no one and nothing moved. If he listened carefully, he could hear some sort of banging in the distance from the direction of the new Church building, but nothing else.
He hesitated outside the shuttle, listened, but could hear nothing from the inside. The door was shut, but when he pressed his palm to the panel, it slid open. He frowned. He’d been expecting this to be harder and the ease was niggling at him. He glanced around before he entered but could see nothing suspicious, and he stepped inside.
…
How was she supposed to find them? Destiny ran through the forest. At one point, the bracelet on her arm beeped and she dived for the cover of a fallen log, holding her breath until the drone disappeared.
Then up and running again.
Her heart was racing and her mouth dry.
What if she couldn’t find them? What if she was too late? She couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to Milo. If she couldn’t find them, she’d stand in front of the shuttle and jump up and down. To hell with being caught. She had to save him.
She was sobbing for breath by the time she came to the edge of the forest. She stopped for a moment.
A stone landed beside her and she let out a squeak. Then searched the tree line, spotted Dylan peering out from behind the trunk of a tree, and sped over.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Where is he?” she gasped. “Where’s Milo?”
“In the shuttle—”
“You need to get him out of there. Now.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “There’s no one there. He’s safe.”
“He’s not safe. The shuttle is going to explode. He’s going to die. Get him out of there.”
Shock flashed across his face, but he didn’t argue anymore, just raised his wrist to his face and spoke into the comm unit. “Milo, get the hell out of there now. The shuttle is set to blow.”
She stared at the shuttle willing him to appear. The door was open, but nothing happened, and every muscle clenched up tight.
“Where is he?”
“Don’t worry, he’s—”
Dylan’s words were cut off as the shuttle exploded into a ball of fire.
“No!” The word was ripped from her throat and she ran forward.
Dylan grabbed her by the arm, and she fought him, trying to break away, but he was amazingly strong.
“Wait,” he said. “Look. He’s out.”
The words didn’t make sense. He wasn’t out. She would have seen him. He was dead and a wail rose up inside her.
“There,” Dylan said.
She followed the direction of his pointed finger. About twenty feet from where the shuttle burned, a figure lay on the ground. She recognized Milo and her brain scrambled for an explanation.
“Lazy bastard,” Dylan muttered. “Now is not the time to sleep. Come on. Get up.”
Milo still didn’t move. Was he even alive? Had the force of the blast killed him? She wouldn’t believe it.
Dylan sighed. “Let’s go get him and get the hell out of here.”
As they ran forward, Destiny could feel the heat from the burning shuttle. Milo lay flat-out, face down, and she crouched down beside him. Reaching out with a trembling hand, she touched her finger to the warm skin of his throat, felt the slow steady throb of his pulse and almost collapsed with relief. “He’s alive.”
“Of course he’s alive. It would take more than that to kill a…” He trailed off and gave a shrug, then hunkered down beside her and prodded Milo in the ribs.
“Wake up,” he said, adding another prod but with zero response.
Destiny stroked her hand over his cheek and through his hair. It was sticky with blood at the side. “He must have hit it when he…” When he what? Materialized out of nothing. He must have been blown out here by the force of the explosion. But why hadn’t she seen it? His mysterious cloaking device?
They needed to carry him back. She looked around for something to help and caught movement at the edge of her vision. Men in dark green jumpsuits heading their way.
“Dylan, we have a problem.”
He glanced up and followed her gaze. “Bloody hell. Milo, wake the fuck up.” He shook Milo’s arm, but nothing happened. “Crap.”
He got to his feet. Was he going to leave them? She wouldn’t be able to move Milo on her own. But Dylan reached down, clasped Milo by the upper arms and tossed him over his shoulder. “Grab the bag,” Dylan said.
She snatched up the black duffel bag, which had been hidden under Milo’s body, and then