The spontaneous helmet did nothing to improve Avery’s mood. Neither did the sudden flurry of movement. Apparently the warehouse base was under attack. Avery cast the high-tech laptop a wistful glance. She got the feeling that she would never get to use it with everything that was going on. In the next instant, someone had grabbed her by the collar of her vest and was dragging her roughly towards the van they had arrived in.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Avery complained. She really disliked how much she was being manhandled lately. “I can walk by myself—” She was promptly thrown into the back of the vehicle. The helmet shifted on her head at the impact so that it fell over her eyes. She was blind. From the shaking of the van, she could tell that the others were getting inside, but there was too much noise outside for her to decipher much else.

Avery scrambled to tug the helmet off of her head. She could see again. But she didn’t like the sight that greeted her eyes. She was locked in the van with the same three goons she had been trapped with the first time around. Fletcher moved to search her for injuries – not that it was necessary. Apart from being tossed around like a sack of potatoes, she was unharmed. Still, she was too flustered by everything that had happened to argue about the checkup.

The bodyguard plopped the annoying helmet back on her head and moved to join Troy at the back of the van. Avery scoffed irritably, adjusting the helmet so it didn’t cover her eyes. She would never be rid of the ridiculous thing. She glanced at Fletcher when he said something about air support. [i]Okay,[/i] she thought. [i]These guys are calling in freaking air support? This is insane.[/i] Why did they want her dead so badly?

Fletcher gestured for Avery to stay low to the floor of the van. She reluctantly complied. She didn’t want to take orders from him, but she also wasn’t stupid. She didn’t want to die. She heard the sound of a missile being fired from the front of the van. Then something exploded overhead. Rebecca must have taken out the air support Fletcher had mentioned.

“You’re all crazy!” Avery shouted over the sound of shrapnel raining down around the vehicle. “Every one of you!”