part0017

The news media was on the base now. Someone had smuggled one outlet in, and Graves made the decision to let them all in rather than risk a charge that the army was hiding the truth from the public. The cynical part of him knew he’d be accused of something anyway, but why play into their hands like that?

The calls with Washington had been brutal. The Joint Chiefs looked at him with something akin to scornful pity as he explained how the refugees had taken the command center and he had no idea what was going on inside their own building. His request to enter the compound alone was denied outright, but he kept at it until his bosses relented.

And here he was, walking into the lion’s den all by his lonesome to see a woman who had screwed him over on the world stage. But for some reason he still trusted her.

Go figure.

He kept his hands in plain sight as he walked—as if he’d be dumb enough to draw down on an entire building—and sweated into the body armor they insisted he wear. Graves knew they weren’t really worried about his safety, just the appearance of not looking weak in front of all the cameras.

He chuckled bitterly to himself. That ship had sailed, as far as he was concerned.

Somewhere above him, Adriana Rabh was watching this drama, undoubtedly from the comfort of an obscenely expensive aircar. H told him she was “in the area,” watching to see how he managed to defuse this very tense situation. Her attitude toward Adriana was scornful.

Another data point: Graves had been placed in his new job because of Adriana Rabh. He’d suspected as much and H’s attitude confirmed it.

Layers within layers, schemes within schemes. That seemed to be the way these people worked. Maybe it would be better for all if someone just shot him now.

The automatic doors opened when he reached the building and he walked through, hands still out. The inside of the foyer was dark, and his eyes had not yet adjusted. Whispers, breathing noises, and shoe scuffs told him there were at least three people close by.

“I’m here,” he said.

“Walk forward,” said a woman’s voice. “Get on your knees, hands on your head.”

“I’m unarmed,” Graves replied.

“Do it,” said another voice. This one male, but just as young.

“No,” Graves said. “I’m not getting on my knees. I’m unarmed and I’m here to see the Corazon.”

Frantic whispering in the dark. Graves’s eyes were adjusting to the gloom and he saw there were four of them. Two looking outside, two talking back and forth.

“I’m waiting,” he said. The whispers stopped.

“Walk forward,” said the man. “Slowly. And take the second right.”

“I know where the ops center is,” Graves said.

“How do you know that’s where the Corazon is?”

“Because that’s where I’d be.”

Graves had never been in the ops center without the room buzzing with energy. He scanned the rows of empty, dead workstations and the blank wallscreens. “Where is she?” he asked.

His escort was a thin young man with a wispy goatee and shaggy dark hair. He pointed the muzzle of his gun toward the base commander’s office, the glass front of which overlooked the watch floor from the mezzanine level.

Graves climbed the steps and stood in front of the glass. On a previous tour of duty, this had been Graves’s office, and it hadn’t changed at all. He took in the wide, government-issued desk with the interactive glass top that occasionally stopped working for no reason and the cozy chairs, couch, and coffee table that comprised the meeting area. Cora, her lean frame curled into a ball, occupied one end of the couch.

Graves knocked on the window and she opened her eyes. He pushed the door open and stepped inside as Cora dismissed the guard with a quick jerk of her chin.

“You came,” she said simply.

Graves sat in one of the chairs. “Didn’t leave me much choice in the matter.”

“No, I didn’t.” Although her plan had worked perfectly as far as Graves could tell, she seemed sad. “They tried to arrest me, you know.”

“I know.” He tried to take stock of his feelings. The anger and self-righteousness he knew he should be feeling were just not there. Like her, he was sad that it had all come to this.

“How many?” he asked.

She looked away, and he could tell she knew he was talking about casualties. “Ten dead,” she said finally. There was a break in her voice. “Three of yours, seven of mine. A few more injured, nothing too serious.”

“I hope it was worth it.”

“It was necessary.”

Graves felt the missing anger creep up on him. “What is it you want exactly?”

“I can’t serve the Child from a refugee camp. I need to be there for the birth.” Cora’s speech hesitated, but her eyes met his without reservation. “I—I’ve seen it in a vision.”

Graves gaped at her. “A vision? You attacked an army base because of a vision? Was that the same vision that told the Neo crazies on the Moon to take over LUNa City?”

Cora lifted her chin. “They are not Neos, not real ones anyway.”

Graves narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that? Is there a secret Neo network or something?”

“Every organization has people who use the group for their own ends. Even the army.”

Graves decided silence was the best answer. He resisted the urge to touch the Saint Christopher medal around his neck. She was right. Why would the New Earth Order be any different from any other large organization?

“So a vision told you to take over an army base?”

“A vision told me to find you, General, and you would create the conditions necessary for me to serve the Child.”

Graves let the reflexive flash of anger show. “I don’t suppose your vision says what I’m supposed to do next, does it? Or what I’m supposed to say to the parents of the soldiers who are dead because of you?”

“That’s not how visions work, William,” she said. “They tell me what I’m supposed to do. The rest takes care of itself. The vision said I was to trust you implicitly.”

“Why do you believe?” he asked.

Cora leaned across the open space between them and took his hand. Her grip was warm and strong, with a confidence that felt out of place with the turmoil in his own chest. His anger eased and he looked into her eyes. Deep brown, soft, caring. It had been a long time since he’d been this close to a woman, especially a strong, vibrant woman like Cora. Graves swallowed when she smiled at him. He noticed the right side of her smile hitched a few millimeters higher than the left side.

“I believe because it is all I have left,” she said. “I believe because when my life was at its lowest point, She was there for me, and now I must be there for Her. When Cassandra tells me to trust a man I have no reason to trust, I listen to Her.”

Graves realized she was pressing an object into his hand. He turned it over and saw it was a remote detonator. “The explosives?” he said.

Cora nodded. “I’m turning myself in to you and only you.”

Graves sat back in his chair. “Under what conditions?”

“None. I trust you.”

Graves got to his feet. “I need you to drop the jamming screen you’ve got over the facility.”

Cora stood and walked to the door. “Alberto,” she called. A young man dozing next to the cabinet that housed the main computer core startled awake at her call.

“Yes, Corazon.”

“Turn off the jamming field.”

He stood now, looking puzzled. He saw Graves behind Cora and his eyes widened.

“Alberto.” Cora’s voice was soft, but strong, with the tone of a mother speaking to a child. “Turn off the jamming field.”

The young man nodded. A moment later, Grave saw the temple of his data glasses light up, showing a signal. He slipped them on and pinged Maxwell.

The colonel’s square face filled his screen. “General Graves,” Maxwell said. “I’m glad I got you, sir. The situation out here has changed. This whole thing has turned into a three-ring circus.”

Through the transparent glasses, he saw Cora’s eyebrows raise in query.

“Changed how?” Graves said.

“He’s landing in about three minutes, sir, and this place is a zoo. I really need you out here. We are not prepared for this kind of visit.”

Teller . That was Graves’s immediate thought. Somehow he was going to twist this thing into a win for the White House, probably at Graves’s expense.

“Who’s coming, Max?”

“Anthony Taulke, sir. The council is coming here.”