The rain made the image grainy, but I could make out a figure standing under the awning of the kitchen door.

It was a woman.

She was wearing a long, light-colored dressing gown, her hair pulled back.

My mother.

She was holding a flashlight, pointing it toward the gravel path that led to our security office.

“She’s looking for us,” Madison whispered, standing up to look over my shoulder.

“Or she’s waiting for someone,” I said.

On the screen, my mother raised the flashlight and blinked it three times into the darkness.

A moment later, two headlights flickered at the far end of the property line, near the service gate.

The lights were faint, partially obscured by the dense pine trees, but they were there.

“Who is that?” Madison asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But they didn’t come through the main entrance.”

I turned back to the metal desk and picked up the flash drive.

“We need to know what is on this drive before Hayes gets here,” I said.

I sat down at the security terminal and plugged the military drive into the USB port.