The screen went dark as the scene faded to night, only a few points of light glimmering in a sea of black. Then one of the humans clicked a key, and the image switched to a grainy green color. I could see the buildings, blurry and indistinct, through the emerald haze, and the fence surrounding the base as the camera zoomed in. The time on the bottom left of the screen read 3:26 a.m., dated two days ago.

I blinked. Two small black dots were moving across the desert from the east, looking like tiny crawling insects from this height but definitely making a beeline toward the fence. They weren’t coming in from the road; in fact, it looked like they were actively avoiding the gates, heading toward the most isolated corner of the compound. As I stared, amazed, they paused at the fence a few seconds, slipped through a hole they must’ve cut out and began creeping across the yard toward the main headquarters.

“What in the world?” I whispered, baffled as I watched their progress. “That can’t be…”

“We believe it is Ember, Mr. Hill,” Mist finished solemnly. “And Cobalt. None of our agents have received orders to move on a St. George facility in several months. Cobalt has the knowledge and the skills for this type of work, and he is bold enough to infiltrate even an Order chapterhouse. It’s one of the reasons he is so dangerous to the organization.”

“But why is Ember with him?” I asked, unable to tear my gaze from the two tiny figures, darting through shadows and around corners, avoiding the light. Anger and fear caught in my throat. She was inside a St. George base! What was she thinking? If anyone spotted her, she was dead. Get out of there, I wanted to shout, knowing it was futile. Ember, you stubborn idiot, why are you doing this? Get out of there before you’re killed.

Mist didn’t say anything. Turning, she nodded to one of the humans, who bent over the keyboard. A moment later, the screen jumped to fast-forward, with the time in the left corner accelerating rapidly, though nothing inside the base appeared to move.

“Stop,” Mist commanded, and the screen froze. “Look at the upper left corner, Mr. Hill,” she went on, nodding to the blurred image above us. “Behind the vehicle, near the main headquarters. What do you see?”

I followed her gaze and drew in a sharp breath. “Three of them,” I muttered, squinting to make sure I was seeing correctly. No, I wasn’t mistaken. There were the two figures in black from earlier, only now there was a third party member, huddled behind the car. “They were there to get someone out,” I breathed, trying to wrap my head around what it could mean. “But…why? St. George doesn’t take prisoners, at least not with us. Who…?”