“Harbinger, Harbinger, Harbinger…” Stricken’s laugh was cold. “Come on, buddy. I’m going to give the order to burn you out of there tomorrow morning. I know how you people think. The last thing I want to do is arm you better! Put yourself in my shoes. I’m under no delusions that you’re going to find a way to beat this thing when the best minds of the greatest generation couldn’t. But we’re in Vegas, so I’m in a gambling mood. I’ll put a little on my long shot, i.e., you, but I’ve got to hedge my bets. If that’s all, I’ve got work to do.”

“And Heather’s team? Did they really disappear, or were you using her to motivate me to do your dirty work?”

Stricken stroked his chin thoughtfully with his eerily long fingers. “I told the truth that time. There’s still no sign of them. She’s MIA.”

Earl hung his head for a very long time. The Hunters were so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. “Stricken?”

“Yes, Harbinger?”

“This isn’t over between me and you.”

“I would expect nothing less. I’ll be in touch.” The screen went black.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

One of the first keys to survival in a bad situation is organization, or as Earl liked to say, “Keep your shit together and you’re less likely to choke.”

Milo had completed his inventory of all our available equipment. It wasn’t nearly as good as I’d hoped. Sure, all of the Hunters had been armed, but very few had been loaded for bear. My team was the only one that had come in directly from a mission with a full load-out. Our Hunters who had road-tripped in had quite a bit of gear, but the ones who had flown in were minimally armed, though after the lesson of the Christmas party, you’d be hard pressed to find an MHI member who travelled anywhere without at least two guns and their armor. The Hunters from other countries were worse off, with most of them having been dissuaded by all of the bureaucratic hoop-jumping, though many of them had found some crafty way to arm themselves locally immediately after Stricken’s challenge. A few had even been able to do it legally.