Page 58 of Flint's Battle

“No.” He growled, eyes rolling as he shook his head, again. “Em…”

Bowie shouldered in. “Those assholes took Emery in your work vehicle?”

A nod.

Kian huffed. “I realize this is important, but you’re gonna undo all my work if you don’t stay still, Jack.”

Jack coughed, then grimaced, all but ignoring Kian as he wet his lips. “Roof.”

Bowie looked at Flint but he wasn’t sure what Jack was trying to say, either. “The roof?”

“SUV.”

Kian glanced over at them. “I think he’s trying to tell you that his vehicle has aerial roof markings.” Kian leaned over Jack. “Are they thermal?”

Another nod. Or maybe it was just Jack’s head bowing toward his chest as he passed out. Kian cursed, looking back when sirens wailed in the distance, an ambulance pulling into the station a minute later, lights flashing. Two attendants jumping out of the machine.

They raced over, chatting with Kian for all of thirty seconds before rolling Jack onto a gurney then wheeling him away.

Raider leaned in. “I’ll go with Jack in case you’re needed for Emery. I promise, I won’t leave his side.”

“Thanks. And Raider.” Flint nodded toward Jack. “If he regains consciousness before you get to the hospital, tell him I’ll get Emery back.”

Raider took off, climbing in behind the medics. The ambulance took off, lighting up the fog before it disappeared.

Bowie gave Flint a light tap. “I called Hawk. He’s got Waylen hacking his way into the station computers. He’ll try to locate the GPS unit on Jack’s vehicle. But if both these guys are first responders, they’ll know about it and most likely disconnect it. Waylen’s also checking any kind of camera along the major roads out of here. Speed traps. Banks and ATMs. If there’s an image of that SUV, Waylen’ll find it.”

“While that’s all great, we can’t just sit here and hope some ATM unit was being used at the exact moment that vehicle drove past. We need to head out before any information will be useless because we’ll be too far away. And my gut’s saying, they’re heading for a boat.”

Kian snagged his arm. “Blake’s on her way. Two minutes.”

“Blake’s flying in this? How they hell can she even see?”

“Beats the hell out of me. Sometimes, I think she’s half magician. But she’s your best shot at finding Emery.”

“Yeah, if she doesn’t fly us into a volcano. I can’t ask her to do that. She’s pregnant for god’s sake. If anything happened to her or the baby…”

Flint wouldn’t be able to look in the mirror.

Kian simply smiled. “Blake will push the limits more than anyone I’ve ever met. But she wouldn’t put us or the baby in jeopardy. If she says she can fly, she’s good.”

They all turned at the echo of the chopper a moment later, the fog making it seem as if it was coming from every direction. It wasn’t until it was only a few hundred feet away that Flint was able to distinguish it from the surrounding cloud bank, the rain blending everything together.

Blake landed several seconds later, eddies of fog twirling around the blades. She spooled down the engines then waved them over, holding everything steady until Kian had closed the rear door then hopped in the front.

A tap to her shoulder and they were off, climbing just over tree height before banking north. An eerie gray surrounded the machine, all that fog swallowing the whop of the rotors. Leaving just the steady patter of rain echoing through the cabin.

Blake keyed up her mic, gaze focused on the dash. “Waylen’s already got a hit off a traffic camera. They’re heading north. He thinks they’re probably going to a private marina on the other side of the island. Which makes sense, especially if we’re still missing someone from the Coast Guard who’s been helping them out. It’s where a lot of officers dock their own boats.”

Flint nodded, cursing when the chopper dropped twenty feet when they obviously hit a down draft, that rain kicking up even more. “Are you sure you’re okay to fly in this? I can’t see shit.”

Emery glanced back at him. “Honestly? I’ve flown in worse. But that was over the ocean, and I wasn’t worried about hills and trees and towers. And based on the weather report, it’s only a matter of time before lightning enters the mix, so…”

She rolled her shoulders, tapping something on one of the panels. “Buckle up, gentlemen. This might get epic.”

CHAPTER 18

“What’s the matter,Detective McClane? You haven’t said a word since we left the station.”

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