Page 69 of Wild Sentinel

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm getting into a car with you. You could be anybody. You could be full of shit."

"You can keep the gun.”

"Oh, you're damn right I'm keeping the gun. And I’m not getting in the car with you.”

"We can talk out here and sweat, and maybe those guys will find us. Or we can get in the car and go for a little drive, and you can catch me up to speed on everything.”

Torment tensed her face.

"Too many people have died already,” I said.

After another moment of contemplation, she relented. "If you two try anything funny, I swear to God, I will blow your brains out. I won't hesitate.”

I didn't doubt her. Brooke had a fierce determination in her eyes.

“Lose the phone,” I said.

Her face tensed, and she gave another look around. Brooke dropped the device on the asphalt and stomped on it a few times. Afterward, she picked it up and tossed it into the desert.

JD and I climbed into the car, and Brooke climbed in back, keeping the pistol aimed at me through the seat.

Jack fired up the engine and pulled away from the curb. We kept driving into the desert, but it wasn't long before the road ended and turned to dirt. We continued on, kicking up gravel.

“You want to point that gun at the floorboard?” I suggested.

After a beat, she did.

Well off the beaten path, Jack finally pulled to a stop.

The AC blasted.

“Let’s hear it,” I said.

“The project was super secret,” Brooke replied. “At first, I didn't even know what I was working on. It was segmented and compartmentalized.”

"Classified?"

"We all signed nondisclosure agreements."

"Was this a black budget program?”

"I don't know. Scott pulled us all together.”

"Scott?”

"Wexler,” Brooke said. “He said it was for our own protection that we knew as little as possible. Everything was on a need-to-know basis. I think at first, he was trying to vet us before he gave more information. Eventually, it became clear what we were doing. Scott said it was safer if we were all technically employed by different shell companies. That way, it would be harder for someone to tie us all together. What we were doing was game-changing. This was technology that everybody would want. Technology that could disrupt the entire world order.”

JD and I shared a look.

"What was the project?” I asked.

Brooke hesitated a moment. "Sentinel. As we got deeper into the project, some of us started having misgivings about what we were building. Some of us voiced our opinions. The first to die was Jacob. He was too young to have a heart attack. Then Michelle went missing. Then Charles. It wasn't long after that when Adam suggested we go into hiding.”

“Where’s Adam? Is he alive?”

"He's the only one who can stop it.”

"Stop Sentinel?”