“It’s going to be an unholy alliance,” Megan said, and was about to lift her own drink off the table when her cell phone bleeped in her pocket—a three-note sequence she’d tagged to Pete Nimec’s cellular only hours earlier.

She held up a finger to Annie, took out the phone, and flipped it open against her ear.

“Pete, hi,” she said. “If you’ve changed your mind about joining—”

She fell silent, listening. Annie watched Meg’s relaxed expression abruptly transform—the grave, alarmed look that came over it making her very worried.

“Yes . . . yes . . . how could? . . . okay, I understand . . .” Megan said. Her eyes snapped to the group at the dartboard. “Wait, I have some extra people with me. Stay where you are, we’ll meet you right away.”

She shut the phone with one hand, then glanced at Annie with dismay.

“We have a problem,” she said, pushing herself up off her chair.

“Meg, I don’t see how you expect me to use half these people. . . .”

“They can handle themselves.”

“They’ve been drinking.”

“I know. That’s just how it is. They weren’t on rotation.”

“But I need to rely—”

“I’m vouching for every one of them.”

Nimec and Megan stood facing each other in silence. They’d linked up in one of the interconnected utilidors bored into the solid ice underneath the station, its hooded lights shining down on a tubular steel liner crusted with frost like the inside of a freezer, the temperature almost forty degrees below zero. Close around them, Sword ops were hastily shrugging, zipping, and snapping into their ECW outfits as they came pouring into the tunnel.

After a moment Nimec nodded.

“All right,” he said. “Any suggestions about how to divide the manpower?”

“I’ve got two of our best with Annie and the Senators. I think we can spare four more to secure the area around the building.”

“That’s seven men,” Nimec said. “Not enough.”

“Eight men, counting Hal Pruitt.”

“Still won’t do.”

“Our total force is twenty-nine, Pete. There are only so many places where anyone can gain access to the base, and I can’t see anyone trying a full-scale action in this storm. It’s not feasible.”

“Maybe you’re right. But we also didn’t expect what we already know is happening, and I’m not about to gamble,” Nimec said. “I say we double up the perimeter defense into teams, leave four men inside to guard against a breech. That leaves me with thirteen—”

“I’ll go along with two men to patrol the building,” Megan said. “You’ll need the rest with you. And I’ve got the maintenance and support crew as backup. They’re a solid bunch, Pete.”

Nimec started to protest, hesitated, then nodded reluctantly.

“Your call again,” he said. “Make sure Pruitt stays at the monitors. We need him to direct traffic.”