Page 28 of Wired Ghost

Connor leaned over, pressing his forehead against the curved Plexiglas window to look below as they left the airport and flew toward the open lava area.

The terrain was barren and rugged as they moved up in elevation, following Saddle Road, an old, well-established route that ran over the lava plains and connected the Big Island’s main cities of Hilo and Kona. The two-lane road snaked between them, running between the twin cones of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Kilauea was the volcano currently erupting, but Mauna Loa, a much higher peak at more than ten thousand feet, was also emitting alarming rumbles and shaking the ground with earthquakes. The United States Geological Survey had sent out alerts that activity might be imminent there as well.

Connor drew his tablet out of the backpack resting between his feet and tapped on the screen, bringing it to life.

The USGS satellite he’d hacked into zeroed in on the location of Sophie’s tracking device at his direction. Using his fingertips, Connor was able to zoom in. Nothing useful was visible—only a rugged black plain. Sophie’s signal had moved several thousand yards since his last check-in, and he frowned upon seeing that the relative volcanic safety of thekipukaitself had been left behind.

She must now be somewhere out on the featureless landscape of the lava plain, where new lava might soon be flowing.

Maybe he could spot them on foot . . .Connor continued using his fingertips to try to narrow the area of focus around the pulsing red beacon of Sophie’s GPS chip—but cursed as the picture fragmented into blocky pixels.

The chopper bounced in an updraft, ruining the tracking further. Agno’s voice came over the comm. “I can’t go much farther. The USGS has designated this area a no-fly zone. Nothing’s visible on the ground yet, but there’s volcanic activity under the lava, and it could burst out from any weak point in the crust and nail us.”

Connor frowned, tapping the screen to get the GPS coordinates of the beacon to display. “I need you to fly here.” He showed the pilot the tablet. “Set your directional program to take us there.” He tried to get eye contact with the pilot, to use his voice to command the man as the Master did.

Agno shook his head and kept his eyes on the landscape ahead. “No. I told you when I took this job that I wasn’t allowed to fly in any hot spot areas.”

“Nine!” Connor growled in Thai. “This man needs to take us to where we want to go.”

Nine, seated directly behind the pilot, already had the slender blade he kept on his person ready for action. He applied the tip to the vulnerable nape of the man’s neck revealed by the edge of the helmet. Agno yelped, “You can’t kill me. You need me to fly this bird. Hijacking is a felony!”

“Nine doesn’t have to kill you to make you wish you were dead,” Connor said with a humorless smile.

Connor readied himself to disable the Frenchman if he interfered, but Raveaux looked on impassively. There was no sign of surprise or resistance in Raveaux’s relaxed but alert posture. His electrical field was a steady green. Clearly, he’d been prepared for the possibility that things would go this way.

Nine applied some pressure; the knife pierced the skin. The pilot winced, his knuckles showing white on the steering collective. “If we get busted, it’s all on you.” He fed the coordinates Connor showed him into the flight computer.

The helicopter took a new heading, arrowing across featureless lava that probably hid acres of magma activity. Connor stroked the surface of the tablet with his thumb, brushing the pulsing red beacon. “We’ll be there soon,” he whispered. “Hold on a little longer.”

Chapter Twenty

Jake

Sophie returnedfrom her circuit around the chamber, her mouth tight with anxiety. “No exits from this room. Not so much as a crack.”

“Except directly overhead. Really wish we still had a phone. The ceiling is thin enough here that we might be able to get a signal out.” Jake tipped his head back to eye the seductive sliver of blue above them.

“We’re in a good position here. It’s going to be okay.” Sophie seemed confident, in spite of the stress. She wedged the torch into a notch in the wall.

Did she know something he didn’t?

“Soph.” Jake took hold of Sophie’s shoulders, turned her to face him. She was five inches shorter, so those pretty brown eyes were level with his chin, but she refused to look at him. “You got something up your sleeve?”

Sophie frowned, glanced at her arms. Her knit shirt was now laddered with runs and rips. “My sleeves are too tight to conceal anything.”

“Figure of speech.” He caught her eye. “We have no phones. We’re potentially miles from where we went into the tunnel, which is where searchers will go looking for us. How are you so sure that we’ll be rescued here?”

“I didn’t want to tell you in case you read more into it than there is.” Sophie looked down at her feet. Her shoulders slumped under his hands. “Connor monitors me. With a chip. He will find us here with little difficulty since the ceiling is thin. I need to get as close to the opening as possible, and stay there, so the signal is strong.”

“He chipped you. Of course, he did. Like you were a dog that might wander off.” Old jealousy tightened Jake’s gut. “Why am I not surprised?” He let go and walked away, breathing deeply to calm himself. He paced over the uneven ground. “Connor’s always here, isn’t he? Between us.”

“Jake.Youleftme,remember?” Sophie followed him, righteous anger raising her voice. “Connor was there for me then. He chipped me because he wanted to make sure I was always safe. He wanted to make sure that he could find me, because of my psycho mother, because of my dangerous job. He has never wavered in his commitment to me, while you—” her voice choked off.

Jake stopped. Turned.Was she crying?

Sophie stood still, backlit by the torch, those fine square shoulders of hers still hunched, her hands over her face.

“Gah. I’m such a jealous asshole. I’m sorry.” Jake took two long steps back to her, engulfing her in his arms, pressing her rigid body into his. “I’m sorry, I really am. I’m freakin’gladthat ninja vigilante mastermind tagged you. I might not even punch him out when I finally see him again, if we get out of here alive.”

---