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They’re all over the damn place!

She could stay and fight it out, but whoever was in the control center had probably already called for backup. Her job now was to warn the Project that Dream Sky had been taken.

The chill cut through her thin T-shirt as she climbed the ladder to the hut. When she reached town, she could break into a store or home and find something warm to wear. Until then, she’d have to deal with it.

Out of habit, she almost closed the hatch behind her, but decided to leave it open so even more cold would enter the base. 

From the outside, the door of the hut could only be opened by someone in the control center. From inside, however, all it took was a thumb scan on the tiny screen designed to look like part of the doorjamb.

She opened the door and, teeth chattering, headed to town without looking back.

__________

T
HE FIRST ROOM
on level eight that Ash and his search partner Sandra entered was a large one, twice as long as it was wide. It had to be, to accommodate the twenty occupied hospital beds that filled it.

“Good lord,” Sandra said, shocked.

Though Ash had been prepared to find something like this, seeing all those people—those “protectees”—was unnerving.

“Stay by the door,” he said. “I’ll check.”

He hurried through the room, looking under the beds to make sure no one was hiding. The only people present were the patients.

The majority of the protectees in the room were men, but it was one of the six women whom Ash recognized. She was some kind of environmental specialist, if he remembered correctly. He’d seen her on several talk shows and on the news testifying before Congress. He couldn’t remember her name—Laura or Lorraine, something like that. If he hadn’t believed Wicks’s story before, there could be no denying it now.

“What’s going on here?” Sandra asked when Ash returned. “Are they sick?”

“No,” he told her.

“Then who are they?”

“The people we’re here to help.”

She looked at him, not fully understanding.

“I’ll tell everyone later. Right now we have more work to do.”

As they exited the room, the alarm started again. No lights, though, just the siren. It only lasted five seconds before cutting out. Thirty seconds later, the quick burst was repeated.

Ash and Sandra moved to the next door and entered. The room was identical to the one they’d just left. The only exception was that standing next to one of the patients was a woman in blue scrubs, checking one of the monitors.

She didn’t look up until Ash and Sandra were only a few beds away. Her expression was at first surprised and then confused.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “If you’re not medical staff, you shouldn’t be in here.”

“Step away from the bed,” Ash said.

“Excuse me?”

He raised his pistol. “Away from the bed. Now.”

“What’s going on? Who are you?”

“I’m not going to ask you again.”

They heard another five seconds of alarm.

The woman looked at the ceiling as if she could see the sound, and then at Ash, her eyes widening. Stepping away from the bed, she raised her arms. “Please, I won’t make any trouble.”

“Good,” Ash said.

Sandra grabbed the woman’s hands and zip-tied them together.

“What are you doing?” the woman asked.

“Making sure you stick to your word,” Sandra said.

“My colleague will escort you someplace where you can wait with your friends,” Ash said. “Before you go, though, I have a question. Is there a phone in the room?”

“Phone?” she asked, as if she didn’t understand the word.

“Internal. You know, room to room.”

“Um, over there. On the wall near the door.”

“And how would I go about calling security?”

__________

U
SING THE EXTENSION
number the woman had given him, Ash called the control room. Harden answered before the first ring finished.

“Harden? It’s Ash.”

“Hallelujah, it worked!”

“Thought you were trying to get my attention. What’s going on?”

Harden related the conversation he’d had with someone called Director Johnson, and his doubts that she’d believed his story.

“A woman?” Ash asked.

“Yeah.”

Ash thought it had to be the same Director Johnson they had overheard speaking with the Dutchman named van Assen, the same woman they suspected was part of the new Project Eden directorate.

“Just giving you the heads-up.”

“I appreciate it. Go up top and let base know we might have visitors.”

“Okay. Oh, Captain, one more thing. I found our missing security guard.”

“You did?”

“She tried to get in here a few minutes ago, but I scared her off.”

“Where is she now?”

“Watched her climb up through the hut and run off toward town.”

“Did she have a radio?” Ash asked.

“No radio that I saw, but she is armed.”

“All right. Thanks.” Ash hung up and flipped on his comm. “Listen up, everyone. There’s a good chance our presence is now known to those outside the base, so we need to pick up the pace. Let’s get this floor cleared in the next five minutes.”

Sandra returned as Ash stepped out into the hallway.

“How many have we found so far?” he asked.

“There were four others in the holding room. And I saw someone heading there with two more as I left. Seven so far, it looks like.”

“Good,” he said. “I need to talk to Chloe, so I’d like it if you could hook up with one of the other groups until I get back.”

“Um, sure,” she said, and then hesitated as if she wanted to say more.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I thought I, um, recognized some of the patients.”

“You probably did.”

“They’re not dying, are they?”

“That’s the last thing the Project would want.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You going to be all right?”

A nod first, then, “Yeah. Sure. I’ll be okay.”

“Good, then we’ve got work to do.”

He gave her his best reassuring smile and took off for the elevator.

__________

R
OBERT AND ESTELLA
moved quickly through the room, looking for anyone from Project Eden, but those in the hospital beds were the only ones there. This was the fourth room they’d checked, each basically the same, only the number of beds and the faces of those lying in them changed.

He could tell seeing so many unconscious people was taking its toll on Estella. Her face was drawn and her eyes wet.

After they cleared the room, he said, “Let’s move on to the next.”

She nodded without saying anything. She’d been silent during the last three rooms.

He took her hand and gently squeezed. For a moment she acted like she didn’t even realize he was there, and then she leaned against him as if suddenly exhausted.

As they reentered the hallway, they heard Renee say, “There you are.” She ran to them, worry in her eyes. “I need you to come with me.”

“What is it?” he asked.

“Something’s wrong with Chloe.”

Renee led them to the open area at the center of the floor, then took one of the other halls back toward the outside. A quarter of the way down, she stopped in front of one of the rooms.

“She’s in there.”

“Is she hurt?” he asked.

“No. Well, I don’t know. She’s been acting kind of strange. Quiet. Distant. And then when we went in here, she just stopped.”

“Stopped what?” Estella asked.

Renee shrugged. “Everything.”

Robert opened the door and stepped inside.

This room was different from the hospital-like wards they’d been searching, both in size and content. It was about the size of a manager’s office back at the Isabella Island Resort, and instead of a hospital bed, there was something that looked very much like a dentist’s chair in the center, but one considerably more advanced than any Robert had ever seen. Surrounding it were adjustable lights and instrument trays. Along the walls were cabinets and several pieces of equipment Robert couldn’t identify.

The one thing he expected to find was missing.

“Where is she?” he asked.

Renee and Estella rushed in.

“But…she was right there,” Renee said, pointing at a spot next to one of the instrument trays.

“Doing what?” Estella asked.

“Just staring at the chair. I tried to talk to her, but it was like I wasn’t even here.”

“How long have you been gone?” he asked.

“Two minutes at the most.”

“Maybe she started searching again,” Estella said.

“Well, she couldn’t have gone far,” Robert said. “I’ll go toward the perimeter corridor. You two go toward the center. If you find her, call me on the radio. Just say you need to see me for a moment. I don’t want everyone getting worried.”

As Robert worked his way to the outer rim, he made quick checks at every room he passed, discovering more wards filled with occupied beds, but no Chloe.

When he reached the outer hallway, he found himself near the elevator area they were using as a meeting point to bring captured Project members. Kayoko Hannigan, another Isabella Island survivor, was leaning against the wall, waiting for the next prisoner to arrive.

“Have you seen Chloe?” Robert asked as he jogged over to her.

“She was just here.” Kayoko nodded toward the elevator. “She headed up.”

“Did she say where?”

“Nah. She didn’t say anything. Looked like she was in a hurry, though. I assumed she was going to scout the next floor.”

Robert ran over to the elevators. The indicators showed one car was on eight and the other all the way up at five.

Perhaps Chloe had gone to check in with the other group. As he thought this, the indicator for the car on eight switched to the number nine.

Robert took a step away from the door, anticipating Chloe’s return.

But when it opened, it wasn’t Chloe who exited.

“Captain Ash,” Robert said, surprised.

“I need to talk to Chloe,” Ash said. “Do you know if she’s nearby?”

Robert glanced at the other elevator indicator, still displaying the number five.

“No, sir. I don’t think she is.”

14

DREAM SKY

2:48 AM EST

T
HE PAST THAT
had been
trickling back to Chloe soon turned into a flood.

The cracks had started even before she’d entered Dream Sky, when she realized this wasn’t her first time here. But it was the chair in the ninth-level procedure room that had busted the dam.

In a flash she saw herself as a child, growing up in a loving home. She’d been an honor student at her high school and in the top five percent of her class at MIT, where she earned a master’s in engineering. How had she forgotten that?

A boy had been her downfall. His name…Adam Lester, that was it. He was in her same major but was also part of something else, something outside the university. A secret project, he’d told her, something that would change the world.

Yes, it was all coming back now. All the bad choices.

The room on the ninth level only looked like the one she’d been in. Hers was on five. Without thinking twice, she headed quickly to the outer loop, entered an empty elevator, and pushed the number five.

“Come, just one meeting,” Adam had cajoled her. “You’ll see what I mean.”

She had almost skipped out when she was told she’d have to sign a nondisclosure form before she’d even heard a single word, but there was Adam again, drawing her in and getting her to put pen to paper.

The presentation had intrigued her enough to return again. And in subsequent meetings, she’d become fascinated by the building projects the organization was undertaking—large facilities constructed to ward against worldwide disasters, she was told. The presenters had explained that the Project was secretly backed by multiple governments, and it was hoped the facilities would never be used but it was better to be prepared than not.

The job offer had come two weeks before she received her diploma. The pay was easily twice that of any of her other offers, but the challenges of building underground facilities had been more than enough of an enticement. If they’d offered her only room and board, she would have still signed on.

Had she suspected there was more to the Project than she was being told? Of course. But it’d been easier not to think about those things and concentrate on the work she would be doing.

The elevator door opened.

Even if she were blind, she would have known she was on level five. There was a smell so similar to the one on the other levels, but different enough that she could sense it. She stepped into the outer loop, her heart pounding.

A special assignment, she’d been told while undergoing her employee training program. An assignment that needed several volunteers. Chloe—her name was still Lauren Scott then—was just the type of person they needed, her supervisor had said, and they would be ever so grateful if she agreed to participate. There was even a bonus of three months’ salary attached to the assignment. Though her supervisor had said he couldn’t give her any details, Chloe had assumed it was something to do with her engineering expertise and readily agreed.

They’d flown her north from the training facility outside Nashville, Tennessee, to a private landing strip in New Hampshire. She and four other volunteers had been driven to Everton, and then taken down a long tunnel via a funicular train to one of the Project’s underground structures that had been completed. A facility called Dream Sky.

The five of them had undergone a series of medical exams and taken several written tests that Chloe had thought were meant to determine their mental abilities. On a few occasions between tests, as an alternative to wandering through the base, the volunteers had been allowed to go into town as “tourists” to avoid any lengthy conversations. Chloe’s favorite place had been the old revolutionary-era church. It reminded her of the one near her parents’ home, and she’d found it relaxing to sit in the pews when the building was empty.