The Rule of One (The Rule of One #1)(68)

My blood pounds in my ears and I feel dizzy. Tears fall unbidden down my stained cheeks. Where is she now? What if the military captured her? She could be on a plane headed for Texas at this very moment—lost to me forever. Or she could be lost in the forest, looking for me, almost two days without water.

I will not leave without her.

I briskly swipe the salty liquid from my chin. Turning from the wall, I face south.

The way back to my sister.

Prompted by the late afternoon sun, an orchestra of chirping birds and buzzing insects accompany my mad dash through the forest. Heedless of everything but my urgent need to find Mira, I fly over fallen trees as thick as cars and charge through sharp bushes that cut into my ankles. My head constantly swiveling, I scan my surroundings, penetrating the dense layers of vegetation and towering wood, hoping somehow my sister will simply appear.

“Mira, tell me where you are,” I say aloud like a prayer.

In answer, a small hummingbird dives down from the branches and hovers in midair directly in front of my face. Hypnotized by surprise and the soft hum of its furiously flapping wings, it takes several seconds before I register the telltale hole in its glossy purple throat and the silver needle-like beak. You’re not a bird at all.

A Scent Hunter.

I thrash at the drone, frantic with the certainty that its nose has already sucked in and identified my scent. The drone ducks and weaves, easily avoiding my jabs, and I see its body flash a threatening red as it zooms in for an attack.

I lurch away wildly and lose my balance. Tripping on a root, I tumble hard to the forest floor. The drone’s on me again before I can rise, but this time I grab hold of its tail feathers and launch the bastard into a tree.

I scramble to my feet and hurl myself past the tree line into an open clearing, listening for and confirming the drone’s tireless winged pursuit. The more I run, the more I sweat, leaving an easy scent track for the Hunter to follow.

But if I don’t run, it’s all over.

I see the outline of a small town on the horizon. Keep running. Get to the town. You can throw off your scent in a crowd. But I slow down as I struggle to breathe, a stabbing pain just below my ribs. Malnourished and dehydrated, I can’t keep up this pace.

The hummingbird swoops down again and floats effortlessly above my head. I exert all the power I have left in a final swing of my arms. Before my fist can connect with anything, a tranquilizer dart shoots into my neck, and my eyes roll back.

I careen to the ground like dead weight, and the last conscious thought that fires off inside my brain is Mira.

“You’ve changed your hair.”

Groggy and confused at where or who I am, the baffling words slowly reach me as if I’m leagues away, drifting at the bottom of the sea. Why does my neck feel so swollen? I try to move my arms to investigate, but I can’t—they’re caught on something. With momentous effort I open my eyes.

A blurry figure sits in front of me, panting heavily like a dog. I struggle to blink the details into focus. A dark-blue military uniform. The insignia of captain on the shoulders. Slicked-back dark hair and wet lips parted into a smug smile.

Halton Roth.

I spring to life, gulping for air, but I’m instantly thrown back, my wrists and ankles bound to a chair, thwarting me from wrapping my hands around his throat. A powerful rage ignites every fiber of my being. Half-crazed, I desperately fight my restraints. Triumph in his eyes, Halton waits on his silver folding chair, patiently waiting for me to finish my useless attempt at escape.

In one panicked sweep I evaluate my circumstances. My location hasn’t changed—I’m thirty yards from the tree line and several miles from the small town. But there’s now a military SUV parked sixty paces to my right.

No Guards or agents, however. Halton appears to be alone.

If Halton is in fact a captain in the military now, where is his company? Governor Roth would never trust his ineffectual grandson to capture his infamous fugitives all by himself, without Guards or Special Operatives to babysit.

But he did catch you, didn’t he?

I suddenly stop my violent thrashing, a hot shame rippling across my skin. Deflated, I hang loose on the chair, supported only by the cable ties that bind me.

“You’ve created quite a fuss out here in Montana,” Halton says almost casually, like I’m not tied to a chair in the middle of the wilderness, forced to listen.

He waits for me to speak, but I stare at the patchy grass, my mouth a hard, closed line. Refusing to meet his eyes.

“You are very, very lucky I’m the one who found you, Ava.”

Leaning forward in his seat, he searches my face for a revealing twitch, a tightening jaw, or a flickering eyelid. Any acknowledgment he correctly identified me from my sister.

I keep my face purposefully blank. I will give you nothing.

“Oh, I know you’re Ava.” He holds a fingerprint-scanning device under my face, making sure I see. “You are unquestionably Ava Goodwin. I have to say I’m impressed that you and your sister never once put a single finger out of line. Eighteen years you were both perfect. But that imitation microchip . . .”

He trails off, clicking his tongue. “Your father must have known there was no real solution for that hiccup in the plan. No trick to fool the machines. Or me. How unfortunate for your twin. That must have been difficult for her, being the second-born. The secret. What is her name? I bet I’d be only the fifth person to ever know it.”