"Doctor," I say.
"Yes."
"You are going to tell us everything about Site Theresa. Every door. Every camera. Every shift rotation. Every face on staff."
"I will."
"And then you are going to tell us how to find the next one. And the next one. We are not stopping at Theresa."
His eyes are very wide.
"I will," he says.
"Good."
Dean writes everything in his notebook. Tonight we are going to put a hole in their system.
I do not say it out loud. I do not need to.
Chapter twenty-four
Jen
Site Theresa is a one-story concrete building disguised as a warehouse. I learn this from Dean as we drive. He has been watching it for a year — drone flyovers, traffic counts, the names of the contractors who come and go — and he has more on it than Reyes does. The twins have been hunting the Syndicate for two years. They have been hunting specific Syndicate sites. Theresa is one of the ones they have been waiting to hit and waiting for a reason to.
The reason rode in their truck this morning, and her name is on a chart in red ink.
We approach from the north on a logging road that does not connect to the site's access road. We park the trucks a half mile out, behind a ridge that puts us out of sightline. The night is coldand the sky has the particular blue-black of a Cascade night with no moon.
We are seven. Reyes is in the cabin locked up. The pack is here.
Thaw briefs us at the edge of the trees.
"Dean and Daron take the south door. Harek and Fen take the north. Crull and Jen and I take the loading bay east. Two armed staff. Dean drops them quiet. Daron sweeps. Harek and Fen clear the offices on the north. Crull and I clear the central storage room with Jen between us. We have twenty minutes from breach to extraction. Watches synchronized."
He looks at each of us.
"Jen stays at my hip until I say otherwise. Do you understand."
"Yes."
"If I tell you to stop, you stop. If I tell you to move, you move. If I tell you to down —" he glances at Fen — "you down. Are we clear."
"Yes."
He looks at Fen.
"Brother."
"Wall."
"Wall. Tonight you are the wall. Not the kill. Not the chase. If a target presents and Harek can take it, Harek takes it. You hold. Are we clear."
"Yes, alpha."
The pack does the half-fist over the heart. I do it with them — I have learned the gesture without anyone teaching me. The pack-sign is mine now.
Thaw looks at me last.
