Her instincts were at a clamor. Lana moved away from the commo computer and started systems checks on the others. She locked down all the systems and routed all the controls to her micro.
"Tell me you know where the rest of those keypads are," General Greene said.
"Sir, I still don't know where the others are," she said in a tight voice.
"We gotta find 'em," he said. "You okay?"
She looked down at her wrist. "I think so."
"You did good."
She turned to look at him. He offered a genuine smile she couldn't bring herself to return. She nodded and looked down.
"If you need a break, take it," he said. "The doc was pissed with me."
"I will, sir," she said.
He left, closing the ill-fitting door behind him. Her gaze went again to the keypads protected behind the titanium glass. She slumped on the infrastructure terminal, awaiting the results of the status checks. She flipped off the scenes from the mountain, unable to look at the destruction.
She felt like crying. Instead, she rose and stared again at the animated timeline, wishing her conclusions were something other than what they were. She looked at her micro and read another of General Greene's messages. Her eyes watered.
PMF spies warning our Eastern adversaries in the government. Accelerate plans. Government will splinter once the attacks occur. The West won't lose this war a second time. One of the systems beeped. Lana tucked the micro in her pocket and crossed to it. It was the perimeter security check. The usual scan she ran came back normal. The administrator scan, which only the President or Vice President could run, came back with half a dozen errors.
In the past forty-eight hours, there had been fifty perimeter breaches, all from the west wall. All during a set time period when the security was disabled by someone in the command center. Her hand shaking, she checked the log to see it had last been accessed by General Greene twenty-five hours ago.
Not only was there a traitor at the Peak, but there were an untold number of insurgents lying in wait. Lana checked the general's location, not surprised to find him at the west wall. She pinged Elise.
"I'm busy," Elise barked.
"Can you bring me my anti-sleepers?"
"Give me an hour."
Lana typed a message to Mr. Tim, telling him she was leaving and heading to the Peace Command Center, which was the first center beyond the Mississippi River. She moved to the emerops computer, struggling to hold back tears. She issued only a few commands, enough to lock them out to anyone but her. She was getting ready to pass the point of no return.