I gasped awake as my heart threatened to explode out of my chest. My hands immediately rubbed my eyes in an attempt to erase the horrific images of Anna's battered and bruised body. Just the thought of my sister suffering made me want to vomit, and the nightmares didn't help.

I became aware of where I was as I peered through the dimly lit room to see Melissa's bare back rising and falling. My eyes lingered on her before inevitably pulling away as I stood from the bed.

After dressing myself, I paced to the kitchen to inspect what we had to eat, which wasn't much. Fortunately, there was a coffee pot and some leftover coffee grounds. I decided to brew some.

With a nearly scalding hot mug of coffee in my right hand, I pushed open the front door with my left. The wind was still during these early morning hours, but the dry cold was relentless.

I silently wondered what our next move would be because it would have to be a big one. Those men that had kidnapped Melissa and I last night were probably out for blood now, and we didn't have a lot of time. I needed to find my sister before they found us. But Paige was leaving us with nothing.

The clues yesterday had done nothing but make me feel bad about myself, but I figured that was completely intentional. Maybe now that I understood her life, it could lead me somewhere. And with four heads thinking together, we had to come up with something.

I heard the front door close as my head automatically snapped to the side. My father, who also toted a coffee cup in his hand, joined me outside.

"Didn't mean to scare you," he apologized as he sat next to me on the porch. "Good thinking, brewing the coffee."

"Too bad it's stale," I admitted.

I faced forward but I could feel his eyes on me. Just the image of his worn expression made me want to scream. Everyone was hurting and it was all my fault.

"You're lucky Alvin had that tracker in your jacket," my father said. "I can only imagine what would've happened if we hadn't shown up."

"Melissa and I would be working for the other side."

Dad shifted. "What do you mean?"

"They're connected with Victoria," I admitted. "They wanted us to steal something back from the NIA for them."

"Which was?"

"An external-drive." I faced him. "Apparently, Victoria had stolen it from the GIB before she quit years ago, which was why she was in hiding. Then an agent working for the NIA confiscated the drive, but Melissa and I stole it back before we left Los Angeles."

My dad had confusion and shock written all over his face. I still found it amusing how little he knew about my life.

"Well, where is it now? Do you and Melissa still have it?" he wondered.

"No," I said. "Alvin does. He's trying to open it."

Dad sipped his coffee. "What's in it?"

I shrugged. "We don't know, but it's obviously really classified if they considered it treason when Victoria stole it."

A silence settled between us at the revelation. It was clear dad didn't know anything about this. Hell, I hadn't either up until Alvin had showed up. Although, I was glad he did considering he had been very helpful in the search for my sister. I was looking forward to him coming over soon so we could brainstorm over where Anna could be.

"Alexa, I..." Dad's voice trailed off.

I looked over. "What?"

His elbows rested on his knees as he stared down into his coffee. The steam rose and danced around his face. I wanted to know what he had been trying to say, but didn't want to push him.

"I'm so sorry..." he said. He turned to face me. "The two months you were at training, I talked with Anna and your mom. They told me so much about what you went through, about everything you did for this family..."

I didn't say a word.

"You should've never had to do any of it," he said. "If I hadn't have been selfish all those years ago, none of this would be happening."

He was right. I couldn't deny that.

If he hadn't agreed to leave us for his job, mom would've never lost her mind worrying about him. We would've never even left Arizona. Granted, dad still would've been gone majority of our life, but at least Anna would've been able to say she had a dad.

We would've gone about our lives like normal.

And even though that's what I had been wishing for since Anna disappeared... I was starting to wonder if that was even true.

"You're right," I whispered. White smoke exited my mouth. "But I would've never met Derik or Willi if you hadn't."

My father made a face.

"They weren't the greatest of influences," I defended. "But they were my family, and they looked out for me and Anna. Especially Derik."

His eyes softened.

"I believe everything happens for a reason, whether it's good or bad," I admitted. "Just like there's a reason for whatever is going on right now."

Our identical eyes locked with each other.

He sighed. "And what do you think the point of all this is?"

He was referring to Anna missing. I could tell it was taking a toll on him as well. The worry lines on his forehead were deep. He had lost weight, just like me, and suddenly I didn't feel so alone.

"I don't know," I lied. "Or I don't know yet. Eventually, when it's all over, hopefully I will."

This, for some reason, satisfied him, but I could feel the real answer on my tongue.

Really, I believed this was my karma.

That Anna suffering for my mistakes was the universe's way of punishing me. Just like how our family would never be the same towards dad, as punishment for him leaving us all those years ago.

I had my faults. I had my sins to live with. This was just the way the world balanced everything out.

And deep down, I believed my judgement day was soon, but telling everyone that seemed unnecessary.

That's when a beat-up little car rolled down the dirt road and parked next to me and my father's car. The glare of Alvin's glasses let me know it was him. Was it eight already?

He exited his car with a bag slung around his shoulder and a box in his hands.

"I brought some breakfast," he stated, eyeing our cups. "You have coffee. That's great."

We followed him back into the cabin.

I spotted Melissa in the kitchen fixing her own cup of coffee. Only for a moment did I forget about all of my pain when our gazes locked.

She threw me a shy smile.

"So, I think I may have cracked this thing open," Alvin revealed.

He pulled out the drive Melissa and I had stolen for him, along with his laptop. As he set up, I decided to question him about last night considering I was awfully curious as to how he had managed to save our lives.

"How the hell did you hack into that computer at that warehouse? And set off the alarm?" I wondered.

"Well, the alarm was easy," he said. "Just a little basic security hacking from the control box. The computer was a little harder considering I had to go in through the Wi-Fi connection and get past the firewall. I accessed the security cameras, found where you were and ran an overdrive program to-"

"Jesus," I interrupted. "Never mind. You already lost me."

He just smiled. "A lot of what happened last night was based on pure luck."

A sarcastic chuckled escaped my throat. "Luck. Right."

We all gathered behind Alvin as his laptop finished waking up. Melissa moved closer to me as my father stood tall on my right.

"Think this thing will tell us where Victoria is?" I asked.

"We can only hope," Alvin said as he typed into a command prompt. "This thing is supposedly ten years old, so I had to be awfully careful decrypting it. The last thing I needed was to corrupt the files inside on accident."

Once the drive was on, the connection secured and a password box popped up on Alvin's computer screen. Another command prompt ran in the background, a million letters and numbers flew by, and with our fingers crossed we hoped for the best.

And then we were in.

"Wow..." Alvin muttered.

"What?" I asked, unsure of what we were looking at.

"This isn't just an external-drive," Alvin claimed. "It's almost like a mini-computer."

He clicked a file that read Internet Network Search and swiped around on his phone. I felt like a fish out of water watching him do his thing.

"She must've spent so much time working on this..." Alvin admired. "I wonder what this file is – Woah!"

Everything in the room was still for a moment as we processed what we were seeing. It was dark, but there was a sound in the background... it was almost like...

The sound of an alarm going off echoed through the computer speakers. Then there was movement. What the hell?

That's when the darkness disappeared, like a blanket falling away from our eyes. We saw a glimpse of the wall, and then the sound of a woman groaning. The confusion we all felt was tangible.

Until the vision blurred and we were then staring at the face of Victoria Van Allen.

"It's Victoria!" I nearly yelled.

"Oh my God..." Alvin mumbled.

"Wait, what's going on?" Melissa asked. "How are we able to see her? Where is she?"

"It's her watch." You could hear the smile in Alvin's voice. "She planted a small drive in her watch and connected the two devices... She knew exactly what was going to happen and prepared for it."

I was still majorly confused.

Alvin turned to face us and realized he was the only one who seemed to know what was going on.

"She must've planted software in her watch, or watch in disguise, and in this external-drive," he said. "But the only way they can connect is if they both have internet connection. She must've worked on this for years as a precaution, in case anything did happen to her."

"So, this means we can find her," my dad said. "This means we can track her location."

"Yes," Alvin agreed. "But there are other things on this drive that are dangerous if put in the wrong hands."

"Like the people who want it back," I said.

Alvin minimized the screen of Victoria and opened the file search window. There seemed to be a million different documents, but he scanned it like a pro, as if he knew what he was looking for.

Then he opened one.

At first, I wasn't sure what we were looking at. A list of names, the country in which they were affiliated with, and either the word terminated or alive next to them.

"Is that...?" I trailed off.

"A hit list?" Melissa finished.

"It is." Alvin scrolled. "But a hit list for what?"

I sat back and thought, trying to remember the coded message we had received a few days ago.

"Victoria had said something about another world war," I said. "Do you think this could have something to do with that?"

I watched as another document was opened, this one labeled The New World Order Treaty.

I allowed my eyes to scan over the words like globalist and one all-powerful government before I had to force my eyes away. Was this what they were planning for our future?

"Holy shit..." my father whispered.

That's when we heard something coming from the video screen. The fact that Victoria had managed to put a mic in her watch was genius!

"I heard Russia's on board."

"Of course, they are! They were on board years ago."

"France and Germany have no clue what they're gonna be up against."

We couldn't identify who was talking, but it was no secret what they were talking about.

"Have you made any progress on Germany's database?"

"Yes," Victoria said. "But I still haven't found what they need."

"I heard they were going to stage an attack on Washington D.C."

"The fatalities would be in the thousands."

"They want to make it look like Germany's fault," the voice paused. "And the other side doesn't have enough allies to take on the U.S., Russia and China."

"We're doomed either way."

"Once Germany is turned against the U.S., France will back down and sign the agreement."

"And once that happens..."

"They get rid of Germany and the New World Order takes place."

We all looked at each other in the kitchen of the cabin. This was something out of a horror movie. Suddenly, all my problems seemed insignificant.

"We need to get this to Chapman. Now," my dad said.

"If we go there, I'll be arrested," Alvin defended.

"No, you won't." My father's voice was urgent. "Not when you bring something like this to the table."

"We can't just leave Alexa and Melissa."

My eyes met my father's and suddenly I wondered if this was more important to him than finding my sister. Don't get me wrong, the last thing I wanted was a war, but I'd be damned if I let anything come between me and Anna.

And I saw what mom had seen in dad's eyes. The need to be the hero. The desire to save the world. This is the shot he's been waiting for. I just wondered if he was going to take it.

"Go," I tested. "Take it to Chapman. He needs to see it."

"But Anna..." dad whispered.

He was torn. There was nothing he wanted more than to be the one to bring this to the attention of his superiors, but he didn't want to leave me on my own.

"I'll find Anna," I said. "With or without you."

Deep down, this was sort of like a silent ultimatum. It was unspoken, but dad and I were on the same page. He knew if he decided to leave and go back to Los Angeles, I would never forgive him.

"Without me no one will be able to open the drive, so I'll have to go with him," Alvin claimed, sensing the tension. "And right now, Anna needs us."

The staring contest between dad and I came to a halt as I remembered the cellphone we had found at the graveyard. I hadn't checked it since last night.

Had Paige responded?

Then suddenly, I heard a ringing coming from our bedroom.

I looked at Melissa. "Is that yours?"

"No."

My eyes widened at the realization.

Someonewas calling the cellphone, and there was only one person it could be.