Page 82 of Jude

Octavia hopped up from her seat and slid into the driver’s seat. She pumped the gas and turned the engine. It coughed a few times before dying.

“Give me a minute,” shouted Jude. “There’s something loose rattling around in here.”

“Almost everything is loose in there,” muttered Octavia.

“Okay, try again.”

She turned the key. After a few bone-racking shudders, the engine woke up. Octavia grinned and slapped her hands against the steering wheel. “You got her working!”

“Only just.” Jude opened the door, climbed into the passenger seat, and sat his tools by his feet. “This will get us to base.”

“That’s all we need.”

“I’ll cloak the vehicle again before we move,” said Jude.

“Heads up, people.” It was Lincoln through the open comms link. “I’m at the vaccine plant. I’m sending images. You will want to check this out.”

Octavia glanced at Jude. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Have you got a port screen in here?”

“Yes. It’s in the back.”

Jude climbed from his seat, grabbed the port screen, and returned. He opened the link Lincoln had sent through. “Holy shit, it’s enormous.”

Octavia’s eyes widened as she saw the vast, slate-gray building. “It looks more like a fortress than a factory.”

“Maybe it used to be,” said Jude. “They’d need a place that is secure, given what they’re doing.”

“We’ll need a hell of a lot of firepower to bring this place down,” said Lincoln. “I’ve just done a sweep over the site in the copter.”

“Arlo will have a stash of bombs,” said Jude.

“Even this place might defeat Arlo and his bombs,” said Lincoln.

Worry gnawed at Octavia’s gut. When she’d sent out that call for help, she hadn’t expected her friends to be facing off against something like this. She hated dragging others into something so dangerous. But without them, they wouldn’t succeed.

“We need someone from our side to coordinate this attack.” Heath came on the comms channel. “Tobias is working with Hive Two, not far from the vaccine plant. He’ll help. This is his speciality.”

A startled yell shot through the comms line, followed by the sound of an explosion.

Octavia stared at Jude. “Who was that?”

“Fuck! I’m under attack,” yelled Lincoln. “The damn copter’s been hit.”

“Where are you?” asked Heath. “Can you land safely?”

“Give me a...” Lincoln’s comm died.

“Dammit, Lincoln!” said Jude. “What’s going on? Report back.”

There was no reply. Lincoln had vanished.