SAR ASCENDANT / Book 1: Incursion of the INDEN

Chapters 36 to 38

Chapter 36

I wake with a start. There is a noise. Insistent. I swing out of bed, shake Jona.

I realize it's the AirTrack receiver, look for my pants. They are draped over a chair; I fish in the pocket. Coordinates rise from the device, settle above it, change constantly.

"He's on the move!" I warn Jona. "Willow's in the boat."

We hurriedly dress and grab our packs. Jona starts to make his way downstairs, stops, turns.

"Jax?" he asks.

I'm already striding towards his bedroom door. I carefully push it open. Jax is still asleep, tangled in a mess of blankets. I decide. I back out, close the door.

"Let's let him be," I say. "He'll be alright. He was tired out." He's proven himself, taking on the AirTrack subterfuge. He's resourceful, my brother.

We slide on boots, I stop to pick up the StunProd from the front porch where I left it to charge in the sun. Jona notices, remarks, "I have a feeling you know how you're going to use that. I favor my fist, personally."

"There you go with that male thing again," I say.

He groans a little, and I rush past him. He calls after me, "Maybe one day you'll share with me what you found in the fishing cave."

I look back, see him look down and shake his head, as though he regrets his words.

I let it go. Thing is, I do want to share, but at the right time, when I'm feeling less vulnerable.

We make our way into the woods.

I hold out the receiver, interpret Willow's location. "He's definitely out on the water. Not far from the shore, heading south." We zero in on the location, break out of the trees onto a rocky ledge. Willow is about thirty feet out, his back to us. He is pulling on the oars, steering the boat parallel to the shore. "He won't know we can track him. Maybe he thinks Allgo can't either, when he's in the boat."

We wait until we're sure he hasn't seen us and follow, hugging the tree line. Slow going. There is much overgrowth, downed trees, brambles. Scratches, scrapes and bugs.

"He's coming in!" I exclaim.

We crouch, continue to track Willow. He'll make land about a hundred feet south of our position. We cover the remaining ground through the woods, until we break into an area that seems to have once been cleared but is now overgrown. It surrounds a small structure with walls of cut stone.

"What is that?" I wonder.

"Do we have time to look?"

I consult the receiver. Willow is almost at the shore. It'll take him a few minutes to climb up to our location. "If we hurry," I advise.

We sprint to the structure. It's like a small house, with a tiny window beside a heavy green metal door that swings easily when Jona pushes it. Through the opening we see old machinery, cables, wheels.

"I think they used this to haul things up from the shore," Jona says.

"Why would that interest Willow?"

"Not sure it would. But this is hard to find, and so might be a good place to hide a certain something."

We look at each other, realize we've just a few minutes to do a search. We rush about, lifting, moving, shuffling, sometimes bumping shoulders. We don't find Jona's WristComm. I look out the small window beside the door, see Willow twenty feet away.

"Quick! Hide!" I whisper.

Jona retreats to the back of the small structure, crouches behind the machinery. I barely have time to throw myself against the wall behind the door. It swings open, an orb ascends, lights up the interior. Even from my position I can see that Jona is well illuminated.