Bellos and Ramsay were not alone on this trip. Normally they would’ve been, but everyone was spooked. They’d never had a Zed get away before. They’d never had two Zeds get away before. They’d never had six Zeds get away and not been able to figure out what the problem was. It was hard not to blame it on the first three who’d gotten away, the ones on the banks of the Potomac.

It was time for the big guns. The back of the furniture truck brimmed with more Moderators.

It really was a nice day.

Somewhere up ahead was the Zed’s trailer. A supernatural vision had established the general look of where they might find the Zed, and local law enforcement had helped them narrow it down even further. If all was going according to plan, the Airstream was a few dozen yards off the highway up ahead. If all continued going according to plan, in twenty-five minutes, any large chunks of the Airstream still remaining, plus the Zed’s body, would be loaded in the back of the furniture truck. And if the plan truly loved them in a meaningful and lasting way, their Visionary would then stop being tormented by all-consuming visions of an end of the world brought about by Zeds.

“Approaching the target,” Bellos said into his handheld radio.

From inside the back of the truck, Lock, their superior, rumbled in his deep voice, “Keep your eyes about you.”

“Copy,” said Ramsay, although he could have just said “okay.”

Lock’s voice came over the radio again. “Carmen, are you still there?”

The radio crackled, and a clear, professional voice said, “Two miles back. Would you like us closer?”

This voice belonged to Carmen Farooq-Lane, another Moderator. She sat behind the wheel of a bullet-ridden rental car, impeccably dressed in a pale linen suit, her dark hair pulled back into a soft updo, her wrists adorned with slender gold threads, her lashes long and curled. In a former life, before her brother had turned out to be both a Zed and a serial killer, Farooq-Lane had been a young executive at a financial management company. That life had been shot dead, just like her serial killer Zed brother, Nathan, but the apocalypse wasn’t going to find her looking as if she had given up.

“Just don’t go far,” Lock said. “Unless you need to.”