Stepping through the door, Ash found himself in a five-foot-by-five-foot room. As soon as Billy closed the secret panel, Matt put his hand on the wall. A small square section surrounding his palm lit up for several seconds. As soon as it went dark, the wall to their right slid open, revealing a set of stairs.
These were at least double the length of the ones that led down from the first floor into the regular basement. When the trio reached the bottom, Matt palmed the wall again, and a door popped open.
The only thing about this new level that said basement to Ash was the lack of windows. Otherwise, he thought it was very much like a high-tech military facility. There was a long central corridor running down the middle, with rooms and other hallways leading off to the sides.
“How big is this place?” he asked.
“The footprint’s about twice as large as the Lodge,” Matt explained as they walked down the corridor. “We can comfortably house fifty people down here for several months, if necessary. There are actually two more levels below this, but both are smaller and used only for storage.” He pointed to the left, down an intersecting hallway. “There’s a firing range down there, and our armory. That room…” He pointed at a door just head. “That’s the IT room, where all our servers and other computer equipment live.” He nodded at another hallway. “We have a small cafeteria down there, and several dorm rooms just on the other side of it.”
“I thought bomb shelters went out with the fifties.”
Matt glanced at him. “There are a lot more things to be scared of than just bombs.”
“Like what?”
“Like viruses that get out of control,” Billy said.
“Or, more importantly, the people behind them,” Matt added. “Here we are.”
He opened a set of double doors, then ushered Ash in. Billy’s examination room upstairs was nothing compared to the full-on operating room they’d just entered.
Billy pushed past both of them, heading straight for a sink against the wall. “There’s a shower and some gowns back there,” he said to Ash, pointing at a door in the far corner. “When you’re done, come back here and I’ll throw a couple ideas at you.”
Ten minutes later, they were all standing in front of a computer screen on a counter not far from the surgery table.
“If we had time, I’d do a lot more, but for now we need to achieve the biggest change we can with the minimum amount of downtime for you. Now, this is what I was-”
“I don’t care what you do,” Ash said.
“Don’t you want to have some say?”
“I just want my kids back.”
No one said anything for a moment.
Matt gave Ash’s shoulder a pat. “I’ll choose for him.”
Billy looked at Ash, silently asking if that was okay, but Ash said nothing.
The ranch’s doctor shrugged. “All right, then. Let’s mark you up.”
Rachel was sitting next to Ash’s bed when he woke, a book in her lap. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
His whole head throbbed. “I’m fine. What time is it?”
“Nine.”
“Evening, or…or morning.”
“Evening. You haven’t been out
It had been two p.m. when the surgery began, so he’d been unconscious for seven hours. He tried to touch his face, but it seemed to be covered in bandages.
“You’re a mess right now,” she said. “But in a couple of months it’ll all look normal to you.”
He tried to push himself up, but couldn’t. “I can’t…wait a couple of…months.”
“Of course not. We talked about that, remember?”
“Two days only, and we’ll use that time to get you as prepared as possible.”
Two days also seemed like too long. But what choice did he have? Without the new face, there was no chance he would ever even get close to his kids.
“Do you want to go back to sleep? Or get started?”
“Get started,” he said, his voice still weak.
“Excellent.” She picked up a folder that was on the stand by his bed. “Who are you?”
He squinted at her. “What?”
“You can’t be Captain Daniel Ash anymore, so who are you?”
Now he understood what she meant. A false name. “I don’t care. Anything. John Smith.”
“I think we can do better than that. Besides, you’re not just choosing for yourself, you’re choosing for your kids, too.”
He started to shake his head, but it only made it pound harder. He gave it a few seconds, then said, “Once people know what happened…we can go…back. Be ourselves again.”
She gave him a sad, knowing smile. “I tell you what. Why don’t we just pretend it’s important for right now? Better safe than sorry, right?”
“Sure. Whatever,” he replied, thinking he’d just choose the first name that came to mind. “How about-”
She touched his hand, stopping him. “I have some choices for you.” She opened the folder. “Tell me which one of these grabs you. Tyler Wright, Harold Boyce, Adam Cooper, William Keys, or Samuel Hunter. Anything stand out?”
He honestly didn’t care at all. “The third one,” he said.
“Adam Cooper?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He was silent for a moment. “Because I like the number three.”
She raised an eyebrow, then laughed softly to herself. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
She shrugged, rifled through the papers in the folder, and pulled one out. “All right, Mr. Cooper. Let’s see exactly who you are.”
22
Karl Trainer could have just let it go, but he wasn’t that kind of friend. Besides, his route took him near Hector Mendez’s house anyway, so stopping for a quick check to see why his friend hadn’t shown up for work wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
When he got there, the first thing he noticed was Hector’s car still parked out front. He’d been hoping that maybe they’d just missed each other on the highway, and Hector was already at the warehouse. Of course, it could have been that his friend was having car troubles and hadgotten one of his neighbors to drive him in. That would definitely explain why he was late.
Sure, that had to be it.
Karl almost drove off, but, hell, he was here anyway. Might as well check. He went up to the door and knocked.
No answer.
“See? Not home,” he said to himself.
As he took a step off the porch to head back to his rig, the nape of his neck began to tingle.
“Dammit,” he said.
His wife called it his whodoo-voodoo. He’d get it every once in a while, a feeling that something wasn’t right. The feeling
