“Tell me something I don’t know.” Rafe forced a laugh.
“I’m here with Sunny Rebel. Justin’s been murdered, and we’re on the run.”
“What?” Voices exploded in the background.
“Shut it!” Rafe yelled. “Let the man speak.”
“There’s this exploratory mine not far from Justin’s, but, man, there’s something fishy going on up here.” Davis shook his head. “The murderers are here. Sunny and I need a pick up, but we also need the authority to take down these guys.”
“We’re here at the Rebel’s place getting ready to head to the location of your transmission. Bjørn just finished his pre-flight check. We have the local troopers with us, and we’ll be airborne in less than ten,” Rafe reported.
Davis glanced at Sunny as she sucked in a shaky breath. Her lashes fluttered, trying to clear her glassy eyes. A tear escaped anyway, and she dashed it off her cheek with the back of her hand. She was so strong, this firefly of his.
“Listen, these guys have some crazy tech up here.” He turned his focus back to Rafe, needing to get off this call and out of there. “If we want to get the drop on them, we’ll have to come in quiet. Sunny and I have a rendezvous point that’s a few miles out. Bjørn will have to dust off his Nightstalker skills, though, and come in low and quiet.”
“Dude, my skills are spot on. You just focus on keeping my sister safe and leave the flying to me.” Bjørn’s voice, while joking, had a tightness to it that exposed his worry.
“Copy that.” Davis gave the location and signed off, deleting the evidence they’d used the computer.
“Davis,” Sunny hissed his name and clicked off her light.
He put the screen to sleep, sending the windowless room into complete darkness, and slipped over to the door. Sunny’s hands trembled as she placed them on his back. Tired footsteps clomped down the hall.
“Glad we can rest. I can’t even keep my eyes open.”
“Yeah,” Shooter said. “Just don’t forget to set your alarm. Zhang’s not kidding about the eight hours. If we’re not in the air, we’re both dead.”
“I can’t wait for the testing phase to be done, and we can move to other areas,” the pilot grumbled as they passed outside the door. “I’m hoping to be stationed far away from that psycho.”
Shooter snorted. “No joke.”
What did they mean “other areas”? Davis’s mind circled, but he shut the questions down. They had to get to the rendezvous point, but first, he wanted to do a little helicopter maintenance. Five minutes later, as he darted northwest through the forest with Sunny close behind, he chuckled in satisfaction, hoping he got to see Zhang’s face when the man’s world burst wide open.