“But you said you don’t work for Kaine anymore,” Michael countered urgently. He knew Bryson would be on him any second. “Why are you against us? What’s going on?”

Trae fixed Michael in his gaze. “Kaine has his own agenda. And one thing’s for sure—” The footsteps were nearing, crashing through the bushes, snapping twigs and pine straw, and the Tangent stopped, looked past Michael for the source of the noise.

“What’s that?” Michael pressed. “What’s for sure?”

Trae leaned a little closer to Michael. “Kaine’s a lot smarter than those who slapped his code together, and his vision for the future is…dangerous. As for you, well. Like Janey told you, you’re either for us or against us. And by my reckoning, you have about twenty minutes to decide. How could you possibly want to work for Kaine anymore?”

“I don’t….I never have!” Michael said under his breath. “But I certainly won’t work for Weber, either.” He took a chance throwing the VNS agent’s name out there.

Trae didn’t respond. Instead he looked at his watch. Time was ticking.

“What’ll you do to us?” Michael asked weakly.

Trae nodded back in the direction of the barracks. “There’s a lot more of us than there are of you. I’ll just say that. And nothing, lad—and I truly mean nothing—is going to get in our way. We don’t like what’s going on with the Tangents in those barracks, and we aim to stop it. Go back now. And I suggest you all accept our demands when the times comes.”

“Michael!”

He spun to see Bryson standing just a few feet away, between two large pine trees. When Michael turned back toward Trae, the man was gone.

“Did you see him?” Michael asked.

“See who?” Bryson replied.

Michael sighed. “Never mind. Did you find anything?”

“No, I’ve been looking for you the whole time. Walter called for you but kept going—he said he had his own job to do. What happened? Who did you see?”

Michael collapsed against the tree behind him and slid down to the ground. “Just some guy. Said a bunch of stuff that makes about as much sense as everything else we’ve been told. I think Weber is behind these people somehow, which doesn’t explain much. And it almost seems worse than Kaine leading them.”

“Dude,” Bryson said, somehow making it sound like a reprimand.

Michael groaned and got to his feet. It felt like he weighed a thousand pounds. “We need to go back. And then I think we need to leave. Something really bad is about to go down around here.”

5