Page 59 of Scarred Sunrise

“Yeah, let’s go. This place is about to blow.”

Zack gunned the speedboat as fast as it would go, putting as much distance between them as he could. They were almost to shore when the explosion came, knocking them clear out of the boat and into the icy Siberian waters.

Smithy felt his breathing hitch at the shock of the cold, his ears ringing as pain struck him, and he began to sink, the air in his lungs burning as he fought not to take in a lungful of ice water. He fought the sluggish pull of his body, the murk of the sea full of silt and debris, as his world went blank.

Hands reached for him and blessed air sucked into his lungs as he coughed up the water he’d swallowed. Zin was standing over him and helped him the last few feet to dock where Zack and Will hauled him up.

Smithy looked around wildly. “The cases?”

“I have them,” Zack reassured him, holding up the two wet cases.

“How the fuck did you hold onto them?”

Zack shrugged. “Not letting this go south now.”

Smithy looked back at the devastation behind him, the burning oil well pushing out a massive amount of heat and smoke.

“Well, she and John won’t have survived that.”

“John was there?” Zack frowned.

“Yeah, he appeared from nowhere, shocked the hell out of her, but then she seemed to break down and became this scared, broken woman.”

“Well, as long as it’s over, I don’t care.”

Zack handed the one case to Will. “Shut down those implants, and let’s get the fuck out of Russia before they catch us.”

Will spent ten minutes on the laptop before he broke the encryption and shut down the implants. He hit the last button with a flourish and grinned. “Done. They’ll need the implants removed but there should be no more zombie soldiers.”

Smithy threw him a look, and the tatted tech nerd went still.

Smithy grinned. “I’m just fucking with you, let’s go home.”