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Branches clawed at my skin as we plunged through the underbrush. The thick foliage was a brutal barrier that we shoved aside with frantic hands. The ground beneath our feet sloped sharply upward, and Tyler’s labored breathing matched my thumping heartbeat in my ears and added to the maddening beep of the hard drive.
“That damned hard drive will get us killed,” I hissed at his back. “Fucking ditch it!”
He shot a glance at me over his shoulder, and the determination in his eyes was much fiercer in the moonlight. “I can’t.”
Leaning against a rock, he dragged me forward. I shoved past him, and anger powered my legs.
“Dammit, Tyler,” I said, my voice barely a whisper as the men fanned out across the sand. “That fucking thing is gonna get us killed.”
“We need this evidence.”
“You don’t know that. It could have someone’s porn on it.”
He scoffed. “They’re not trying to kill us for porn, Indy. This has evidence related to Chui. I know it. And if we don’t stop them, they’ll keep killing and destroying lives.”
“Your sense of justice is going to see us both dead.” I pushed off a gnarly tree to launch up a large boulder.
“This isn’t about me. This is about putting an end to Chui’s fucking mess.” His voice was low but loaded with hatred, and I sensed it was more than just Chui’s mess.
This was about Tyler proving himself.
“Fine. But if we go down, so does your fucking evidence.”
I charged ahead. The hill was a jagged monster. Spindly bushes with nasty thorns clawed at my legs, and the ground was rough and covered in loose stones. Grunting, I used my hands and feet to crawl up another steep section. My breaths came in short bursts. My muscles protested with each heave upward. Anger drove me on. I stumbled over a root and only just caught myself before my knees crashed into the jagged rocks.
“Indiana, slow down!” Tyler’s voice was a command, but I wasn’t in any mood to obey.
“Like hell I will,” I shot back over my shoulder, my legs pumping harder. “We stop, we die. Remember?”
An explosion of bullets pinged off the rocks ahead of me.
Screaming, I ducked down. Tyler crashed into me from behind, knocking me off balance. As bullets thundered around us, we skidded down a steep slope and crashed into a tree.
“Fuck. Are you okay?” Tyler’s question was an angry hiss.
“Yes.”
“We have to keep moving!”
I scrambled to my feet, and with adrenaline searing my veins, I followed him deeper into the bushes, running across the slope, rather than up it. Gunfire echoed all around us like they were randomly shooting into the bushes and hoping to hit us.
Dread scraped up my spine. It would only take one bullet.
“Keep down.” Tyler led the way, leaping from rock to rock, shoving branches aside. He was barely visible in the darkness, but his ragged breathing and that damned beeping made him easy to follow.
Bullets whizzed overhead and slammed into branches of a palm tree. Two coconuts exploded, showering us in coconut milk and shell.
Shouts echoed through the bushes below us.
“Shit, Tyler. They’re catching us.”
“They can’t see us.”
“What?”
“If they could see us, we’d already be dead.”
“Well, that’s comforting.”
