AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bruno leaned over the dead driver, put the vehicle into reverse and took off the emergency brake. He came around to the hood, and pushed, shoving it off the edge, and over. It slid, rolled, bounced, crashing through trees until it finally came to rest. Far, far down.
Sean and Lily walked to the edge of the road and looked down.
“Wow.” Sean sounded impressed. “That was stern.”
“I want the cops to be able to look at it,” Bruno said. “I don’t want those bastards to be able to retrieve it. And I don’t want that nurse bitch to have an easy ride. Let her hike in the snow if she’s still alive. Let’s go, before they come down on us.”
“Who the fuck is ‘they?’” Sean’s voice harsh with frustration.
“If I knew, I’d cut the head off the snake and burn it,” Bruno said.
They took off the chain, hiked up the steep road to the cabin. Bruno bundled her into the back of Sean’s Jeep, then pushed her to the middle seat, and got in himself, fastening the seat belt over her.
Sean’s bright gaze did not miss the proprietary way that Bruno pulled her close, and lay her head on his shoulder. “Rest,” he said.
McCloud’s grin flashed. “If you can. I’m going to go way too fast for the driving conditions.”
“Punch it,” Bruno said fervently.
Lily’s head rocked back as the vehicle leaped forward.
Bruno leaned forward as they rattled and bounced. “Hey.”
“Yeah?” McCloud shouted back. “Speak up.”
“Thanks, for helping,” Bruno blurted. “Sorry. About before.”
McCloud slewed the vehicle around the hairpin curve, and gunned the engine as soon as they were on the straight stretch. “Wait until we’re safe to thank me. I’ll enjoy it better when I can gloat.”
“Don’t wait,” Lily said. “Get it while you can.”
The men glanced at her. She looked back. Like it had to be said.
There wasn’t any safe, anymore. Ever again.
* * *
“Try her again,”King rapped out.
“I just did,” Hobart told him. “She’s not responding. And I can’t—”“If I hear you say the words ‘I can’t’ one more time, I will pull up your Level Ten mortal command sequences right now. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.” Hobart’s frantic typing filtered through the microphone.
King stared at the large screen. There were insets on the side, one of which displayed Hobart’s pinched face. The agent who had been, along with Melanie, inexplicably left behind. The other insets were charts showing the vital signs of the four operatives who had gone on this ill-fated mission. Three were flatlined. The other was close.
His anger was crippling. It was difficult even to breathe, let alone think. He could not believe that mistakes this huge could be made by his own operatives. How in thehell…? It made his brain hurt.
The rest of the screen was filled with a satellite image that showed a dense, waving mass of conifers. The microchip in Zoe’s clavicle blipped, in a mass of rocks around a creek. She was not visible. Her chart showed an erratic heartbeat, a falling temperature. Manfred, Jeremy and Hal were cooling fast. Six hundred million dollars, turned into buzzard bait. “Show me the view from Zoe’s com,” he barked.
“Yes, sir.” Desperate tapping, and the picture transformed into an indistinct blur. Rocks, covered with waving fronds of fuzz.
Oh, for God’s sake. It was underwater. Of course Zoe was not answering her com. It had been dropped in the creek.
“Sir?” a timid voice offered. “Here is the coffee that you—”
“Get away from me while I’m busy,” he snarled at Julian, who was presenting the coffee, and the plate of cookies dipped in dark chocolate.
Julian scuttled away. It occurred to King that he had, in fact, ordered the snack. But a special series trainee so close to the end of his training should have the sensitivity to intuit a good moment to serve it.
