(Wrath-09)-Spiders From The Shadows (2013) by Chris Stewart Read Free Book Online

know enough yet to estimate how long we have. We’re guessing they’ll pick up the intrusion fairly quickly. But even if they know they’re being violated, it may take them a while to find the bug.”
    Another man slipped into the room, young and thin, with wire glasses. It was Brucius’ chief of staff. He moved quickly toward Brucius. The technician moved away.
    “I hear the drone’s been activated,” the chief of staff said.
    Brucius nodded.
    The chief of staff glanced anxiously behind him. “The security teams in Raven are going to locate the nest, we know that. When they find it, they’ll know it’s him. I don’t think they’ll be forgiving. He’s got to get out before that point.”
    Brucius grunted. No. Not forgiving. Not these men.
    “It’s going to work out,” the chief of staff assured Brucius, reading the worried look on his boss’ face. “They’ll tear Raven Rock to pieces, but the presidential suite is the last place they’ll look. He’ll havehim up and dre

SIX
    Offutt Air Force Base, Headquarters, U.S. Strategic Command, Eight Miles South of Omaha, Nebraska
    Sara Brighton stood outside the metal door, waiting for her meeting with Brucius.
    The cinder-block corridor stretched for a hundred feet behind her, suspended fluorescent lights illuminating the white walls and gray cement floor. Over her head, a bundle of electrical cables and air vents hummed softly. The nearest security camera—there were at least a dozen stretching the length of the underground hallway the metal doorllShe really didn’t know.—watched her every move. A red CLASSIFIED BRIEFING IN PROGRESS light was illuminated above the metal door outside the conference room and a small speaker in the ceiling spouted white noise, making it impossible to hear through the heavy door and thick walls—something that seemed remarkably unlikely even without the electronic background noise. Sara Brighton didn’t move, her head down, her eyes on the floor, her mind racing, her heart pounding in her ears.
    She shook her head occasionally, as if trying to clear it. But she wasn’t trying to think more clearly. She wasn’t trying to think at all. Too much to think about already. Too much crammed inside her head. Her eyes ached and her neck was stiff. Sometimes it seemed even her brain hurt.
    She thought back on everything they had told her: the pictures of the men they said were traitors, where they came from, how they got there, what they now intended to do. The truth was, she didn’t believe it. Not yet. At least, not everything, and maybe she never would. It wasn’t that she thought they were crazy. She just thought they were wrong. There was no way it could be that bad, no way the government could have slipped so far. A few traitors? Yes, maybe she could accept that, she remembered what her husband had told her, but this was very different. This wasn’t a tremor, this was an earthquake, and she almost felt the earth moving beneath her trembling knees.
    Time passed. She was tired. They had left her waiting so long she was tempted to lie down on the floor.
    She glanced up and down the corridor, wide enough for two forklifts to pass each other, which they often did, metal doors that led to offices, small signs with acronyms she didn’t know. She noted the metal signs over the doors, then looked to the far end of the hallway. A single elevator was waiting, its door held back, the interior empty. She turned and looked the other way to see nothing but forty feet of cinder block that ended in a cement wall.
    Minutes passed as she continued to wait. Finally the metal door pushed back and a man she’d never seen before was standing there. “Mrs. Brighton,” he said.
    Sara walked toward him.
    He moved through the heavy door and let it close behind him. “There’s been a delay, ma’am. I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me.” He motioned toward the elevator at the end of the hall and started walking.
    Sara didn’t move. “I was