structure, but with approximately every third hexagon missing,” he said for Ivy Jane’s benefit, not certain the NetMind had spoken to them both.
“We’re missing a vital component,” Ivy whispered. “Without it, the Net will never be whole.” A pause. “Another lost designation?”
Kaleb shook his head on the physical plane. “Impossible. I have access to top-secret data from prior to the dawn of Silence. No other designation was buried like the Es were buried.”
“When I ask the NetMind for clarification, all I get is a cascade of emotion—loss, pain, brokenness.” Tears filled Ivy’s psychic voice. “It’s in so much pain, Kaleb. So is the DarkMind.”
Kaleb thought of the time right after the awakening of the Es and the creation of the Honeycomb. The NetMind had been a wonder of hope, joyous laughter in his mind. “They’ve lost hope,” he found himself saying, though he was no expert in emotion.
Ivy’s response was thick with sorrow. “Yes, you’re right. The NetMind held on for so long, hid the Es, protected us, but now it’s realized we can’t stop the pain. Not totally.”
And without the NetMind, the DarkMind couldn’t exist.
Opening his senses, Kaleb reached for the twin neosentience, asked what was missing, what they needed. The emotions that came back were of a staggering loss, image after image of a body with organs torn out by uncaring hands, leaving the patient bloody and barely alive.
When? Kaleb asked, using a visual of a calendar and a clock with twenty-four numbers on it.
The pages of the calendar began to flip back at inhuman speed as the hands of the clock spun backward, around and around and around.
It all came to a stop at one minute past midnight in the year 1979.
The dawn of Silence.
Chapter 12
TWO HOURS AFTER Ivy’s investigation of the strange and deadly weakness in the Net, Aden Kai, leader of the Arrow Squad, stood in an office awash in the sunshine present on this side of the world, and listened to her report, then offered any assistance he or the squad could provide. Even as he spoke, he knew there was little the Arrows could do except protect the Es and attempt to rapidly patch up any tears in the psychic fabric that kept millions alive.
This was a battlefield for which they simply did not have the right weapons.
As he ended the call with Ivy, he considered the other items on his agenda. The Trinity Accord was at the top, the Ming situation a serious issue that could cause real-world violence if not handled correctly. There was also the case of Leila Savea, one of BlackSea’s vanished members.
Miane Levèque had updated Zaira directly on the message from the kidnapped marine biologist; Aden’s commander and the BlackSea alpha were fledgling friends, both women as dangerous as one another. The fact that Zaira and Vasic had brought three of Miane’s lost people home also had the BlackSea alpha far more apt to trust the squad.
“You understand what it is to treasure a child’s life,” she’d said to Aden once, her eyes as black as night rather than the clear hazel he was used to seeing. “It gives us common ground on which to stand.”
While Aden was already calculating how the squad could help in the retrieval of the BlackSea woman, it wasn’t because Leila Savea was an innocent. Aden couldn’t think with his heart; he had to think first of the well-being of his Arrows, his strategy a long-term one. The squad needed to continue building relationships with other strong groups. Such relationships would keep their vulnerable alive should the world ever turn against the most dangerous predators in their midst.
That thought in mind, he sent an updated alert on the BlackSea situation to his men and women, then made a comm call to Lucas Hunter. “Lucas,” he said when the alpha answered on what appeared to be a small-screen device, the view beyond him of smoothly polished wooden logs.
The sunlight made it difficult to see Lucas’s face.
“I received your note.” In it, the leopard alpha had suggested they send out a simple vote on the Ming situation to all those who had already signed the accord.
The result could well decide the future of Trinity.
“You agree?” Lucas’s shoulders moved under the black of his T-shirt as he shifted to a more shaded spot. The clawlike markings on the right side of his face came into sudden, sharp focus.
“Yes,” Aden said in reply to the alpha’s question. “We can’t move forward while Ming’s trying to poison Trinity.”
“I’ll