The Feed Slips
The image on the screen jittered, a horizontal tear flickering across Chet’s face. Leah hissed under her breath. “No, no, no—don’t you drop on me now.”
Marianne stepped closer. “Can you stabilize it?”
“I’m trying,” Leah said. “The signal’s bouncing. Someone down there is switching channels.”
Elijah’s jaw tightened. “They know someone’s watching.”
Leah shook her head. “Not yet. Automation handles this. Internal cycling. But if they do a manual sweep—”
“We lose him,” Evan finished.
Aiyanna pressed closer to Lily, braid still neat and tight. Lily wrapped an arm around her shoulders, protective in a way that felt older than twelve.
###
Finding the Relay
Leah pulled up a map overlay, lines of code scrolling beside it. “Okay,” she murmured. “This feed isn’t coming directly from Fourteen. It’s bouncing off a relay tower.”
Marianne frowned. “Which one?”
Leah zoomed in. A blinking dot appeared on the map, just north of the border. “There,” she said. “Old forestry tower. Decommissioned. But someone repurposed it.”
Elijah leaned over her shoulder. “How far from Fourteen?”
“About six miles,” Leah said. “Maybe seven. Close enough for a tight‑beam signal.”
Eliza crossed her arms. “So, if we get to that tower—”
“We can intercept more feeds,” Leah said. “Maybe even access the internal network.”
Evan nodded. “And maybe get a layout.”
Marianne exhaled. “Finally.”
Elijah didn’t look away from the screen. “We move tonight.”
Leah froze. “Elijah—”
He didn’t blink. “We move tonight. But we hit Fourteen at first light.”
Marianne nodded slowly. “That’s the only way the timing works. It’s hours to Black Rock. Hours more to the Hi‑Line. We can’t reach it before dawn.”
Evan added, “And we need daylight on the approach. That terrain is a maze.”
Elijah’s voice was steady. “Then we leave now.”
###
The Ridge Narrows In
A sharp beep cut through the room. Evan turned to the perimeter monitor. “They’ve moved again.”
Marianne stiffened. “How close.”
Evan zoomed in. “They’re at the old cattle gate. And they’re slowing down.”
Leah glanced over. “They’re checking for tracks.”
Elijah’s voice was low. “They’re hunting.”
Aiyanna’s hand tightened around Lily’s. Lily lifted her chin. “They won’t find us.”
Marianne forced a steady breath. “They won’t. But we need to stay ahead of them.”
###
Ada Calls Back
Elijah’s phone buzzed again. He stepped into the hallway to answer. “Ada.”
Her voice was tense. “I found something else. Northstar didn’t fund Fourteen alone.”
Elijah’s stomach tightened. “Who else?”
“Private donors,” Ada said. “Shell companies. Foreign money. And one name that keeps appearing in the margins.”
“Hale.”
“Yes,” Ada said. “He wasn’t just a researcher. He was a partner. A founder. They did not design Fourteen to support plants. They built the company for him."
Elijah closed his eyes. “Ada… there’s more.”
A long silence. “Tell me,” she said.
Elijah swallowed. “We intercepted a live feed. Someone down there. A man.”
Ada’s breath caught. “Who.”
Elijah’s voice softened, but it didn’t waver. “Chet,” he said. “Chet Good Thunder. He’s alive. He’s inside Fourteen.”
Ada didn’t speak at first. When she did, her voice was low, steady, and full of something ancient.
“That boy,” she whispered. “I knew he wasn’t gone. I knew it.”
Elijah leaned against the wall, eyes burning. “He’s hurt. He’s… quiet. But he’s alive.”
“Bring him home,” Ada said. “Whatever else you do, Elijah Greyhawk, you bring our boy home.”
Elijah nodded, even though she couldn’t see it. “I will.”
“And Elijah,” Ada added, voice tightening, “Hale will not let him go easily. Be ready.”
“I am,” he said.
Ada exhaled, a sound like a prayer. “Then go. And don’t look back.”
Elijah ended the call and returned to the others, jaw set, eyes sharp.
###
The Girls’ Decision
Lily and Aiyanna were sitting together, knees touching, both watching the frozen frame of Chet on the screen. Lily looked up at Elijah.
“You’re going to get him.” It wasn’t a question.
Elijah nodded. “Yes.”
Aiyanna’s voice was small. “He helped us.”
“I know,” Elijah said.
Lily stood, small but fierce. “Then we'll help him back.”
Marianne stepped in. “You two are staying here. Safe.”
Lily didn’t argue. She just nodded once, solemn and sure. “But tell him,” she said. “When you find him. Tell him we didn’t forget.”
Aiyanna nodded. “Tell him we’re waiting.”
Elijah swallowed hard. “I will.”
###
The Plan
Leah pulled up the map again. “The relay tower is here. If we get close enough, I can piggyback on the signal and maybe pull more feeds.”
Evan pointed at the border. “We’ll have to cross.”
Marianne nodded. “We’ll take the back roads. No headlights.”
Eliza checked her gear. “We’ll need to move fast.”
Elijah looked at the screen one last time — at Chet’s bowed head, his quiet posture, the twitch in his left hand.
“Level Five,” he murmured. “That’s where he’s headed.”
Marianne placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find him.”
Elijah nodded, but his voice was already somewhere else. “We’re bringing him home.”
###
The Night Drive
They left Red Rock Flats under a moonless sky.
Hayes drove the lead vehicle, headlights off, navigating by memory and the faint silver outline of the prairie. Evan followed in the second SUV. Marianne and Eliza rode with him. Leah sat in the back, laptop open, the feed still flickering. Every few minutes she adjusted the signal, muttering under her breath.
Marianne scanned the horizon. “We’ll hit the state line in twenty minutes.”
Hayes nodded. “Black Rock in forty.”
Elijah sat behind him, staring out the window. The land rolled by in long, shadowed waves — coulees, wheat stubble, distant ridgelines.
He’d driven this route a hundred times.
Tonight, it felt like a descent.
Leah whispered. “Signal’s stabilizing. The relay tower’s active.”
Elijah leaned forward. “How close do we need to get?”
“Within a mile,” Leah said. “Half a mile would be better.”
Hayes spoke without looking away from the road. “We’ll reach the tower before dawn. Fourteen after.”
Elijah nodded.
First light.
That was when they would go underground.
That was when they would bring Chet home.
###
Hayes’ Contingency
Hayes checked his watch, then pulled out his radio. “I’m calling in a medical team.”
Marianne looked over. “From where?”
“Bureau tactical medics,” Hayes said. “They’re already in Montana for the trafficking case we pulled from. I can divert them to Black Rock.”
Elijah stiffened. “Why?”
Hayes met his eyes. “Because Chet has an implant and we don’t know what Hale’s been doing to him. And because when we pull him out of that bunker, he’s going to need more than a blanket and a bottle of water.”
Leah nodded. “He’ll need stabilization. Monitoring. Maybe surgical intervention.”
Hayes continued, voice clipped and professional. “I’ll have them stage at the Black Rock substation. Mobile trauma unit, two tactical medics, one trauma nurse, and a federal EMT. They’ll be ready to receive him the second we’re out.”
Evan added, “Black Rock EMS can backfill. They know the terrain.”
Hayes nodded. “Good. We’ll need them.”
Elijah exhaled slowly. “Thank you.”
Hayes shook his head. “Don’t thank me. This is protocol. And it’s the only way he survives the extraction.”
Leah looked up from her laptop, really looking at him this time. It’s not about the badge. Not within the jurisdiction he represented. Not at the man who had spent the first half quoting procedure like a shield.
But at the man who had just planned, without hesitation, for the survival of a young man her people had already mourned.
Her voice softened, almost imperceptibly. “Thank you, Carter.”
The room stilled.
Hayes blinked, a fraction too slow. He wasn’t used to hearing his first name from anyone here — not from Elijah, not from Marianne, not from Evan or Eliza. They all kept him at arm’s length, calling him Hayes the way you’d refer to a uniform, not a person.
But Leah wasn’t a cop. She wasn’t bound by rank or habit. She invested herself in systems — and in the people trapped inside them. And she had been analyzing Carter Hayes since the moment he arrived.
She saw the shift before anyone else did. She saw he wasn’t just following protocol. He was choosing compassion.
He was choosing them.
Hayes cleared his throat, the smallest flicker of something crossing his face — surprise, maybe. Or gratitude. Or the quiet realization that someone had finally stopped seeing him as the Bureau and started seeing him as a man trying to do the right thing.
He didn’t correct her.
Elijah noticed, but said nothing. Marianne noticed, and her eyes softened. Evan smirked, just a little. Eliza raised an eyebrow, filing it away for later.
But Leah simply turned back to her screen, fingers flying again, as if nothing had happened.
Except everything had.
Because from this moment on, she would call him Carter. And he would let her.
###
Hayes to Command
Hayes’ radio crackled. “Echo‑Three to Command. We’re staged and ready.”
Hayes lifted the handset. “Copy. Status?”
“Mobile trauma unit prepped. Medics geared. We’ll hold position at Black Rock Substation until your signal.”
Elijah listened, jaw tight.
Hayes added, “Be advised — the subject has an implanted device. Unknown function. Prepare for neurological instability.”
“Understood,” the medic replied. “We’ll be ready.”
Hayes clipped the radio back onto his vest. “They’ll meet us at the extraction point.”
Elijah nodded once. “Good.”
Because this wasn’t just a rescue.
It was a race against whatever Hale had put inside Chet.