DEAD DROP

Enemy Within

The note was still in Marcus’s hand when the lights went out.

Not a power failure. The farmhouse went dark like someone had pulled a plug. The backup generator didn't kick in. The silence was absolute.

Marcus dropped the note and drew his Sig. “Everyone down!”

Claire was already moving toward the kitchen. Damian was at the back door. Catherine was on the porch.

Then the screaming started.

Not from inside the house. From the garden.

---

Marcus ran outside.

The roses were thrashing. Not from wind—there was no wind. The bushes were shaking like something was underneath them. Then the first figure emerged from the soil.

A man. Covered in dirt. Eyes blank. He lunged at Marcus.

Marcus fired. The man kept coming.

He fired again. The man fell.

More figures emerged from the garden. Dozens of them. Men and women, their clothes ragged, their faces empty. Sleepers. But not the kind Marcus had rescued. These were different. Their eyes glowed faintly red.

“They’re implanted,” Kay’s voice came through the earpiece. “The devices. Vance wasn’t bluffing. There are more.”

Marcus backed toward the house. Claire was at the door, firing. Damian was on the roof, picking them off one by one.

But they kept coming.

---

Catherine pulled Marcus inside. “We need to leave!”

“Where?”

“The bunker. Under the barn. Kirk built it weeks ago.”

They ran.

The barn door was locked. Damian shot the lock. Inside, a trapdoor under a pile of hay.

Marcus pulled it open. Ladder. Dark.

Claire went first. Then Catherine. Then Kay. Marcus was last.

He pulled the trapdoor closed behind him.

---

The bunker was small. Concrete walls. A generator. Supplies. A monitor showing camera feeds from the farmhouse.

Kirk was already there, typing at a console. “They’re not sleepers. They’re something new. The consortium’s final project. They call them ‘Reapers.’ ”

“Reapers?”

“Implanted with the rewriting device. But modified. They feel no pain. No fear. No mercy. They just follow orders.”

“Whose orders?”

Kirk turned the monitor. A face. Young. Blonde. Familiar.

“Dmitri Volkov. He escaped from prison during the chaos. He’s been rebuilding the consortium from the inside.”

Marcus felt the cold settle in his chest. “We thought he was in custody.”

“He had help. Someone inside the prison. Someone we trusted.”

---

The camera feeds went dark.

“They’re in the barn,” Kirk said.

Marcus looked at the bunker door. “How long until they find us?”

“Minutes. Maybe less.”

Damian checked his ammunition. “I have two magazines.”

Claire had one. Catherine had three. Marcus had half a magazine.

“We need a way out,” Marcus said.

Kirk pointed to a tunnel. “Drainage pipe. Leads to the creek. It’s tight, but we can fit.”

They crawled.

---

The pipe was cold and wet. Marcus led. Claire followed. Then Catherine. Then Kay. Damian brought up the rear.

Behind them, the sound of metal on concrete. The Reapers had found the bunker.

They crawled faster.

The pipe ended at a grate. Marcus pushed. It opened onto the creek bank.

They emerged into the moonlight.

The farmhouse was burning. The garden was destroyed. The roses were ash.

Marcus stared at the flames. “They knew. They knew exactly where to hit us.”

Kirk was beside him. “Someone told them.”

“Someone inside.”

---

They walked through the woods. No destination. Just away.

Marcus called Sarah. “The farmhouse is gone. Dmitri Volkov is alive. He has an army of Reapers.”

Sarah’s voice was tight. “I know. The network has been tracking him. He’s in hiding, but we have a lead.”

“Where?”

“A facility in the desert. Same one where you found the rewriting lab. He’s using it as his base.”

“We need to hit him. Now.”

“You need to regroup. You’re exposed. The network has a safe house in Virginia. I’ll send coordinates.”

---

They walked through the night.

Dawn found them at a small cabin in the woods. Remote. Hidden.

Sarah was waiting at the door. “You look like hell.”

“I feel like hell.”

Inside, the cabin was warm. Coffee. Food. Beds.

Marcus sat at the table. Claire sat beside him.

“Dmitri has the Reapers. He has the devices. He has the consortium’s remaining resources. We have nothing.”

Sarah sat across from him. “You have us. The network. And you have Elena.”

“Elena?”

“She’s been working on a counter-measure. A way to disable the Reapers remotely.”

“Can she do it?”

“She needs access to their network. And she needs time.”

“We don’t have time.”

“Then we make time.”

---

Marcus called Elena.

She was in a lab in Maryland. “The Reapers are controlled by a central signal. If I can find the source, I can disrupt it.”

“Where’s the source?”

“I don’t know yet. But Dmitri is smart. He’ll have it hidden. Probably in the facility with him.”

“Then we need to get inside.”

“You’ll need a distraction. Something big enough to draw him out.”

Marcus looked at Damian. “We can do that.”

---

The plan came together over the next few hours.

Damian would lead a diversion at the facility’s front gate. Explosions. Gunfire. Enough to draw the guards.

Marcus, Claire, and Catherine would enter through the service tunnel. Same as before. Find the signal source. Disrupt it.

Kay would monitor from a van outside.

Kirk would stay with Sarah. He was still recovering from the fight.

“If anything goes wrong,” Marcus said, “you get everyone out.”

“Nothing will go wrong,” Claire said.

“Something always goes wrong.”

---

They left at dusk.

The facility was the same as before. New fences. New guards. New cameras.

Kay disabled the cameras.

Damian moved to the front gate.

The explosion echoed through the desert.

Guards ran toward the sound.

Marcus moved to the service tunnel. The grate was new. He cut through it.

Inside, the tunnel was dark. Cold. Narrow.

He emerged in the basement. Same white walls. Same fluorescent lights.

But different equipment. Rows of chairs. People in the chairs. Blank faces. Glowing red eyes.

Reapers. Waiting.

“Don’t wake them,” Claire whispered.

They moved past the chairs. Silent. Careful.

---

The signal source was in the main lab.

A console. Blinking lights. A single chair in the center.

Dmitri Volkov was sitting in the chair. Wires attached to his head. His eyes were closed.

Marcus raised his Sig. “Dmitri.”

Dmitri’s eyes opened. They were red.

“Marcus. I was wondering when you’d come.”

“You’re controlling the Reapers from inside your own head.”

“I am the Reapers. They are me. We are one.”

“You’re insane.”

“I’m evolved.”

Dmitri stood up. The wires pulled free. His eyes glowed brighter.

The Reapers in the basement woke up.

Marcus heard them moving. Climbing the stairs.

“You have seconds,” Dmitri said.

Marcus fired.

The bullet struck Dmitri in the chest. He staggered but didn’t fall.

“You can’t kill me. I’m already dead.”

Marcus fired again. Dmitri fell.

The Reapers stopped moving.

Claire looked at the door. “They’re frozen.”

“The signal is gone. Without Dmitri, they have no controller.”

Marcus walked to Dmitri’s body. His eyes were still open. The red glow was fading.

“It’s over.”

---

The FBI arrived an hour later.

The Reapers were taken into custody. The devices were removed. The facility was destroyed.

Marcus watched the sun rise over the desert.

Claire was beside him. “It’s really over.”

“Dmitri is dead. The Reapers are disabled. The consortium is finished.”

“Then why do you look so worried?”

Marcus pulled the note from his pocket. The one that had been attached to the rose.

“The enemy is not always outside. Sometimes, the enemy is within.”

“Because someone helped Dmitri escape. Someone inside the prison. Someone we trusted.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”

---

They flew back to Virginia.

The cabin was quiet. Sarah was waiting.

“Dmitri is dead,” Marcus said. “But he had help. Someone on the inside.”

Sarah nodded. “I know. We’ve been investigating. The guard who facilitated his escape was found dead this morning. Suicide. But the evidence points to someone higher up.”

“Who?”

“Someone with access. Someone who knew the prison’s layout. Someone who knew Dmitri’s schedule.”

“That’s dozens of people.”

“We’ve narrowed it to three. A warden. A deputy. And a doctor.”

Marcus looked at the list. “The doctor?”

“Dr. Helen Marsh. She was the prison psychiatrist. She had access to Dmitri. She had motive. She was a former Aegis employee.”

“Where is she now?”

“She disappeared the night Dmitri escaped. We’re tracking her.”

---

The next morning, Marcus received a message.

From Dr. Helen Marsh.

“You’re looking for me. You won’t find me. But I’ll find you. When you least expect it. When you’re most vulnerable. When you think it’s over. That’s when I’ll strike.”

Marcus typed back: “Why?”

“Because you destroyed everything I built. The consortium. The code. The devices. You took my life’s work and burned it to the ground. Now I’m going to take yours.”

Marcus put the phone away.

Claire looked at him. “What was that?”

“A threat.”

“From who?”

“The enemy.”

She took his hand. “Then we’ll be ready.”

---

That night, Marcus sat on the porch of the cabin.

No roses. No garden. Just woods and stars.

Catherine brought him a glass of wine.

“You’re thinking about the future.”

“I’m thinking about the past. All the people we couldn’t save.”

“You saved a lot.”

“Not enough.”

She sat beside him. “It will never be enough. But it’s something.”

Marcus looked at the stars.

“It’s something.”

---

His phone buzzed.

A message from an unknown number.

“Dr. Marsh is in hiding. But we have a lead. A facility in the mountains of Colorado. She’s building something new. Something worse. You need to stop her before it’s too late.”

Marcus typed back: “Who is this?”

“Someone who’s been watching. Someone who wants Marsh stopped as much as you do.”

“Then help us find her.”

“I am. The coordinates are in your inbox. Be ready.”

Marcus opened his email.

Coordinates. A remote location. High in the Rockies.

He showed Claire.

“We leave tomorrow.”