“We did it,” he said. He squeezed his eyes shut, opened them, and looked up at an almost mural of blue sky, a few puffy white clouds dotting the canvas. “With some help, I suspect,” he added and gave a quiet prayer of thanks.

“Amen, brother.”

“Now,” Jed said, feeling his energy return and his smile broadening, “can we please get out of this beast.”

“Yeah,” Eli said, laughing.

He followed Eli from the blood-spattered cockpit on still-quivering legs. “Next time you get to land.”

“If there’s a next time,” Eli shot back with a grin, “I’m jumping.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN

MAIN GATE

TRINITY LOOP COMPLEX

WEST OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

1645 HOURS LOCAL

Maria tapped a short fingernail on the plastic case holding the visitor’s pass hanging from the lanyard around her neck. The guard looked at her with skeptical eyes as he spoke on the phone inside the main gate security building. She smiled, but he did not smile back, and she forced her eyes away. Her inner sentry was adamant that she keep her weapon with her at all times. Victor had big plans for today—big plans that he’d chosen not to read her into. The thought of being alone and inside the walls of the enemy’s home complex without her weapon made her feel naked and exposed. Like when she was a kid, vulnerable and alone in a world full of—

A tap on the window snapped her back with a start.

“Very sorry, ma’am. I checked with my chain and I’m afraid you are not authorized to carry your service weapon onto the compound.” His voice suggested he wasn’t the least bit sorry.

“I see,” she said, forcing a smile onto her face.

“I can secure it for you here,” he suggested. “It will be locked in the safe and released to you, and only you, upon your exit from these grounds.”

“I understand,” she said.

“If you step inside, ma’am, I’ll secure the weapon and generate a receipt for you .”

She nodded and followed the guard inside. He led her past a large front desk where a female guard sat at a workstation. The woman nodded cordially at Maria, but her eyes held the same all-business suspicion of the guy escorting her to the safe. Maria’s gaze ticked to the bank of monitors, each subdivided into eight windows, streaming security camera footage from what appeared to be dozens of cameras around the complex. She also noted a control panel for what she surmised were defensive countermeasures—invisible to the untrained eye—built into the access road, perimeter fencing, and this guard building.

“Your weapon, ma’am,” the male guard said, calling her attention.