“We will talk,” I said, looking him in the eyes. “But there will be no deals.”

I looked at the agent.

“Put him in the car,” I said.

“Allison!” Grant yelled as the agent guided him toward the open door.

“I can help you stop it!” he shouted.

I turned my back on him.

The heavy door of the Suburban clicked shut behind me.

My military phone buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out and looked at the screen.

A new notification had appeared over the blank call log.

It was a countdown timer, the red digital numbers ticking backward.

*00:14:59*

*00:14:58*

*00:14:57*

Vance walked down the porch steps, holding his secure tablet.

“The tech team just finished the diagnostic,” he said, his voice grim.

“What did they find?” I asked, showing him the timer on my screen.

“The mirror server was a trigger,” Vance said. “Once we bypassed the firewall, it activated a secondary protocol.”

“The countdown,” I said.

“Yes,” Vance replied. “The primary server is at a secondary location downtown.”

“Where?” I asked.

“An old commercial warehouse near the rail yards,” he said. “It’s registered to a shell company.”