With the radio blasting Big & Rich, Jed carved up the winding country roads. Smiling and singing along, he even rolled the windows down and let in some fresh Tennessee air. A handful of hit songs later, he arrived at the access road to St. George’s. The school itself was set back on a large and sprawling campus with sports fields, a swimming pool, and even an equestrian center. But as he pulled up to the security checkpoint, he couldn’t help but notice that the academy’s perimeter defenses paled in comparison to what was installed at Trinity Loop. The only countermeasures he could see were what looked like retractable security balusters in front of the guard shack, an iron gate on a swing arm, and a fenced berm that ran the length of the southern property line.

Hmm, he thought. I’m surprised they don’t have a bigger security presence.

Jed fished out his Trinity Loop CAC card, the ID for the nonofficial cover for Shepherds North America, and presented it to the guard at the gate. Even though he couldn’t see them, Jed assured himself that a heavily armed, rapid-response force waited hidden and at the ready, twenty-four hours a day, to protect the very gifted and vulnerable young people living on this campus. The gate guard scanned the card and, after getting a green flash on his tablet, waved Jed through.

He limited his speed to twenty-five as he meandered to visitor parking. As he took in the scenery and activity around him, he felt like he’d driven onto the set of a movie. To his right girls’ lacrosse teams were playing on green manicured playing fields. To his left some kids were playing Frisbee next to a man-made lake replete with a wooden dock, a family of ducks, walking trails, and park benches. A two-story redbrick cathedral-style building dominated the landscape with a spire-topped clock tower that drew the eye up to heaven.

Quite a place to get an education, he thought, remembering his dumpy old middle school in Murfreesboro.

He parked in the front row of visitor parking, slipped on his Trinity ball cap, and followed the sidewalk to the main entrance. An armed security officer wearing a charcoal-colored uniform and black kit gave him a quick once-over, then the bro nod of approval as Jed approached the set of double doors leading into the main building. Through the glass he could see Sarah Beth smoothing the pleats on her plaid uniform skirt while she chewed gently on her lower lip, a habit he knew she was trying to break. He sensed both her excitement and her nervousness. They’d not seen each other since the barbecue at the Yarnells’ house—one that had been cut abruptly short by the sudden deployment of Joshua Bravo team to Rome to stop the fallen Shepherd Nicholas Woland as he led a team of Dark Ones trying to kidnap the pope from the Vatican.