“Go to hell,” he said, but the words didn’t come out, echoing instead in his mind.

The figure above him heard nonetheless.

“With pleasure,” Victor said and slipped away into the storm.

CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE

ABOARD 130TH AIRLIFT WING, WEST VIRGINIA ANG C-130J

CALL SIGN VALLEY ONE

ON FIVE-MILE FINAL APPROACH FOR RUNWAY 25/07 AT TRINITY LOOP COMPLEX

“St. George’s is under attack!” Nisha shouted, running down the aisle from the front of the plane.

The proclamation hit Jed like a hot fire poker in the ribs. “What are you talking about?” he said, popping out of his seat.

“The front gate at St. George’s is under assault. Multiple armored vehicles are attempting to breach the perimeter,” she said, her breath coming in hard, fast pants.

“What?” David exclaimed, and Jed saw the terror in his eyes. “How?”

Sarah Beth, David nearly screamed inside Jed’s mind.

Ben raised a hand but gave David a sympathetic nod.

“Tell me everything you know, and why am I just hearing about this now?” Ben said, joining her and Jed in an impromptu huddle in the middle of the aisle.

The plane jerked violently to port, knocking them all off-balance. The pilots had warned them to buckle in for what was looking to be a rough landing as they tried to beat the storm bearing down on the Trinity Loop complex.

“All comms with St. George’s are down. I just got off the horn with the Trinity TOC watch officer. At first they thought it was because of the storm. The school lost power, but then Watcher Central went dark. The only reason we know about the attack is because the watch officer in our TOC picked up combat radio chatter via one of our campus repeaters,” she said. “From the sound of it, the augment security team is being overrun.”

Jed’s mind instantly went to Sarah Beth. If St. George’s was under attack, why hadn’t he heard from her? Why hadn’t she reached out for help?

Sarah Beth! Are you all right?

Nothing came back to him . . .

“What about main campus? Is Trinity Loop under attack too?” Ben said, worry on his face.

“Not as of this moment,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean Dark Ones aren’t prepping to hit us there. It’s what I’d do if I were Victor.”

“That bastard set us up,” Johnny said, falling in behind Ben and leaning around to join the discussion. “It was all a ruse! He scattered our teams across the country with that energy weapon horse pucky so we’d leave the flock vulnerable.”