Avery crept to the leader of Zulu team and whispered to him, too low for Peyton to hear. The man shook his head and pushed her back, seeming annoyed.

She didn’t let it go. Seconds later, she rose and barreled down the hill.

The man’s voice was hard over the comm. “Medusa, return to rally point.”

Avery didn’t stop.

“Fox team, be advised, Medusa is inbound to your twenty.”

Zulu leader looked back at Desmond, who just shrugged, letting the man know they’d been dealing with the same thing.

Another electric car emerged from the wooded path and parked at a house unoccupied by the soldiers. Two more cars drove to different houses. Along the perimeter, several of the black-clad troops began spreading closer to those houses.

Peyton desperately wanted to know what was going on, but she held her tongue and tried to stay calm.

A hushed voice came over the comm, a soldier; wounded, Peyton thought. “Zulu, Bravo teams. Move in. Hurry.”

Chapter 113

Chapter 113

Inside the second home, the blinds were closed. Blood spread across the wide-plank hardwood floor. Peyton stopped at the sight, walked slowly around it. The Marines and Navy SEALs moving through barely took notice. They went from room to room, calling “Clear!” before re-entering the central hallway.

Peyton relaxed when she heard her father’s voice in the dining room. She found him standing with Avery and two other soldiers. They had taken a painting from the wall and had drawn a map of the island and its buildings on the back.

William activated the comm and laid out his plan, broadcasting to their forces and to the Boxer’s Combat Information Center.

He and the soldiers had interrogated several of the homes’ residents and had learned a great deal. The map was an updated view of the island’s layout, which had changed some since the sixties. About two hundred private security contractors were housed in barracks near the harbor. The island had also been upgraded with significant defensive capabilities, including advanced sonar and radar. The technology likely would have detected the larger amphibious landers long before they reached the beach. They were unsure whether the small boats they’d used to come ashore had been detected, but they were hopeful they’d gone unseen. The detection grid was focused on the harbor side of the island.

The most concerning fortifications were the island’s surface-to-air and surface-to-sea defenses. The Citium was capable of fending off attacks from the Boxer’s air wing, and it had missiles with sufficient range to reach the ships of the expeditionary strike group.

William urged them not to move the vessels back; if the formation of ships was already under surveillance, withdrawing might raise suspicion—and launch a search of the island.