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we?”
    He hesitated.
    “Jesus. How many?”
    “We’ve lost contact with eight.”
    She disconnected the call and headed for the door.
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    N EARLY EIGHTY PERCENT of the Project’s bases were built underground. NB016 in New York, however, was not one of these. It took up the top seven floors of a twenty-two-story office building in Brooklyn. Celeste’s office and attached living quarters were located on the top floor, with a multimillion-dollar view of distant Manhattan. The operations center, also on twenty-two, was at the other end of the floor.
    On most occasions, the room was filled with calm, whispered conversations and the tapping of keyboards. Such was not the case when she entered this time. There were people rushing between communication stations, comm operators talking loudly into microphones, and others shouting across the room to one another.
    She spotted Reynolds in what appeared to be a heated conversation with four other staffers. As soon as they noticed her marching toward them, they fell silent.
    “Director,” Reynolds said, stepping toward her. “Thank you for coming.”
    “Please tell me you’ve been able to reestablish contact with those eight bases,” she said.
    Reynolds exchanged a look with the others in the circle, then looked back at Celeste. “It’s actually ten now.”
    “ Ten ?”
    “We’ve been unable to reach the stations in Cairo and Tokyo.”
    She stared at him. “How in God’s name did this happen?”
    “It appears to be a coordinated effort.”
    “Oh, really? You think so? What kind of idiotic statement is that? Of course, it’s coordinated! I want to know who the fuck is coordinating it!”
    “We…we aren’t sure,” he said.
    A woman in the group frowned at Reynolds.
    “What?” Celeste said. “You don’t agree?”
    The woman hesitated a moment, then said, “There’s only one group it could be, ma’am—the same one that’s been pecking away at us for years. The word is they call themselves the Resistance. I’m positive they’re also the ones who took out Principal Director Perez and NB219. For all we know, they could be responsible for whatever happened at Bluebird, too.”
    “With all due respect to Ms. Dalton,” Reynolds said, visibly angered that the woman had inserted herself into the conversation. “There is no proof of that. Besides, their headquarters was destroyed on Implementation Day. It would be impossible for them to regroup quickly, let alone pull something as widespread as this.”
    “Think about it, Carl. Do you really believe taking out a building in Montana would cripple them?” the woman countered.
    “ Cheryl , that’s enough.” He turned back to Celeste. “I apologize, Director. Unfortunately, at this point there is no way for us to—”
    “You,” Celeste said, pointing at Dalton. “What’s your position here?”
    Dalton’s eyes widened. “Um, I’m the, uh, assistant op manager in charge of—”
    “Not anymore,” Celeste said. “You are now operations director.”
    “What? Wait,” Reynolds blurted out. “You can’t do that.”
    “The hell I can’t. You are relieved of your duties, Mr. Reynolds. Return to your quarters and stay there until I decide where you’ll be a better fit.”
    “This is ridiculous! I haven’t done anything wrong!”
    “You haven’t done anything right, either.” Celeste looked around until she spotted a guard stationed near the door. “Take this man to his room and see that he doesn’t leave.”
    It had been a rash decision fueled by anger, Celeste knew, but that didn’t mitigate the fact Reynolds was too resistant to others’ ideas. What the woman had said made sense to Celeste.
    “Ms. Dalton,” she said. “I want you to assign a team to find out exactly who’s behind this.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Dalton said, still looking stunned.
    “And have someone get the rest of the directorate on the line right now. I’ll use the op conference room.”
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