Chapters (78)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Acknowledgments
- Discover More
- About the Author
- Also by Owen Laukkanen
Joy looked. Saw what Harwood saw, an inflatable dinghy pulled up to the high tide line, half hidden against the shore.
“They’re on the island somewhere,” he told the pilot. “Let’s have a look.”
* * *
Lucy.
Jess’s first thought was the dog, and she could tell by Burke’s expression that he was thinking the same. Together they moved the package into the woods by the shipwreck and hurried back along the shore toward the table rocks, where they’d left Lucy.
Somewhere through the trees, the helicopter’s engine roared like machine gun fire, and Jess knew it was Harwood, and she knew he’d seen the troller, and this was probably it. She clambered along the rocks after Burke, her rifle swinging against her back, her mind racing. The Taliban didn’t use helicopters. She’d never had to deal with this kind of assault.
They rounded the shore to where the table rocks lay in the sun, and Lucy wasn’t there, and Jess panicked.
“Burke,” she called out, and he looked back at her. “Where is she?”
Burke pointed ahead, stepped aside so she could see, and she looked down across the sweep of the little beach and saw Lucy running best she could on the rocky, uneven ground, her tail between her legs and her ears flattened back. Shit.
There was no sense in calling her. The chopper was too loud, and the dog wasn’t going to listen in that state. Jess and Burke hurried after her, down across more jagged rocks to the beach, and across the shingle to the other side. Lucy was trotting in circles now, scared, unsure where to go, and through the trees the chopper’s engine revved up, suddenly amplified.
They were coming.
Jess hauled ass to the dog, who cowered now against a rock face, all but given up. Jess reached her and pulled her away and into the forest just as the helicopter roared overhead, big and black and flying low, banking hard to trace the shoreline, the sliding side door open and faces peering out.
Jess held Lucy tight to her, the dog shaking hard, resting her chin on Jess’s shoulder, the sheer weight of her blocky little head as surprising as usual. Jess held the dog close as the chopper disappeared down the shore. Knew it was a temporary reprieve at best.
Beside her, the ferns rustled, and Burke appeared, shotgun in hand. “I don’t think they saw us,” he said.
She replied, “Not yet.”
* * *
“They’re down there somewhere,” Harwood told Joy after the helicopter had surveyed the perimeter of the island. “We know that for sure.”
“Indeed.” Joy’s expression was grim. “And we can assume the package is there with them.”
“Definitely. We just can’t get down there.”