organizational leader of the Pure, could be seen clearly speaking to somebody on the other side of the fence. “Let me zoom in on the other guy.” She did so and gasped at seeing a soldier with a clear EL on his chest.
“Shit. Bentley was talking to one of the president’s Elite Force? When was that?” Tace’s heart began to drum.
Sami sucked in air. “About seven hours ago.”
That was long enough to get back to the president and make a plan. “Can you bring up the Elite Force? Let’s see the president’s headquarters.” Tace’s instincts shifted into overdrive.
“Yeah.” She clicked on it, and nothing happened. Setting down the mac and cheese, she typed furiously, and a bunch of code started to run. “The last check-in at his location was three hours ago. I think they take a snapshot every three days, but if they want to focus and watch for a while, they can manually do so. I mean, they could.”
She brought up a series of video and then sat back. “Huh.”
“So that’s three hours ago.”
“Yes.”
Tace straightened as truck after truck exited the California forest, loaded with men and weapons. “Shit. Bentley told the Elite soldier that we were gone. He gave them our weaknesses.” He rushed into the hidden war room where Jax and Raze were poring over documents. “We have a problem.” They followed him back into the computer room. “Sami? Can you track the president’s movements?”
She was already typing. “Yes. They headed south.” She brought up two more cameras. “Oh God.”
Tace leaned back. “Vanguard. They’re going to try to take Vanguard.” He’d figured they’d retaliate but not this quickly. Damn Joe Bentley and the Pure. His chest compressed, and his mind spun. “We didn’t cripple them as badly as we’d hoped.”
“We only took explosives and weapons from one outbuilding,” Sami whispered.
Tace caught Raze as he barreled from the room. “Wait a minute. We need a plan.”
“The plan is to get to Vanguard and stop the massacre,” Jax snapped, striding past them, fury on his hard face. “We’ve left our people defenseless.”
“No, we haven’t.” Tace sprang into a run behind his friends. “We left soldiers—both Vanguard and Mercs—guarding the civilians. We’ll get there in time.” Yet the president had a huge head start and an impressive array of firepower.
