Cutting Edge

PROLOGUE

Twenty Years Ago

I am going to die tonight.

It was a random thought, and should have been fleeting because Nora didn’t believe she was in any real danger. As soon as they breached security, they’d be arrested, and then she’d be truly free.

But as soon as the dire prediction flitted into her mind, it hung heavily in the air as she drove with her mother, sister, and two men toward the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, nestled in the coastal mountains of Avila Beach. She had never been so close to a nuclear reactor in her life; fear flowed through her veins, riding on her blood cells, squeezing her until she could scarcely breathe. It was the situation that gave her fearsome thoughts, not that she was truly going to die.

Nora didn’t want anyone to get hurt. She tried to be strong as they turned off the Pacific Coast Highway and drove the winding roads into the mountains east of the power plant. Ten miles as the crow flies, and then they’d be at the end of the narrow road. They’d proceed the last mile on foot.

How her mother thought this plan was even remotely sane, Nora didn’t know. When Cameron laid out the idea last month, she had laughed out loud and told him that the security at nuclear power plants was probably better than security for the president of the United States.

He’d slapped her. Lorraine hadn’t even flinched. Nora wasn’t surprised that her mother hadn’t stood up for her, but it hurt deep down where Nora had thought she no longer cared how her mother felt about her.

Kenny used to work at Diablo Canyon, knew all the security protocols. He’d get them in, Cameron assured the group with complete confidence.

“Once we’re in,” Cameron said, “it doesn’t really matter if we are able to cause a radiation leak. Getting in is the key. The press we get for penetrating their so-called security will be worth any trouble we have. The public will wake up, demand change. The revolution will start. And we’ll be martyrs in a far greater movement.”

Nora wasn’t so sure. For years, her mother had been involved in every kind of protest under the sun. They lived off the grid-Nora didn’t even have a Social Security number or a driver’s license or a birth certificate. She’d been born in a cabin in the woods. Had anything gone wrong, she would have died. She didn’t think her mother would have cared.

Nora was exhausted. She’d be eighteen in October-her mother didn’t remember her exact birthday-and had never had a real home. No formal education; her mother’s friends taught her what they knew, which was heavy on creating fake IDs, making bombs that were rarely used, and stealing food. But she got by, and was giving her little sister an education that involved reading and math more than it did picking pockets.

Quin was smart. Nora couldn’t let her grow up like she had. Her sister needed a permanent home, a real school, people who cared about her.

If Nora had even one small doubt that what she was doing was right, it disappeared when Cameron insisted on bringing Quin with them-and Lorraine didn’t object. “She’ll stay in the car,” Cameron said. “No one is going to be left behind.” And he stared at Nora. For a moment, she feared he knew. Then he went back to pontificating.

Last summer, Nora had contacted the FBI when Cameron and Lorraine attempted to burn down a housing development under construction in San Luis Obispo. The bomb fizzled, causing little damage, and the FBI said they didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Cameron Lovitz. Since she hadn’t been with them when the bomb was planted, her testimony would be hearsay and the U.S. attorney wouldn’t prosecute unless he had an eighty percent chance of winning. But the FBI asked Nora to be an informant for them. They’d been watching Cameron Lovitz for a long time and believed an insider could give them the information to catch the radical activist red-handed.

Special Agent Andrew Keene was her handler. She’d been meeting him several times a week for the last eight months.

As Kenny drove the Jeep over the jagged, unpaved road, Nora shrank into herself and thought about Andy and what he’d said to her early this morning, before dawn.

She’d set up an emergency meeting behind the student union at Cal Poly to tell him about the bombs. Cameron was a lab assistant at the university, and Lorraine had moved Quin and Nora into his small faculty apartment last year. As much as Nora hated Cameron, the two-bedroom apartment was the closest thing they’d ever had to a home.

“Can you arrest him now?” Nora said as soon as she approached Andy.

“You’re late-I thought you wouldn’t make it.” Concern marred his handsome face.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t want to take any chances.” The truth was, Cameron scared her. She’d almost chickened out. But then she remembered the night Quin almost died when Cameron had her nine-year-old sister hanging banners off the freeway overpass, and she was empowered. This had to end.

“Andy, the bombs-did you get my message? Are they going to arrest him now?”

She knew the answer was no even before he spoke. She blinked back tears, wanting to be stronger than this.

“Don’t,” Andy murmured, and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. Her heart skipped a beat, her skin flushed. Nora had loved Andy almost from the day she met him. He’d promised her he would protect her and Quin, put Cameron and the others in prison, where they couldn’t hurt anyone. He was her guardian angel and her link to the real world, all in one. He’d shared stories about his large, fun-loving family, about the four-bedroom, one-bath house he’d grown up in, where he and his five brothers and sisters fought over who showered and when. But he said it with affection and wistfulness, and there was no doubt in Nora’s mind that the Keenes had loved one another.

But Nora couldn’t say anything about her feelings for him. Andy was twenty-five, she seventeen. When tonight was over, he’d go back to D.C. They had separate lives. He was a college graduate; she’d never had formal schooling. He was a federal cop; she’d broken so many laws she didn’t know what was legal and what wasn’t. He had a job; she would need to find one to provide a home for Quin. A place where her sister would feel safe and loved. A place she never had to leave, a place to keep her things and know they would be there when she returned.

But for now, for the next twenty-four hours, Agent Andrew Keene was her only hope for a real future-without Lorraine, without Cameron, without fear. She would be emancipated and her new life would begin.

If she survived tonight.

“I did everything I could, Nora. But in the end, it wasn’t a solid case. He burned the security map of the power plant, and he could argue that the bombs were for a lab project.”

“But I’ll testify! Tell the judge what they planned.”

“Without physical proof, the U.S. attorney won’t take it to court.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Shh.” He hugged her and it felt right to be here like this. She wanted to enjoy his warmth and affection but she was too worried to relax.

Andy stepped back, tilted her chin up. “There is nothing they can do to damage the reactor or even create a small radiation leak, you know that, right?”

She hesitated, then nodded.

“Believe me, Nora. They won’t even get inside the reactor building. Even if the FBI wasn’t going to be crawling all over that place, there’s no way they’d get past security. Lovitz’s plan is pretty solid as far as getting past exterior security-and the plant will rectify that after tonight. But the rest is idiocy. The guy’s a lunatic.”

“He doesn’t care about success. He wants to make a statement.”

“And he could get you and everyone killed trying to make that damn statement.” Andy sounded more than a little angry. “No one wants a fatality tonight. We are optimistic that we can make the arrests without violence.”

“Cameron isn’t like the others-the other men my mother has been involved with. He’s, I don’t know. He doesn’t seem quite … right. That sounds dumb.”

Andy shook his head. “Not dumb. Our in-house shrinks suspect he’s borderline schizophrenic. Paranoid, distrustful of anyone in authority. He could just as easily be targeting abortion clinics as nuclear power plants. Whatever he wraps his sick mind around. Remember that-this isn’t about you, or even Lorraine, who is an enabler. This is about a violent, psychopathic criminal, and I will put him in prison. He’ll never hurt you, Nora.”

She believed Andy. He knew what he was doing; she could trust him.

“I think you should stay with Quin. We have his plan, and will-”

She shook her head. “I have to go. Cameron insisted. I don’t think he trusts me. Not this, but in general. He’s always watching me, it gives me the creeps.”

“Make an excuse. Get sick. Can you make yourself throw up? They won’t want someone with the stomach flu to slow them down.”

Nora feared that if she pretended to be sick, Cameron would kill her. She evaded Andy’s question and asked, “Is everything set for my emancipation and Quin?”

He nodded. “But we’re keeping it confidential.”

“She’s all I have.”

“That’s not true.”

Nora looked at him, hearing something different in his voice. Something like longing. But she had little experience with boys her own age, let alone men like Andy Keene.

He took her hand. Her stomach fluttered, her head felt light. “You have you. You’re a strong, smart young woman with great instincts and boundless compassion. Never doubt yourself, ever.” He looked nervous. “I-you have me, Nora. I’m not going to push you, I’m not going to crowd you. I know you’ll have a lot of things to settle after tonight. But I hope you’ll let me be part of your life, when you’re ready.”

She felt like Cinderella, being swept off her feet by a handsome prince as they battled her evil mother. But her life wasn’t a fairy tale. It had been hard, cold, unforgiving, and ruthless.

Yet she still had hope. Maybe she could have a future where she could make a real difference.

“I’d like that.” Her voice sounded foreign. Had she even spoken?

Then he kissed her. It was short and light, but it was clear he was kissing her, his lips on hers, his hand pressing gently on her back. Kind, hopeful, supportive. But this wasn’t friendship. Nora knew exactly what it meant.

I hope you’ll let me be part of your life.

“You’ll be safe, Nora,” he whispered. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Nora jumped when Cameron slapped her thigh hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. Gone were the memories of Andy kissing her, the warm feeling of being safe even for a moment. She was back in the Jeep, facing a half-deranged man.

“Pay attention, Nora!”

They had parked at the base of a mountain. Behind her were trees towering high into the sky-or so she imagined from the dense blackness on this moonless night. In front of them was two thousand feet of open space. A meadow blanketed with wildflowers-she remembered them from their earlier reconnaissance, bright and breezy. Now the grassy plain looked like a bottomless pit in front of an industrial complex that lit up the coast.

Quin had fallen asleep in the backseat; now she stirred. “Mom?”

“Stay here,” Lorraine commanded.

“I want to go with you and Nora,” she whined, her voice quavering with unshed tears. “It’s dark.”

Cameron turned and glared at Quin with his dark eyes narrowed, and she didn’t say anything else, just pulled her blanket closer to her chest. Nora hated her mother then, for not protecting them. For bringing Quin into this.

“It’ll be okay,” Nora told her sister.

“I expect every detail to be handled with precision,” said Cameron. “You’ll have ten minutes to get out, then ten minutes to rendezvous back here after Ken and I set the charges. Ten minutes before the valves blow, releasing toxic radiation. If you don’t move quickly you will die. It will be painful. Understand?”

Nora nodded and Quin stared with wide eyes, shaking.

Nora reached over to console her, surprised at her steady hand. Maybe she’d gone on too many of these; she’d become jaded, complacent. The time her mother broke into a university research lab and released seventy rabbits, Nora had been lookout; she’d been nine like Quin was now. Or when Lorraine, pregnant with Quin, had staged a protest outside a slaughterhouse and gotten national news attention when she went into labor and gave birth in a nearby field. Nora had been the one to wrap her new sister in blankets and cut the umbilical cord because the ambulance hadn’t arrived. She’d been eight. Or two years ago, when Lorraine first met Cameron Lovitz during an anti-nuclear-weapon rally, and they’d broken into a military museum and spray-painted obscenities and slogans all over the walls. That they’d gotten away amazed Nora; she thought for sure they’d all be caught and thrown in prison. The vandalism was all over the TV news for weeks.

But they were never caught, and soon thereafter Lorraine moved them off the streets of San Francisco to an apartment in San Luis Obispo and Nora thought she might have a home.

She’d been wrong.

After Nora turned informant, the FBI came up with a plan and brought in Special Agent Andrew Keene undercover at Cal Poly to handle her involvement. And now, eight months of secrecy, deception, and fear was nearly over.

Nora focused on breathing, on getting through each too-long minute. “Be brave,” she told Quin. She handed Quin her small teddy bear, the one Nora had saved every time Lorraine uprooted them without warning. She mouthed I love you, and meant it. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for her sister.

The air was cold at one in the morning, the salt-tinged breeze urging Nora to pull her windbreaker tighter around her thin body. She wore only a T-shirt and threadbare sweater under the windbreaker; Cameron insisted they all travel light.

They picked this time because shift change had been at midnight; it would be quiet, everyone would have settled into their routines, and the earlier shift would have left.

She saw Cameron’s gun for the first time when they went through the weak link in the electric fence: a rarely used entrance. Why the powerplant didn’t have a guard at the gate, and hadn’t disabled the electronic code, she didn’t know. Maybe this was what Andy meant earlier, that the FBI was letting them get through the gate first so they’d be caught red-handed with pipe bombs. No question what their plans were. But they’d already crossed over land that was closed to the public. What more did the FBI want?

The code Kenny had provided would disable the warning alarm so an employee could enter without the alarms going off. The main office would still be alerted, but because it was close enough to shift time, Kenny said no one would be suspicious.

They just needed to cross another two hundred feet of open space, and then they’d have cover up against an office building. The plan was to walk around the building, emerging only forty feet from the entrance to the reactors. The codes from Kenny would also work to get inside the building.

She hung back with her mother for a moment and whispered, “Lorraine.” Her mother didn’t like being called Mom. Nora couldn’t remember calling her Mom, even as a child.

Lorraine turned to her, irritated. “Can it wait, Nora?”

“Cameron has a gun.”

“It’s okay.”

Lorraine hated guns. How many times had Nora been dragged to a gun-control rally? Holding up signs and proclaiming at the top of her lungs that guns killed? But now her mother sounded like it was totally normal to have a gun. When had that changed? Cameron. He had charisma and charm to woo people into believing his bizarre philosophy, but he was also violent and unpredictable. He had turned her mother from a sixties hippie who would never hurt an animal, person, or plant into a terrorist.

But Lorraine had always been on the crazy side. She’d fallen in with bad groups before, but had gotten out before they went down or dropped out. Not this time. Not with Cameron leading the charge. Yet so much more was at stake. Her freedom and her life.

Then everything happened so fast Nora thought she was dreaming. But it was so vivid she knew she’d never forget.

“Change of plans,” Cameron announced.

“What?” Nora exclaimed.

“Shut up or I’ll kill you.” He meant it. “We run low along the fence until we reach the cooling pools, then turn and move along the base of the north cliffs. It’ll get us closer to our destination without increased risk.”

Change of plans? What if the FBI didn’t have people everywhere? What if they only covered the area where Nora had told Andy they would be? What if Andy was wrong and Cameron could get into the reactor and set off something that would kill not only them, but thousands of people?

Terrified, she followed. She had no choice.

It took nearly ten minutes to reach the base of the cliffs. There were lights everywhere, but Cameron was right. Running along this section of the fence, they remained just out of sight.

They paused only briefly before crossing a small open space to a warehouse. Nora saw a pair of maintenance workers, but they were heading in the opposite direction and didn’t look their way. Nora glanced at Cameron; his hand was on his gun. She knew he’d kill. Her, Lorraine, strangers. His brutal determination was in his stance, in his eyes. Why didn’t Lorraine see it? What was wrong with her mother?

“On three,” Cameron said.

As soon as they moved from their hiding place, blinding floodlights snapped on and she couldn’t see.

“FBI! Down!”

Nora dropped, just like Andy had instructed her.

Cameron dove behind a stack of wooden crates only feet from her. Lorraine and Ken ran behind a large maintenance truck. Nora felt like she was in the middle of a war.

“Lovitz! Surrender. You can’t get out,” a voice boomed over loudspeakers. Nora couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from.

She heard Cameron swearing, then he called out, “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Lorraine said.

“Do it!”

Do it? Do what?

Lorraine moved from behind the truck and threw something over Nora’s head. It rolled away from her.

It looked like a bomb. Just like the bombs Nora had helped her make. Oh, God, it was over. They were all going to die.

I’m going to die tonight.

“Cover!” Lorraine shouted at her.

Nora scrambled behind the crates closest to her. Seconds later, the bomb exploded.

“Run!” Cameron told her.

Nora didn’t move. She had to stay here. She wasn’t one of them, she didn’t know if whoever was out there knew that she was helping, that she wasn’t a terrorist. She didn’t want to die. If she just stayed here, she’d be okay. Don’t move. Don’t breathe. Where was Andy? Did he know where she was? Would he come for her?

Cameron grabbed her arm and dragged her with him.

“It was you,” he whispered in her ear. “You fucking bitch traitor, you talked.”

“N-no,” she cried.

“We’ll see who’s lying.”

He held the gun to her neck and walked her out into the open. She squinted against the intense brightness of the industrial lights. How could Cameron see? From the corner of her eye, she saw he’d put on glasses, then remembered how he always wore sunglasses backward, around his neck. Even tonight. As if he’d anticipated what would happen.

“We’re leaving!” Cameron called out to the unseen federal agents. “You won’t stop us. We have more grenades; we will use them!”

The hand grenades were homemade, and Nora had always been terrified of them. Lorraine didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with having her daughters measuring sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate to create black powder for homemade bombs. The bombs, Lorraine said, were never to hurt anyone. They were to save people from themselves.

Nora realized Cameron had brainwashed her mother. Murder was okay, as far as they were concerned, if it advanced their cause.

Cameron started moving away from the building, across the open yard toward where they had come in.

The FBI would never let them leave.

“Cameron Lovitz!” the voice shouted. “Put down your weapon.”

“I’m leaving!”

Cameron continued walking backward, dragging a stumbling Nora with him.

“You’re dead, Nora,” he growled. “You’re a traitor to the cause.”

The barrel of the gun dug into her neck and she cried out.

Cameron called out, “Lorraine! Now!”

Another mini-bomb flew over their heads, landing at the edge of the lights.

The explosion knocked them both to the ground. As they fell on hard pavement, Nora realized that Cameron hadn’t expected such a powerful blast.

Nora thought she was dead, that Cameron’s gun would discharge right into her neck. Clean through, in and out, and her only thought was whether anyone would find Quin and the Jeep.

Cameron fell on top of her, but his hands instinctively reached out to brace himself.

The gun dropped from his grip.

Another explosion, then shouts from everywhere at once, and she thought she heard her mother scream. Cameron reached for the gun. Nora’s hand shot out, trying to bat it out of the way, hitting his wrist.

“Freeze! Don’t move or I’ll shoot.”

Cameron slammed her head into the concrete and everything spun out of control. Nora’s mouth filled with blood.

“Fuck you, pig!” Cameron screamed, his hand on the gun, and his arm jerked up and fired without hesitation. Once. Twice?

The report was deafening. Nora’s ears rang. So much noise, in her ears, in her head, around her, everywhere. And blood, everywhere blood, she must be dying. The pain was all-encompassing, her head spun, she was suffocating. Someone was on top of her. Cameron.

She opened her eyes, barely able to draw a breath as a heavy weight pinned her down. She saw only Cameron Lovitz’s dead eyes. Lifeless. He had her trapped.

Four hands pulled her out.

Her head was too heavy to hold up. Her eyelids closed.

“Was she hit? Nora? Can you hear me?”

“Andy.” She thought she spoke, but she wasn’t sure.

“It’s ASAC Rick Stockton. Nora, where were you hit? Nora? Can you hear me?”

Hands all over her. Shouts and orders, but nothing she understood. Someone was crying. A scream. An ambulance in the distance. No, it was close. Flashing lights everywhere, but her eyes were closed.

“She wasn’t hit,” someone said.

“She’s not okay!” Stockton snapped. He shined a light in her eyes. Stockton. Stockton. Andy’s boss. Partner? She didn’t know. She didn’t remember.

Someone touched her chest and she cried out. Her shirt was ripped open. “Ribs. Cracked?”

“Are they in custody? God fucking dammit, what’s going on? Status report!”

Stockton sounded worried. Where was Andy? Why wasn’t he here? He promised. He promised everything would be all right …

“Andy,” she whispered. It was hard to speak.

“I’m getting you to a hospital, Nora. You’re going to be okay.”

“Critical,” someone called from far, far away. Everything began to fade. Voices running away from her.

Maybe they were leaving her here.

Lorraine’s shrill voice was like an icepick in her aching head. “I’ll sue you fucking pigs! All of you!” An anguished cry. “You killed him!”

“Get her the fuck out of here!” Stockton ordered.

“Lovitz is dead,” another voice said. “Wright and Potter are in custody.”

“Quin-” Nora said. She tried to get up.

“Don’t move, Nora.”

“Quin-sh-she’s …” She couldn’t make her throat talk.

“We have Quin,” he said. “Quin’s safe. We followed the Jeep.”

People ran past her. She tried to reach out, to touch someone, but the noises dimmed. Someone grabbed her hand. “I’m not leaving you,” Stockton said. “You’re going to be okay, Nora. I promise.”

Her mind snapped shut and she didn’t wake up for three days. When she did, Agent Stockton told her Andy was dead.