Thank you for reading!

Major moved efficiently from cover to cover, finding himself at the back door at last. It was open—careless of them, really—so he slipped inside.

Unfortunately, that was where his luck ran out. He was spotted almost immediately by the guy he and Ravi had seen entering the building, and ended up fleeing in a hail of gunfire, vaulting over a couple of metal barrels and crouching down behind them. So much for the big bad Commander of Fillmore Graves. Shot in the leg, no less, by some stooge in a warehouse.

The guy was coming up behind him. Major checked his gun, readying himself, but before he could turn and shoot, a truck came out of nowhere, smashing into the guy from the side and knocking him into a pile of crates.

Major was startled to see Ravi behind the wheel. If possible, Ravi looked even more startled. When their eyes met, he said rapidly, "I've got the kids; they're in the back."

Not needing any further incentive to get the hell out of here, Major hurried out from behind the barrels. He stopped to stare at the unconscious—or possibly dead—form of the guy from inside the building. "Nice work. And you were right—there was another guy."

Ravi banged on the door of the truck to get Major to hurry up. "Bruv!"

"Okay." Major hurried around the truck and got in, leaning back in the seat as Ravi drove off.

They took the kids to Liv's safe house, because it was the only place Major could think of where Blaine wouldn't be able to find them. For a wonder, Liv and her team had managed to keep the house's location a complete secret. He wouldn't have thought it possible—no one knew better than he did how hard it was to keep any kind of a secret in New Seattle. Sooner or later, someone always found you out.

Graham, the teacher, was there. He was taken aback by the influx of new children, but he rallied and went into the kitchen to whip them up something to eat. He was just serving the soup when Major heard the secret door open and close. He checked quickly over his shoulder. Liv.

"You think we should have them checked out by a doctor?" Major kept his voice low so the kids wouldn't overhear.

"What's a doctor going to tell them? That they're dying and their brain is a zombie cure? Besides, they seem okay."

One of the kids glanced over and Major raised his voice so it wouldn't seem like he and Ravi were talking about them. "Actually, Graham, that's good-looking soup." He was just about to ask for a bowl when Liv appeared at his elbow.

"Graham, I need to talk to you." Only then did she take in the scene at the table. "Who's this?"

"These are some kids we rescued from their captors," Ravi explained. "All, unfortunately, suffering from Freylichs, but doing okay for now."

"Ravi, you did it."

"Major helped."

Over his shoulder, Major added, "I was gigolo bait. And I got shot."

"I drove getaway," Ravi boasted.

"Shot! Are you okay?"

Major made a face like it was nothing. It had actually hurt like hell, but who was he to complain about a little bullet wound? This time tomorrow you wouldn't even know it was there.

Before he could play for any extra sympathy, Liv was moving on. "Well, clearly, so … never mind." She looked past Major. "Uh … Graham?" When he looked at her, she tipped her head toward the next room. "Excuse us."

Major returned to chatting with the kids, hoping to put them at ease and reassure them that they would be safe from here, before he had to start asking them tough questions about what had happened to them and who they had seen and where they had been taken. They probably wouldn't know the answers anyway—more than likely he would have to be satisfied with their safety as a good night's work. Which it was. But he would have been happier if he had been sure he could stop the next wave of Freylich kids kidnapping.

Graham came away from their discussion crying. Major couldn't get a straight answer out of him, just a lot of looks at the door Liv had closed behind her and a lot of talking to a picture he was holding. Handing Graham off to Ravi, Major went to the door. He could hear Liv talking … and then he could hear Liv crying, too.

"Liv?"

"Major. Major!" She came to the door, tears streaking her face, and threw herself into his arms, sobbing against his shoulder.

"It's okay. It's okay."

"No. No, it isn't. Major, it's … it's all wrong. It's all so wrong."

"What happened?"

"They—my father, Major. Enzo shot him."

"Enzo?" There was a name Major hadn't expected to hear again. "What did your father have to do with Enzo?"

"My father … is the man who made the tainted Utopium. He's also the head of a zombie movement that has people in place right now to spread the virus across the world. Across the world, Major! Do you know how many people will die?"

Major thought rapidly. Martin must have been behind whoever had gotten Enzo out of the deep freeze, and they'd been working together ever since. "Where?"

"Vegas, Graham thinks. They used him to infiltrate my organization. Oh, Major, I was the one who let them out, the zombies. Because I wasn't careful enough!"

His arms tightened around her. No one could have been careful enough, not with as many conspiracies as swirled constantly around this town. "Okay. We're going to figure this out. We're going to stop Enzo once and for all, and we're going to keep the zombie virus from spreading."

She looked up at him with tear-washed eyes. "How?"

He wished he knew.