A narrow road wound up a hill to . . .

There. Some kind of base. No, that long building was a row of motel rooms. That had to be a lodge. That was a corral and a barn opposite. Yes. Jason liked to find little lost places like this. This looked like some kind of a ranch. Smart.

So now I knew where they had come from. But they were safe there.

So why had they attacked Family?

It didn't make sense. Family was too vulnerable. Today's attack proved that. Jason wouldn't put his people in a vulnerable place. Unless there were something about Family that required his special attention.

Oh, my God.

They'd been after me.

In fact, I'd even told them where Family was. That afternoon with Marcie and the puppies.

No-I hadn't told them where Family was. I'd only suggested one of the new peninsulas as a good place to relocate. That was part of the information I'd dumped for Jason. He'd picked up the disk and studied it.

Oh, God. This was even worse. Family was still listed as a private-access area. B-Jay had refused to list it as open-access because she didn't want refugees moving in.

And I'd told Jason to look for a private-access area. But why this peninsula?

Oh. Now I knew.

We had an extensive network of underground service tunnels and facilities. The worms could be hidden from the sky. The aboveground uses of the village would look perfectly normal.

Jason hadn't been after me at all. And yet it was exactly as he had said over and over: There are no accidents in this game. He'd found me after all. And he'd been right. I regretted it bitterly.

I was still staring at the screen.

Jason's camp was three hours away. At least. At night, driving with the lights low, the trucks might take four or more hours. They were probably still on their way.

My guess was that they would have waited for Jason and Orrie for as long as they could.

Let's see-yes, there they were. All the vehicles except one truck and one van were moving back toward the camp. I looked at my watch. They'd left around five. They should be arriving there any moment.

But they were paralyzed without Jason. What was he going to do?

Even if he followed them as soon as he got to the last two vehicles hidden in the canyon road, he couldn't be back at his camp before midnight.

A thought occurred to me. It probably wasn't possible. But it was worth a try.

I picked up the phone and punched for the Santa Cruz District Military Governor. A woman answered the phone.

"This is Major Duke Anderson, Special Forces. I need to speak with the governor."

"I'm sorry, she's not available."

"Perhaps you didn't hear me. I said I'm Special Forces."

"I heard you. Colonel Wright is not available."

"Who am I speaking to?" I asked.

"Lieutenant Gail Beeker."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I have a message for your Colonel. If she doesn't get it tonight, you may end up as Private Gail Beeker. Does the name 'Uncle Ira' mean anything to you?"

"Uh-stand by."

A moment later, another voice came on the phone. "This is Colonel Wright. Who am I speaking to?"

"This is Major Duke Anderson. Special Forces. I'm investigating the worm infestation in this area. I saw the attack on the peninsula this afternoon, and I've located the renegades' base camp. We have very little time, Colonel. We have to hit them tonight. I know this group. They're Revelationists. They'll be on the road before morning if they think their cover's been compromised. Can you mount a night mission?"

"Major," Colonel Wright said, "my troops are not trained for this kind of operation."

Right. A desk battalion. Leftovers from the Teamwork Army. They make the software run on time.

"Do you have pilots? Do you have choppers? Do you have men and women who can hold a weapon and point it in the right direction?"

"I have three teams that are used primarily for rescue operations."

"They'll do. Scramble them, please."

"Major, I appreciate the urgency . . ."

"No, Colonel, you don't. These people have taken children as hostages. What you don't know is that when they break camp, they don't take their hostages with them. They feed them to their worms, so the worms can go a week before their next meal. These are the children from the peninsula. There may be a chance to save them, but only if we act now. All I ask from you is that you ask the men and women in your command if there are any volunteers for this particular rescue mission. Let them know that there may be some shooting involved. In fact, you can count on it. I'll personally assume responsibility for the planning and execution of the operation. And I'll lead it too."

There was silence from the phone for a moment. Then Colonel Wright said, "I'll assume the responsibility, Major. But you can lead the mission. Where are you? I'll have a car pick you up."

"Don't bother. I have a Jeep. Just have someone meet me at the gate of the airfield with a clean jumpsuit."

"I'll meet you myself," she said. And switched off. The lady was okay. Regular Army always delivered.

I hit the keyboard and dumped to disk. I'd need this for the briefing. While the drive whirred, I picked up the phone and called B-Jay.

I had a hunch there might be something she'd want to do tonight too.

Colonel Wright was a small lady with long black hair and a mean expression. She looked at me disapprovingly as I pulled up to the gate.

"I don't like this," she said. She handed me the jumpsuit. I started pulling it on over my clothes. There were major's bars on the sleeve. "Thanks," I said. And prayed that I'd have a chance to kill Delandro before anyone found out the truth.

"I'm not doing it for you," she said. "I'm doing it for my people here."

"I know. So am I."

"You're younger than I expected," she said. "You look too young to have served in Pakistan."

Oops.

I shrugged. "You looked up my record."

She nodded. "I looked up somebody's record." She said, "I don't think it's yours."

I stopped in the act of pulling on the jumpsuit. I waited for her to go on.

"I know who you are," she said. Urk.

"You used the name 'Uncle Ira.' That tells me that you're a worm-killer-and that's all that I need to know. You burn worms. That's probably all you do. I suppose you're very good at it. But I want you to know something: there's a lot more to this army than just burning worms. I know you probably have a low opinion of those of us who sit at desks and coordinate logistics. That's usually the way of the military. But if it weren't for me keeping the Santa Cruz and San Jose districts operating, you wouldn't be able to do your job."

"Colonel," I said. I straightened, zipped up the suit and saluted her. "I don't know what kind of a bug you've got up your ass, but I think you really need to deliver this speech to the person you're pissed at. I know that it takes twenty-three support personnel to put one man in the field. I've never yet gone on a mission without praying that all those support people have done their job right. To the good credit of the United States Armed Services, I've yet to be let down. You know how I know? I'm still alive. That's how I know. So I truly appreciate that you've marshalled your resources on such short notice. I promise to take the best care of them."