“I’m glad one of us was thinking,” said Rich.

An old-fashioned white streetlight rose slowly in the distance as the helicopter gently bounced on its wheels before settling into the landing. The high-pitched whine of the turboshaft engines shifted to a slightly lower tone as Marnie shut down the helicopter. Rich pointed toward the streetlight.

“Let’s head to the road and take a right instead of trying to cut through someone’s backyard,” said Rich. “I don’t want to get shot and killed by a local after running Stalin’s gauntlet back at the camp. The whole town is probably on alert from the combination of the explosion and a helicopter suddenly landing. This is tinfoil-hat country.”

“Hard to argue with not getting shot,” said Devin, and they set off for the road.

A short jog later, they arrived safely at the motel parking lot, where they immediately removed their tactical gear and stowed it in the back of the SUV, along with their rifles. Rich handed one of the rifles to Devin, along with a few spare magazines.

“Keep this out of sight, but accessible if I need it.”

“Still not out of the woods, so to speak?” said Marnie.

“I hate to break this to you, but we just stepped deeper in the woods with tonight’s stunt,” said Rich, shutting the rear liftgate. “Out of the woods means busting up this sleeper conspiracy.”

“Wonderful,” she said.

Devin opened the door to the back seat for Marnie, who hopped in and took the rifle. As soon as Devin shut the door behind him, Alex tore out of the parking lot, throwing him against the seat. He’d noticed that Rich’s people weren’t big on wasting time, even under the most mundane circumstances. Every second counted with these people, which was probably one of dozens of reasons why they were still alive. Most of them, anyway.

“We still need to pick up the third vehicle at Highway Marina,” said Rich, checking his satellite phone. “Berg will meet us there so we can balance out the vehicles. He’s still waiting for the speedboat. Should be there any minute.”

“Then what?” asked Devin.

“Then we get off these rural roads onto some kind of interstate highway. Get as far from here as possible by sunrise. The Ozarks will be crawling with law enforcement sooner than later,” said Rich.

“At some point I’m going to need some sleep,” said Devin.

“Why? You slept on the helicopter,” said Rich.

“Really?” said Marnie.

“He was out like a light once the shooting stopped.”

“I apologize if that’s a faux pas when your best friend is flying the helicopter. Something about the rhythm of the rotors or something just pulled me under,” said Devin.