Once again the Major demonstrated his ability to take a shock and recover quickly as he began barking orders. “Chuck, there’s a phone there in the corner. Call your station immediately and find out what’s going on. I want whatever announcement they are making stopped until it’s cleared. Travis, get down to Central Monitoring and find out who’s sending out messages to the wrist computers. Clayne, there’s a TV in the training room. Get it up here on the double.”

The buzzing of the wrist computers stopped, leaving the room in hushed silence as Travis and Clayne hurried out the door.

Clayne was the first one back, pushing a television on a cart. He was still in the process of getting it plugged in when Travis burst back into the room. He ran to the Major and whispered urgently into his ear. And for the first time in her life, Nicole heard the Major swear.

“The line is dead,” Cowles called from the corner. “I don’t understand it. I know someone’s there.”

“I understand it,” the Major hissed. “It’s Lloyd again. Shirley Ferguson, one of our monitors in the computer center, is missing. She programmed the announcement into the wrist computers and then fled. We’re looking for her now.”

Shirley! Nicole nearly fell off her chair. Plain, plodding Shirley Ferguson? That was the same as being told that your donkey had just won the AFC Race of Champions. And then Nicole remembered Joe Jensen. He and Shirley—of course. She shook her head, stunned.

“We’ve dispatched a team of Guardians to the station,” the Major said, “but I’m not sure they can get there in time to stop the broadcast. But if they are there—”

“Here it is!” Clayne called as the insipid comedy on the screen went blank. He turned up the sound, and for a moment the soft hiss of static filled the room. Then the face of Mark Van Dam, KSHV-TV news anchorman, appeared on the screen.

“Van Dam!” Cowles shouted. “What’s he doing?”

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of Shalev. We interrupt our regular programming to bring you a very special announcement.”

The announcer was easily one of the most widely recognized men in Shalev and immensely popular. But now his face was as somber as Nicole had ever seen it, and tinged with pain. And Nicole understood. His implantation had not been removed, and he was suffering the consequences.