Maya’s place is tucked into the forest, but it is still close enough to see another house—an empty house, built for Rae and her mother. Sean had tracked them down and convinced them to come to Badger Lake. I’d gone with him to meet her months ago, but they hadn’t shown up.

Sean had worried something had happened, but his spies had caught sight of them a few weeks later. As soon as Sean tried to make contact, Rae and her mother took off again. Apparently, they’d changed their minds. I couldn’t blame them—taking refuge with a Cabal seemed crazy. But I wished I’d gotten the chance to talk to Rae myself. I don’t know if that would have helped. The last time I’d seen her, she’d refused to leave the St. Cloud laboratory, convinced the Edison Group had our best interests in mind. Once burned, twice shy, I guess. I would still have liked to try.

North Bay is the biggest city in the area, but it’s still almost a two-hour drive, and at fifty thousand people, it’s not exactly a major metropolis. It has what we need, though, for a weekend away.

Maya left Kenjii behind with Ash. Antone stayed, too. So we had Moreno and Luke, one of the security guys. There are a dozen “security guys” at Badger Lake—well, ten guys and two women. They keep to themselves, but I at least try to learn their names, which can be tough when they only stay for three month shifts and don’t interact with us much. Luke has been one of the exceptions. At twenty-three, he’s the youngest guard we’ve had, and he’s into caving and rock climbing, which we have plenty of around Badger Lake so he’s joined us at that a few times. He’s careful not to cross the line between guard and friend, but everyone likes him, and we were happy to have him joining us now.

We’d taken two vehicles. Maya and Daniel were in Daniel’s truck. Derek and I were with Moreno and Luke in one of the vans. We could have all fit in the van, but we like the autonomy of having a separate vehicle—we all have our licenses—and to their credit, the Cabal guys are really good about allowing us that autonomy.