They walked for a few more minutes, until Anna signaled for them to stop. They were in an open area, mostly just grass and a few trees around them.

“It’s there,” she said, pointing to a totally empty field. In the distance, she could see the outline of a few buildings, but they were too far away to be used for surveillance.

Maisie checked left and right. “It’s not guarded at all.”

“Well, it doesn’t need to be. It’s chock-full of land mines.”

A head popped up in the distance, over the weeds. Anna, Beto, and Ivy drew their weapons at the same time. Maisie moved a little closer to Lennon, but left her gun in her holster.

The person stood and slowly, cautiously made their way to them. A man, probably. He wore a black face mask that covered everything from the nose down. His blond hair was being ruffled by the breeze.

He stopped. “Maisie?”

She let out a breath. “Yeah,” she called. “Hadley’s source? Queso?”

He nodded. The others lowered their weapons.

He drew closer, and when Maisie could see his feet, she realized he was keeping them in a straight line, stepping extremely carefully.

He stopped not far from them. He was very tall, probably close to six foot five, and on the lanky side. Most of his face was covered, but he seemed young. Bright blue eyes stared out over the mask.

“Are you sick?” Anna asked.

“No,” he said.

“You don’t want us to see your face, then?” Ivy asked.

“Not really.”

“What about a name?” Maisie asked.

“I don’t really want you to have that, either.”

Anna sighed. “Listen, Val is trusting you, so—”

“Later,” he said. “Okay? Let’s get out of this field and I’ll…I’ll think about it.”

“Yeah, okay,” Maisie said. Anna frowned but didn’t argue.

“What do we call you, then?” Ivy asked.

“Hadley calls me Queso.”

“Queso?” Ivy repeated.

“It’s a whole…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Can we talk after? Standing in the middle of land mines makes me nervous.”

“Reasonable,” Beto said.

“Okay, listen, this is really important,” Queso said. “There’s a clear path through the land mines, but you need to stay exactly on it. One foot in front of the other. It’s carved out in the dirt, and it can be a little hard to see, but it’s there. We’re going to go in a straight line. Follow the person in front of you exactly, okay? One wrong step and you’re going to blow us all up.”

“No pressure,” Lennon muttered.

Queso carefully turned around, so he was facing the way he’d come. Anna and Ivy fell into line behind him, Beto behind them, and Maisie gestured for Lennon to go in front of her. She took a spot at the end.

Queso took a step forward. Lennon looked over his shoulder at Maisie.

“We’re going to be fine,” she said.

“Or we’re going to die,” he said.

She let out a short, startled laugh. “You’ve been here too long. You’re getting dark.”