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South Fork, Colorado

Kara woke up as soon as someone laid a hand on her shoulder.

It was Michael. “We found Havenwood.”

She jumped up, then wobbled on her feet.

“Go splash water on your face, we still don’t have Tony on the line.”

She glanced at the clock: 4:45 a.m. Two and a half hours was better than nothing.

She took Michael’s advice and ran cold water over her face, brushed her teeth, straightened her clothes. She stepped out just as Dean Montero came into the room. The space had become crowded, even though Ryder must have spent the time since he arrived reorganizing the workspace. There was even fresh fruit and coffee on the small bar. She grabbed a banana and poured coffee.

Riley was asleep on the couch—or pretending to sleep. Kara let her be.

Catherine was sitting at the computer typing, Ryder was putting up a map on the wall.

“Where is he?” Kara asked Ryder.

Ryder pointed to a speck in the middle of nowhere. “They’re in the San Juan National Forest on over a thousand acres of land grandfathered in as private property more than a hundred years ago. It can’t be sold, but the heirs can keep it in perpetuity. It’s north of Durango, south of Telluride, west of state route 550, in a valley that has only one road in and out, and the road on their property isn’t maintained by any government agency.”

“How far away?”

“Two-hour drive to Durango, but we can take a plane there in half that. Then we don’t know how long the drive will take—road conditions aren’t ideal, but the west side of the state didn’t see much snowfall during the last week. Talking to people on the ground there, they estimate two hours, and a four-wheel drive will be necessary. They also suggested snowmobiles or snow ATVs, but if Anton and his people drove in and out, the road should be passable.”

Kara wanted to leave now, but she took in a breath. “Okay.”

Tony’s voice came over the computer. “I just read the report from our cyber unit and am looking at a satellite map of Havenwood now. Damn. It’s really deep in there.”

“Yes, sir,” Ryder said, “but I’ve reached out to the forest ranger station in the area and the lead ranger knows the place. He goes out and checks on them once, twice a year. Has never had a problem, usually just gives advice for cutting back trees near the cabins, or tells them if there are physical dangers like the road closing. He’s currently checking on road status and will meet up with us when we get there.”

“Excellent,” Tony said. “Dean, what’s your plan?”

“Havenwood is going to reach out to us this morning. I want to be as close to their location as possible when they do that,” Dean said. “My guess is they won’t have Matt with them. They’ll expect a trap and use him as leverage. They’ll want to see Riley. If they don’t, or if they think we’re playing games, I can’t honestly tell you what they will do.”

“Why would they kill him?” Catherine asked. “They must know if they kill a federal agent they will lose their home. According to Riley, everything they did was to protect Havenwood.”

“Then why take him in the first place?” Dean said. “It makes no sense, based on Calliope’s psychology and what Riley remembers, that she would bring not only a stranger, but a man in authority into her camp.”

“She didn’t,” Riley said without opening her eyes. “If he’s there, she didn’t know they were bringing him.”

Catherine looked like she didn’t believe her, but Kara wanted her to keep talking.

Riley sat up, rubbed her eyes.

“Who would defy her?” Catherine said.

“I don’t know. Anton, maybe. I don’t know who else she sent. They want me, they know I’m alive, and maybe that twisted my mother up into doing something reckless, but she wouldn’t bring Matt to Havenwood.”

“Maybe he’s not there,” Kara said. “Could they have taken him to another place?”

No one said anything.

“Until they call, we won’t know,” Dean said. “But,” he continued slowly, collecting his thoughts, “I think he’s there. I have rewatched every interview we had with Riley, read the transcripts, looked at the satellite images, and I don’t think they have any other place to go. There’s a better than even chance that he’s there. We’ll ask for proof of life when they call.”

“How will they reach out?” Michael said. “Havenwood is remote, they couldn’t have cell reception.”

Riley said, “I drew you the map. They have an office. It used to be open to everyone, but my mother stopped that after Athena died. There is a computer and she has a cell phone with a hotspot. It’s slow, but it works.”

Everyone turned to her simultaneously. She rubbed her eyes. “It’s marked ‘the Office’ on my map. It’s the building closest to the road, but sort of on a little hill. It’s the only place someone can get and receive calls. Cell phones don’t work anywhere else in the valley. We kept them charged in the Office to use at fairs.”

“So,” Michael said, “they can keep Matt in Havenwood and someone will be able to communicate with Calliope and the others.”

Dean said, “If they believe we’ll make the trade, they plan to take Riley, then call in and have Matt taken from Havenwood and left somewhere remote. The hitch in my plan is that they could already have taken him elsewhere.”

“They’re going to kill him,” Riley said, voicing Kara’s greatest fear.

“We don’t know that,” Catherine said.

“Yes, I do know that,” Riley said firmly. “You weren’t there when Todd and Sheila came to Havenwood. I was little, but I saw what that did to my mother, to the others. Their actions shocked everyone, reinforced their fear of the Outside. Created an underlying hatred of strangers, born of that fear. I still miss the serenity of Havenwood and I know the darkness that lives beneath. No one leaves. They killed people who tried to leave. And now they’re hunting down those of us who escaped. You have to go in before they call. You have to find him and save him.”

“The problem, Riley,” Dean said with kindness, “is that a show of force will put innocent people in jeopardy. There are children in Havenwood.”

“I will not have another Ruby Ridge or Waco, not on my watch,” Tony said firmly. “Some of the smartest people I know are in that hotel room—start thinking.”

No one spoke for a minute, then Ryder said, “Can we assume they don’t know that we found Havenwood?”

Dean said, “They’ve felt safe for a long time, but they know we have Riley, and they know that we talked to Andrew.”

“They’ve been in South Fork for days,” Kara said. “They poisoned Andrew and know that he was unconscious. They might think he’s dead or in a coma. And since that attack, they haven’t seen us near Havenwood, which would reason that he didn’t tell us how to get there. So, Ryder, if we do assume that, what are you thinking?”

“Go in quietly and get Matt.”

“I like that idea,” Kara said immediately.

“What about the people suspected of murder?” Catherine said. “We can’t walk away and let the status quo remain.”

“Getting Matt out is our first priority,” Tony said. “Then, we start negotiations. We have five people on camera attacking Matt and Michael in their car. Those are the five people we are investigating. There is evidence at the crime scenes, we need their prints and DNA to compare.”

“It won’t work,” Riley said. Kara had to give her credit for contradicting the boss. “My mother will not negotiate.”

“We’ll need to find a way to get the children out of Havenwood,” Dean said. “If we can do that, then we can go in and execute a search warrant.”

Unspoken was that people might die if they resisted.

“Matt first,” Tony said. “He may have insight when we get him out. What is your plan to retrieve him?”

Ryder spoke again. “Split the team in two—half goes to a staging spot as close to Havenwood as possible, but without alerting anyone in Havenwood that you’re there. If they call, we route the call to where we’re staged. But the other half of the team goes quietly into Havenwood.”

“What about the cameras?” Michael said.

“They are only on the gate,” Ryder said. “Thalia got people out through the north, which is typically impassable in winter and early spring. But that region had a mild winter which helps us now. I looked at the terrain and we can go in from the north. We should also find a way to disable the cameras. I don’t think the technology is state-of-the-art, and they wouldn’t have consistent Wi-Fi to stream video. My guess is that the cameras are either hardwired in, which means they have a cord we can cut, or they are connected to Wi-Fi and there’s a repeater, but they would be prone to going out, so a glitch isn’t going to alert them that we’re on-site.”

“We still don’t know where Matt is on the compound,” Kara said.

“Havenwood has a prison,” Riley said. “It’s our old food storage cellar, which is partly underground to keep produce cold. That’s the most likely place.”

Catherine nodded. “I see that on your map.”

Tony asked, “Dean, what are the odds that Matt is in that prison?”

“Better than even. They wouldn’t want to give him free rein, so he is likely restrained, and that would be the logical place.”

“Put together the plan, pick the two teams, and go,” Tony said. “You have an arrest warrant for the five people we have identified from hotel surveillance, and a search warrant for the property, but it’s your choice whether to execute it. You know what to look for—anything that connects Havenwood to these murders, including red poppies, burlap, the fungus that Jim found on one of the victims, marijuana, the murder weapon. Also any computers or records. Ideally, you won’t use the documents until after Matt is safe and we bring in the AUSA to assist. The warrants are only if you need them, understand?”

Everyone nodded.

Tony looked stern over the computer. “I see a hundred ways this can go wrong, let’s do it right.”

“What about my mother?” Riley asked in the background.

Brave girl. Tony Greer was on his full authority rant, and she was challenging him, in a way. Kara was beginning to really like her.

“What crime has she committed that we have evidence for?” Tony asked, his voice just a fraction softer. “Not a crime that you suspect her of committing, but a crime you have firsthand knowledge that she committed and will swear to under oath in a court of law?”

Riley glanced at Kara and Kara nodded. “I—I have firsthand knowledge that she let Donovan’s younger brother die. She ordered Anton and Evan to dig a pit—I was there when she told them to do it—and when Donovan’s brother, James, fell into it, she wouldn’t let anyone go help him. She told me that bad boys and girls must be punished.”

The room was silent.

“She runs Havenwood,” Riley continued. “And you’re right, I don’t know firsthand most of what she did. I can’t prove she killed my grandmother—her own mother. But I think she poisoned her. I can’t prove that she killed William, Thalia’s dad, but I’m positive she did—or ordered someone to do it. She was growing, cultivating, and selling hundreds of pounds of marijuana every year. But everyone at Havenwood is part of that. So you’d have to arrest everyone. I can’t prove she ordered someone to kill Robert or Jane or anyone else. But Thalia was tortured there before they killed her. I heard you, Kara, when you were on the phone. And wouldn’t there be evidence of that?”

Tony considered this. “I will leave all decisions to the team on the ground. Our number one priority is to extract Matt. Period. The warrant is to protect us, but we can return with it once we have Matt and know how many people are on-site, how many are children, and the exact layout.”

“We’ll have the assistance of the Forest Service,” Ryder said. “That will save us time.”

“We need to get this done before Havenwood calls us,” Dean said. “If they think we’re stalling, they may act rashly.”

Like they haven’t already acted rashly by kidnapping Matt? Kara thought.

“I need to go,” Riley said.

“We’re not putting you in harm’s way,” Dean said.

“It’s my choice. I’m not under arrest, right? This is my mother . I know her better than anyone here. I also know Havenwood better than anyone here.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Kara said. “You will stay with the staging team.”

Tony cleared his throat.

“What? We need to leave now ,” Kara said. “We can’t put Riley, a civilian, into the field.”

“No,” Dean concurred, “but she’s right that she knows more about this community than anyone, and we need to tap her resources.”

Kara hadn’t kept Riley safe for the last few days only to put her head on the chopping block.

“Dean,” Tony continued, “I need to talk to the director and meet with the judge. You’ll have your warrants shortly. You’re in charge of this operation. I expect all of you to give Dean the same respect as Matt.”

He signed off and Kara asked again, “So when do we leave?”

Dean looked uncomfortable. “I think you should be on the team in the staging area.”

“No.”

Catherine cleared her throat.

“No,” she repeated with a glance toward Catherine. She couldn’t read her, but the woman had been a thorn in Kara’s side since they first met. “You’re in charge, Dean, you know how to deal with these people, but Michael and I have been partners for a year. We work well together. I trust him explicitly. You don’t know me or my past, but it’s not easy to earn my trust. And I know you’re going to assign Michael to Havenwood.”

“Riley is most comfortable with you, Kara,” Dean said.

“I’m okay,” Riley said. “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.”

Dean ran a hand through his hair. “I guess I’m outvoted,” he mumbled. “Okay. Ryder, have the Forest Service identify the best staging area closest to Havenwood, and ensure that the fire road on the north side of the valley is clear, and what vehicles we can take and to what point. That’s how we’re going to get in. Notify FBI SWAT in Denver and get a team together just in case we need them. We need a plane to Durango and transportation to the staging spot, then we’ll split up and find Matt. Let’s do this before they make contact.”

Kara desperately wanted to get going. Ryder sensed her frustration and put his hand on her arm and said to the group, “Our charter flight leaves in fifty minutes, at dawn. The airstrip is ten minutes away. I need to coordinate SWAT and the Forest Service, if you’ll excuse me.”

He left the room and Kara realized she was risking her chance to go on the away team if she showed her impatience. She needed to be calm, professional, and stop thinking about what Matt might be suffering.

The plane wouldn’t leave any faster if she pushed.

Jim’s words about how Thalia had been restrained and malnourished haunted her. Matt had only been gone for twelve hours. He was strong, but he’d been injured during the attack. Was he kept in the same prison that Thalia had been in?

“We know from Riley that two people who left Havenwood returned with ill intent,” Catherine said. “They were shot and killed and since then, Calliope has shunned all strangers and stopped people from leaving. This is going to be a dangerous assignment. The residents have lived in isolation for years, some their entire lives. This life, this place, is all they know. They will feel threatened if the authorities come in, even without a show of force. I don’t know what weapons they have, but we know at least two of them have guns, based on Michael’s statement about what happened yesterday, and they are proficient with knives. You all must be cautious.”

Catherine paused, as she often did when putting her thoughts together. “Calliope will lie to protect herself,” Catherine continued. “She will not leave willingly. You’ll have to make the decision whether to forcibly extract her, and that will be problematic because her people have been trained to defend her as much as Havenwood. If you can find a way to take her quietly, that would be ideal.”

“Our number one goal,” Dean said, “is to retrieve Matt and protect the children. We don’t want bloodshed. Catherine, I know children can be trained from an early age to be violent, so my goal is to restrain and search them, get them out of harm’s way.”

“They’re not violent,” Riley said before Catherine could answer. “My childhood was wonderful.”

“Be that as it may,” Dean said, “you’ve been gone for nearly four years.”

“The people of Havenwood are there because they don’t like the violent and uncertain world. They want something simpler,” Riley said. “Think the Amish, but with generators and marijuana. It’s not an easy life, but it’s comfortable. I can’t see anyone training the kids to behave in a violent fashion. If anything, they have been sheltered—though they know how to skin a rabbit and kill a chicken. Because that’s food, and we thank the earth for providing for our nourishment and health.”

She was emphatic about that, and Kara had to consider she was either clouded in her judgment, or—maybe—she was right.

“But,” Catherine said, speaking mostly to Riley, “your mother instills loyalty, doesn’t she?”

Riley nodded.

“And we believe your mother ordered the murders of everyone who left. The children may not be involved, but they may not think there’s anything wrong with punishing those who are perceived as hurting their community. So go in cautiously, Dean. Be prepared for anything.”

“I need to go,” Riley said.

“You’ll be in the staging area, protected,” Dean said.

“I need to go to Havenwood. When they see me, they’ll listen. They all think I’m dead. Not my mother anymore, but I don’t think she would tell the town that I’m alive. That would undermine their confidence in her. If they see me with their own eyes, I might be able to convince them to turn on Calliope. If she has no one but her inner circle, I think you can resolve this peacefully. At least, as peacefully as possible.”

“You’re not going to Havenwood,” Dean said. “It’s not safe.”

Kara looked at Riley. Someone was going to have to watch her—Kara recognized the girl’s stubborn streak because she had one of her own.

Fifteen minutes later, Kara met Dean in the lobby. The kitchen was still closed but the staff had put out coffee and pastries for the FBI. He was drinking coffee and staring at the dark outside. He’d texted her to come down and talk to him.

“You wanted to see me,” Kara said.

“I hadn’t wanted you to go to Havenwood because it’s clear to me that there’s something between you and Agent Costa and that might put you in a compromised position.”

“Have we acted in any way unprofessional?”

“No. I wouldn’t have guessed except for Riley.”

“Her drawing.”

He nodded.

“Matt and I have a personal relationship,” she said, “and it has never gotten in the way of our work. The team knows about it, we don’t discuss it because it’s none of their business, but they deserved to know so if we cross a line, they’ll call us on it. We haven’t. Tony knows because he’s the boss, and I guess there are FBI rules that relationships are accepted as long as it’s known.”

Dean smiled slightly, and Kara continued.

“It started before we worked together on the MRT and it is what it is. I want to go because Michael and I are partners. Matt and I too, but Matt is the boss and Michael and I have worked together more in the field. I wasn’t lying—I trust him. Matt trusts him. And Michael is having a difficult time right now because he was there when Matt was taken. I know him—he’s running through every scenario in his head to figure out what he did wrong. I need to be there for him, and yes, if Matt is injured, I need to be there for him, too. But mostly, I’m a good cop. I may not be FBI, I may not have a psych degree, but I know people. I will be valuable on the team.”

He nodded. “You don’t need a psych degree to understand people. I read your file when I couldn’t sleep. You are a good cop. But you also take risks.”

“Doesn’t every cop?”

“No.”

“I don’t take unnecessary risks.” She got up and said, “I’ll meet you upstairs.” As she left the lobby, she saw Ryder crossing the space with Sloane. Sloane gave her a hug and said, “You good? Michael?”

Kara nodded. “Thanks. I’m glad you’re here.”

“I need to brief Agent Montero,” Ryder said. “We have some new information and it might change our plans.”