Page 130 of Deadfall

“We need to remove the trackers before we go any further,” he said. Angel flicked a knife open and held it by the blade as he extended it out to me. “Do the honors?”

I took the blade and Angel turned. I ripped the shirt to reveal the swatch of pink, raised skin near his shoulder blade where the tracker had been implanted. He didn’t flinch when I dug the blade in and extracted the small pill-shaped device.

“Destroy it,” Angel said.

I crushed it under my boot. Seven typed away on the tablet until a very static-filled, but familiar voice came through.

“There you fuckers are,” Rune said. “I’ve been broadcasting for almost an hour. What the fuck?”

“We’ve been a little busy, man,” Seven grinned.

“You got her?”

“Yeah, we have her. Problem is things are a little hot now—” Seven said.

“We need exfil immediately,” I interrupted.

Rune’s voice was broken and sounded very far away. “Storm is breaking up soon—should be able to reach you—four hours—”

Angel shook his head. “That’s too long.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I have a team on standby.”

“Who is that?” Rune asked.

“Good question,” Seven turned to Angel. “Want to shed some light on that?”

Angel pulled out his cell phone and hit a number on the speed dial.

“I’m a friend—” He held up a finger and stepped away as his call connected.

“Are our trackers still operational?” I asked Rune, eyeing Angel with half an ear on his conversation.

“Is the team ready?” Angel asked. “No—exfil needs to be moved up. Things have…escalated. Octavius is dead.” He listened. “No, Emersyn killed him,” he looked over his shoulder and took another step away.

How did he know Emersyn’s real name? I wracked my brain, trying to remember if I’d said her name in front of him, but came up with nothing. Neither Seven nor I would have been that careless.

“Yeah, once you’re back in range they will be,” Rune answered.

Angel hung up and turned back to us. “Exfil ETA one hour. But, we have to get to the other side of the island.”

“That’s faster than what I can do, Griff,” Rune said.

I rubbed my chin as I quickly raced through options. There weren’t many.

“Fine, put a call through to North while we have a signal,” I said.

I saw Emersyn stiffen from where she stood against the shelves. A myriad of emotions crossed her face at once.

“It’s going to be spotty—”

“Do it,” I barked. “My comms only.”

“Roger that. Hold please,” Rune said.

I walked as far away from the group as I could. A moment later, the phone dial tone came over comms. It was broken and sounded like it was far away. I willed the call to connect.

“Yeah?” North’s voice sounded like it was underwater.

“North—it’s Gabriel—”