The Black Tide (Outcast 3)

“Ambush,” he mumbled. “Unknown casualties.”

“And the target?”

“Unknown.”

“Can you make it back to base?”

“Need help.”

“And you’ll get it. But I need the coords, soldier.”

He reeled off a set of numbers and Jonas glanced at me. “That’s not Central. It’s Carleen.”

“None of the rifts there are large enough—” I stopped.

If Dream could create transportation rifts, why couldn’t she alter their size to suit her needs? The one stationed over the bones of the Carleen ghosts was certainly growing, and while she couldn’t risk using that one for vehicle transport given it was linked to the basement under Government House, that didn’t mean she couldn’t alter the others.

“Which means,” he said, voice as flat as his expression, “they might have come from the same place Penny is now held.”

“Penny isn’t being held,” I said gently. “She went there willingly.”

And had stepped through me to do it.

She cannot be forgiven for that, Cat commented. It was a betrayal.

Yes, it was. And yet, I couldn’t condemn her. Not when she’d let me live when she could have very easily done otherwise. Cat and Bear would have protected me with everything they had, but not even they could have won out against the sheer number of vampires who’d been in Chaos that night if Penny had ordered them to take my life.

And given her link with them—along with the fact she’d known they were about to attack Chaos and had warned no one—I very much suspected she was more than capable of controlling them.

Or soon would be.

Anguish briefly touched Jonas’s expression, but was just as swiftly erased by the mask of emptiness. He returned his attention to the injured man. “That’s too far, soldier. The closest medical facilities are at Warehouse Five—”

“Not authorized—”

“Call sign, soldier,” Jonas snapped.

A groan escaped. “Echo three-two.”

“Is there a transport entrance?”

“Never been there—” Grant’s voice faded and his head dropped forward.

Jonas pressed to fingers against Grant’s neck. “Unconscious, not dead.”

“I take it you’re planning to use this man as a means of getting close to the warehouse?”

“I can’t think of another way of getting into that place easily—not without resorting to your skills. And, as we’ve already discussed, we may need those to get back out.” He undid the driver’s harness, then grabbed him under the arms and dragged him free of the seat. “You want to get our kit out of the ATV?”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“The ATV? Blow it up.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Didn’t you promise to bring it back in one piece?”

“I did,” he said, rather cheerfully, “And not for one instant did Franki believe me. Which is why she demanded the replacement.”

“Or payment in kind.”