Brandon’s head fell forward, as if the weight of what Griffin would do were bearing down on the back of his neck. You only have one option, now. No point in delaying the inevitable. “I’ll see you soon, Griffin,” he said, and stood up from the kitchen table as his wife and son stared at him with fresh terror in their eyes.

“You don’t have to do this,” Emily said, although she knew he did.

“I have to buy Zack some time to escape with the laptop. Once he’s gone, Griffin will have no choice but to leave. He’s a lunatic, but he won’t kill an entire neighborhood—no matter what he says. He knows we’d hunt him down to the ends of the earth for something like that,” he said, sounding more confident than he felt. “But to buy that time, I have to go to the pavilion. While he won’t kill everyone, he might execute someone, and I can’t let that happen.”

His wife reached out to him, and he hugged her fiercely. “You and Josh have to stay here. You’re safe here. Keep listening and get out if things go sideways. I love you.”

Emily stared hard at him, her eyes acknowledging the gravity of the situation, expressing it in a way that only the two of them understood. “You make sure you come back. Do you hear me? I love you.”

“I will,” Brandon said, uncertain if he’d be able to keep that promise. He stepped over to Josh and grabbed his son by the shoulders.

“You did nothing wrong. In fact, you did all of the right things. This is not your fault. Sometimes—and you’ll learn this—operations, like in life, go horribly wrong for reasons beyond our control. No matter what happens, this is not on you. This is all on them. Do you understand? I need you to understand.”

Josh stared at his father, knowing that what his dad had said was true. “I know, Dad. But I still hate that this is happening. It’s like this physical repulsion I have to this whole situation. I can’t stand it. It’s just not right, and it’s just not fair. I want to do something about it. I need to.”

Brandon smiled for the first time that night, a genuine, proud smile. “What you’re feeling—I felt it before. People refer to it as a calling, a purpose, whatever you want. The bottom line is that it’s the innate desire to right the wrongs in the world. It’s what drives men and women to join the military, to join our agency and others like it. It’s what drove me when I was young, but you’re experiencing it before I did because of tonight. What you do with it—that will determine the man that you become.”