I found my bag and dusted it off. Roan was pacing outside the train car as I squeezed back through the opening and jumped down.

“What now?”

“My mom and I had a plan if someone found us. We’d come here. Grab the bag. We marked a path through the dead zone. There’s another bag there with enough supplies for me to hike to Santa Fe. We have a contact there, and—”

“You’re leaving me.”

I hated the hurt in his voice. “It’s for the best. I probably shouldn’t have called you. I’m going to get you into trouble for sure.” This sucked. “Maybe I should—” My finger started burning. I bit down on the chip when the burning didn’t let up. “Christ. It’s not stopping.”

“I’m not getting any alerts.”

I stood up slowly, looking around the sky. A little tingle rippled along my skin.

Energy.

That frequency. I knew it. SpaceTech’s own special com channel.

It grew stronger until I saw the lights.

No. No. Not yet. It was too soon. I should have had hours. A half-day at least. I hadn’t even had time to breathe, let alone figure out a plan.

My heart pounded as I waited, praying with everything I had that I was wrong. That they were just passing by. That it was just a random coincidence. That it was Declan instead of Jason.

But then I heard it. The soft, high-pitched whine that was getting louder by the second.

“They’re here.” The words were strangled, but I managed to get them out.

“What?” Roan said as he searched the sky, but he didn’t feel the energies like I did. He wasn’t Aunare. He couldn’t feel them approaching.

I pointed. “There.” The dragonfly-size scout drones zoomed overhead.

“Shit.” Roan swatted at one as it lowered to scan his face. The tiny bot sped back, but they could take a hit and keep going. “Let’s go.”

“It’s too late.” My skin grew cold as I stood motionless watching the black dot in the sky grow bigger as it flew toward us. It had to be a SpaceTech jet.

There wasn’t anything I could do anymore. It was over.

The jet came toward us, hovering above the trains.

I never even had a shot at running. Not if they were this quick. “How the hell did they find us so fast? We don’t have trackers…” It didn’t make sense.

“I do.” Roan’s voice was barely more than a whisper, but the way it cut through all the noise in my head, he might as well have shouted it.

I spun to him. “What! When did you get a tracker?”