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“Dammit, that must have been Kenny. He was deep undercover when he made contact because he thought they’d made him. We lost contact with him before we could get him out.” Sam rubbed at his face and closed his eyes for a moment, as he half turned away from me. I stood quietly and gave him space to grieve his friend.
Sam shook himself after a moment. “Thanks for telling me.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for him.”
“Don’t be. He knew what he was getting into. It’s good to know he wasn’t alone when he died though, he was a good man.”
“Who was he working undercover for, and what is the Network?”
“People like you, mostly ex-servicemen who saw too much and got out before they lost their lives. Most of them knew something was wrong within the military, but they didn’t know what. They formed a clandestine network to share information.
“It started decades ago with a few men, but it’s grown to hundreds. Some recruits shared vague yet terrifying information about shady things the military was getting involved in. Including some kind of planned coup or shake-up of the current regime that involved the government as well.”
I grit my teeth as he talked. What he was talking about felt all too familiar.
“There were lots of rumors, but we didn’t know how or when, or even exactly what was being planned. There were too many stories that correlated, though, and a lot of disappearances. So now it includes active servicemen who are working undercover for the Network to find out more, get proof and hopefully stop whatever was being planned. It seems we were too late.”
“Are you telling me the military and the government are involved with the Crash?” I asked.
“You honestly think they aren’t?”
“No, I’m sure they are. I’d heard whispers and rumors as well. I’ve been trying to find the Network since I retired, with no luck.”
“You’ve been on our radar for years. You were on our list of potential allies, which is the only reason Kenny would have risked trying to pass you a note as he died. Damon, Leif, Hunter and Max were on the list, too. They’ve been watching you all since you retired. I don’t know why they hadn’t made contact.”
“How did you get recruited?”
“My gramps was a member. He sent me to the Network when I presented as a highly dominant alpha.”
“Fucking hell, you must have been just a kid.”
Sam just nodded matter-of-factly.
“That’s where you’ve been all these years?”
“I got moved around a lot, living with original members. Mostly old men and all betas. There aren’t a lot of alphas who are members, especially in the original old guard. I didn’t have any stability until I went to live with Dio’s grandfather. He saw how Dio, Dio’s best friend Pala, and I all bonded. We were inseparable. He kept us together until we were old enough to enlist.”
He seemed intensely sad just talking about it and I got the impression there was a lot unresolved there. I wanted to ask more about why his gramps had sent him away, and why it went down the way it did, with Maia in the dark. I got the feeling, though, that it was intensely personal and something he needed to talk with Maia about first.
He shook his head a little and got back to the point. “Dio, Pala and I, we were never working for the military. We were always undercover for the Network.”
I needed a minute to take it all in. I’d never heard of the Network until Kenny. If the military knew about them, they were keeping it within the higher ranks. Or at least a group they didn’t invite me to join. I knew there were shady units within the military, but I’d always steered clear.
“Can you still contact them? Or is the Network down, like everything else since the Crash?”
“The Network is a bunch of batshit crazy, paranoid old military men who have been prepping for the end of the world since before I was born. It would take more than the Crash to take them down. They’re still out there.”
I smiled at that. They sounded like my people. “Damon and his mates need to know. So does Maia.”
“I know. We didn’t have long to talk this morning before the attack on the farm. I plan on telling them, though, as soon as they resurface. With Max’s help, making contact will be easier.”
Max could definitely help with that. He was a tech genius and had stayed online during the Crash.
“I still have one more question. Who is the alpha who signaled while we were tying them up this morning? The one Dio was pretending to rough up.”
Sam stepped over to me and clapped me on the shoulder, as he looked at me with a new respect. Then he grinned, and the transformation was almost shocking. His eyes sparkled and his entire face lightened. I could suddenly see the resemblance to Maia. They had the same smile.
“I’d like to introduce you to Pala, but we might not have time. He’s about to escape from the storm cellar and head back to the Palace so he can sneak into their secret server connected to the military, download everything they have and get it to us before his cover gets blown.”
