Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Then he blinked once, twice, and seemed to shake it off. We ran together into the trees, bullets chewing up the ground behind us.
We had to really push to catch up to the others, and by the time we did, I was huffing and panting. I wished again that I’d run more in prison. As we pushed on, not daring to stop, Olivia started to struggle, too. I took her hand again and pulled her along. She was doing great, considering she’d probably never had to run so far or so fast in her life.
The sound of gunfire behind us faded and then stopped. They’d lost sight of us. JD slowed to a stop and we all pulled up. The elderly Dr. Guzman leaned against a tree, his chest heaving.
“Someone want to tell me what happened?” asked Cal.
Colton glowered at the sky. “That joint-toking son of a bitch ran home to mommy and left us high and dry, is what happened!”
“But how did the cartel find us?” asked JD. “They hadn’t caught up to us by last night. And we didn’t show any lights, so they didn’t find us in the dark.”
I was suddenly really glad Olivia and I had stuck to the rules. This wasn’t our fault. So how had they found us? Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
An Irish accent broke the silence. “There’s one way,” said Bradan. He seemed normal again, as if nothing had happened on the lawn. “If they detected the chopper early enough, they could have worked out where it was heading and sent their guys there.”
“That means they have radar,” said Danny. “How does a drug cartel get radar?!”
“Good question,” said JD. “I don’t know. For now, let’s focus on getting out of here.” He brought out a map and spread it out on the ground, and we gathered round. I was beginning to warm to the guy, even if he was kind of a boy scout. He was calm in a crisis and he was good at keeping us on task.
The map didn’t have good news for us. We were still deep in cartel territory, and between us and civilization was hundreds of miles of jungle. “Can we get another pilot?” asked Olivia.
JD shook his head. “Gantz is going to go back to town and tell everyone how he got shot at. No pilot’s going to fly in and get us after that.”
We all stared at the map despondently. Olivia looked terrified and I didn’t blame her. We were cut off with no rescue or backup, and it was only a matter of time until the cartel found us. Think of something, I told myself angrily. Think of something or we’re all dead, including her.
And finally, I did.
I stabbed at the map with my finger. “Here. It’s a military base. We go there, hand ourselves in.”
JD stared at me as if I’d gone nuts. “We’re conducting an illegal operation in their country. They’ll throw us in jail.”
“Not necessarily.”
JD looked confused. Then he crossed his arms and gave me a look I hadn’t seen since Mrs. Martinez, my school principal, asked me to explain why all the vending machines were suddenly empty of snacks and their coin banks were full of Slovakian pennies.
“When I used to move stolen goods through Ecuador,” I explained, “there was a guy I used to bribe to look the other way. He had a real weakness for vintage Rolexes. Well, these days he’s the deputy minister of defense. We give ourselves up, persuade the military to let us call him…I’m pretty sure I can still cut a deal with him.”
JD let out a long sigh and shook his head. Bribery and backroom deals clearly didn’t sit well with him, but: “I’m beginning to see why Kian wanted you on the team,” he admitted. “Okay. It’s the best plan we’ve got.”
Cal looked at the map. “That’s a full day’s march,” he warned. “We’re almost out of food. Running low on water, too.”
“The sooner we get there, the better, then,” said JD. “Move out.”
As we moved off, I nodded JD aside. We fell into step at the back of the group.
“Bradan froze,” I told him. “Just stood there out in the open. I need to know what his story is.”
JD grimaced and shook his head.
“JD,” I said gently, “we’re in the shit here. And we can’t work together if we don’t trust each other.”
We looked at each other. I was as surprised as he was: where did that come from? For the first time, I didn’t sound like a loner who’d been press-ganged onto the team. I sounded like I actually wanted to make this thing work.
JD’s face softened. “You remember that thing in California with the cult? The town that got raided by the FBI?”
“Sure. That’s his story? He was FBI, and something happened with—”