Tritium Gambit (Max and Miranda Book 1) (29 page)

I took off my shoes and Miranda and John studied them.

“
They stink,” John said. “Maybe she’s following the smell.”

“
Take off your shirt,” Miranda said.

I did, and they examined every stitch. Miranda threw it back at me. “Put that back on and do what you do best—take off your shorts,” she said.

I didn’t argue. I handed her my shorts, and she studied them. They looked stumped.

“
I don’t see any tracking devices here either,” she said and tossed them at me.

John grabbed hold of my hair.

“
Hey!” I protested.

“
Hold still,” he said. I felt him run his fingers along my neck.

“
Found it,” he said. He jabbed a spot, which was uncomfortable under his big finger.

“
Great,” I said. “How do we get it out?”

“
Miranda, take this,” John said. I couldn’t see what they were doing behind me. “I can’t touch his blood.”

I felt a hot slash. “Ouch! What are you…”

“
Hold still,” Miranda said. I felt her dig around in my skin with a sharp instrument. “Stop squirming!” She dug some more into my flesh. “Got it!”

I reached back and touched the spot on my neck where she had cut but it had already healed. I rubbed my neck anyway because it still stung.

I turned around and she was holding a short bloody knife that she wiped off and put into her boot. She showed me a tiny black ball.

“
Looks like the bunny rabbit left a pellet.”

I noticed a roving red dot on Miranda’s forehead and pushed her down as energy crackled through the air and struck me in the shoulder. I smelled burnt flesh and felt numb on my left side.

“
Ow,” Miranda said.

“
Yeah, I’ll bet that hurt,” I said through gritted teeth. I took a deep breath as sensation in the form of pain returned to the left half of my body. I fell to my knees and Miranda and John scrambled behind a large pile of rocks. I joined them.

“
She’s mad that Tyler’s dead and thinks it’s my fault because people around me have a propensity for getting hurt.”

“
It’s sort of hard to argue with her on that point,” Miranda said.

John patted me on my good shoulder. “You really have a way with the ladies.”

“
I’m going to draw her fire,” I said. “You two make a break for the trees and don’t stop running.”

“
We’re a team; we’ll stick together,” Miranda said. “I only wish I wasn’t out of ammo.”

“
We don’t have any way of fighting back, and she’ll kill you. She only wants me,” I said. “She would rather you were safely out of the way, as in dead, but she won’t risk losing me again and so won’t follow you. If she gets in close trying to get us all, you’ll miss your chance to get away.”

“
Good plan,” John said. “Right after you start running, we’ll make a break for it.”

I handed Miranda my graviton bars, which she looked at with confusion.

“
What are these for?” she asked.

“
You need these to help find the Wendigo. If you put them on a reverse setting, it’ll reduce gravity and let you jump really far. I probably should warn you about the reverse setting—there’s a slight risk you might implode.” I didn’t wait for Miranda to respond. I peeked around the edge of the rock. Wendy was walking warily our way, stopping behind boulders as she came to them and peering around them. I ran straight toward her.

When she leveled her gun at me, I tried to jump to the side but she shot me in the chest. The shot knocked me flat on my back. It’s rather disconcerting to see the flesh stripped off your chest, even if you know it will grow back.

I took the Bar-F I had been saving and ate it in two bites as Wendy approached. She was looking warily around as if expecting an attack from the others. She clearly didn’t realize they were unarmed.

I rolled to the side and jumped to my feet, only to be shot in the leg and fall back down. I crawled toward her while I healed, and as she watched me with amusement.

“
I’m going to enjoy this,” she said.

She blasted me twice more, once in the arm and once in the back as I crawled. I kept coming, and she took a few steps back. She pulled the trigger and nothing happened.

I hurt, but I managed to get to my feet to charge. She was fumbling with a clip when I knocked her back. The gun and clip went flying in different directions, but she grabbed hold of my head and hit me with a jolt of electricity that knocked me straight out.

Chapter 36. Miranda

I looked at the graviton bars Max had given me. When he had said there was a slight chance of implosion, I wondered how slight. I flipped the graviton bars into reverse, grabbed John, and jumped. We sped high into the air. I saw Max getting blasted below us and felt despair. I had left my partner behind with that twisted bitch, and he was going to suffer. Max was right, though. The Wendigo needed to be stopped, and Wendy probably wouldn’t kill him right away. We’d finish the mission and then come back for him.

We weren’t entirely weightless, but the graviton bars made you feel like, if you tried hard enough, you could reach orbit. I wondered why they weren’t standard issue. We landed outside of Grand Marais on our second jump and turned off the bars. Humans might think it curious to see people bouncing through the sky.

“
We need to find a newsfeed,” John said. “We need to see if there have been any weird sightings in the last twenty-four hours.”

I pointed at a place down the road. The sign over the door read: Cuppa Joe’s Internet Cafe and Deli. And a smaller sign read: No outside food. Free Internet Access with purchase of coffee.

“
I don’t actually have any money on me,” John said.

“
I do.”

We walked in, and as John went to a computer, I ordered two cups of coffee and some sandwiches. I felt a little guilty about eating while I knew Max was getting tortured. I set the coffees and sandwiches down next to John. I took a coffee and left the sandwiches for him.

“
Thanks,” he mumbled between bites.

He was flipping through newsfeeds and other websites. Eventually he stopped on a site that listed an Amber alert for a teenager missing near the town of Cloquet. The town was more than a hundred miles away, but it seemed possible for the Wendigo to travel that far.

John cleared his search history and closed the browser. “We don’t have much to go on, but it’s the only lead we have. Let’s at least check it out,” he said.

He finished the other sandwich I had left and grabbed his coffee.

“
I feel really bad about leaving Max behind. Did we do the right thing?” I asked.

“
Max understood that you needed to finish the assignment. He was willing to do what it takes. You respect him, of course.”

“
Yes, I respect him,” I said.

“
Then you’ll put his sacrifice to use and finish the assignment, and you won’t blame yourself for what he’s going through. Agents make sacrifices in the line of duty, and if you respect the agent, you have to capitalize on those sacrifices.”

“
Have any of your partners ever made sacrifices?” I asked. John didn’t answer. He kept walking toward the edge of town. I touched his shoulder. “Sheriff?”

He sighed. “Yes, I’ve lost partners, but the job got done.”

I knew John thought losing partners was part of the job, but I couldn’t imagine ever being okay with that. I lost my first partner, and my second was… I steeled myself and made the conscious decision that I wasn’t going to think about it now. I had a job to do and couldn’t go back for Max now.

When we were out of the city limits and alone, I activated the graviton bars. They buzzed.

“
Ready?” I asked.

“
Not really, but let’s go.”

I grabbed John’s arm and we began jumping down the road. Each leap took us a few miles. I followed the road to avoid getting lost.

The feeling of jumping with the aid of the graviton bars was amazing, like I was flying. The thought that my jump could end in a black hole at any moment spoiled part of my high, but I tried to focus on the task at hand. When I glanced at John, his teeth were clenched. I was used to jumping fast, but maybe it was too much for others.

When we landed again, I paused. “Do you need a moment?” I asked.

He swallowed hard. “I’m fine. I only wish I hadn’t eaten anything.” He looked green. “Keep going.”

I could empathize. I got motion sickness when I wasn’t the one driving or flying or whatever other mode of transportation, but when I was jumping, I always felt great no matter how fast I went. We bounced along for an hour before landing near a green sign: Duluth 1 mile. John vomited when we landed next to the sign.

“
Let’s walk for a little bit,” I said. He heaved again.

I gave him a moment and watched the nearby trees. The day was still and quiet, and the trees stood motionless. A few years ago, before I joined the Academy, I would have found this scene peaceful. Now, I found it unnerving. An attack could come without warning at any moment, and I had to be ready for it.

“
Fine, we’ll walk for a few minutes, but we have to get to Cloquet tonight,” John said, and then he heaved again.

Chapter 37. Max

When I woke up, I was tied to a tree in the forest. I could hear the distant waves of Lake Superior, and so I knew Wendy hadn’t dragged me far. I wondered if John and Miranda made it to safety.

“
Ah, you’re awake,” Wendy said. “You’re ability to regenerate is amazing, but I have to tell you that you resemble the Incredible Shrinking Man.”

“
Thanks,” I muttered.

Wendy looked both sad and incredibly pissed at the same time. “I had been waiting four days for Tyler to return, and he had never kept me waiting before, when I saw Tyler’s ship plummeting from the sky. It only confirmed my worst fears. You don’t know what it has been like.”

“
Why don’t you tell me?” I asked.

“
Everybody is afraid to touch me. I had finally found somebody who wasn’t scared.” She stifled a sob, and I had to admit nearly feeling sorry for her, psychopathic bitch that she was. “You’ve robbed me of my happily-ever-after.” She pulled out a long knife. “But you can still give me some pleasure. I’m going to test just how far your regeneration can be pushed. We’ll see which breaks first, your mind or your body.”

I started to ramble while watching her knife. “It wasn’t my fault. Tyler was crazy. The Wendigo was never going to honor the deal—they didn’t even have the Tritium. They had always planned to eat him, and he was just too stupid to figure that out.”

“
I see you are trying to reason with me,” Wendy said. She tossed her knife at me, and it stuck deep into my upper thigh. “Ah, I missed by three inches.”

I groaned softly. “When I get free, I’m going to put this knife in you.”

“
Empty threats,” she whispered as she sauntered toward me. She wrenched the knife in my leg, then sliced downward to my knee.

“
You must have a plan. You aren’t expecting to simply kill me and then go quietly,” I said through clenched teeth.

“
Oh, I have a plan.” She pulled the knife from my knee and slashed me across the cheek. She smiled. “Let’s worry about one thing at a time though.” She blinked, and I noticed that, for a brief moment, her eyes turned a cloudy black. I had never noticed that about her before, and it reminded me of somebody else I knew.