Across the fallen attackers.
Across the night that suddenly feels much bigger than a small Montana town.
Then she says the one thing I wasn’t expecting.
“The Architect isn’t just building a network.”
She looks directly at me.
“He’s preparing for a war.”
16
Wren
The gunfire echoes through the mountains.
Even from the cabin.
The first shots make me freeze.
The second burst confirms it.
Something just went very wrong in town.
I turn toward the window instinctively.
The forest outside is black and restless, the wind pushing the branches back and forth like shadows moving in the dark.
My hands hover over the keyboard.
Every instinct in my body says the same thing.
Boone.
My heart pounds harder.
I force myself to focus.
Adam told me to keep eyes on the network.
Which means the best thing I can do right now—
Is to figure out what this system is doing.
I pull the recruitment database back up.
The screen fills with names again.
Golden Team.
Search-and-rescue coordinators.
Emergency medics.
Former military operators.
Hundreds of them.
