Chapter 52

fifty-two

ALEX

I stopped my truck in front of my house and ran inside. Driving along the steep, winding road from Sunrise Bay, I’d been praying I wouldn’t run into Dylan. What I was doing was dangerous, and if he got involved, I’d have one more person to worry about. One more life hanging in the balance because of a program that’s supposed to save lives.

I started the computer that was still in my office. Hidden among files on my cloud storage account was the program the terrorists wanted. Wiping my brow, I copied the information onto an external hard drive and unplugged it from my computer. I had the program; now I needed to protect myself. With a trembling hand, I opened the bottom drawer of my desk. The extra gun and ammunition wouldn’t save my life, but they might give me a few more minutes to get away. I had no idea what I was walking into or how many people would be waiting for me.

In twenty minutes, I’d be meeting the terrorists in front of the ranger’s house. I’d chosen the location because it was away from the main road and would take the FBI longer to reach. I’d need every extra minute I could scrape together .

My plan was simple: meet the terrorists, give them the program, and leave. But nothing was ever that easy, and lots of things could go wrong—including being killed. But if someone didn’t do something, everyone associated with the EMP project would be in danger.

With the hard drive in hand, I rushed into the garage. When Eric lent me his snowmobile, it wasn’t meant to be a getaway vehicle. But it was the safest, quickest, and most reliable way I had of traveling in and out of the clearing.

With a pounding heart, I opened the garage door. It would take fifteen minutes to drive to the ranger’s house. Fifteen minutes of second-guessing what I was about to do. And hoping I’d still be alive at the end of it.