The air tore apart as a hail of lead shredded the oak tree where Sarah had stood a second before. She didn't stay to trade fire. She bolted in a zigzag pattern toward the dense thicket, her movements erratic and practiced. The soldiers on the truck shouted in frustration, their thermal scanners locking onto her fleeting heat signature as she lured them deeper into the shadows of the pines.
Elian didn't watch her run. He couldn't afford the distraction. He lunged across the muddy trench, his boots barely making a sound as he closed the distance to the idling transport. The engine hummed with a coarse, mechanical vibration, a sound that felt like a mockery of the rhythmic resonance he had lost.
He reached the heavy rear bumper just as the truck lurched forward. His fingers caught the cold,
