Page 66 of Breaking Danger
“I’ve checked the vehicle,” Jon said. “She’s good to go, fully charged and with a full tank of LPG. With luck, she’ll last till we get to Haven. I loaded her up with food. The Robbs have a full stock of staples and I stacked as much inside as the vehicle can carry. I know Haven has ample stores but I checked with HQ and refugees are pouring in. The food will come in handy.”
“Did you track our route?”
Jon pulled a face. “Sort of.”
He showed her an expanded map with GPS waypoints. “The satellites took photographs of the roads from here to Haven.” He traced a path with his finger from where they were on the coast eastward to Mount Blue, a desolate part of the state. She’d never been there. “The Lynx has off the road capabilities and she’s strong but going off road will also mean increased fuel consumption. We’ve got a map of where we can travel on highways and roads and where they are blocked by vehicles. The thing is, the photographs were taken the day before yesterday and the satellites are down now. Our drones are being used to scan for pockets of survivors, and they don’t know when they can assign some to us. So, we’re operating essentially on old intel in a hostile environement.”
He looked at her narrow-eyed, as if expecting something from her. She showed him her determined face. She was not going to slow him down in any way; she was going to do everything in her power to help.
“The scanner works, right?” she asked. “We’ll know where the infected are.”
“Oh yeah, it works all right. And as long as we keep moving, we won’t have anything to fear from the infected. They sure can’t outrun us. We just have to make sure we don’t run into trouble off-road.”
Sophie looked out the window at the rising darkness. “I’m ready when you are, Jon.”
“Okay,” he answered, but he didn’t move. He kept his face neutral but there was something, some strong emotion, quivering just beneath the surface. He looked tense, like the string of a bow before release. He looked like he needed something badly but Sophie had no clue what that might be.
“Jon?”
He suddenly lunged and wrapped his arms around her. His grip was so tight she could barely breathe, and beneath his clothes Jon was trembling, his breath quick and rough.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said, voice low, husky, strained. As if it were hard for him to get the words out. “That’s my promise to you. I’ll get you to Haven safely.” He swallowed hard. She could feel it and hear it. “Trust me. Trust me to get you to safety.”
Though his words were reassuring, somehow Sophie felt thatheneeded reassurance, as if he would fall apart if she weren’t holding on to him.
“I trust you, Jon,” she said softly.
He jolted, then settled down onto her so heavily she was bearing his weight. Just for a moment. Then he straightened, stepped back, holding her by the shoulders. “Good. We’re going to do this. You’ll get to Haven, you have my word.”
He dropped his hands and took another step backward, all elite soldier now. He all but saluted, face completely neutral, expressionless.
The robot was back.
Except he didn’t fool her. Jon was no robot. That tight hold he had on his emotions was because he felt them too keenly.
He wanted her to trust him? God, yes. Sophie knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he would sacrifice his life for her, if it could get her to safety. This went beyond getting the case back to the labs. This was abouther, Sophie Daniels. But she couldn’t let on that she understood that, not now, not when he had to show her he was all super-soldier, utterly emotionless.
Her only possible response was to stay neutral herself. “Okay.” She dipped her head. “So I guess we’re heading on out.”
The Lynx was a surprising vehicle.She’d never seen one in real life, only in ads. Nobody needed a private vehicle in San Francisco. She just rented a City Car from the city when she needed transportation, so she wasn’t up on the latest models. This thing looked like a beast, like something she’d laugh at if she encountered it on city streets. Huge, high and broad, a complete waste of material. Except right now they were going to trust their lives to this beast and it looked like it was up for it. Its size and toughness were welcome if they were going to have to go off-road.
“Bless you, Jason Robb,” she said as she ran her hand along the beast’s flank.
Jon looked up briefly from fitting her backpack into the rear compartment. “Yeah, we’re really lucky. I don’t think a normal vehicle could make this trip. We have something back at Haven that would be even better than this but it’s there and we’re here.”
Sophie looked the beast over, realizing it was something she couldn’t drive, not even on freeways, let alone in the wild. “Can I help you in any way, Jon? Can I navigate for you?”
Jon had come around to the passenger side and opened the door. The floor of the vehicle was higher than her breasts. The small step that appeared from the flank of the vehicle was absolutely necessary. Jon gave her a quick boost and she settled into the seat. Inside it was enormous, like a small room. Jon had packed the back tightly, covering the windows to mid-point. But the car would have sensors and video cameras for rear view vision.
“No. We’re going to have to travel with the lights off because the light would attract the infected. I have night vision goggles and the waypoints are on the GPS. But we’re going to have to be ready to change the itinerary at any moment.”
Jon’s comms unit crackled and she saw movement. He pressed a button and the hologram was projected. His teammates, Mac and Nick, and Elle.
“We’re ready to roll out,” Jon said. “Anything we need to know?”
Mac looked tired and drawn. “The infection has spread to the rest of the country. There are now severe outbreaks in Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Chicago and Boston. Plus a number of smaller cities. Martial law has been declared in half the country. We know this because our comms system is picking up sporadic signals, but we are completely unable to establish any kind of radio contact with anyone in the military. There is no priority higher than getting that case to a safe place, there is nothing more important that the US military could achieve, and we can’t communicate with them, not in any way. Snyder tried and he connected with a lieutenant somewhere for half a minute. Then they were cut off.” His jaw flexed. “But we’re trying 24/7 to get through. The instant we do we’ll get a bird to you, no matter where you are.
“But we’re not getting help any time soon, Jon. We’re on our own. The good news is that we still have people pouring in and we’ve located more strongholds. People are dug in and most of those communities are going to make it. The countryside is littered with the bodies of the infected. They are dying fast.”
