Rage Read Free Page A

massive building loomed in the distance, four, five stories tall. It looked like something NASA might need, but prefab and put up fast.
    Raine leaned forward as the jeep went straight to that structure in the early Colorado morning.
    The building was surrounded by a fence topped with concertina wire, and at the gate post, four soldiers stood with their M16s at the ready.
    And inside the fence—in case no one got the point—anAbrams battle tank, another soldier manning the .50 caliber from the open turret.
    Probably more security inside the building itself.
Raine’s intrigue was growing. Something pretty important was happening there.
    The jeep screeched to a halt, and he didn’t need to be told this was their next stop. He opened the jeep door.
    “Thanks for the ride,” he said to the driver.
    Following Jackson, he went to the gate. Jackson flashed something from his back pocket, one of the soldiers gave a signal, and the gate opened.
    Raine came up beside him. “Y’know, stopping for a warm coat might have been a good idea.”
    Jackson was dressed only in his suit.
    “Tell me about it.”
    A joke?
Interesting.
    Jackson led the way to a side door. Raine could see this building had giant hangar-sized doors as well. Something big was going on in there.
    Or was going to come
out
of there.
    Another solider at that door, but he already had it open, and the two men walked in. Raine noticed that Jackson walked with the quick, direct stride of someone who knew where he was going.
    He’d been here before.
    He made a sharp right at entering and went down a long corridor with corrugated metal walls on either side. It seemed to Raine that there was no way to go deeper into the building.
    But then the corridor turned left, and right again, like a maze. Jackson moved quickly, leading him down a warren of hallways before they came to an open service elevator. It was a wire mesh frame, designed to get big things up and down. Jackson slid it open, the elevator’s gate rattling.
    Raine looked up, the roof of the building high above them, then at the elevator keypad.
    After a zero, all
negative
numbers.
    “We’re going down?” Jackson nodded as the elevator gate closed. He slid his card in front of a reader—too fast for Raine to see—and a light turned green. The elevator started down.
    And it kept going down for what seemed a long time.
    When it stopped, someone was there to greet them.
    “Lieutenant Nicholas Raine. How are you, Lieutenant?”
    Raine looked through the mesh and saw his old captain.
    “Captain Hill?” Raine saluted.
    Hill opened the gate. At first he was surprised to see his captain, but then Raine noticed the scene behind Hill, and it seemed the surprises might only have begun. It resembled Hollywood’s fantasy version of a war room. Banks of computer screens, some showing images, other data. People walking around quickly with a grim sense of purpose. And toward the back, a raised stairway up to a door.
    Two more soldiers at that door.
    Raine walked out of the elevator. “Didn’t expect to see you here, Captain.”
    Captain Stephen Hill, a man Raine had always respected even if he didn’t always agree with him, laughed. “To be honest, Raine, never expected to see you here as well.” The smile faded. “In fact, I never expected to see you again.”
    “I—um—”
    “I know. You’ve got questions. Well, I’ve got answers. I have an office down here. It’s small and a bit of a mess, but it will serve.” Hill took a breath.
    “I’m ready to tell you everything.”
    Hill had his eyes locked on Raine’s.
    Like—he’s sizing me up.
    For what?
    “I think I’m ready for that.”
    A bit of a smile returned.
    “So, Lieutenant, you think … you can handle … the truth?”
    Such a line. An old movie scene that every officer Raine ever knew could quote verbatim.
    “Always preferred truth to its opposite, Captain.”
    “Yeah. I know that about you. Okay—follow me and we’ll get started.