Identity Zero novel · Chapter 23 of 32
Chapter 23: Red Flag
"Thursday," the squad boss said. "So we sit around and wait for the sky?"
"We don't sit," the superintendent said. "We preposition."
He took the station phone back off the table and dialed a number from memory.
"It's me," he said. "That red flag on the Peninsula. You'll want a crew parked in Forks by Thursday noon."
He listened.
"I know we're not up. Put us up."
He hung up and looked down the table at twenty men and one dead one.
"A fire on that ridge belongs to the state," he said. "Every fence in its way belongs to the fire."
"And Gorham's gate?" Jesse said.
"A gate's a structure. Structures get protected." The superintendent almost smiled. "Whether the owner likes it or not."
The rookie raised his hand.
"What if it doesn't light?"
Nobody answered him.
It lit.
The first strike hit at ten past four on Thursday, while the crew sat in the buggies at the Forks ranger station with the engines running.
There was no rain with it, which was the bad kind.
Just a white crack on the ridge to the east, and then another, and the thunder walking toward them across the hills.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of Identity Zero are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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