“Sure, Farm Boy,” said Top, “because technicians routinely do that at night without lights or backup.”

“Hey, old man,” Bunny replied, “Outlaw says he saw someone. How many times has he been wrong?”

I cut in. “I was wrong this time.”

Top kept looking at me. “But you thought you saw him.”

I avoided his eyes. “I was wrong.”

When he said nothing else, I knew that it wasn’t actually over. Top had been keeping a close eye on me since we rolled out. This was my second field op since coming back to the job. I’d lost some months recovering from injuries sustained in the Christmas Eve blast that killed my family. Top is way too sharp to assume that a healed body is the same as a healed mind or soul. He’s a wise and insightful man—qualities that make him an absolutely peerless command sergeant. And a peerless friend.

But now wasn’t the time for a heart-to-heart.

“Let’s go,” I said, and I headed across the lawn to the back door. Ghost was at my heels, with Top and Bunny close behind.

“What do we got, boss?” asked Bunny as he came to crouch beside me.

There was a standard key card reader set into the wall near the knob.

“It’s all you,” I told him.

Bunny reached into a pocket and produced a gizmo about the size of a nickel, removed the adhesive backing, then placed it on the underside of the key card box that was mounted to the right of the door. He then took a blank magnetic key card and swiped it slowly through the reader. On the first pass, nothing obvious happened, which was fine. That meant that the MindReader Q1 tac-com strapped to his left forearm was infiltrating the security software. When he swiped it again, even more slowly, the pass code data was imprinted on his card. A third and faster swipe unlocked the door. But here’s the fun part: MindReader is shy and prefers not to be noticed, so it rewrites the host software so that—for all intents and purposes—that door was never opened. There would be nothing recorded on any security log. Nifty.

Bunny pulled the door open as Top and I positioned ourselves for a cross fire. But we were looking into an empty mudroom. I clicked my tongue for Ghost, who stepped inside with great delicacy, as if he were walking onto a thinly iced lake. I followed, with Top behind and Bunny on our six.