“Looks like we hit the jackpot,” Saafi said, heading for one of the black cages. He swung the door open and pulled out an assault rifle. It looked like an AR-15, but the design was slightly different. It was one of the newer models, equipped with a pulse canon instead of traditional lead bullets.

“I think I’ll be taking this,” he said with a grin.

“What do you need that for?” Emanuel asked, thumbing through the different hazmat suits.

“You never know what’s going to be out there. Like my academic advisor always told me, ‘better safe than sorry.’ And for the record, I do know how to fire one of these. I paid an entire week’s salary for a day of fun at one of NTC’s training facilities a few years back. The thing handles like a charm,” he said, looking down the infrared scope.

Emanuel shrugged and pulled open a cabinet with the blue flame symbol of NTC on its doors. Inside were several state-of-the-art matte black armored suits. They were made of carbon fiber and reinforced with a light, Kevlar-like material. He pulled out a charcoal-colored helmet with a silver mirrored visor.

“Holy shit, I’ve read about these. They’re what NTC Special Forces uses in the Wastelands. Protects you from radiation, lightweight. And these bad boys work in virtually any extreme condition you can think of,” he said, holding up the helmet to examine it under the light.

The sight of the suits sent a chill down Sophie’s back. She’d seen them before, during the solar storms of 2055. “How many suits are there?” she asked.

“Four.”

“NTC must have been in a hurry to leave this equipment behind,” Saafi said. “It isn’t cheap stuff.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Emanuel said.

“Maybe they’re just extras. No time to worry about that now. What size are those suits—think one will fit me?” Sophie asked.

Emanuel grabbed the smallest one out of the bunch, holding it up under the white glow of the fluorescent lights. “This one looks like it may be your size.”

“Perfect. I always did look good in black,” she replied with a smile. “Let’s suit up and meet in the hangar in five.”

The three team members stood looking at the blast doors, the twenty-five-ton monstrosity that had been built to stop a direct hit by a nuclear-tipped missile. If there was a single piece of the facility that made Sophie feel small, this was it. Even the massive domes of the Biosphere’s chambers hadn’t given her such a feeling of insignificance.

She couldn’t help but laugh when she saw Emanuel and Saafi testing out their armor, swinging their arms and kicking their legs about. It was a sight to behold: two men from academia, dressed in some of the most advanced suits of armor ever designed, moving around like they were attempting the robot dance.

Emanuel halted in mid-motion. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s nothing. You just look so . . .”