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Melinda was sitting on a bench at the edge of the lake, staring out across the water in the gathering darkness, brooding. Steven had, sensing her mood, wisely withdrawn to some distance away, where a tent and a command center of sorts had quickly sprung up. Despite their apparent failure, the battle for the Twin Cities continued. That was Steven’s headache. Melinda, on the other hand, was only left contemplating what had gone wrong.
She had turned the events over and over in her mind, running through them in sequence. The Key had led them on a path to discovering the identity of Prisoner 112 to begin with and then had pointed them to the one place where they could find out where she actually was. Except that she wasn’t there, there was nothing there. It made no sense. Why lead them all this way for nothing? Why scatter bread crumbs for them? Why the games, why the charade? The Key wouldn’t put that much effort into playing with them, would he? And if so, then for what end?
Another thought came to her then and it was one she didn’t much like. She took her phone out of her pocket and held it in her hand for a moment, staring down and the screen and weighing the decision in her mind. She had known Sam, John, and Tommy for nearly a decade. She couldn’t believe that they would be anything but straight with her, but Harvey? Harvey was another matter. They were up to something, Melinda knew. She didn’t know what it was going to be, but it was coming. Maybe, just maybe, this had been an elaborate ruse to keep her looking one way while Harvey put all the pieces of his little plan into place. She set her shoulders. She had to know. She dialed a number and waited as the phone rang.
“Melinda.” It was Harvey’s voice.
“Did you play me?” Melinda said, letting some anger seep into her tone.
“Play you for what?” Harvey replied.
“For a fool,” Melinda snapped. “I got your information from the server farm and followed it to a dead end. The coordinates lead me nowhere.”
“That’s not possible,” Harvey said.
“Isn’t it?” Melinda said. “I’m sitting here staring at an island full of nothing.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone before Harvey spoke again. “I’m not playing you,” Harvey said.
“Prove it,” Melinda replied. “Because from where I’m sitting it looks like someone screwed me and not in the fun, sexy kind of way.”
“You want the truth?” Harvey asked. “All my cards on the table?”
“Yes,” Melinda said.
“We’re taking the Paha Sapa,” Harvey said. “Right now.”
Melinda’s jaw dropped. “All of it?”
“The treaty will be honored,” Harvey said. “So now that you know what I’ve been up to, I have to ask: What possible motivation would I have to play you?”
Melinda thought for a moment about that and realized that Harvey was right. This had been too well timed to be working against the Territories. In fact, if the scale of what Harvey was hinting at was true, then it would only stand to benefit them, given the timing. That hadn’t been the conclusion she was hoping to reach.
“Not much of one,” Melinda admitted. “It still leaves me back at square one.”
“You sure the coordinates are right?” Harvey asked.
“Yes,” Melinda replied.
“Look again,” Harvey suggested. “I know it’s trite and probably unhelpful, but sometimes things really do hide in plain sight.”
Melinda was about to reply when suddenly the phone went dead in her hand. She took it from her ear to look at the screen to see if the call had dropped when she realized that it was suddenly pitch black around her. Behind her she could hear cries of surprise and alarm from the command post that Steven had set up and, standing up, she waited as her eyes adjusted to the dark.
It was strange, Melinda realized, how much light there was at night. You didn’t think about it until it was gone. She turned in the direction of the tent and was relieved to see the glint of flashlights, one heading toward her. “Melinda? Are you okay?” It was Steven’s voice.
“Yeah, I’m still here,” Melinda said. “What the hell happened?”
“We’ve been pulsed.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Steven said. “I didn’t think anyone would be crazy enough to do it but someone did. Everything’s dark.”
“Our forces?”
“We’re getting backups online now,” Steven said, “but it’s going to be a while.”
“Are we going to be okay?”
Steven shrugged. “If we’re blind, they are, too. It’s going to be a race to see which one of us is back up and running first. In the meantime—” He stopped, staring past Melinda out at the lake. Melinda turned and stared.
“Honey,” she said slowly. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Yes,” Steven said. There, out on the lake, on the island that they had thought was deserted, was a small, white light. Steven raised his flashlight and then shut it off and turned it back on three times, very slowly. They watched as the light on the island flickered on and off three times in return. Melinda felt a thrill of excitement run through her and Harvey’s words echoed through her. “Sometimes things really do hide in plain sight,” she repeated aloud.
“Someone’s out there,” Steven said.
“Yes, they are,” Melinda said.
“Want to go find out who they are?”
“More than you can possibly imagine,” Melinda replied.
A few quick orders from Steven and soon enough three inflatable zodiacs were advancing across the lake toward the island. About halfway out, Steven ordered all available lights turned on and Melinda gasped.
“There’s a house out there.”
“Yeah,” Steven said. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“I don’t know,” Melinda said. “We checked this island, right?”
“Drove around it twice,” Steven said.
“Apparently we should have sailed out to it in the first place,” Melinda said.
“I didn’t have the zodiacs until the engineers showed up to set up the command post,” Steven said, apologetically.
As they approached the island, the zodiacs activated their spotlights- which was cumbersome, because without power they were forced to constantly turn hand cranks to generate enough power to keep them on. The lights swung back and forth over the island, revealing a beautiful yellow house, a wrap-around porch, and a small dock jutting out into the water. The spotlights kept sweeping over the house and stopped as they saw the front door open and a figure step out onto the front porch and begin waving.
“Hello!” Melinda and Steven heard the figure, a young woman in her twenties, call.
Steven cupped his hands around his mouth. “This is the Territorial Army!”
“Do you come in peace?” the young woman replied.
“Yes,” Steven yelled back.
“Then come on up!”
The zodiacs slid up to the dock and a couple of soldiers jumped out of each one and helped secure the boats to the dock. Melinda and Steven stepped onto the dock, the soldiers fanning out ahead of them. The young woman stayed on the porch, and as they approached they saw that she was clad in an ill-fitting pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and grinning from ear to ear. The soldiers spread out in front of the porch and, at a quick order from Steven, a few more of them went around each side of the house to establish a perimeter. Melinda slipped her hand into his and together they mounted the stairs.
“Hi,” the young woman said as they reached the top of the stairs. She extended a hand first to Melinda and then to Steven, who in turn shook her hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Melinda said.
“Likewise,” the young woman replied. “I’m Mara, by the way.”
“All right,” Steven said.
“I bet I know why you’re here,” Mara said.
“You do?” Melinda replied.
Mara laughed and opened the door to reveal a familiar figure, “I’d like to introduce—”
She got no further before Isabella Sanderson stepped through the door with a look of pure surprise on her face. “Melinda? Steven? Is that you?”
Melinda's eyes were full and brimming as Steven dropped her hand straightened to attention and snapped off a salute. “Governor Sanderson, ma’am!”
Melinda almost laughed at the crestfallen look on Mara’s face as she realized that the three of them knew each other. Isabella looked older, of course: her hair was white, her face wrinkled, careworn, and more brittle than Melinda remembered. There was a frail quality to her now that surprised Melinda; her memories were of a woman made of steel. But as she watched Isabella stand to attention and return Steven’s salute, she saw the Isabella of old, the Isabella she remembered. As Isabella’s hand dropped, her face broke into a grin and she laughed as she came forward to embrace Steven.
“Same old Steven, I see,” she said. “About damn time you got here!”
She then turned to Melinda and, smiling, the two embraced. “It’s good to see you, ma’am.”
“It’s good to see the both of you!” She waved them toward the chairs on the porch. “Now, sit, sit, tell me everything!” She pointed at the younger woman hovering near the front door. “You, too, Laura. No need to be waiting on my hand and foot right now. Or wait? Do we need to pack? Is this a grab-and-go?”
Steven laughed as he sat down. “No ma’am,” he said. “We’re taking the Twin Cities back.”
“Oh good!” Isabella said. “It’s been hard to tell how things are going stuck in this house.”
“Very good, actually,” Steven said. One of the soldiers who had been down on the dock walked up the stairs to the porch. “General, we have an update.”
“What is it, Private?”
“All our forces have activated pulse hardened back-up generators. We’re at about fifty percent capacity now,” he said. “They’re requesting permission to continue our advance.”
“Permission granted,” Steven said. “Do we have any intel on enemy positions?”
“Headquarters is reporting that enemy forces are withdrawing from downtown and heading toward Anoka. They seem to be massing there.”
“Gathering for a glorious last stand?” Isabella guessed.
“Waiting for reinforcements from the Dakotas,” Steven said.
“Reinforcements that aren’t coming,” Melinda replied. “Harvey’s making his move.”
“On what?”
“The Black Hills,” Melinda said.
Isabella raised an eyebrow. “All of them?”
“That’s what he said,” Melinda replied.
“This is going to be interesting,” Isabella said.
“I guess we’re going to find out,” Steven said. “And I believe we have secured St. Paul, Governor. If you’d like to make a return to the Capitol.”
Isabella laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Actually,” Mara interjected. “I have a better idea.”
About thirty minutes later, their small convoy pulled up in front of a house in Burnsville. The street lights were still on; the extent of whatever had pulsed them had been confined to the inner suburbs and the downtown area. “This is it,” Mara said. Melinda noticed that Isabella looked nervous, scared even. Mara hopped out and held the door open, extending a hand to Isabella, and helping her out of the car. Steven and Melinda stepped out of the car and followed Isabella and Mara up the front path.
“Where are we?” Melinda whispered to Steven, slipping her hand into his.
Steven leaned over to her. “I’m not sure,” he whispered back.
Mara reached the front door and rang the doorbell. They all waited for a few moments and then the front porch light came on and the door opened. “Hi, Mom!”
“Mara,” Mara’s mother, a short woman with a shock of curly red hair pulled her in for an immediate embrace. “I’m so glad you’re okay! Why didn’t you call?”
“I, um, dropped my phone in the water,” Mara said. “Mom, is Dad here?”
“Oh,” Mara’s mom said, suddenly noticing the rest of them. “You brought guests.” She turned and called back into the house. “Tommy! It’s Mara!”
“Mara?” They heard the sound of approaching footsteps and suddenly Melinda realized where they were. It had been years since she had seen Thomas Sanderson, but there was no mistaking him. Melinda realized with a start that Mara had to be Isabella’s granddaughter.
“Hi, Tommy,” Isabella said.
He stepped forward and walked down the short hallway to the front door, his mouth working, his fists clenching and unclenching as he tried to believe what he was seeing. He reached the threshold of the door and reached out to grasp Isabella by the elbows.
“Mom?”