Chapter 7 Logan
Logan
The screen went dark.
Not all at once—not dramatic, not explosive. Just a clean drop. Power draw flatlined. Environmental telemetry vanished mid-cycle.
No alarms.
No scramble.
Just… gone.
Boone swore under his breath. “That facility just disappeared.”
I didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Because panic was loud—and this wasn’t panic.
Sentinel didn’t run.
He shifted.
“How long?” I asked.
Boone was already typing, hands flying. “Best estimate? Five minutes ago. Maybe less.”
Five minutes.
My jaw tightened.
“She forced his hand,” I said.
Russ looked at me sharply. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” I leaned forward, palms flat on the table. “That wasn’t an extraction failure. That was a relocation.”
A controlled one.
Which meant Scout Fallon had done exactly what she intended.
“She touched something,” I continued. “Not enough to expose him. Enough to make him uncomfortable.”
Boone glanced at the frozen timestamp. “You think she knew this would happen?”
“I know she did,” I said.
Because Sentinel didn’t abandon assets unless the board changed.
And Scout had changed it.
“Pull every Sentinel relocation pattern we’ve got,” I ordered. “Every site that went dark within a six-hour window after contact.”
Russ’s eyes widened. “That’s a tight net.”
“It needs to be,” I said. “He won’t move her far. He’s not done with her yet.”
Not with someone like Scout.
Boone hesitated. “Logan… if he moved her, that means he spoke to her.”
I nodded once.
“She spoke back.”
The room went still.
Most captives begged. Some resisted. Some broke.
Scout Fallon negotiated the board while sitting in a white room with no windows.
That made her invaluable.
And dangerous.
“He’s escalating,” Russ said. “What’s his next move?”
I straightened slowly.
“He’s going to test her,” I said. “Push. Probe. See what makes her flinch.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
My voice dropped.
“Then he’ll test me and see what we do next.”
Boone’s console chimed.
“I’ve got something,” he said. “Secondary power signatures. Old infrastructure. Desert-adjacent. Three possible vectors.”
I leaned in, eyes narrowing.
“Which one feels wrong?” I asked.
Boone swallowed. “The one that shouldn’t exist.”
“Send it,” I said.
The map shifted. A faint outline appeared—half-erased, half-buried beneath outdated schematics.
There.
I felt it in my bones.
“That’s where he went,” I said.
Russ reached for his headset. “We can be wheels-up in—”
“No,” I cut in. “Not yet.”
They both looked at me.
“He’s watching,” I said. “He wants to see how fast we chase.”
I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to wait—just long enough.
“Scout didn’t scream,” I said quietly. “She whispered. That means she’s still thinking.”
I tapped the screen once.
“And she bought us more than time.”
Boone frowned. “What else?”
I met his gaze.
“She taught me how Sentinel reacts when he’s threatened. Raine says she is amazed how Scout can figure out what is in someone's mind.”
Which meant the next move wasn’t his.
It was mine.
I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door.
“Lock everything down,” I said. “We move in shadow. No comm chatter. No heroics.”
Because Sentinel thought he’d regained control.
What he didn’t realize—
Was that Scout Fallon had just taught me how to corner him?
And I was done playing defense.