“Your bombs are about to go off. If you want to live, I’ll get you out of here, but you need to tell me where they are.”

The guy was useless, and Alex was wasting time. He released his hold on the man and started searching between the server racks. “Mackenzie!”

They must be in the room with the test drones. He approached the door. This one required biometrics to open.

Suddenly Carson stumbled up behind him. Alex turned to face him and pointed his gun. What was he up to?

Carson slumped forward and pressed his hand against the biometric reader. “I’m not who you think I am,” he said, his speech slurred.

The doors whooshed open, and Carson stumbled forward into the room and fell to his knees. Alex spotted a wide-eyed Nora on the floor next to Tilden, their ankles and wrists bound with plastic ties.

“Where’s Mackenzie?” Alex searched and found a sharp object, then cut the ties.

“He took her.”

“Who?”

“The guy behind everything. The cybercriminal.” Nora hopped up and pulled Carson to his feet. “We have to get out of here before the bombs go off.”

Alex turned to head back into the server room with the bombs.

“No!” Nora said. “Through the tunnel out the back.”

Alex followed Nora, Tilden, and Carson through the maze of tables and shelves filled with drones. Wait . . .

“Which of these drones uses infrared?”

Nora barked a laugh. “All of them. Let’s go!”

“If he took Mackenzie into the woods, I can use one of these drones to find her.”

“There’s no time,” Tilden said.

“Mackenzie’s life could—”

Carson stopped, causing Nora to release him. He reached for a small drone, along with the handheld controls. “Here. Take this and go find her. Don’t worry about us. Head straight up the tunnel through the exit.”

Alex hesitated, watching Nora and Tilden assist Carson. He wouldn’t leave them behind either. “Here, Nora. I’ll help Tilden. You hold the drone and controls.”

She grabbed the items, then led the way through the tunnel. At the end, she pushed through the exit, which opened up into a loading dock.

A deep rumble rocked through his body, and the ground beneath him shuddered. “Go, go, go!”

They sprinted into the fresh air. A twenty-six-foot transport truck was parked a few yards away from the building.

“Behind the truck!” Nora shouted.

Alex wasn’t sure the truck would protect them, but they continued forward, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the building. He noticed a helicopter sitting in the grass about fifty yards away. Hanstech’s . . . or someone else’s?

They stumbled around to the other side of the truck and hunkered down as multiple blasts shook the ground beneath them, rocking the truck. Shrapnel flew through the air. Heat and flames exploded into the sky, no doubt destroying much more than the servers, the data, the drones.