They knew they had one of us, and they assumed I was still in the car or had fled further.

One of the men picked up Mara’s fallen weapon and tossed it into the back of the SUV.

Within thirty seconds, both vehicles turned around and sped back toward the highway, their red taillights disappearing into the curtain of rain.

I was alone.

The only sound left was the steady patter of the rain on the marsh weeds.

My boots were sinking into the freezing New Jersey mud.

I looked down at the portable monitor in my hand.

The green light had stopped blinking.

It was dead now, the battery finally drained, or the signal cut off by the storm.

They had Mara.

Voss would have her at the Virginia facility within hours.

I couldn’t go back to my apartment, and I couldn’t use my military credentials.

The conspiracy had swallowed my career, my father’s life, and now my only ally.

I needed a safe place to regroup.

A place they thought was completely abandoned and cleared.

The old Mercer estate in Maryland.