Page 175 of Victorious

Hindsight, he mused, as back at the other transport, Eli took off running through the woods, Noah in pursuit, shouting at the EO to stop, and at Gabriel to stop him. Which, incidentally, he could. He’d had a backup comm installed in Eli’s field fatigues. Just in case.

One tap, and Gabriel would be there in his ears, telling him to halt. Turn back.

But he didn’t.

Not yet.

He stepped toward the screens, eyes narrowed in curiosity.

If someone in the room had pressed him—not that anyone could—he might have said the first transport needed backup.

But if Gabriel was being honest, he just wanted to see what happened next.

XXVIINOW. THEN.

THE car was still on fire when the red pickup pulled up.

Smoke billowed from the wreckage, and as Victor stepped out, he took in the remains of one agent painted on the pavement, two more on the ground between the burning roadster and the transport van. The driver had his head blown off in the front seat.

Victor carved a wide berth around the agents to avoid the body cameras.

“Not exactly subtle,” he said, addressing June, who sat perched on the back edge of the van, rubbing her neck as if she had whiplash.

“What happened?” demanded Mitch, at the same time Victor said, “Where is she?”

“Great question,” muttered June. “And I have no idea. But I can tell you one thing. They were not transporting Sydney Clarke.”

Mitch’s face contorted in confusion.

Victor stepped in. “It was Serena.”

Mitch’s mouth fell open.

June’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t sound very surprised.”

“I had a hunch,” admitted Victor.

“Oh yeah, and when was that?”

“Somewhere between you calling and the line going dead.”

“Funny thing,” said June, rising to her feet. “I thought Serena Clarke was dead.”

“She was,” said Victor. “Which means Sydney must have brought her back. Presumably when things went south at the motel,” he added, casting a brief glance at Mitch.

“Yeah, well she got one hell of an upgrade,” offered June, sounding halfway between bitter and impressed. “One moment she was opening her eyes and the next, I’m sitting in a diner stacking sugar packets and…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. By the time I came back to my senses, she was already gone.”

“If Serena was here,” said Mitch, looking at the wreckage, “then where is Syd?”

June crouched over the nearest corpse, plucking weapons from the dead agent’s belt like a magpie picking over shiny tokens. “There are two roads,” she said, freeing a clip, and a gun. She racked the weapon. “Presumably, they took the other one.”

Victor’s gaze slid toward the tree line as she spoke.

He swore he’d just seen something move.

Eli ran.

It had been years since he did track, but he still had an athlete’s build, and he put it to use, the red dot on the map getting closer by the second as he sprinted through the trees.