“Ready?” the male tech said.

“Ready,” the woman confirmed.

“Here we go.” He pushed a button. The machine clicked. The glasses lit up, images flashing in quick succession. A house. An ant. A woman. A tree. A dying tree. A tree falling down. A woman again.

“Listen to my voice,” she said, but the words didn’t match the movement of her lips.

A needle pricked the back of my neck. I flinched and bit down hard on the mouth guard. My toes curled in my shoes. Whatever came out of the needle was warm at first, then turned biting hot, like melted wax running down my neck.

I flailed. Trying to wipe the burning away.

Ants. Ants again. Ants on my arms.

I arched my back.

The ants tore the flesh away from my bones, piece by piece.

The burning in my neck faded, and my body relaxed until I felt like I was floating.

The mouth guard was pulled from my mouth, and my teeth clicked together.

“Listen to my voice,” the woman said again. “Your name is Elizabeth. Your name is Bethany. Your name is Tiffany. Your name is blank. You live in Trademarr. You live in Illinois. You live nowhere.

“What is your name?”

“Eliz…” I murmured.

“What is your name?” she said again. “Your name is…” Static filled my ears. Then a sharp rapping. A clap. Clap. Clap. Beep.

My mind grew fuzzy, as if my thoughts were clouds burned off by the sun.

“You live nowhere,” she continued.

An image of a forest flashed in front of my eyes, and then the same forest shed its leaves and the branches fell to the ground and a great inferno filled my vision with a blaze of blinding orange light.

When the light faded, the forest was gone.

“Listen to my voice,” the woman said. “What is your name?”

“My name is blank,” I answered.

“Where do you live?”

“Nowhere.”

38

NICK

“CHLOE SAID THE VENT WAS A HUNDRED yards from the back of the barn,” Trev whispered.

We were crouched in the woods, the barn a dusky shadow in the distance. “Is it hidden?”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

“Once we get in, then what?” Anna asked. She was on my left and Trev was on my right. Sam and Cas were behind us. “We don’t know the layout, so anything you can give us will help.”

“I’m not sure where the vent runs to.” I shifted, dropping onto one knee. “But the layout is a maze of office partition walls, and they’re tall enough that even I can’t see over the top. If Elizabeth isn’t in an exam room, then she’ll be in one of the holding cells along the back wall.”

“And if she is in an exam room?” Sam asked over my shoulder.

Then we might be screwed, I thought. No way would I tell him that, though. If there was any chance at failure, Sam would call off the rescue mission, and I needed him at my back.

Trev dropped out the clip in his gun and filled the empty slots with new bullets. “We’ll find her, Nick. We’re not leaving without her.”

I nodded at him in the half dark, happy he was here. Then disturbed that I was happy he was here.

Sam came up alongside Trev. “Looks like they have at least six men patrolling the grounds.”

There was a man at each back corner of the barn, two more in the field farther out, and one on each side of the barn. We also had to assume there were probably two more in the front.

“How do you want to do this?” I asked. As much as I wanted to run in there and start shooting people, Sam was the better strategist.

“We could probably get inside the vent by taking out the two agents at the rear, but we risk being discovered when the others patrolling the grounds realize they’re missing two men. It might be better to take them all out now.”

“I agree,” Trev said. “It’ll take the guys inside longer to realize the outside patrols are gone than it’ll take the outside patrols to realize they’re missing someone.”

“Nick and I should go in first and take out the men closest to the woods. Trev and Cas go in wide and take out the men at the back of the barn. When Nick and I have taken care of our targets, Nick will go right and I’ll go left for the last two.”

“What about me?” Anna asked.

“You watch our backs.”

She scowled at her inferior placement in the attack plan, but didn’t argue.

“Ready?” I asked. They all nodded.

My gun in my hand, I crept through the trees with Sam on my left. We had about twenty feet of woods for coverage before the trees broke up and the field took over. When we reached the edge of the field, Sam raised his fist, pulling me to a stop. He held up two fingers and pointed to the north, where two more men had appeared.

Shit.

Sam waved me forward, though, so apparently we were still going through with the plan.

We divided at the perimeter of the woods. I edged forward, dropping to my stomach in the tall grass when my target made a circle, scanning the area. When his back was to me again, I shot ahead silently, putting a bullet in him before he knew what hit him.

Twenty feet to my left, Sam’s guy hit the ground as Trev and Cas blazed past us, knocking out their targets before any of them realized they were under attack.

I went in for my second target—a short, solid guy who was patrolling the north side of the barn. My gun was up, ready to take the shot, when someone shouted from my right.