Page 42 of Jude

OCTAVIA SAW THE WORRIEDlook in Jude’s eyes as he broke into a run. “It could be the State jamming signals with an EMP.”

“If they did that, I wouldn’t have been able to reach the bunker,” said Jude.

She tamped down on her panic. The State couldn’t know they were here. She was always careful when she’d visited, concealing her tracks and traveling by foot for the last part of the journey so they wouldn’t detect any electronic signals.

Jude raised a hand, gesturing for Octavia to stop. They’d reached the hedges. He eased out his pulse laser before looking around the side of the hedge.

Octavia held her breath, expecting a blast of pulse laser to hit them.

There was nothing.

Jude cursed under his breath. He stepped around the hedge. “They’re not here.”

Octavia followed him. The road was empty. The Foxhound had gone, along with Heath and Malachi.

“Maybe they thought they’d been detected and hid.”

“They’d have let us know.”

“They can’t have gone far,” said Octavia. “We’ve been gone ten minutes.”

Jude tried the comms link again. “Heath. Malachi. Can either of you hear me?”

An ominous silence sounded along the comms link.

“Kade, we have a problem,” said Jude.

Octavia’s stomach clenched as no reply came back.

“Shit!” Jude’s fingers clenched around his pulse laser.

“We need to get to a safe place. If they haven’t destroyed them, there are three houses about half a mile down the road. We can try them.” Octavia was already moving.

Jude grabbed her arm. “Go slow. Keep a lookout for any militia.” He handed her a pulse laser. “Use this if you have to.”

She knew her way around a pulse laser and kept it in her hand as they walked swiftly along the road.

Catching a movement out of the corner of her eye, Octavia swung to the left and raised her weapon. She couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched.

“Let’s keep moving,” said Jude, “and get to these houses.”

“It will be okay.” The words sounded like a lie on Octavia’s breath.

Jude swung to his right, his weapon raised.

“What do you see?”

He kept his weapon up. “Nothing for certain. I just have this feeling...”

“You’re not the only one,” breathed out Octavia. “We’re being watched.”

A twig snapped, and they both tensed.

“Lower your weapons,” said a harsh male voice.

“No bloody way,” muttered Jude.

“We already have your companions. If you want them to live, you’ll do as we say.”