The God Codex

22. Shield

I grab Nate's wrist and hold him back. We are about three hundred meters from the tree line when I hear it. A snap of a twig, faint, but I hear it.

"What?"

I put a finger to my lips to shush him, still holding him back. "There's someone out there," I whisper, eyes scanning the trees and the shadows beyond.

Nate pulls me down until the tall grass hides us both. "Hill's men?"

I nod. It has to be. How dumb were we to take a leisurely stroll after escaping capture by a murderous scientist? I glance back in the direction we came from. The hatch is a pinprick in the dying light. "They are elite soldiers," I whisper. I can't see them yet, but I just know it.

"I thought Hill wasn't government." Nate shakes his head, confused.

"She's not, not as far as I could tell. But she is CodeTech. Old CodeTech — the original."

Nate gives me the blandest of looks. "CodeTech? As in the same tech we all use and have in our bodies? That CodeTech?"

No, smartass, is what I want to say, but I say, "All I know is she is not government, and she is not the same tech. Not anymore." A thought niggles at the back of my mind, a thought that this is all linked to something big, something too big for two teens hiding in the grass to handle, praying a mad scientist won't find us, but handle we must, if we mean to survive.

"That was the original CodeTech lab Dr Amour built," I whisper, recalling snippets of information I had heard in the two weeks we were there. "The guy in the lab, the hologram," I add.

"But that was Dr Love." Nate shakes his head in disbelief. "Your grand—"

"Dad?" I finish. "I was wondering who Amour was too for a long time. They kept mentioning his name there. That the lab was his and how he sealed it before he died. And then we see him, my mum's father, when we get in as a hologram? It can't be a coincidence, Nate."

I duck lower and pull him down further till we are arm-in-arm holding each other, our faces inches away from one another, as if we're about to kiss. We're not!

Nate clears his throat and lets go of me, but I continue anchoring him down despite the close quarters. I point in the tree's direction.

"I think there are several of them out there," I say, wishing and hoping we could know how many for sure.

"Why don't you use your infrared vision like that night, Mia?" The voice barges in my head, making me jump. Granddad. So he is in the house.

"Jesus!" I hiss and may have twitched in fright. Is it bad that I want to make a joke right now? We have a doctor in the house! Oh, I sigh. Perhaps this isn't the best time.

We hear the rustle in the grass and hold our position.

"And how do I use infrared?" I ask in an angry hiss.

"Why, just command infrared vision."

I roll my eyes. All that genius and his commands are simple. Command infrared vision? Really?

Infrared vision, at least I think I thought it, and my vision twists and morphs into something that can detect body heat. Suddenly, Nate is glowing like the biggest glowworm. It's cool that a mere thought gives me the ability to see like this, but I will not admit it to him — the man in my head.

"I already know it, girly!" He laughs. It's the first time I have heard the old man's laugh. Its guttural mirth seeps into my soul, warm and fuzzy, like I am home.

I turn to the tree line and shrink a little deeper into the grass. There are well over a dozen of Hill's men crawling toward us. They know where we are.