Page 42 of The Ghost

I grabbed it, switching the dial to the agreed frequency. “Lukas?”

“Clark,” Lukas’s voice returned. “Where are you?

“Second level, I think,” I answered.

“Can you get up to the command center?” he questioned.

“Is Z with you?” I asked, ignoring his request for a moment.

“No, she’s not,” Lukas declared.

I turned off the radio and tossed it back to its owner. My mind whirled. This kind of thing was well beyond Z’s expertise. As a behind-the-scenes gal, she was better suited to information gathering and tech support than she was to an all-out war. I had so few people in my life that I cared about at that point, I couldn’t stand the thought of her dying.

“I have to find her,” I told Theo.

He shook his head. “We should go to the hangar.”

“Negative,” one of the other Dark Sparrow operatives said. “Our orders are to sweep the hallways.

“You sweep the hallways,” I announced. “I’m going to find Z.”

“Clark!” Theo shouted as I hurried back the way we’d come.

“Get to Lukas!” I commanded. “We’ll meet you there.”

I could hear the reluctance in his sigh from all the way down the hall. He was doing his best to bring us both out of the situation intact. But I couldn’t walk away from my former foster sister. I couldn’t leave her to face the enemy alone.

I jogged back to where we’d left a plethora of dead bodies. There wasn’t any gunfire to indicate that anyone was alive, but I hugged the wall all the same. I had no idea where I was going to start looking for Z. Had she returned to her own quarters, back down on the crew level? Had she gone to Med Lab maybe looking for me? It was as good a place to start as any, and though my knowledge of the base was spotty, I did know where the medical center was.

I hightailed it down the hallway, taking a left and then a right, on a path to the core of the base. Just as I was about to come up on the medical center, I felt the presence of an enemy combatant. I couldn’t explain how I knew, but I crouched instinctively, just seconds before a hail of bullets was released on my location.

I was about to poke out and fire back when I heard my name called.

“Clark?” Ryan shouted, his voice full of glee.

“Ryan?” I demanded, not sure how to take his appearance on the scene.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Ryan taunted.

“He’s here,” I lied. For some reason, the warning lights going off in my mind told me not to reveal the fact that I was alone.

“Let me hear him!” Ryan shouted back.

“Ryan, what are you doing?” I asked. “Is Z with you?”

“She’s here!” Ryan confirmed.

“Clark, help!” Z shouted. And then I knew. He wasn’t pretending to be our friend any longer. He had gone full force to the other side and was doubling down.

“If you hurt her...” I began, shaking an empty fist at him.

There was no way I could reach the pair without opening myself up to gunfire. I couldn’t judge the distance precisely, but I knew there was enough space between us for Ryan to get off a few rounds before I reached him.

With no other choice, I flung myself out into the open, hands above my head. Halfway down the hall, at the door to the medical center, I saw them. Ryan had Z at gunpoint, his once attractive smile turned up in a devilish grin.

“Take me instead,” I instructed, tossing my gun away.

I moved forward, careful to go slowly so that he wouldn’t think I was rushing him. The closer I could get, the better positioned I would be to fight if it became necessary. But there was a whole lot of space between us. Ryan could easily drop me if he wanted to. I held my breath, taking one step after the other, praying that it wouldn’t come to that.