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
There was a pause, and Jess could sense by the way he was looking off across the water that he had something to say, and she waited a little bit, and then he said it.
“What exactly does the female engagement team do, anyway?” he asked. “I didn’t think our military sent women into combat, but you sure seem to have a knack for it.”
Well, there it was.
She kept her head down, fooling around in Hank’s duffel bag, reloading spent clips from the boxes of spare ammunition he’d packed. Something to keep from meeting Burke’s eyes, having this conversation.
“Just waiting for the right time, huh?” she said. “You figure we’re alone on a deserted island, got a bit of downtime, probably going to die tomorrow, now’s the time to tell you my war stories, what it was that got me fucked in the head?”
He didn’t reply. She looked up at him, and he was studying her, his lips pressed tight together.
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” he said.
“They have this new thing called Google, Burke,” she said. “Wikipedia. You get curious about something, you just type it into a computer and you’ll get your answer.”
He let out his breath. “Listen, I’m a dumb-ass.”
“That’s a fact,” she said, and they didn’t either of them say anything else for a while. Jess packed up the bag with the guns in it, and she headed back into the forest, and Burke fell in behind her. They crossed the isthmus to the west beach, where they found Lucy waiting, cowering and curled up behind a piece of driftwood log. Up above, the sky was beginning to cloud over, gray rolling in from beyond the cape, and the sun was going down somewhere beyond all that gray, the wind picking up and the rollers crashing against the shoals offshore with great white explosions of foam.
Jess went to comfort the dog, the poor thing shaking and shivering all over again, terrified from the shooting she and Burke had just done. Burke went to Lucy too, and they found themselves on either side of her, scratching behind her ears and stroking under her muzzle, speaking soft words of comfort to the dog and steadfastly avoiding each other.
It was awkward as hell, and Jess had had about enough of it. She wasn’t going to spend her last night on Earth ignoring the only ally she had, no matter how dumb his ass was. She sighed.