on the grid of security monitor feeds. The war room was not only for team meetings, but it had also become their command center of sorts. From it, they had eyes and ears on nearly every part of Sanctuary, inside and out.
While some might have considered that overkill, the slew of incidents involving trespassing, vandalism, and threats of physical harm had more than justified the precaution.
Knowing that Tina was just down the hall made it hard for him to keep his ass in the chair and continue with his task of plotting out the labyrinth of mine tunnels beneath the surface even though he found the work fascinating. Ever since they’d discovered that Daryl Freed and his inner circle were using the now-defunct anthracite mines to store weapons, ammunition, and fuel, they’d been creating a map of the underground network. Church’s main concern—beyond the obvious—was that some of those old passageways came dangerously close to Sanctuary property and made them vulnerable, especially since Sanctuary had some underground secrets of its own. One or two well-placed explosions could have catastrophic consequences.
Thanks to the Callaghans in nearby Pine Ridge—a group of former SEALs they’d befriended—they had access to some very sweet hardware and software to aid them in their task. Regular ventures on foot were helpful in identifying and marking off cave-ins and blockages as well. But since the coal-rich mountains were chock-full of mines, both documented and undocumented, it could take years to explore them all.
Doc finished one particularly complex section and looked up to the screen, his eyes immediately searching for their guest. He’d been doing so on and off for the last two hours, each time taking comfort in the fact that Tina seemed to be having a good visit with Kate, Sam, Sandy, and Bree. But this time, she wasn’t there. The table where they’d been sitting was now unoccupied.
He pushed to his feet, out the door before he realized what he was doing. Tina couldn’t have left already. He hadn’t even had a chance to talk to her.
He nearly collided with Sandy in the hallway.
“Whoa. Where’s the fire?” she asked.
“Sorry, Sandy. Did Tina leave?”
Her brows pulled together. “No. Kate said she had to do something with dinner, so Mad Dog’s giving her a tour of the greenhouses.”
“Ah.” Doc’s relief turned to slight embarrassment when Sandy’s lips quirked.
“Relax. You didn’t miss her. She’s staying for dinner.”
“Oh. Good to know.”
Sandy’s quirk turned into a knowing grin. “You like her, huh?”
“What? No. I mean, yeah, she seems nice enough.”
Her grin grew. “She is.”
“Right. Well ... I promised Justin I’d help him with the dogs. I should get to it.”
“Uh-huh. See you at dinner?”
“Yeah, maybe.” Definitely.
Chapter Eleven
Tina
The greenhouses were incredible. Kate’s husband, Chris—who had come up with the design—said he had started with a prototype and was expanding from there.
“I’m really impressed,” she told him honestly, breathing deep to inhale the heady scents of soil and water and fresh growth. It was like spring but inside.
The massive hexagonal structure was cutting edge with hinged sections on the sloped ceiling that opened with the touch of a button. Sliding Plexiglas panels worked similarly along outer and inner walls, partitioning the massive space into smaller sections, allowing each to have its own ideal growing environment.
What really impressed her, however, was the advanced hydroponic system. Not only did it collect rain and snow melt, but it also brought in water from the nutrient-rich stock pond and recycled it back through a complex gravity-based drainage network. Even better, everything was powered using solar panels and small-scale wind turbines.
“About twenty percent of our fresh produce comes from here,” Chris told her proudly as they walked past the raised beds holding an assortment of fruit and vegetable plants. “We’re still figuring things out.”
Tina had been dreaming of doing something like this for years, but each time she brought up the idea of bringing their greenhouses into the twenty-first century, her brothers would shoot it down, citing the cost as too prohibitive to be feasible. While disappointing, she understood where they were coming from. Obermacher Farms could never produce crops on their current scale using such methods, but Sanctuary could. They needed only to sustain themselves, and that was more than doable.
“I think you’ve done a phenomenal job,” Tina told him honestly. “How did you come up with all this?”
He grinned. “It’s amazing what you can find on the internet when you know what to look for. The state university has a great agriculture program with plenty of