Rebel Heart

"Elise, please don't!"

"What was worth the lives of the thousand people at the Peak, Lana? Tell me there was something!"

Brady sat back, as surprised as the others. Lana shook her head again. He burned to know the answers to Elise's questions, not even able to fathom what the answer could be. Lana was a gentle soul; the secret must have been great if she left behind that many people to die!

Her actions suddenly struck him in a different light. She hadn't been foolish; she'd been desperate. Whatever she found at the Peak had driven her into a forest full of insurgents despite her injury and her lack of familiarity with the forest or the world outside hers. If she left behind a thousand lives, she'd been running for something greater.

"Out," he ordered.

Dan rose at the command and gripped Elise's arm. The woman was too stunned to resist. Brady leaned back, gazing at Lana. If she'd protected her secret from a thousand people, she wasn't about to reveal it to him. He rubbed the back of his neck. Whatever wiped out the Peak could wipe him out as well.

"Do you have any reason to believe someone is tracking you?" he asked.

"I left my ID at the Peak and disabled my government implant."

"What about your micro?"

"It's untraceable. I checked."

"What about any of the other shit with you?"

She shook her head. He rose, angry and unconvinced she wouldn't bring whatever danger followed him to his backyard. His instincts warned him there was no stopping someone like General Greene, once he set out to find someone. Brady strode out and motioned to one of the guards.

"I need Dan, now."

Within ten minutes, his second-in-command met him in the tent they used as a war room.

"Plan on disassembling our camp within the next forty-eight hours. And, issue an emergency warning order that we're going to send the Appalachia militia to neighboring militias. We'll be a harder target to hit if we're separated," Brady said.

"What are you expecting?" Dan asked.

"I don't know, but it'll be bad," he answered. "I'll give you the coords for the emerops facilities. We can use those for supplies. We're going to dump everything we don't need."

"You think something followed her?" Dan asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm not taking any chances. Whatever wiped out the Peak could wipe us out just as easily."

"Wow, Brade. What's really going on?"