The colonel led them through the ugly green halls, down corridors Fort had never been in, which just made him more lost than ever. Thick green pipes ran along the top of each wall, with black wires snaking in and out of them. Here and there, a construction worker adjusted wiring inside the walls, bright blue sparks flying.

“This bunker was built for Congress, in the event of a catastrophe,” Colonel Charles said, walking Fort past one of the workers. “That was back in the late nineteen-fifties, if you couldn’t tell by the decor.”

“What are they doing?” Fort asked as someone pushed a cart with two huge metal barrels down the hall past them.

“Renovations,” Colonel Charles said. “All of the electronics in here were out of date, and we needed communications to the outside world that wouldn’t go out the first time a Destruction student learned how to cast an electromagnetic pulse.” He snorted, and Fort figured that was supposed to be a joke.

Somehow, he couldn’t make himself laugh. “So the school isn’t ready? I thought classes were going to start tomorrow.”

“Oh, it’s ready enough,” Colonel Charles said as they passed a horribly carpeted room that looked like it had enough desks and chairs to fit almost five hundred people, all facing a raised podium in front. Maybe that was where Congress would have met? “This was our backup school from the beginning. But ever since the attack, and thanks to your discovery about Healing magic hurting the Old One, we decided to increase attendance. And that required upgrading more of the facility than we’d originally planned on.”

They passed by another large room, this one with glass walls so Fort could see soldiers inside sitting at computers that at least looked more modern than the rest of the place. He also noticed several televisions around the ceiling of the room, televisions that showed—

Fort’s breath caught in his throat, throwing him into a coughing fit as he struggled to believe what he’d just seen.

Colonel Charles paused and followed Fort’s gaze to where the television showed pictures of Damian, the boy who’d been taken over by the Old One, and Sierra, the girl who’d linked to Fort’s mind accidentally during the attack that had taken his father.

And the text above each picture labeled them as terrorists.

“We’re saying they’re part of the Gathering Storm,” Colonel Charles said, turning back to Fort now. “It’s a bit easier to say that than reveal that the girl wiped our memories and escaped after waking up from a coma and destroying the first Oppenheimer School. And we do want people afraid of them, so the public will be on the lookout. It makes sense all around.”

Fort stared at the screens for a moment, then realized what he’d heard. “Wiped our… memories?” he asked.