Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
How would he know that? They’d been underwater the entire time the boat chugged past. He’d been talking to her. He couldn’t have seen those in the boat. She hadn’t.
You didn’t look. It’s no big deal. If you think you can’t do this, you need to tell me.
Was that exasperation in his voice? She wanted to kick him. It wasn’t like she was having the best day of her life, and it was a perfectly normal question. Men like you are the reason I like to work alone. I didn’t say I couldn’t do this, nor did I imply I was worried about doing it. What’s the countdown?
Prickly, aren’t you? I was just looking out for you. Are you in position?
Shylah had to swim just under the boat to keep from being seen. It wasn’t difficult as the boat was really going slow. The spotter had his light high and pointed to the shore, so they could examine the bank for any sign of them emerging.
On go. Three. Two. One. Go.
He didn’t believe in playing around. She surged out of the water, plunged her blade through the spotter’s heart and then sank below the surface before the body had time to fall. She swam toward the front of the boat and her next target.
Draden had taken the commander, yanking him into the water, stabbing him through the throat and heart, letting him go and slitting the throat of the man closest to him. Shylah’s foot kicked a body as she rocketed up and stabbed her target just as he let loose a barrage of bullets where Draden had disappeared beneath the surface.
Her breath caught in her throat, terrified that Draden might be hit and she’d be left alone with the virus eating her internal organs, turning them to mush. She pushed away from the boat and went back under before her target toppled over the side, almost onto her. She dove deeper, swimming to the end of the boat again. Draden was coming around, converging on her target as well. All three of his were down, leaving only one more.
She couldn’t help but admire how fast and efficient he was. He had a head injury and yet he didn’t so much as hesitate. He’d killed three of the MSS members in seconds and had swept around the boat to provide a distraction. He hit the back of the boat with the hilt of his knife, deliberately scraping. Her target turned toward the noise, shooting blindly into the dark, murky water toward the sound.
The moment he turned, firing his weapon, she shot out of the water, slashing at the back of his thighs, deep cuts that took him down. He retained his weapon, shooting into the air as he fell. She was behind him, holding herself out of the water with one hand, knife ready with the other. As he went to his knees and then fell forward, she slammed the blade deep into the back of his neck, severing the spinal cord.
The gunfire will draw others. Hurry, Shylah. We have to go. They’re already close.
Draden caught her arm and yanked her down almost before she could take a breath. He took her to the deeper water, settling into thick layers of sediment, anchoring her beside him with his hands on her waist. The current tugged at her. Something hit Draden, but she couldn’t see what it was, only felt the movement of his body.
She could hear the sound of an engine now, as a second boat chugged through the water with more MSS seeking to find their comrades. They could hear the voices of the soldiers calling out to the dead.
Are we going after them? She didn’t want to, but she would if Draden thought it was a good idea. She was tired. Very tired. And scared. Very scared.
They’re on alert. I have no doubt that we could take them, but why risk injury? We have a plan. Let’s stick to it.
She was glad someone had a plan. She didn’t. Her plan had gone to hell the moment she realized he was infected and she probably was as well. She closed her eyes and let herself relax. There was nothing else to do. They had killed six more MSS members. It was a large group. The recruiting had been heavy. Whitney had been watching them for some time and knew they had serious funding. He was trying to find out who was the moneyman because their goal wasn’t just to take down the government in Indonesia, they were targeting anyone American. That meant if they were testing the virus, they were considering introducing it into the States.
She knew Whitney was angry with himself. He had absolute faith in himself and his ability to find the right people to work for him. In this case, he’d been wrong. The three men he’d mentored were far more interested in money than in patriotism.