Riley ignored that. “We’ll take two vehicles until we’re a couple miles from the base. From there, we’ll go the rest of the way on foot. Wes, how close will you need to be to pick up their signal?”

“Bloody too close,” Wes muttered. “But it shouldn’t be hard to find, since they’ll be the only ones within a hundred miles putting one out. The challenge will be jacking in without raising any kind of alarm.”

“If you do have to move closer, don’t go in the van. Last thing we need is for them to see headlights cruising toward them across the desert.”

“Oh, really? Is that what I’ll want to do, then?” Wes zipped his bag ferociously. “Silly me, here I was thinking we needed big neon signs that said Here We Are, Shoot Us Please on top of the roof.”

Riley rolled his eyes but didn’t comment. “ETA at the St. George perimeter will be zero three hundred. Once we’re finished inside, we’ll meet at the rendezvous and get the hell out of Dodge. Ember…” He turned, and his gaze met mine. “You’re with me. Let’s go.”

* * *

The drive to the Arizona/Utah line was silent and mostly empty. Few cars passed us on the long stretch of highway across the Mojave Desert. Overhead, the moon peered down like a sleepy, half-lidded eye, surrounded by a billion stars that stretched on forever. Out here in the desert, many miles from cities or lights or civilization, the sky called to me. I thought of Shifting, of leaping off the bike, changing forms midair and soaring through the empty sky. Annoyed, I pushed all tempting thoughts to the back of my mind, willing my dragon to settle down. In a couple hours, we would be sneaking into a heavily armed base filled with soldiers whose main goal was the complete genocide of our species. There were more important things to focus on than midnight flights in the desert heat.

Garret. I hope you’re okay. Hang in there, we’re coming for you.

It felt like a thousand tiny snakes were writhing in my stomach, and I breathed deep to calm them down. Was the soldier going to be there when we came for him? Was he still alive? What would he say when we finally found him? I would think that a dragon showing up at a St. George base in the middle of the night wasn’t something that happened often, if ever. Would Garret be happy to see me? Would he accept help from a dragon, the creature he’d been trained to kill on sight?