Page 25 of A Gathering Storm

The three stepped away to let James continue his work.

“I don’t know where to go from here,” Victor said in an exhausted tone. “I’ll have Jordyn and Garrett search for a backup location, but I sure hope we don’t have to evacuate.”

Eva squeezed his arm. “It could be as innocent as it appears. The camp isn’t visible from the air, thankfully.” But if Kirkpatrick and his goons had discovered their location, they wouldn’t waste time raiding the camp and taking prisoners. They’d want to eliminate the entire team once and for all. She shivered as she recalled the nuclear weapons believed to be still in Alaska. Eva was certain this was Kirkpatrick’s doing to force them out of hiding in order to destroy as many Strike Force members as he could. If Kirkpatrick did use nukes on them, it would level the camp and wipe them off the face of the earth.

???

Get up. Go to the mine. You’re all in danger. Cole’s eyes shot open. Who said that? He looked around at the activity in the war room realizing he’d fallen asleep. He’d only planned to close his eyes for a second. Was the command spoken part of a dream? It had felt much stronger. Like a message from God.

“Is everything okay?” Eva asked. She sat beside him. The last he remembered they’d been talking quietly.

“No, I don’t think so. We need to take everyone away from the camp immediately.” He jumped to his feet. Before he had a chance to say anything, Garrett grabbed the room’s attention with the announcement that the website had gone down.

James moved his chair next to Garrett and tried a couple of commands without any results.

With Cole’s command to leave momentarily pushed aside, he watched James try desperately to bring the site back up. “Can you fix it?” Cole asked. Without a doubt, Kirkpatrick’s people had managed to do what Martin Collins and his Legion hadn’t.

James’s frown deepened as he typed furiously. “I don’t know. We’ll keep trying. If I can’t get it back up, we may have to start over, which could take days.” The look of frustration on James’s face was well-warranted. He and his team of intelligence people had worked long hours to create the website. Losing it was a major setback.

“Do everything you can,” Cole responded. “Without that form of communication, there’s no way to reach those who are seeking the truth. As things start to happen quicky, especially with Kirkpatrick’s drive to unite the world for his own dark plans, the world needs an unbiased source of information for what’s really happening.”

James nodded. “We’ll keep trying to get it back. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of information that might be lost for good.”

Cole clamped a hand on James’s shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to ask, brother. We all appreciate your and your team’s efforts.”

James actually smiled. “Thanks, brother. At least our satellite monitoring systems are still up and running. We can tell if anyone tries to slip up on us.” Cole looked out at the dark skies, his command to get up and go became urgent. Another hour stood between them and daylight, yet he couldn’t help but believe Kirkpatrick’s people were closing in.

“That’s a good thing.” He glanced at Eva who had been watching him carefully. She’d been at his side when the alarming message entered his thoughts. “Let’s get our search team together now. We’ll start out for the abandoned mine up in the mountains as soon as everyone’s ready.”

“I’ll grab my gear.” Eva left the room.

Kaid started for the door. “I’ll round up Will and Ben and Lincoln. We’ll be ready in ten.”

“Thanks.” Cole forced a smile, yet his thoughts were troubled. He couldn’t erase those words from his head. It was almost as if God had woken him from sleep with an order. It was critical to find a safe location to move the people from the camp. He studied the computer screen that showed the skies above the camp. All was quiet. Still, his nerves wouldn’t let up. God was warning them danger was coming their way.

Eva and the rest of his search team returned. “We’re all ready,” she told him once she came over.

Cole looked toward the darkness outside the windows. “It’ll be dark for another hour. We’ll have to use the flashlights.” Trying to explain the command to hurry wasn’t easy. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”

“I agree.” That Victor thought the same thing only made the future more ominous.

Someone entered the room and they turned. Tegan spotted Victor and quickly made his way over. From the worry on Tegan’s face, the man had bad news.

“It’s Collins,” Tegan said once he reached them. “He wants to speak to you,” he told Victor. “He says it’s urgent.”

Cole tamped down the urgency coursing through his body that warned something bad was coming their way and followed Tegan.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Eva grabbed his arm and held him back when the others entered Collins’ room.

He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but my gut is telling me we have to get our people out of camp and soon.”

She looked into his eyes. “I feel the same way.”

In the past, he and Eva were in sync when working missions, picking up on each other’s concerns. “Let’s make this quick. I just hope Collins isn’t playing games. We don’t have time to waste.”

Together they entered the room where Collins appeared to be a tormented man, and gauging from the early hour, he was unable to sleep as well.

“I asked to speak to one person,” Collins said as he glanced around at the faces of Strike Force.

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