AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Me, too,” Juan said. “And I’m sorry your island has been damaged.”
“Luckily, it’s not the dry season, so the fire is already out,” Renee said. “The land will recover, as it always does. It’ll make quite the story around here for years to come.”
Juan said his good-byes and watched Renee and Parsons walk toward the parking lot hand in hand.
Juan headed to the tiltrotor, and as soon as he was on board, Gomez took off.
Raven, Linc, and Eddie didn’t look dejected. They were seething.
“It’s my fault they got MacD, Chairman,” Raven said. “I should have seen that guy sneaking up on us.”
“It’s no one’s fault except Polk’s,” Juan said. “Let’s focus on getting MacD back. Polk took him either because he wants info about who we are or he’s going to use MacD as a bargaining chip. That means he’ll keep MacD alive at least a little while.”
“Then we’ll have to act fast.”
“Any idea where they’re taking him?” Eddie asked.
“We’ll know soon enough. When we do, we’ll need to come up with a way to rescue him.”
“What about the antidote?” Linc asked. “All the nuts were burned up in the fire. If that deadline is correct about how quickly the antidote is needed, Murph and the others are running out of time.”
“I think there’s still hope. Jin and Polk had that antidote formula for a reason. Maybe they made some of it for themselves. I suggest you all eat and get some sleep on the flight back to the Oregon. We might be pretty busy between now and New Year’s Eve.”
Juan took a couple of sandwiches from a cooler and went to the cockpit. He handed one to Gomez, who had already set the tiltrotor to autopilot.
“Thanks, Chairman,” Gomez said. “Wish I could have gotten airborne and in that Gulfstream’s way before it took off.”
“It might not have worked anyway. The way Polk has been tearing through every place he goes, there’s no telling what he might have done.”
Juan put on a headset and called Max to fill him on what happened at Christmas Island.
When he was done, Max said, “It’s going to be tough to break it to Murph that we have no antidote.”
“We still might have a chance if we can find Jin and Polk. Since they knew exactly where the trees were, it’s possible they made some antidote for themselves.”
“Then we need to capture one or both of them alive.”
“That’s the plan,” Juan said. “And now we might have a way to find them. Do you have MacD’s tracker?”
“Yes. He’s eastbound over the Timor Sea. He might even pass right over us.”
“We’ll never catch them. That Gulfstream is twice as fast as the tiltrotor. Where are you now?”
“We got a tip that a trimaran passed through the Torres Strait at the northern tip of Queensland, so we kept going in that direction. We’re almost there now, but of course the Marauder is probably long gone. They could be partway across the Pacific, heading down the east coast of Australia, or heading north toward the Philippines.”
“All of their operations have been centered around Australia, so I’d guess they’ll stay in this vicinity.”
“We only have three days until New Year’s Eve,” Max said. “What do you think their target is?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. It’s also another reason we need Jin and Polk alive. If we can capture one of them, we can make them tell us where that Enervum gas is headed and how they intend to use it.”
“It would help if we knew the new name of the Shepparton.”
“I’ve asked Lang to keep his eyes and ears open for any leads on that front.”
Langston Overholt would be able to inform them if any key words providing clues about the cargo ship popped up on any communications networks.
“So we’ve got nothing except MacD’s tracker to go on,” Max said, his frustration evident.
