Corbin bit her lip with indecision for a moment and then said, “At least we know where he is. We stick with the original plan, with one major modification. We round up all the kids we can find and lead them to the secret staircase to the Sanctuary, since we obviously can’t open the shelter doors with Victor standing there.”

“Phew,” Josh said through an exhale. “For a moment I thought you were going to say you wanted us to be bait to lure him away from the door.”

Corbin flashed him a wry grin. “They always do that in movies, and it never works.”

“Hey, guys, I got through to my roommate. Apparently two kids have already tried to open the doors and the upperclassmen stopped them. It sounds like Victor is trying to get in all their heads at the same time, just like Sarah Beth said. Trish said it’s total chaos in there, with lots of arguing.”

“And it’s only going to get worse. We need to work fast. You guys ready?” Corbin said.

Sarah Beth nodded along with Josh and Michaela.

“Okay, then let’s go.” Corbin took off running toward the gymnasium, leading them on a mission that, in all probability, might cost them their lives.

CHAPTER
FORTY-NINE

FRONT GATE

ST. GEORGE’S ACADEMY

Jed took a knee beside Brandt Sanderson’s unmoving body. He knew from the vapid eyes that the Shepherd security lead was dead, but he checked for a pulse anyway.

“It’s worse than I thought,” Eli said, checking another fallen Shepherd guard on the berm a few feet away. “This was a bloodbath.”

“Mother, Sword One . . . ,” Jed said into his boom mic, calling Nisha, who was essentially serving as their TOC on the C-130, which should have landed at Trinity by now.

“Go for Mother,” she came back.

“The security augment team is dead. Took on a numerically superior assault force—a group like Dark Horizon from the looks of it. Assaulters tried to breach the front gate with three armored APVs. Unclear how many shooters got through,” he said, bringing his rifle up to scan for movement among the bodies. Dark Ones were notoriously hard to kill and just because they appeared to be down didn’t mean they were out of the fight.

“Copy all,” Nisha said. “I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is we have eyes in the sky with thermal-imaging capability. We just sortied a Predator and it’s heading your way. ETA five mikes.”

“That is good news. What’s the bad?”

“The bad news is the second storm cell is about to be right on top of you and the pilot tells me the Predator will be very limited by the weather. And of course, there’s no way we get air support to you in that. Also, those two vehicles on Highway 70 are still heading your way. ETA six mikes.”

“Is the drone armed?”