Julia's eyes snapped open as a dash of cold water hit her in the face. She glared angrily at Alex, who had been the one throwing the water. "Let's go," he said. "No time for monkey business."
He forced Julia through the door of the barn. Two men were seated at a battered card table, playing cards. An additional man sat in front of a computer at the far end of the barn. A petite woman with a dark pageboy sat next to him.
"David, McClelland, Hector, Anne!" Alex said broadly. "This is Julia."
"Hey," everyone said at once.
Hector, a squat Hispanic man who just happened to be the one seated before the computer, came over to Julia and said, "We've been waiting for you. Come with me."
The barn door opened and Irina and Vaughn came in. "Now that we're here," Vaughn said, "Hector, you show Julia our hacking protocol, okay? The rest of us will get ready for the Grosvenor-Prudhomme mission."
"Freeze!" someone shouted suddenly, and whirling, Julia saw that it was Weiss. "Hands in the air!" he bellowed.
The Society of the Closed Fist agents did as they were told. The two men dropped their guns. Hector reluctantly let go of Julia's arm.
"Julia, come here," Nadia said, keeping her gun trained on Irina and Vaughn. Julia did as she asked. "The rest of you, on your knees!"
Several agents flocked in to cuff the members of the Society of the Closed Fist. Julia took a deep breath and put her hands to her face, simply overwhelmed by the events of the day.