“Good,” he said. “Listen carefully. I’m going to let you both out of the car and then open the garage. You’ll hold hands and walk inside. There’s a door to your right and you will stop in front of it and wait for me. Follow?”

They nodded. He smiled again.

“You really are learning,” he said and paused a moment. “You know, I went to a special school, for special children. We lived there and learned special things. And I was the best student until I wasn’t. If you keep behaving, I might tell you the story. But right now you’re getting out.”

Grigor exited the car, opened the rear passenger door and motioned them onto the driveway. He held the Glock in the kangaroo pocket of his sweatshirt.

“All right,” he said. “Go on.”

The girls clasped hands. As they started toward the garage, Grigor slid back into the Mazda and reached under his hoodie for the remote he’d taken from Kaplan, the homeowner. The door rose with a rattle, and they entered and moved to the right.

A minute later he brought the car in, turned off the engine, got out, lowered the garage door and reached past Jani and Raysa to open the fire door. It was unlocked, exactly as he had left it.

He twisted the knob, and it swung inward. Beyond it was the unoccupied kitchen.

The Glock out of his pocket again, he stepped to one side of the entry and turned to the girls.

“Go inside,” he said flatly.

Jani let go of her sister’s hand and then walked through the door. Raysa went next, her cheeks sticky with tears as she came into the kitchen.

“Walk,” Grigor said, gesturing with the gun. He was still out in the garage.

Jani took hold of Raysa’s hand. It was trembling. She moved close to her and felt her arm shaking against hers.

They started deeper into the house, Grigor behind them.

“We’ll be OK,” she told her sister, whispering it too quietly for him to hear.

16

April 19, 2024
New York

The Net Force CyberOperations Training Center occupied an entire floor of the Terminal, its spacious classrooms, labs and auditoriums capable of accommodating multiple instructors’ classes and boot campers at once. Alex Michaels’s hiring drive had been a runaway success, exceeding even his optimistic expectations, and the influx of applicants from colleges around the country had created an almost two-year-long waiting list.