Page 189 of Knot Their Soldier: Part One
He clicks off the receiver and spits at the ground, tempering his bubbling rage.
“Knox,” Blaze clips, leaning forward sharply. “Listen.”
He’s right. There’s another sound in the background. A buzzing, clicking sound.
It’s coming from the radio.
“It’s bugged.”
We stare at the offending item in Knox’s hand like it’s a bomb.
“Get rid of it!” Blaze shouts, lunging to take the radio from Knox to destroy it.
“No, don’t!” I shove him back, stopping him. “It’s untraceable. They can’t use it to find our location, and this might be our only chance to figure out what the hell is going on.”
Blaze glares at me, but backs off. He slips in beside Halley, running his nose in her hair in an entirely unsubtle attempt to cool his rage. After a moment, his shoulders sag. She really is our miracle cure.
Knox nods. “Agreed. I’ll play along. See what we can learn.”
Blaze hisses.
Viper stands and prowls away, pacing and muttering to himself.
Knox looks at me, and I tilt my head, thinking hard. We have to push them to see what they’ll reveal. Something is happening out in the world which we’re ignorant of.
The static clicks again and again, floating between our team like a heavy cloud.
“Negative. Identity cannot be confirmed. Prime Alpha Thorin Knox and his team are registered as KIA.”
I blink rapidly.
Killed in action?
Well, that’s not good.
Knox turns off the radio, ending the conversation abruptly.
We stand in silence, the afternoon sun beating down on us with a biting insistence.
“We’re dead?!” Blaze howls.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Halley
Something is wrong. Very, very wrong.
Knox is rattled. “We need to figure out what the fuck is happening.”
Shade has paled, but has his eyes unfocused as he works through the information. After a moment, he blinks and nods to himself.
“Okay, let’s organize what we know.”
Viper slips beside me, sandwiching me between his barrel chest and Blaze. It feels nice, like they’re subconsciously closing ranks around me due to a perceived threat.
“First, we can ascertain that General Stone is unable or unwilling to answer our attempts to make contact.”
The General always scared the wits out of me with his stern and unforgiving nature, but I never got the impression he’d shirk his duties. In fact, I suspect if he were a Navy captain, he’d go down with his ship.
