An alarm shrieked.

“What are you doing?” she asked, yelling over the high-pitched bleating sound.

“Searching the premises.” He threaded his arm through the broken pane, reaching for the doorknob. “Carriers could be locked somewhere inside.”

“If they left, they wouldn’t have left carriers behind. They’re too valuable.”

Sebastian unlocked the door. He threw it open and darted inside.

Shit.

Her job was to protect the asset. Whatever came of this, Roland would want a detailed report.

Ellie hurried after him, trailing Sebastian through a maze of hallways and rooms bigger than her studio apartment.

There was no one here.

Sebastian, Ellie could see, was trying to keep his shit together.

He insisted on driving. He plugged the Ojai address into the dashboard GPS. It took a moment for the satellite to download the information, Sebastian looking like he was going to slam his fist through the screen.

The GPS said they were roughly half an hour away. Provided we don’t hit any roadblocks, Ellie added privately.

“They said Santa Paula wasn’t evacuating. You heard that on the radio, too, right?”

“Wildfires change,” Ellie replied. “The winds shift. They can—”

“I checked online. There was no mandatory evacuation listed.”

“Dixon decided to get out of town. It’s the smart move.”

He glared at her, as though she had just said something offensive.

“Get an update on Ojai,” he said. “Find out what’s going on there.”

“No cell signal, remember?”

The evening sky was quickly turning over to night, the way it did during the winter months.

Sebastian’s driving was erratic. She knew he had packed a good amount of firepower in the duffel bags he’d stored underneath the Range Rover’s trunk floor, where the spare tire was kept. Ellie doubted a patrol cop would look there if they got pulled over for speeding, but why risk it?

“Slow down,” Ellie said. “You’re going to—”

He slammed on the brakes.

The laptop slid off the tops of her thighs and crashed onto the floor. She reached out reflexively to grab the edge of the dashboard with her hands to prevent herself from smashing into it, even though she was buckled up. The seat belt gripped her, and as she was thrown back against her seat she whipped her head around to the windshield, and saw a large dog, maybe even a wolf, charging across the street. The animal had missing patches of fur, maybe from burns. She couldn’t tell. It disappeared around the side of a house.

Ellie stared after it, blinking. She thought back to that morning during the early summer when Danny had almost hit that black Lab. Her life had changed that day. And while she wasn’t one to give credence to omens or superstition, she couldn’t help but wonder, as Sebastian hit the gas, if her life was about to change again.

CHAPTER 48

EVEN IN HER altered state, Grace could keep track of the names of the people standing in the room outside her cell. There were only three now, and she already knew one: Paul. The old man Paul had spoken to earlier was Chauncey, and the sole focus of their attention was the third man, Mr. Jahed.