Concealed in the Shadows (Book #1)

Chapter Thirty

My eyes scan everything in sight once we pass the sign for Lame Deer. I'm looking for anything that can give me an indication of whether the troupe has already arrived here. We turn a sharp corner, arriving at the forgotten college.

One disheveled bike lays tipped on its side. The bike with the sidecar blocks the main entrance to the hospital. The third bike is missing. A flash of Cy's fearlessly light and goofy face as he pined to drive the bike with the sidecar passes through my mind. In the end, Crewe and Alix were put on that bike. My father and Cy drove the other two.

My father is the one who called, so I know he is here and well, unless he was baring injury to be the brave leader he needed to be on the cell phone. Cy was the driver of the bike that is unaccounted for.

With the sidecar, it is still possible that four of the five seeksmen who partook in this mission have made it to Lame Deer, along with the captain. We may have only lost one in the battle zone. At the same time, perhaps some of the four, if there are even that many, will perish before returning home to Sheridan.

Galv shifts the gear into park and turns off the engine. These motions are unnecessary in the voice-activated technology of the little cars in Miles.

We sit not far from where the bikes lay abandoned. Although Galv and Della know every moment to be pressing in their profession, neither of them can bring themselves to move. Neither can I. All three of us are frozen, fearful.

We might have never found the courage to move if it weren't for my father, who was probably avidly watching for us to arrive. He runs out to meet the van. He's completely unscathed, and certainly doesn't resemble my idea of someone who has just been attacked by county BOTs. Hopefully, the others have faired better than we believed too.

Galv and I don't ask what happened. This time, Della is smart enough not to ask either. Time is too precious. It's all in the past now anyway. The matter at hand is saving the lives of whichever young, courageous freedom fighters await us inside.

My father lugs the door open and swiftly removes the bags from the vehicle. He finds the time to offer a sturdy arm to Della, who needs a little help coming down from the high ledge. Her legs are trembling.

My father carries the bags through the doorway into the college and we follow quickly behind him. He's saying something about a gunshot wound and about Alix's arm. Alix. Alix is alive. It sounds awful, but I'm not happy to discover this. It decreases the odds that the Davids brothers and the stoic Decklin are alive.

The college is not large by any means, and running down it, I am able to think one clear thought. I didn't say goodbye to Crewe. I was too prideful to thank him for everything good that's come to me through him. I was too pigheaded to give him the soldier's farewell that he deserved.

My nostrils flare with a foul stench as we near to the doorway outside the room to where my father leads us. It's like nothing I've ever smelled before. Even city stench does not compare. The captain is saying something about a burn. I think what I am smelling is Alix's singed flesh.

Why is it so quiet? Why aren't there moans and wails coming from the seeksmen?

"Sydney," a soldier weakly calls my name. Decklin lies on his left side, facing me as I linger in the doorway, afraid to cross into the room. My father, Galvesten, and Della crowd around his back, where a bullet evidently invaded him. Della frantically spills surgical tools onto the floor while Galv puts pressure on the wound and calls for devices. They're beginning with him, so his condition must be the least stable and mostly likely to turn fatal. He doesn't look well at all. I'm afraid we're too late for him.

I go to him and take the outstretched hand meant for me. "I want you to read something for me." Della moves about the room in the background and my father whispers a trail of information into Galvesten's ear. Galv's face goes pale, and then he curses.