Chapter 11 Boone
Boone
The words hang in the air between us.
They’re building an army.
For a moment neither of us moves.
Outside the cabin, the wind pushes through the trees, the branches brushing softly against the roof like restless fingers.
I look back at the screen.
River Channing.
Gage Sparrow.
Tag Harris.
Oliver Steel.
Lyon Spenser.
Every one of them is tied to the Golden Team.
Every one of them listed in a volunteer recruitment database in a small Montana church.
That’s not a coincidence.
That’s surveillance.
“Wren,” I say quietly.
“Yeah?”
“You’re absolutely sure about these names?”
She nods.
“I ran them through three different databases.”
“And?”
“They all connect to the same thing.”
“Golden Team.”
“Exactly.”
I lean back in the chair, rubbing a hand across my jaw.
That explains the feeling I had in the church.
The sense that we’d walked into something much bigger than a small-town volunteer network.
The door behind us opens.
Boots hit the floor.
Adam Stoker walks into the kitchen, followed by Russ Duncan.
Both of them look half-awake but alert.
Years of operating together does that to people.
You learn to wake up the moment something feels wrong.
Adam glances between us.
“What’s going on?”
Wren turns the laptop toward him.
“Take a look.”
He steps closer, scanning the screen.
Russ leans over his shoulder.
Neither of them says anything at first.
Then Russ lets out a low whistle.
“Well that’s interesting.”
Adam’s eyes narrow slightly.
“Where did you get this list?”
“Church meeting tonight,” I say.
“Volunteer recruitment board.”
Russ straightens slowly.
“You’re telling me someone in a small Montana church is keeping track of Golden Team operators?”
“That’s exactly what we’re telling you.”
Adam studies the names again.
“River Channing.”
He shakes his head slightly.
“River doesn’t volunteer for church programs.”
“No,” Wren says.
“He doesn’t.”
Russ crosses his arms.
“Neither does Gage Sparrow.”
“Or Oliver Steel,” Adam adds.
The room grows quiet again.
Because we’re all thinking the same thing now.
This network isn’t random.
It’s watching the best operators in the country.
I tap the table lightly.
“They’ve been mapping capability.”
Russ frowns.
“Meaning?”
“They’re identifying people with the skills to operate during disasters.”
Adam nods slowly.
“Search and rescue.”
“Medical.”
“Logistics.”
“Combat.”
“Exactly.”
Wren zooms the map out again.
The screen fills with markers across several states.
Montana.
Idaho.
Wyoming.
Colorado.
Utah.
Adam studies the display carefully.
“This is infrastructure.”
“Yeah.”
“Not a church program.”
“No.”
Russ glances toward the window.
“You think Golden Team knows they’re being watched?”
“I doubt it,” I say.
“If they did, River would’ve already burned this network to the ground.”
Adam nods once.
“That’s true.”
Wren scrolls through the data again.
“They’ve been collecting names for years.”
“How many teams?” Russ asks.
“I’m still mapping that.”
She clicks another file.
“Golden Team is just one.”
Adam’s gaze sharpens.
“What else?”
“Private SAR units.”
“Volunteer response groups.”
“Former military contractors.”
“Emergency coordinators.”
Russ lets out a slow breath.
“That’s a hell of a recruiting pool.”
“Or a targeting list,” Adam says.
That lands heavy.
Because he’s right.
If someone wanted to eliminate the best responders in the country—
This would be the perfect way to track them.
Wren shakes her head.
“I don’t think they’re targeting them.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
She gestures toward the screen.
“Because they’re organizing them.”
The words settle across the room.
Adam leans forward slightly.
“For what?”
“That’s the part we don’t know yet.”
I look back at the map.
At the hundreds of quiet nodes spread across the western states.
Churches.
Rescue groups.
Volunteer teams.
All connected through systems no one would ever notice.
Until they activate.
Russ finally breaks the silence.
“You think Sentinel started this?”
“Maybe,” I say.
“But Eli said something different.”
“What?”
“He said Sentinel set something in motion.”
Adam’s eyes narrow slightly.
“So someone else finished the job.”
“Looks that way.”
Wren scrolls again.
“There’s one more thing.”
We all look at her.
“This network isn’t just watching Golden Team.”
She zooms into a section of the map.
Montana lights up.
A cluster of nodes centered around one location.
Russ squints at the screen.
“That’s… us.”
Adam looks at me.
“You mean Brave Team.”
Wren nods slowly.
“They’re watching you too.”
Silence falls again.
The kind that settles when everyone in the room realizes they’ve just become part of the game.
Adam exhales slowly.
“Well.”
Russ cracks his knuckles.
“That explains the feeling I had earlier.”
“What feeling?” Wren asks.
“That we weren’t the only ones in town.”
Adam looks back at the screen.
“Question is… what do they want with us?”
I stare at the map.
At the growing web of quiet connections stretching across the country.
And I already know the answer.
“They’re testing us.”
Russ raises an eyebrow.
“For what?”
I glance toward the dark window.
Toward the mountains beyond the cabin.
“For whatever comes next.”
Because one thing is certain now.
This network isn’t just watching the best operators in the country.
It’s waiting for the moment it needs them.
And when that moment comes—
Every name on that list will matter.