“Down!” Masenak shouted and hit the ground. Reardon had already dived clear of the car to one side of the road.

An explosion shook the ground!

Blam!

Fire.

Screams.

Heavy smoke.

The missile had not been aimed at them but at the truck behind them carrying the soldiers!

Masenak didn’t have to give the vehicle more than a glance to realize it was almost entirely destroyed.

And now the other doors of the transport helicopter were opening, and armed fatigue-clad soldiers were pouring out. “Trap,” Reardon said in disbelief, jumping to his feet. “It has to be a trap. She hijacked my helicopter!” He was cursing as he ran toward the warehouse where he’d last glimpsed Sasha. “We have to get hold of that bitch. We can use her to get out of here.”

There was nothing else to do. They were lucky the smoke from the explosion was so heavy that it would be hard to see them. Masenak was following him at a dead run as he pulled out his phone and tried to call Davidow to send help. He couldn’t get through. “Dead. No power.”

“All carefully thought out,” Reardon said. “They’ve blocked the signal from the canyon. Technology at its best. And damn familiar. Do I have to guess who the woman was who fired that missile?”

“Alisa Flynn.” Masenak could feel the same hatred sear through him that he’d known when he’d recognized her with that missile in her hands. How could this happen to him? “But you’re right, get Sasha and we’ll stop Alisa Flynn and Korgan and anyone else we need to.” He pulled out his gun. “If we don’t, I’ll fight you to be the one putting a bullet in her heart.”

Chapter 18

Chapter
18

Where is she?” Alisa demanded when Korgan ran up to her a few minutes later. “Masenak and Reardon have disappeared in all this smoke and now I can’t find Sasha. You said she was okay when you called me to take out that truck.”

“And she was. She was off the access road a few minutes after I called you and heading east. Gilroy and I have been searching for her, too. Look, one of your instructions to her was to hide once she managed to get off the access road. That must be what she’s doing. She couldn’t get too far with Chaos and Nightshade in tow.”

“You don’t know her. She’s here, isn’t she? But I won’t know if she’s in trouble with Masenak and Reardon still out there.”

She was straining desperately to see through the smoke. The entire canyon complex was now swarming with people. She got a brief glimpse of Gilroy giving orders to his team, which had taken over the heliport.