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ordered.
    “Skye…” Ian began, concern in his voice.
    “ Take us down !” I screamed.
    I could feel Ian's need to reach out and comfort me, but I didn't want it. I didn’t need it. He seemed to sense that and sat back in his seat instead, giving me time to process what had happened.
    Sam didn't ask any questions or make any comments about my order. He simply landed us near the ridge of the massive crater. When I stepped out of the helicopter, I could physically feel the stillness of the place. It was the same quiet you feel when you walk into a cemetery. The air seemed stale, unmoving. I walked over to the edge of the crater, hoping to see something that might awaken me from yet another nightmare in a life which seemed filled with them.
    Broken trees and cracked earth marked the place where the second Southern Kingdom had apparently once been. What would have caused it to cave in on itself?
    Sam and Ian came to stand on either side of me to peer at the devastation.
    “What would have caused this to happen?” I asked.
    “Doc Riley told me this place had the same safety precautions as the first facility,” Ian said. “Except it didn’t have nuclear warheads around the perimeter just regular bombs.”
    “But the outsiders couldn’t have tripped the auto-destruct this time,” I reasoned, remembering that the council sacrificed the outsiders to the Harvesters at their outpost inside Stone Mountain. “If they didn’t do it, who did?”
    I knew the answer to my own question before Sam even said, “Harvesters.”
    “But if the queen’s already been here,” Ian said, “why would she send Lawrence to tell you she was coming down here to get your father?  That doesn’t make any sense.”
    “No,” I replied, staring at the hole in the ground as realization dawned. “It makes perfect sense.”
    How could I have been so stupid?
    “We have to go back,” I told them, running for the helicopter, not giving either of them time to ask me any questions.
    Sam got us back into the air in record time.
    “What are you thinking?” Ian asked me as Sam flew us back to camp.
    “I’m thinking she wanted me out of the way so she could attack Michael and the rest of them.”
    “But we took care of her strike team.”
    “How many Harvesters would you say came in?”
    “Maybe a hundred.”
    “Why send in only a hundred when she could have sent in thousands?”
    Ian sat and thought about it. “To send you a message.”
    “A message that would ensure I left. Why take me out of the equation?”
    Ian thought about it for a moment and quickly came to the same conclusion I had.
    “So you wouldn’t get hurt when the real attack began,” he said, hanging his head. “Damn. We should have seen that.”
    I sat back in my seat and sighed.
    “She didn't only want me out of harm’s way,” I said, closing my eyes and feeling like I was on the verge of completely losing it. “I'm not there to protect Jace and the kids either. She had to have known I wouldn’t let her take them without forcing her to kill me first.”
    “But Michael was getting ready to move everyone to the new camp when we left,” Ian reminded me. “Plus he sent scouts out to make sure she didn't have any Harvesters waiting outside the perimeter of the compound for some type of ambush like that. He found a few of her scouts, but Michael’s people took them out pretty quick.”
    “Then we’re missing something, Ian. She wouldn't have gone through the trouble of sending Lawrence and sacrificing her soldiers for no reason. She never does anything without it serving a specific purpose.”
    I could tell from the look on Ian’s face he knew I was right. We were missing an important piece to the queen’s plan. But what?
    We both fell silent for a while. I tried to concentrate on the hum of the helicopter blades to clear my mind but found it a futile act.
    “Are you all right?” Ian finally asked me.
    I didn't have to ask him to clarify his question. I knew