Breed

Chapter Forty-nine

"How are we doing on the satellites?" Peter asked.

"The CIA had one nearby," Ryan said. "And while we were at it we were able to scuttle a few satellites that would have been in proximity soon. So we'll have the only eyes in the sky."

"Great," Pete said. "How are we going on radio silence?"

"We're working on it," Irene said.

"We've got the nearby cell towers off the grid, phone and internet lines all running through us." Cassie said.

"What does that mean, exactly?" Pete asked.

"It means we can selectively allow traffic. Offsite, people can log in to their servers. But onsite, they can't so much as order a pizza online without us vetting it."

"What's left?"

"Radio. We think we can scramble radio, at least away from the installation... but it's requiring more fiddling than we anticipated."

"ETA on that?"

"Few minutes more."

"Excellent. And Linc's location?" he asked, turning back to Ryan.

"His phone's GPS puts him just outside the perimeter fence."

"And we'll be able to talk to him?"

"Right. We're allowing our data in and out- it's just everybody else's that hits a brick wall."

"Patch me through to him."

"Okay," Ryan said. "Give me a second..."

The door into the computer lab creaked open slowly, and everyone in the room tensed. Cristobal stepped inside, and since Pete, Ryan and Irene were the only ones who recognized him, the rest weren't eased by the appearance of someone new.

"Cris," Pete said, trying to at least let them know he wasn't just a random student happening upon their espionage.

"I thought I'd find you here," Cris said, glaring at Irene. "Where are they?"

"They already left," she said.

"And what are you doing about it?"

"Trying to get them home," Peter said.

"How's that?"

"Mikaela, a few other students and Linc are going to them, to pull them out."

"I'm sorry," Irene said, "about your eardrums."

He sighed, and shrugged. "I get it. You didn't have time to do a tug of war with me over Rox's plan. But you have no idea how much it hurts forcing an eardrum to mend quickly."

"You don't sound okay with it," she said.

"I didn't say I was. You attacked me. And I'm still pissed about it, and might be for a while. All I said was I get why you felt you had to. I might have even done the same, roles reversed. But you'd definitely still be pissed at me if they were."

"How's my phone call coming?" Peter asked, trying to deflect from their interpersonal trauma.

"Is there anything I can do?" Cris asked.

"Just stand by," Pete said, "and pray we don't need you."

"Prayer in general might be warranted," Cris said.

"You should be good," Ryan said. "Line's ready."

Peter raised his phone and waited for it to ring through. It rang half a dozen times before he hung up. "Can you remotely activate his mic?" he asked Ryan.

"Sure. I think."

"Yeah," Cassie said. "You're connected."

Pete listened. There was sounds of the outdoors, insects and the buzz of electricity not far away. "Maybe it's just in his pocket. Can you turn on the speakerphone?"

"Give me just a second," she said. "Yep. You can talk to him."

"Linc?" he asked, and waited several alligators. He knew there was a chance he was being silent for a reason, but he also knew he couldn't wait indefinitely. They needed to coordinate, or abandon Rox entirely. "Linc? This is Pete. Wanted you to know you've got your logistical support. I get that you might not be able to answer right now, but, once you can, let us know, okay. We need to coordinate." Pete hung up.

"That's... not encouraging," Cassie said.

"No. No, it's not."