Page 72 of Hollow State

"We've got a lot to do," Coulter said, grabbing a pair of duffels from the trunk.

The door leading into the house swung open, and Gus stepped onto the landing. The general had an imposing, sharp-eyed look to him, and he carried an air of absolute authority that commanded the room without needing to raise his voice. Darwin had called him all those months ago when her team had been ambushed, and Gus had opened the bunker to them without hesitation.

"House is secure," Gus said, his gaze sweeping over the team. "Good to see you all made it in one piece."

"Thanks for making this happen," Darwin said, hauling the case toward the stairs.

"Don't thank me yet," Gus replied, stepping aside to let them pass. "There's a large room on the main floor at the back of the house where you and Gideon can set up monitoring and comms equipment. I've already had the power routed for heavy loads. It's the most secure spot in the building."

"Perfect," Gideon said, carrying a stack of laptops and other gadgets. "Zadie, could you please grab that black case? I'm going to need your help bypassing the local nodes before we fire anything up."

"On it," Zadie said, breezing past Wynn with a heavy bag.

Wynn stood for a moment by the hood of the SUV, letting everyone else shuffle into the house before following the procession.

"Are you coming?" Gus asked, holding out his hand.

"Yup." She gripped the strap of her bag and made her way to the steps leading inside the safe house.

"You doing okay? That leg of yours all healed?" Gus asked.

"It's as good as it's gonna get." She did her best to make sure her slight limp wasn't very pronounced. Gus might be a badass general, but in some ways, he'd become like a great uncle to Wynn and the rest of the team. He cared for them like no other male superior she'd ever had. Shepherd had once told her that Gus didn't show his soft side often, but when he did, it had to be earned.

In the case of Wynn and her team, it had nothing to do with them being victims. Gus had opened his bunker and risked his career to help them. He loathed what Finch had done to them, and to his good friend, Darwin.

Shepherd had told her how Gus respected her and her team's tenacity. Their loyalty. Their unwillingness to give up.

"I have to be honest." Gus took her bag and set it on the counter. "I don't love this plan. But if it brings Finch down, clears Darwin's name, and gives you all your lives and careers back, it’ll be worth it."

Wynn stepped into the kitchen, and the first thing she noticed was a window over the sink. A tree branch waved outside. Green leaves danced in the breeze. The darkening sky seeped through the pane like it was trying to add to the ambiance of the space and failing miserably.

She glanced at Darwin as he set down his case before turning and leaning against the counter on the far side of a massive kitchen.

There was an island in the middle of it with four stools. Half the team gathered around it while the rest were either setting things on the counter or placing bags near the hallway.

The only place outside of the bunker Wynn had been with Darwin was the institute. But that hadn't been for more than a few hours, and windows hadn't been part of the conversation. At the institute, she hadn't said what she'd wanted, and they hadn't really made their feelings for one another clear. And now, he stood just a few feet from a window, as if their shared future was already a done deal, but they weren't free to live their lives. And if they couldn’t pull off this mission, they never would be.

"I’ve been thinking," Darwin said, adjusting his glasses.

"Whenever you say that and follow it with shoving your glasses up your nose, I know I'm not going to like what you have to say." Coulter set a bag on the center of the island.

"Probably not," Darwin said. "But I'm questioning whether we should dose with VKR-1 right off the bat."

"And what's your reasoning for questioning that?" Neve pushed one of the stools out of the way and leaned against the island.

"If the plan is to get in at night, when very few people are there, get what we need, and get out undetected...why dose?" Darwin asked. "A preemptive dose introduces variables we don't need if we're not planning on a firefight—or any kind of fight."

Neve crossed her arms, her expression hardening into the analytical mask she always wore before an operation. Neve was good at compartmentalizing. An expert at separating emotion from mission. She let logic dictate. It wasn't that the rest of the team couldn't do that, but Neve started there at mission planning and didn't allow a single feeling to cloud her judgment until the op was over.

"But we have no idea what we're walking into," Coulter said.

"That's true." Gideon climbed up on a stool and flipped open his laptop. "However, my job wasn't just building the telemetry system or making the HELIOS prototype. I was in charge of digital and physical security. I know—or knew—the layout of where the guards would be. How many at each station. And, since this is a mostly legitimate operation, Finch isn't going to have his staff juiced around the clock. Not here anyway."

"Probably not," Neve said. "But if we’re compromised inside that facility, we won't have the luxury of a five-minute window to administer the drug."

"She's right," Scout said, leaning against the wall. "And the day you watched our team being ambushed, you learned there are things and places inside Hyperion that many employees don't know about."

"We're running on the idea that Finch has private security waiting in the shadows," Coulter said. "We'll need heightened reflexes the second things go sideways. We can't afford to be caught flat-footed."