The security panel on the wall near the door flashed red.

The chime began to sound, a steady, urgent beat that filled the library.

“Grant,” Vanessa said, her voice dropping. “The secondary gate was breached.”

The library door opened.

A shadow fell across the carpet.

It wasn’t one of their guards.

It was someone else.

The silhouette in the doorway was tall, wearing a heavy dark coat with the collar turned up against the cold.

The light from the hallway behind him made it impossible to see his face, but he held a heavy tactical flashlight in one hand and a weapon in the other.

“Who is that?” Grant demanded, his voice cracking with fear.

The stranger did not answer immediately.

He raised the flashlight, the blinding white beam cutting through the darkness of the library, sweeping across the desk, across Vanessa’s face, and stopping directly on the curtain where I stood.

I held my breath, my finger resting against the cold metal of my trigger.

The beam of light burned through the thin velvet of the drape.