My eyes opened to see pale light peeking in between twisted branches overhead. Oh no. I fell asleep.

I bolted upright in my seat. Well, I'm still in the car, so that's good. The double agent didn't seize the opportunity when we were all unconscious to turn us over to the enemy. This thought was hardly comforting, though, since the traitor was still at large.

I scanned the rest of my team. Everyone lay motionless, heads against the back of the seats and eyes closed. I was the only one awake. Good. This will give me time to evaluate our situation without their influence.

I looked out the window. Huge oak trees towered above us. They clustered close together, the thicket impossible to look through.

My pulse quickened. At any moment, a WAOIC agent could pop out from behind a tree and take us hostage. There were probably security cameras, patrols, or at a bare minimum, other WAOIC agents taking the same route as us to headquarters. We were lucky that no one had found us yet.

Unless, WAOIC knew we had arrived, but didn't want to take us yet. A chill ran down my spine at the thought of it.

I pressed the side of my watch to turn it on. The screen lit up with my inbox. You have one new message.

I opened the text. It was from the Director, asking me to check in with him on how everything was going. He didn't mention the double agent directly, just in case someone intercepted the message, but I could read between the lines. I quickly typed a reply and sent it just as Dari stirred in the front seat. Part of me wanted to pretend to be asleep again, just to see if she would contact WAOIC or something. But Dari stretched, her head turning in my direction. Her eyes met mine, and she smiled, as if to say 'Good morning, X.'

There goes that plan.

My stomach rumbled. I picked up the food bag from the day before. It crinkled as I pulled one of the last remaining muffins.

I suddenly realized that we had not brought enough food with us to last the next few days. Perhaps I can send Finn into a nearby town to find some food.

I peeled back the wrapper on the muffin, about to take a bite, when I saw Dari stretch out her hands towards me. I tossed her the last one. My teeth sank into the sweet dough. Sanding sugar on the top crunched in my teeth.

This muffin was nothing like the one I had yesterday. Sickening sweetness and artificial blueberry flavoring overwhelmed my tastebuds.

Xara wouldn't be caught dead eating this. But it was food, which meant that I would have energy to make it through the day.

I finished the muffin then began constructing a new plan for the team. The good news was that we were way ahead of schedule. Today was July fifth, and we didn't actually have to break into WAOIC headquarters until the eighth. But I knew we were going to need every second of that time.

I pulled out my laptop and started planning. The sun rose higher in the sky, casting rich, golden light over the forest.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others stretching and yawning.

"For a second, I thought you were Dari," Ty said to me.

I continued typing on my computer. It was nice to have a reason to ignore people's questions and comments.

"Good morning," Finn said.

"Morning," Dari replied.

"You did a good job getting us here," Ty said. "I thought for sure you'd crash into one of the trees."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," Finn mumbled.

"How far are we from WAOIC headquarters?" Dawn asked.

"About a mile," Finn said.

My head snapped up from my computer.

"How do you know?"

"I drove past it," Finn said. "The path brought me to a building with a fence around it. The whole forest is centered around the clearing. I would have told you guys, but I didn't want to wake you. So I decided to drive across the clearing to the forest on the opposite side just in case a WAOIC agent entered through the same way. There are fewer trees here, too, so it was easier to drive through. I was able to find this place to park, well away from headquarters. I think this is a good place to set up camp here, unless Xara has other ideas."

He turned to me. I blinked at him, trying to process everything. I didn't like how well-planned his logic was. It was too methodical—too strategic. It seemed like a plot to have us in this exact position.

"You drove right past headquarters?" I asked.

"Yup."

"And they didn't see you?"

"Well it's not like they're onto us."

That sounds super sketch. We weren't spotted by even one guard?

"Perhaps we should see the headquarters," I said, shifting in my seat. "I need to figure out how we're going to break in. Then we'll decide where to camp."

"Fair enough," Finn said.

I didn't like that response either. Adrenaline surged in my veins. What if he's leading us into a trap?

But I still had to get a good look at WAOIC headquarters. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to create a plan to infiltrate it. I sucked in a deep breath.

My eyes fell on the empty bag of food. We're going to need some sort of sustenance to get us through these next few days.

"We're kind of running low on food right now," I said. "I might need you to go into town and get something. Dari, how far are we from the nearest city?"

"I was hoping you'd ask," Dari said with a grin. "I got our coordinate location this morning."

Fear shot through me. Did she send our location to WAOIC? Are they coming to get us? I felt the urge to turn around, to see if anyone was creeping up behind me. But I relaxed a moment later. She wouldn't have admitted to finding our location if she had given it to WAOIC. It's basic Psychology.

"We're near the Algonquin Provincial Park."

"The one in Ontario?" I asked.

"Yup. How did you know?"

I shrugged. "I know a lot of random things. I had a lot of time on my hands to memorize stuff."

"Well can us simpletons who don't have a GPS in our brains have a map, please," Ty said. "Or at a bare minimum, some coordinates."

"Speak for yourself," Dawn said. "Not us." She looked back at Jef and nodded.

"The coordinates are 45.9 degrees North, 77.8 degrees West," Dari said.

"You're not one for extra credit," Ty grumbled.

"Naw, why waste my energy?" Dari said.

"So basically we followed Agent Fox right back across the United States," I said, ignoring the others.

"Hey, it's less travel time getting back to Washington D.C.," Dari said.

"True..." I thought for a moment. "Our first priority needs to be taking a look at WAOIC headquarters," I said. "Is it safer to drive over or to walk over?"

"I would say walk," Finn said. "The car will make more noise."

But what if we are surrounded by WAOIC agents? The thought of leaving the safety of the car made my stomach churn. But Finn made a good point. It was probably more conspicuous to drive than to simply walk.

The only question now was who should come with me. It was a bad idea to leave the car unoccupied. I glanced around at the others in the car. Who do I trust the most? And who do I trust the least?

I glanced at Jax. He was solemn, exuding a calm that I was desperately in need of. He was quiet and would pick up on anything I didn't notice. I recalled how he had been on guard at the pizza parlor, even when everyone else was distracted. As of right now, I trusted him the most.

Next was Dari, Dawn, and Jef. Dawn and Jef weren't a part of Team Summit. They were the only people I could entirely trust. Dari, well, she hadn't done anything particularly suspicious—yet.

And then there was Finn and Ty. They were the people Xara would have trusted the most, so the ones least likely to be suspected. That just makes them all the more deadly.

So now the only question remained: who do I keep closer, my friends or my enemies?

I decided to do both.

"Dawn, Finn, and Jef, hold down the fort here. Jax, Dari, and Ty, come with me."

Finn raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. I felt my heart beat a little faster. Why did he react like that? It's almost like he knows something...

My eyes jumped from tree to tree, searching for WAOIC agents. When I was sure that no one was watching from the thicket, I got out of the car. Jax, Dari, and Ty followed suit.

I suddenly realized that I just made a terrible mistake. Finn was the only person who knew the location of WAOIC headquarters. He was the only person who could show me the way.

"Uh, Ty, switch with Finn," I said.

"Wait, what? Why?" Ty protested.

"Because I need Finn to show me where headquarters is. He's the only one who knows."

Finn grinned as he stepped from the car. "I was wondering how long it would take you to remember that little detail."

He strode off in the direction of the rising run, his head high. His confidence—his smugness—set me on edge. He was definitely one to be wary of.

The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that there could be a traitor in the Oclen family. Why did he stand to gain from WAOIC? A few hundred bucks at the expense of his family, his sister? My blood boiled.

Ty's reaction was also suspicious, though. Why had he protested? Was he planning to lead us right into enemy hands?

Finn brought us to a line of coniferous trees. I ducked down, peering between the spaces in the branches. A lanky, wire fence stood in the clearing ahead. Behind was a massive, rectangular building.

"Dari, can you get some sort of read on the fence?" I asked. "Like, is it electric?"

"I'll try to scan it," Dari said.

Guards in black uniform lined the white-stone sides. I pulled out my pen-telescope to zoom in. Each one stood at attention with a machine gun in hand, pointed into the forest.

I started to calculate my options. We obviously couldn't just walk up to the building; we would be caught immediately. We needed some way to get past the guards.

"It's electric," Dari announced. "It carries 600 volts of energy."

"Great," I muttered. One more issue to deal with.

I scanned the complex. It was highly secure, virtually impossible to penetrate...

I noticed that every guard stood about two yards from the electric fence, and four yards from the building. My eyes fell on a bush on the side of the building. It was thick and overgrown, just large enough to hide a person completely from view if needed.

"Dari, can you take a look at this plant for me," I said, handing her my telescope.

"Which plant?" she asked.

"The one on the side of the building." I placed my hands on the telescope and tried to aim it in the direction of the bush, but Dari pushed my hands away.

"I see it," she said. She handed the telescope back to me and pulled out her phone. "I'm going to take a picture of it and scan it to find out what it is. I'm assuming you want to know if it's something like poison ivy."

"Yeah. We need a way to get past the guards, and I was thinking maybe we can hide in that bush."

"How do we get past the guards though?" Finn questioned.

"And how do we get inside?" Dari added.

"I'm not sure..." I looked to the ground, following a path from our location to the location of the bush. I had an idea, it just seemed so...far fetched.

"Maybe we can tunnel?" Dari's suggestion was more of a question than a statement, but ironically enough, I had been thinking the same thing.

"That's the only way that I can think of," I said. "We did bring digging equipment."

"We can't tunnel through the concrete building, though."

"We're just going to tunnel our way to the bush, past the guards and fence."

"And then we'll get inside by..." Dari trailed off. She was waiting for me to finish.

My eyes scrolled up to the roof of the building. This was an even longer shot than tunneling under the ground. "The roof," I said. "We'll go in through the roof."

"What? Are you crazy? We'll be seen!" Dari cried.

"It's the only way," I asserted. "But we're going to need some special equipment. First, we're going to need an X-ray scan of the complex. Finn, you're going to have to get a plane and fly overhead to do the scan. We're also going to need a scan of the ground so we know where to tunnel. Dari and Dawn are the most tech forward people here. They'll be responsible for navigating our tunneling efforts."

"But where are we going to get all this fancy equipment?" Finn asked.

"And how can we be sure that we aren't seen?" Dari said.

"We need to watch the guarding patterns," I said. "Find out if there are times when they are less conscious of what's going on around them, or times when there are less of them standing guard. As for the equipment..."

We were prepared for such an outlandish plan. The only place that could provide assistance was IIA headquarters.

"We have three days, counting today, to get everything done. Finn and Ty will drive back to the airport in Wisconsin. Finn will fly to IIA headquarters and get the equipment we need and come back here. Ty will drive the rental car back so that we have a car to drive around in. As long as Finn returns in the early afternoon tomorrow, we'll have a day and a half to make the tunnel.

"While Jef, Dawn, and Jax are creating the tunnel, Finn can fly the plane overhead and get a scan of the complex. Dari, you can analyze where things are located inside WAOIC headquarters." I exhaled, glancing at the others. "Does this work?"

Dari grinned. "Sounds good to me."

"Let's get started," Finn said. "We haven't a moment to lose."