Prologue

The stark white uniform of the morning was gone. A woman, now dressed all in black, slowly climbed the steep hill before her with ease, all the while scanning the surrounding area for anyone who might see what she was doing. When she reached the top, she sensed a movement nearby and dodged behind the huge tree, holding before her a mechanically operated weapon, nearly half her size. The woman stayed like that for a full sixty seconds, until another rustle revealed a snowy owl soaring from a dark branch into the inky night. The woman smiled. Who was she kidding? No one knew about this. No one would suspect Knott’s Hill as a place for a secret lair. She pressed her palm onto a space on the old tree, hearing the soft clunk of the latch slipping into place. The woman looked around for the last time before slipping inside the new opening in the tree’s surface. An array of clear glass capsules met her eyes, and inside them were weapons of the deadliest kind. The woman pressed a small button, which produced a smaller version of one of the capsules. She placed the electric weapon from her hands into the capsule, then made to leave the room, only remembering at the last moment to check the next room, where a steaming, bubbling mixture sat in a large indent in the ground. Her masterpiece.