* * *

  The van took a sharp corner faster than it should, and Sarah had to hold on to her seat.

  “I thought we agreed not to let Eagle do the driving anymore,” Scorpion said.

  “I’m right here,” Eagle protested from a seat in the back of the van.

  “Oh, my mistake. The quality of the driving tricked me.”

  Sarah clenched her fists on her seat, focusing on her breathing. Knowing that something would happen without knowing what was nerve-wracking.

  “As I was saying,” Griffon continued. “Eagle and Hawk will take on surveillance from the outside. Cypher has marked out two neighboring buildings with a decent view. The rest of us will proceed as per the original plan. When Falcon’s team arrives, they’ll secure the perimeter as needed and join us inside. Mockingbird will assist us in case explosives are discovered.”

  “Does she also constantly blow her team up?” Mermaid asked with a look towards Scorpion.

  “I’ve been assured she does not,” Griffon answered with unnecessary seriousness.

  “Seems a lot of fuss over what’ll surely be another dead end,” Wolf said. “I bet we’ll be home before midnight.”

  Mermaid rose her hand. “I’ll take that bet.”

  “Zeus wouldn’t double our manpower for fun.” Scorpion said.

  Pegasus nodded, shoulder touching Sarah’s as he relaxed in his seat. “Always expect to find resistance.”

  Mermaid looked at Sarah. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Phoenix is here as extra backup and this nonsense about her transferring to support was a ruse to distract the oversight committee.”

  Sarah made an effort to laugh, but Mermaid wasn’t entirely wrong.

  Pegasus’ shoulders shook as he laughed. “Don’t wear out your brain before we even get to the location.”

  “Zeus doesn’t care enough about the oversight people to go through all that trouble to have Sarah with us,” Scorpion said.

  Pegasus leaned closer to Sarah, his fingertips tracing a line along her clenched fist. To the unspoken question, she offered him a smile to say she was fine. She released her grip on her seat, and like a wave, the rest of her tense muscles relaxed.

  * * *

  Sarah jerked forward in an aborted motion when her legs stalled beneath her as if they would go no further. Moonlight shifted among the darkness, as clouds danced in the skies outside.

  “No… What are you doing?”

  Why was she here again? Maybe she’d returned because she’d forgotten the answers to her questions. But the answers didn’t matter if they were just gonna end up dead.

  Sarah rushed forward to grab her companion’s arm.

  The familiar eyes found her. “What’s wrong?”

  “We’re all going to die.” Her gaze wandered around the dark corridor. It had looked familiar at first, but now she saw a few differences in the placement of the windows.

  “Can you do it without alarming them?” someone asked right in her ear.

  “We have to leave,” she insisted, holding on to him when he tried moving forward.

  Even if it were a dream, she couldn’t bear to have him die again without trying to save him. “Do you trust me?”

  “Why are you—?”

  She squeezed his arm with trembling hands, feeling as if her very life depended on his answer. “Do you trust me?”

  * * *

  Sarah opened her eyes slowly, spots of light taking shape amidst the dark.

  Cypher laughed at her. “Welcome back, Phoenix.”

  She bolted upright, wiping at her eyes. Did she really fall asleep in the van?

  The van was parked, and the team was nowhere in sight. Only Cypher and Foxtrot remained.

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  She bit back a curse. “Sorry, I don’t know how that happened. But you know you could’ve woken me up, right? I’m not contagious.”

  In the background, Cypher talked to the team via the com.

  “You looked like you needed the rest,” Foxtrot said. “It’s not like you’ve got an actual job today.”

  “You’re unusually chatty.” The fog in her brain started dispersing at the sight of decaying buildings against the night sky. Reminders of older days, when most of the city’s economy revolved around the production and shipping of goods.

  The view out the window was eerily familiar. Cold fingertips reached forth to wipe the condensation from the glass. She wanted to go out there, wanted to see if the building matched the one in her dream. Her fear told her it did.

  “There’s nothing in the construction plans,” Cypher said.

  Sarah shifted to the edge of her seat, reaching for the door.

  Foxtrot grabbed a hold of her arm. “Where are you going?”

  Sarah stilled, working on erasing any trace of fear from her expression. “I thought I saw movement.”

  Foxtrot looked out the window. “Where?”

  In his seat, Cypher was shaking his head. “Still ten minutes out.”

  The words spilled through her mind like cold water.

  “Tell them to wait.” Her body moved for the door of its own accord. What would they even be waiting for?

  Tightening his grip, Foxtrot followed in her wake as she propelled them both out of the back of the van.

  She ignored Cypher’s shouted question, twisting her arm free from Foxtrot.

  He lunged at her in the next second. The world lit up briefly before her eyes, and a cloud of smoke and debris took over the sky above the buildings between them and the explosion.

  Foxtrot had grabbed a hold of her again, but Sarah no longer had the will to run.

  Cypher continued to call out to the team without sign of response.

  The van shook suddenly, pushing Sarah against the back of her seat. Her eyes snapped open as she bolted upright, smacking her right elbow against the inside of the van.

  “See? This is why I thought Eagle was driving,” Scorpion said.

  Sarah sucked in a breath, holding onto her elbow as the numbing pain radiated along her arm. They were still on their way. Everyone was okay. For now.

  “Have you been taking lessons from Hawk on how to sleep through anything?” Mermaid asked Sarah.

  Hawk, whose head was leaning back against his seat, lifted a hand as an acknowledgement.

  Sarah used the pain from her elbow to focus as her eyes watered. “What’s our ETA?”

  “Fifteen minutes.” Pegasus wiped at her cheek with a gloved fingertip. “Are you alright?”

  She held his gaze. “I was thinking of what we were discussing earlier. About my notes.” She lowered her voice to a whisper, but they were crammed into a van with the rest of the team.

  “The one you showed me today?” Pegasus asked.

  Sarah nodded. “The ones on the top of the page, I think they matched the bottom.”

  “Are you two talking in code now?” Mermaid asked.

  Scorpion scoffed. “Maybe you want us all to cover our ears so you can talk comfortably?”

  “That would be great. Thanks.” Ignoring Scorpion’s scalding look, Sarah took Pegasus’ hand.

  She shifted in her seat, letting her open jacket cover their clasped hands. Drowning out everything else as white noise, she drew back his sleeve and ran a cold finger along his skin. She traced a B slowly, waiting for him to acknowledge it before she followed up with O-M-B.

  Pegasus sucked in a breath.

  Sarah squeezed his hand. “When is Falcon’s team supposed to arrive?”

  “We don’t know,” Pegasus said.

  “There was an accident on the freeway. They’re stuck behind a multi-car pileup.” Griffon closed his jacket, pulled his mask out of his pocket.

  “Not even the ambulances are getting through,” Cypher said.

  “We’ll go ahead without them.”

  Unease festered in Sarah’s mind.

  What could she change?

  What should she change?

  She didn’t have enough information to do anything. Something blew up and they died. So should they not go in at all? Or would that result in the New Nation getting away and worse results in the long term? She squeezed Pegasus’ hand tighter.

  “Zeus suspected the presence of explosives on site, that’s why he wanted Mockingbird around,” Pegasus said. “Don’t be complacent just because we’ve been hitting dead ends lately.”

  Scorpion put her mask on, tucking her hair in. “I think Phoenix’s anxiety is rubbing off on you.”

  The van came to a stop between the fanning out yellow lights of two lampposts. Pegasus released her hand to pull out his mask. Sarah wanted to lock the doors and keep them inside.

  Griffon opened the doors. “Head out. Cypher, keep us updated on Falcon’s ETA.”

  She held Pegasus in place, leaning in until her lips brushed his ear. “I don’t know what happens because I was in the van, but there was an explosion. I think it took out the entire building.”

  “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  A fleeting kiss brushed against her lips before he followed the others out.

  Helpless, Sarah watched them go. Foxtrot shut the door, moving to Griffon’s previous seat.

  Sarah looked out the window, the last of the evening chill sending a shiver through her. Or maybe it was the very familiar view of the outside, with empty buildings reaching out into a cloudy sky.

  The eerie silence highlighted her insecurities. If her last dream was to be believed, staying in the van would not be of any help. There was no guarantee that she’d have anything useful either way, but she felt more powerless observing from a distance.

  The knife—Robyn’s knife that Sphynx had returned to her—felt heavy against her thigh.

  An earlier dream crawled to the forefront of her thoughts. She’d been inside the building then, but without a gun. Pegasus had asked what she was doing there… maybe because she was supposed to be in the van?

  Her mind screamed for her to move, and even her muscles tensed in agreement. She had little trust in her own ability to function properly at the moment. What if she had another hallucination like when Mermaid got shot?

  But then again, she already knew what would happen if she did nothing.

  Sarah fixed her gaze outside, turning her back to Foxtrot and Cypher. Neither seemed to expect any participation from her, so what orders had Foxtrot been given exactly?

  Everything came down to how suspicious he’d be of her. She drew in a breath, straightening in her seat as if surprised. Hopefully her acting was good enough. “There’s movement outside.”

  Cypher glanced her way, signaling his acknowledgment. He muted his com, turning to Foxtrot.

  “Nothing’s showing up on the cameras, but we have a couple of blind spots,” Foxtrot said.

  “It moved west,” Sarah said, hoping that matched.

  Foxtrot checked his gun, unlocking the door. “Stay here.”

  She held her breath as she watched Foxtrot follow the shadows until he was out of sight, lost between two dark buildings. How long would he be gone?

  Cypher’s attention divided between the monitors showing their surroundings and the output from the team, Sarah took her chance.

  She darted for the door. “Someone’s heading for the building.”

  “Hey!” Cypher protested. “You don’t have a gun!”

  “I’m checking it out.” She was out of the van and closed the door before he could say another word.

  Feet hitting the pavement with minimal sound, Sarah ran towards the building, opposite where she’d sent Foxtrot.

  Moonlight cast its silvery sheen onto familiar letters buried beneath layers of graffiti. Sarah inhaled sharply, feeling as if she were trailing her own footsteps. Walking over her own grave.