“Oh, come on,” I growled, tapping a rapid tattoo against the scarred and warped tabletop.
This was just what I needed—just when I needed the Internet connection to work, it wasn’t. The satellite must have been on the other side of the world, cutting off the signal, and I had no idea how long it would take to travel back towards me.
Well, I couldn’t wait any longer. Sending the information to my supervisor so he could send it to the proper authorities would have to wait, either until I got to the fishing village or even back to Japan.
I wasn’t willing to stick around and figure out what was behind these strange readings.
I swept the room with my gaze, and I located my backpack beside the cot I’d claimed as my own when I still thought my team was coming to join me. For weight’s sake, I would have to leave some of my equipment here and return for it later, but as I hadn’t seen anyone for days, it would probably be safe.
I had barely pushed back my chair and tensed to get to my feet when a sudden noise assaulted every one of my senses. It was both slow-motion, and so fast it happened in the blink of an eye. But I remembered the split-second thought that I didn’t know what the sound was until the glass from the windows blew in and I realized it was an explosion.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was out of my chair and on the floor, crawling to find somewhere safe. The scratchy remnants of a scream still burned in my throat, and my lungs were expanding for another. My mind was firing frantically, and I ducked under the table, crouching and curling up as small as possible.
Gunfire suddenly erupted, so close and so loud I had no doubt what it was. I covered my ears and closed my eyes, but I could still hear it and the shouts and yells and cries of pain that followed.
Then I heard a bang as the door burst open, and that scream finally erupted from my throat.