“They’re on foot,” I said, my hand reaching for the door handle.

“Stay down,” Aaron said. “If we move now, the dome light will give us away.”

We sat in the dark cabin, watching the white beam of the flashlight bounce off the wet leaves fifty yards away.

A second light appeared, moving parallel to the first.

They were sweeping the woods on either side of the road.

“Grace,” Aaron said quietly.

I looked over at him.

The progress bar on his laptop had reached eighty percent.

A directory tree was beginning to populate the screen, displaying dozens of PDF files and spreadsheet icons.

“Look at this,” he whispered, pointing to a folder labeled *Operational Testing – Active.*

“What is it?” I asked, leaning closer.

“This isn’t historical data from the old cover-up,” he said, his voice trembling slightly. “These files are dated from last month.”

He opened the first document in the folder.

It was a technical report with a red header that read *RESTRICTED – VANGUARD SYSTEM INTEGRATION.*

My eyes scanned the first few lines of the executive summary.