Chapter 30 Boone
Boone
The helicopter vibrates as we push south through the storm.
Clouds slam into the windshield in thick gray waves.
The rotor blades thunder overhead.
Logan keeps one hand steady on the controls, the other adjusting the collective as the wind shoves us sideways.
“Turbulence is getting worse,” he says through the headset.
Russ leans back in his seat.
“Well this is relaxing.”
Adam ignores him.
“How far now?”
Logan glances at the navigation screen.
“Thirty minutes to the projected intercept.”
Wren is staring at her laptop again.
The glow from the screen lights her face.
Focused.
Sharp.
Dangerous.
I’ve seen that look before.
Usually right before something bad happens.
“What is it?” I ask.
Her fingers move across the keyboard.
“He accelerated.”
“How much?”
“Ninety miles an hour.”
Russ whistles.
“That’s ambitious.”
“That’s desperate,” Adam says.
Wren zooms the relay trace.
The convoy signal jumps again across the desert highway.
Closer to California now.
Closer to Los Angeles.
The timer flashes in the corner.
4:56:14
Russ leans forward.
“So what’s the plan when we catch them?”
“Stop the command node,” Adam says.
“How?”
Wren doesn’t look away from the screen.
“Physically.”
Russ nods slowly.
“Ah. Violence. A classic.”
I stare at the map for another second.
Then the obvious thought hits.
“Wren.”
She looks up.
“The cascade is heading for Los Angeles.”
“Yes.”
“And once it reaches the infrastructure there…”
“The system activates across the West Coast.”
I nod once.
“Which means we’re not the only people who are going to notice.”
Her eyes widen slightly.
“You’re thinking about them.”
“Yes.”
Russ looks between us.
“Thinking about who?”
I pull my phone from my pocket.
“The Golden Team.”
Adam smiles slightly.
“That’s a lot of firepower.”
“Exactly.”
Wren nods immediately.
“They’re already in the region.”
Russ raises an eyebrow.
“And they’ll help us?”
I dial the number.
“They’ll help stop a national infrastructure collapse.”
The line rings twice.
Then someone answers.
“River.”
Direct.
Focused.
Exactly the voice I expected.
“Grant.”
There’s a brief pause on the line.
Then River exhales.
“Well that’s interesting.”
“You busy?”
“Depends.”
“With what?”
“Trying to figure out why half the infrastructure alerts in Southern California just started lighting up.”
Good.
They’ve already seen it.
“Then we’re talking about the same problem.”
Another pause.
“What do you have?”
“A mobile command node moving south through Nevada.”
“Convoy?”
“Yes.”
River swears quietly under his breath.
“That explains the signal patterns we’ve been tracking.”
I glance at Wren.
She nods.
“You’re about ninety minutes ahead of the cascade,” River continues.
“More like one hour and fifty minutes before system activation.”
“That bad?”
“Yes.”
River doesn’t hesitate.
“Where are you?”
“Helicopter over northern Nevada.”
“Heading toward Los Angeles?”
“Intercepting the command convoy.”
River chuckles softly.
“You always did enjoy dramatic entrances.”
“Can you mobilize?”
A voice appears in the background.
Cyclone.
“What’s going on?”
River answers him.
“Boone Grant just called.”
A second voice joins the line.
Gideon.
“Well that sounds like trouble.”
River comes back.
“Golden Team is already moving.”
My shoulders relax slightly.
“How many?”
“All of us.”
Good.
Because if the Architect reaches Los Angeles first—
We’re going to need them.
River continues.
“Send us the relay coordinates.”
Wren leans forward.
“Already transmitting.”
She pushes the data packet through the encrypted channel.
River studies it on his end.
“Convoy is using leapfrog encryption.”
“Yes.”
“Smart.”
“Annoying,” Russ mutters.
River’s voice sharpens.
“They’re heading straight for the LA infrastructure corridor.”
“We know.”
“Then we’re setting up an intercept from this side.”
Cyclone’s voice cuts in again.
“Tell Boone we’ve got freeway access covered.”
Gideon adds calmly.
“And the ports.”
River returns.
“We’ll box them in.”
Adam nods.
“That’s the idea.”
River’s tone turns serious again.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“We’re detecting additional network interference.”
Wren freezes.
“What kind?”
“Someone else probing the cascade.”
My stomach tightens.
“The Architect?”
River pauses.
“No.”
“Different signature.”
Wren’s fingers move across the keyboard again.
Her eyes widen.
“Oh no.”
“What?” I ask.
She slowly turns the laptop toward me.
Another signal appears on the map.
A second command trace.
Moving toward Los Angeles.
Behind the convoy.
Russ leans forward.
“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
Wren swallows.
“It is.”
“What?” Adam asks.
She looks at all of us.
“There isn’t just one Architect.”
The helicopter vibrates harder as we push deeper into the storm.
The timer continues counting down.
3:51:03
Two command signals now racing toward Los Angeles.
Two systems competing for control.
And suddenly—
This mission just got a lot more complicated.