***September 20th, 2063. White Sands Army Base, New Mexico, North American Province, 09.00 am local time.***

Michelle tapped ‘send’ and sat back in her chair. She blew out a tired breath. It was only nine in the morning and she felt like an entire day had passed already. It wouldn’t get better from here.

She had just spent the last fifty minutes typing up a report about the power outage, its security implications and the alarming information Turner had shared. Michelle had left out Turner’s misbehavior for now. She would deal with the scientist herself.

After Turner had mentioned Louise, Michelle knew she had to keep a close eye on her. There was no official way for Turner to know about Louise. Everyone thought she was dead. The army and global government had carefully erased her from history, as thoroughly as they could. Even Louise’s sister had happily agreed to never mention Louise again.

But there was a huge problem: Louise wasn’t dead. Michelle had told everyone she had been killed because Louise had demanded that she do so. If Michelle had not complied, Louise would have exposed her role in a clandestine operation that had gone awfully wrong.

When Turner mentioned Louise earlier this morning, even though it was not by name, alarm bells had started ringing loudly in Michelle’s head. She had always feared the truth would come out in the army. But how could a civilian know about Louise?

Michelle tugged at the collar of her uniform. It seemed hotter in here than usual. Maybe it was because she was tired. She was tempted to unbutton her jacket, but she knew she never would. She thought she looked too vulnerable in a shirt.

Turner’s file was still open on her screen. Michelle stared at the woman’s Bambi eyes. She briefly wondered how Turner’s eyes could be so captivating while her personality was so off-putting.

Turner sure knew how to get Michelle riled up in the worst possible way. Everything the scientist did or said made Michelle’s blood boil. She had no idea how she would survive being stuck in a pod with Turner for *48 hours*.

It would be the perfect opportunity to interrogate Turner, though. Michelle needed to find out who was leaking information about Louise and she needed to find out quickly. She couldn’t rely on others to help her. It was too risky.

A knock on her door interrupted Michelle’s frenzied thoughts. She frowned, briefly unable to understand why someone would disrupt her. She had instructed her assistant not to interrupt unless the building was on fire.