Chapter Thirty-Nine

Ivy had started to return to consciousness on the boat as they reached the island. It was a well-established fact that she couldn’t act worth a damn—well, except for when she’d shot Dimitri, but then she’d taken all her anger at Rudy and projected it onto Dimitri. This time she was too terrified for that to work. But she could play unconscious. It was all about keeping the muscles slack and loose. She could do that. Her brain was damn fuzzy anyway.

With each passing minute, the world grew a degree clearer. But she didn’t dare open her eyes. She pretended she was Raggedy Ann. Soft and lax. Her life—and Dimitri’s—depended on her pulling this off.

When Sophia lifted her chin, she was certain it was to determine if Ivy was truly unconscious. She’d chattered on—her voice low and calculating. Ivy remained relaxed, blank faced, a burden to Zack.

Through slitted eyes, she saw the barrel against Sophia’s forehead. She couldn’t give warning by stiffening or taking a deep breath. She needed to go from rag doll to weapon in a single moment.

Her heels dragged in the soft earth. In one motion, she pushed up, slamming the back of her skull into Zack’s chin. She swung out with her cast arm, smashing the hard case against the gun as Sophia ducked.

An explosion sounded in the same moment the gun fired. Ivy’s vision was blurred thanks to the tranquilizer, but in the blur of movement, she could see Sophia coming at Zack. Ivy dove to the side. Her muscles were sluggish, and she stumbled and had to roll to get out of the way.

The jungle filled with the acrid scent of smoke. What had blown up? It wasn’t the AUUV, because it was in the other direction.

Luke, Ian, and Dimitri fought hand to hand with Zack’s men, who must’ve been disarmed in the confusion caused by the explosion.

Where was Julian?

She spotted the sleeping boy tucked in a nest of vines. His mother must’ve seriously drugged him for him to sleep through the explosion, but in this moment, Ivy wasn’t judging. She crawled across the jungle floor toward the boy, trying not to put weight on her cast arm, which throbbed from smashing it into Zack’s gun.

She’d grab Julian and take cover in the bomb shelter.

Feet from the boy, someone grabbed her ankle. She kicked backward, wishing for the first time in her life she were wearing stilettos. The grip only tightened, and she was pulled back, into the center of the fray. She twisted and saw Zack had her in his grasp.

Sophia launched herself at the man, kicking his forehead, snapping his head back. “Get Julian!” she shouted to Ivy. “Protect him.”

Freed, Ivy scrambled to the sleeping child, scooped him against her chest, and ran for the bomb shelter.

A bullet pierced the air, and the man Dimitri had been fighting dropped. Thank you, Kaha’i.

He turned to go after Zack and saw Ivy and Julian were missing. “Where is Ivy?” he asked, using the ear radio.

“In the bomb shelter,” Kaha’i responded. “I’m covering the entrance.”

He ran toward Zack, whose head appeared momentarily on the other side of the float that hid the AUUV. Zack must’ve chased after Ivy, because the float was near the shelter.

“Good.” If he blew up the AUUV, Zack would go with it. He patted down his pocket. “Fuck. I lost the remote for the detonator.” His gaze scanned the ground. No time to search the jungle. “Where is Sophia?”

“She’s on the slope below the float—I think.” Meaning she’d disappeared in Palea’s blind spot.

Zack’s head had dropped below the float, but his hand appeared, holding a knife that arched downward. 

Dimitri heard Sophia’s grunt of pain, then glimpsed the top of her head as her body slammed into the rusted float, shaking it.

“Blow it up!” Sophia shouted.

It hit Dimitri that Sophia had known exactly where the AUUV was, because they’d had to tell Rudy in the thirty minutes before the handoff. He’d probably been wired and she heard every word as they went over the layout and plan, which meant she even knew about the TNT.

C-4 couldn’t be ignited with a bullet, but TNT could.

“Get clear, D,” Kaha’i said. “I’ve got a line on the TNT.

Dimitri rounded the float and pulled Zack away from Sophia, taking a blow to the face and feeling the sting of a blade to the arm.

“Sophia’s not clear!” he shouted to Kaha’i. He turned to see his sister slumped back against the aluminum hull. 

She’d been stabbed in the gut. Blood trickled from her mouth. “Tell Palea to take the fucking shot.” She kicked Dimitri in the chest, pushing him down the steep slope in the same moment she grabbed Zack by the hair, pulling him to her.

Dimitri tumbled down the hill. “Do it!”

A bullet sounded. Then came a small blast, followed by a second, roaring explosion. Dimitri’s body pitched in the air.

He landed, bashing his cheek on a jagged rock and abrading his chin on the rough ground.

He slumped as the world spun around him. All he could see upslope was a haze of smoke.

One by one the team checked in on the radio. Luke, Ian, and Kaha’i were fine. The bomb shelter protecting Ivy and Julian was intact.

Slowly, the smoke cleared. Where Sophia, Zack, and the AUUV had been was a giant crater.