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and white monorail glided into a well-lit station of the SURP system.  One hundred troops, young soldiers dressed in dark brown fatigues with no logos or insignias, marched onto the station platform in a double line.  They walked with standard military precision, their faces blank, expressionless.  Each man, hair buzzed to the scalp, carried a brown army-style sack, brown cloth cinched at the top with a drawstring, containing clothes and personal effects.
    Silently, they proceeded to a second monorail train on the far side of the station.  A tall, burley man holding a clipboard checked off their names as they boarded the second train.
    A loud horn sounded, and the train slid forward into the eerie darkness of the secret tunnels.
    Aboard the high-speed monorail bullet, the troops relaxed.  Some played cards, others pulled out a novel and began to read.  Others talked quietly among themselves about sports, their latest romantic conquests, or what they would do in their spare time during the upcoming six-month troop rotation.  None of the soldiers spoke English, and their native tongues represented various Eastern European languages.
    The train gained speed and branched into an adjoining tunnel, headed southwest.
     

Ops Center
Beneath Mount Whitney
     
    Titan Global Engineers had worked overtime to create a mobile operations center in a cavernous vault that was SURP Station 112.  Prefab units had been joined to create a circular room seventy feet in diameter.  The room was high-tech, with a chrome rail circling the room behind the twelve leather seats where Titan support staff manned their telemetry stations.  Xenon lights cast a faint blue glow over the room as Catherine Caine walked behind her team, each member working at a station with multiple keyboards beneath wall-mounted flat-panel screens.  Video and data feeds from around the world scrolled across the majority of screens, while some displayed biometric data from Titan Six.
    Touchdown was flanked by Quiz and DJ, while Joshua Ambergris occupied a station on the opposite side of the circular ops center.
    “Titan Six, do you read?” Touchdown said into his headset.
    There was no reply.
    Touchdown repeated his call several more times, but silence claimed the center’s audio speakers.  He checked his monitors, ran a systems check, and turned to face Caine.
    “I’m showing Titan Six as unconscious,” Touchdown said.  “Their metabolism is very low.  No indication of an attack, however.”
    Grace Nguyen stepped forward.  “Try administering a little adrenaline and dopamine via their BioMEMS.”
    “How are the engineers back at the Alamiranta?” Caine asked.
    “No longer hallucinating,” Nguyen answered.  “But I still don’t know what’s wrong with them.  I’m waiting for some lab values to come back.  My medical team will contact me as soon as they know anything.”
    “I’m showing a high-speed monorail in the SURP system traveling towards Colorado,” Touchdown said.  “One hundred life readings aboard.  If it’s not the feds, who else is using SURP?”
    “That’s what I intend to find out,” Caine replied resolutely.  “Let me know when Titan Six regains consciousness.”
    “And if they don’t?” Touchdown said.
    “Then we send in a rescue team.  Who’s up next?”
    “Titan Four.”
    “Contact the Alamiranta and tell them to stand by.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
     

Titan Six
SURP Station 872
     
    Tank regained consciousness first.  He propped himself on his elbows and looked around the car, dizzy and disoriented.
    “What happened?” asked Gator, shaking his head groggily.
    “High frequency sound,” Hawkeye said.  “It can overwhelm certain areas in the cerebral cortex.  It’s an easy way to knock someone out.”
    Shooter stood and put on her backpack, then grabbed her rifle.  “Still have a wicked headache, but it’s passing.”
    “The train is starting to move!” Aiko cried, also donning her gear.
    “I