Carolina Moon

The First Breach: K.C.

I feel the low-frequency hum of the static rattling my bones as I step out of the SUV. To Tess, it would be silent, it’s a frequency that’s just high enough that humans would be unaffected. For the men and me though, the air was vibrating like a nest of angry hornets. It felt like a physical pressure against my ear drums, and an itch at the base of my skull that demanded I shift and run.

I squeezed Tess’s hand one last time before letting go to signal to the team.

“Ronan, Mason, Caleb, flank the east side. Stay in the tree line,” I whispered, my voice strained from the effort of holding the wolf back. “Keep your radios on low. Only report if the local deputies show up or someone’s bleeding.”

They vanished into the shadows of the pines without a sound, their movements fluid and practiced. Marcus moved ahead of us, a dark silhouette against the moonlight as he scouted the path towards the perimeter fence.

The three hundred yard stretch between the trees and the facility was a graveyard of overgrown weeds and rusted equipment. I kept Tess close, her hand occasionally brushing the small of my back to let me know she was right there. I was hyper-aware of her heartbeat. It was the only steady, human rhythm in a world that was starting to feel like a digital nightmare.

We reached the chain-length fence. It was topped with razor wire that looked brand new, glinting under the lone floodlight. Marcus reached into his tactical vest, and pulled out a pair of heavy-duty wire cutters. He moved to clamp them onto the wire, but stopped abruptly.

“Alpha,” he breathed, pointing a gloved finger.

Wrapped around the steel lengths were small, black boxes with blinking red lights. “Sensors,” I muttered. “Motion or heat?”

“Likely both,” Tess whispered, squinting in the dark. She leaned in slightly, but made sure not to touch the fence. “If we cut this, Stroud will be alerted, and he’ll probably have a tactical team here within minutes.”

She knelt on the ground and pulled out her laptop. “Give me a second. I’m going to message Leon, and send him our signal. We might be able to make a local loop to make the sensors think this section of the fence is perfectly still.”

I stood over her, my eyes scanning the roof of the brick building. The purple glow was coming from the cooling vents on the top floor. It felt like the facility was breathing. It exhaled a toxic frequency that was slowly stripping away my control. My vision was starting to sharpen into shades of gray and gold. The wolf was clawing at the door, smelling the intruders in our land.

“Got it!” Tess said, her voice a soft triumph.

Marcus made the cut. The wire snapped with a quiet ping and we peeled the fence back just enough to slip through.

We were inside the perimeter.

The brick building loomed over us, smelling of wet stone, old grease, and a sharp, chemical tang. We moved along the side of the structure, staying in the shadows cast by the industrial piping. As we reached the service entrance, a sound echoed from around the corner — the heavy crunch of gravel under boots.

I held up a hand, pulling Tess into the alcove of a boarded-up window. Marcus drew his side arm, a round of silver-jacketed ammo already loaded.

Two men in the same grey tactical gear we’d seen in Kingsport walked past our location. They weren’t bumbling security guards. They carried high-end rifles, and moved with the clinical precision of mercenaries. Stroud hadn’t just brought tech to Cypress Hollow, he’d brought a private army.

I could hear their low voices carrying on the wind as they muttered about a “sunset pulse,” and how they “couldn’t wait to get out of this backwater marsh.” They didn’t see us.

I waited until their footsteps faded before leaning towards Tess’s ear. “The basement entrance should be around the next bend,” I whispered. “Once we’re inside, we lose the moonlight. Ready?”

She adjusted the strap of her laptop bag, her face a mask of Beaumont determination. “I’m ready.”

We reached the heavy iron doors that led to the basement. There was a heat radiating from it that made my skin prick with discomfort. The “heart” of the grid was inside this very building.

I looked at Tess again. The purple glow from the roof towers reflected in her eyes. There was no fear in them. Just cold calculation. “Last chance to stay in the car,” I murmured, knowing before the last word even left my lips what her answer would be.

“We do this together,” she confirmed, her hand finding mine again.

I nodded and pulled on the heavy metal door with my free hand. It groaned, but it gave just enough for us to slip inside.