“Now,” he ordered, and turned his back and talked into the radio.

I backed up the bike a bit into the guards’ booth to turn it around, saw the mini iPad just sitting there, and instinctively slipped it into my pants pocket. I swung myself onto my seat and pedaled toward the road. I realized I was holding my breath.

“Stop!”

Well, that was inevitable. I looked back, and the pug-nosed guy was sprinting in my direction while the tall guard jumped into a Humvee. I sped up as the truck roared to life and barreled toward me, the Asian guy glaring daggers from behind the wheel while the other guard barked into his radio. I was just a couple hundred feet from the tree line, but the truck was gaining.

One hundred feet.

Fifty.

A gunshot rang out.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered, then used all my newfound strength to speed into the woods. I heaved the bike up the slope where the forest began as another shot sprayed dirt beside me.

Go. Go. Go.

I reached the trail, out of sight of the truck, as I heard shouting from below. A maniacal laugh erupted out of me as I peeled down the path at top speed.

When I was sure I wasn’t being followed, I stopped and plucked the mini iPad from my pocket. Miraculously, the screen hadn’t locked; it still showed the list of names through which the guard had been scrolling. I thumbed down the list, the names appearing in no discernible order. But one popped out at me:

JORDAN CONNERS—“RHO”

Next to it: CAPTURE ALIVE AND DELIVER TO ALPHA.

CHAPTER 36

Maggie

MY FIRST THOUGHT was that a motorcycle was speeding way too fast down my little street, but as I stood in front of my house, I realized the noise was wrong—too soft, more of a bzzzzzz than a vrrrrroom. Then I saw who was atop the bike, his legs pedaling furiously. Jordan screeched the brakes, the bike stopping inches from my feet. I didn’t flinch.

“Okay, you’re speedy,” I said.

“Damn straight,” he said with a smile that appeared and disappeared like a handclap. “Let’s go in back.”

He wheeled the bike around my house, and I followed.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Go out front again and see if anyone’s coming.”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a salute. I looked up and down the street, which was quiet and empty. “All clear,” I said as I returned to find him clutching a small tablet.

“I assumed they’d arrest me or at least take me back to the plant after what I did today, but they could’ve easily had someone waiting for me here, and they didn’t.”

The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Wait, what did you do, Jordan? Was this after you met with the coach?”

He gave me a “Get real” look. “I didn’t meet with the coach. I went back to the plant—”

“Oh, shit.”

“—and they shot at me—”