I’m sure I’ve mentioned that Chief Rogers, like my father, was ex-military. And apparently a believer in the military maxim of victory through overwhelming superiority. The Dunnville police department had a budget and an arsenal that would put many big cities to shame. And Chief Rogers had brought everything, including—my eyes actually bugged out as I registered this—a Humvee with a turret-mounted machine gun. Painted in Dunnville police department colors.

“Holy shit,” Patrick exclaimed. “Is that even legal?”

“Why don’t you ask Chief Rogers?” I replied. “I’ll wait here.”

The Humvee skidded around the back of the cop cars, the turret came around, and the machine gun opened up on the mercenaries’ vehicles.

Disappointingly, they didn’t blow up like in a Hollywood movie, flying into the air with a fireball erupting below them. However, they did immediately become nonfunctional. One actually fell over sideways as half the tires exploded and the suspension on the other side simply collapsed.

The turret gunner held fire and waited. And slowly, hands went up and guns were tossed out onto the ground. The cops came out, weapons at the ready.

“Shit,” Patrick said. “Where did the suits go?”

“Into the barn,” Sheldon replied over the cling-ons. “Jack left the door open. They used cloaking fields and shields to get there uninjured and unchallenged. Most of my cloaking detectors are still complaining.”

“Sheldon, can you watch for them? Make sure they don’t leave.”

“Acknowledged. But it’s just another standoff. The detectors will only indicate their presence, not their location, so you can’t shoot them using firearms, and if they have disruptors they can shoot you first.”

“If the door opens, I’ll zap the door,” Patrick said. “Otherwise, what?” He looked at me.

“Sheldon, contact Commander Nond. Give him all our information on the Tate Industrial Park and Harris Institute. Also the GPS coordinates of the barn. Let’s see what he’s willing to do.”

“And get the Halo out of the area,” Nat added over the common channel. “We don’t want you getting scooped up at the same time.”

I glanced over the top of the log. The cops appeared to have all the mercs in custody. Dad had come out from the trees holding his Barrett M82 and was talking with Chief Rogers. I made a head gesture to Patrick and we headed over. Partway there, Sheldon announced to us, “Commander Nond is sending crews to both locations. They will wait until your local law enforcement has left. Try to hurry them on their way.”

I wondered how I was supposed to do that. It probably involved lying, though. Dad and the chief stopped talking as we approached. “I hope you have an explanation for all of this,” my dad said.