“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We’ll see. Get Gutierrez. I’ll continue to make sure we get all the people on the list gathered up, but I need you to work with the doctor to figure out what to do with them once we have them.”

Nate glanced at the clock on his nightstand and groaned. It was 3:30 a.m. “I’ll get right on it.”

“Keep me posted.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

As the first sign of light peeked through the window of his concrete-walled room, Frank blinked. He was worried about Megan, but couldn’t even talk to her. The military personnel who manned the observation center claimed that there were no phones here. That struck him as total hogwash. Like calling this place a “center.” Frank recognized a military prison camp when he saw one. Swinging his legs off the cot, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and studied his surroundings.

His room was an eight-by-ten room with bare concrete walls. The only items of furniture were a cot and a trunk into which he’d poured the contents of his suitcase. They’d claimed all of his other personal items, like the pocketknife he always carried, and a guard had even taken his suitcase off to some offsite storage.

At least they hadn’t locked him in this tiny cell. Yet.

Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he levered himself up out of his cot and left his room. The exit from the barracks-like building was down a nondescript hallway, past a dozen closed doors. Outside, the lingering smell of ash drifted in the air. That, along with the burnt appearance of the rocky soil, told Frank there must have been a fire here recently.

He headed for the latrine, which was just a row of port-a-potties near the fence line. The fence itself was twelve feet tall with barbed wire all along the top.

Yep, this definitely wasn’t a clinical “observation center.”

Opening the door to the nearest toilet, which was thankfully well-maintained, Frank knew one thing for certain.

This was a prison.

###

When Kathy landed in Vegas, an FBI agent met her at the gate and escorted her to the pickup area.

“Don’t we need to go to baggage claim?” Kathy asked. “I have a suitcase with all my stuff.”

The man’s eyes remained hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, and his face was expressionless. “We’ll take care of your bag, ma’am. It’s been marked and will be with the first set of bags off the plane, and someone will put it on the bus before we go.”