Broken Network

Silent figures emerging from the mist — five of them, moving with the easy, dangerous grace of men who had seen too many wars.

The leader stepped forward, a tall man with close-cropped silver hair and a jagged scar running down his jawline.

"Name's Cole," he said. "You're the one who called?"

"Yeah," I said, stepping forward. "Thanks for coming."

Cole eyed us critically. "You said Beltran's building something big. Show me."

Vince pulled out a hard drive and handed it over. Cole connected it to a rugged tablet he carried, his sharp eyes scanning the files rapidly.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered after a few minutes. "You weren't exaggerating."

"No," I said. "And he's close to finishing. We need to stop him before that happens."

Cole looked up, a hard glint in his eye. "You got a plan?"

"We have locations for two critical nodes he's setting up. If we hit them hard and fast, we cripple the network before it can go live."