Chapter 106 Chapter 106

Chapter 106 Chapter 106
The satellite phone rang at three in the morning. Jax picked it up. A voice he didn't know spoke.

"Turn on the news."

Line went dead.

He walked to the TV and turned it on. A woman in a blue suit was standing in front of a building. Behind her, people in hazmat suits were carrying stretchers out. The headline at the bottom of the screen said: "Biological Attack in Berlin. Dozens Dead. Suspects Identified."

Kenji came up behind him. "What is it?"

Jax pointed at the screen. "They're framing us."

Elena came out of the back room. "For what?"

"Biological attack. Dozens dead." He read it straight off the screen. "They've got evidence. Fingerprints. DNA. Surveillance footage."

Kenji's hand closed into a fist. His face went wide open, eyebrows up, mouth slightly open. "That's not possible."

"We made a mistake. We trusted the wrong people. Younger Evelyn took our blood in Vienna. She gave it to Phoenix. Or they took it from her."

Elena's face went pale. "My cousin did this?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. Either way we're the ones they're pointing at."

Maja came out of the bedroom rubbing her eyes. "Why is everyone awake?"

Jax walked over and crouched down in front of her. "Go back to bed. We'll talk in the morning."

"You're lying. I heard Uncle Kenji."

Kenji looked at her and his face softened. "It's okay. Go back to sleep."

Maja looked at the TV. At the woman in the blue suit. At the stretchers. At their faces on the screen.

"Are we the bad people now?"

Jax stood up. "No. We're not. The bad people are just very good at lying. Go back to bed."

She looked at him for a moment. Then she nodded and went back to the bedroom.

Elena followed her.

Jax turned to Kenji. His jaw went tight. "We need to leave. Now."

"In the middle of the night?"

"They know where we are. They've always known. The only reason they haven't come yet is because they wanted to hurt us this way first."

Rina came in from outside with Kael behind her and Mira right after them.

"There are lights in the jungle," Rina said. "Dozens of them. Moving toward us."

Jax grabbed his gun. "How long?"

"Ten minutes. Maybe less."

"Get the kids. Get everyone. We're leaving."

Kenji grabbed his arm. "Where?"

"There's a river. Kael found a boat yesterday. We take it north."

Kael nodded. He didn't say anything. He never did.

Elias came out of the back room with his bag already packed. "I heard. I'm ready."

Lena stepped out of the shadows with her knife already in her hand. "Me too."

Mira looked at Jax. "What about Viktor? Daria? Niko?"

He looked at the floor. "They're gone."

"I know. I meant their bodies. Are we leaving them?"

"We don't have a choice."

She nodded, face steady. "Okay."

They ran.

The jungle was dark. Branches hit Jax in the face. Roots caught his feet but he kept going. He didn't stop.

Elena carried Maja. Kenji carried Leo. Caiman carried Lars.

Rina was out ahead with Kael. Elias was just behind Jax. Mira was beside him. Lena was somewhere in the trees. He couldn't see her. He never could.

Behind them the lights were getting closer. Voices shouting in Portuguese.

They hit the river. The boat was there. Old wood. A motor bolted to the back.

Jax looked at Elias. "Get in."

He climbed in. Mira followed. Lena came out of the trees and got in. Then Kael, Rina, Elena with the kids, Caiman, Kenji.

Jax shoved the boat off the bank and jumped in as it moved.

Behind them the flashlights reached the riverbank. A gunshot. Then another one.

Jax pulled his gun and fired twice back into the dark. Not really aiming, he couldn't see anything. Just enough to make them keep their heads down.

The boat moved out into the dark.

They drifted for hours. No lights. Just the motor and the sound of the water.

The kids were in the cabin. Elena was with them. Rina was at the wheel with Kael standing beside her. Mira was sitting in the back. Elias sat next to Jax. Lena was up at the bow with her knife across her knees.

Kenji stood by the cabin door watching the water.

Jax looked at Elias. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You're lying."

Elias looked at him. Couldn't make out his expression in the dark but his voice was cold and even. "Viktor was my friend. Daria was my friend. Niko was my friend. They're dead. I'm not fine."

Jax didn't have anything to say to that.

Elias looked back at the water. "But I'm still here. So are you. So are the kids. That's what matters."

"Is it?"

"It has to be. There's nothing else."

The river opened up into a lake. The sun was starting to come up.

Rina pointed at a small island sitting in the middle of the water. "There. We can rest."

Caiman steered toward it. They drifted up to the shore.

Small island. Maybe a hundred feet across. Trees, rocks, a strip of beach.

Everyone got out. Elena took the kids to a flat patch under a tree. Rina and Kael walked the perimeter. Caiman checked the boat over.

Mira sat on a rock looking at the water.

Lena sat down next to her. "What are you thinking about?"

Mira didn't look at her. "Viktor."

"What about him?"

"He was the first person who didn't treat me like I was made of glass. After the tank. He just looked at me and said you're not broken, you're just bent."

Lena put her hand on Mira's shoulder. "He was right."

"I know."

They sat there without talking.

Jax walked over to Elias. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

"What comes next."

Elias stood up. He moved his hands when he talked. "We run. We hide. We survive."

"No."

"Then what?"

"We fight back."

"How?"

Jax looked at the kids. At Kenji. At Elena. At all of them sitting or standing around that small strip of beach.

"We find Helena. We find younger Evelyn. We find every last one of the investors. And we finish it."

Elias was quiet for a moment. "That's a suicide mission."

"Every mission is a suicide mission."

He nodded slowly. "Alright. Then let's do it."

Rina called them over. She had a small radio and was going through channels.

"Listen to this," she said.

The voice on it was speaking English. A news report.

"...the Zero Collective has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement released earlier today, they warned of further strikes unless their demands are met."

Kenji took the radio out of her hand. "That's a lie. We didn't release any statement."

Rina took it back. "I know. But that's what they're saying."

Elias stepped closer. "What demands? What does it say we demanded?"

She turned the volume up.

"...the group demands the immediate release of all genetic research records and the cessation of what they call humanity's enslavement to corporate interests."

Elias shook his head. "That doesn't even sound like something we'd say."

"Doesn't matter what it sounds like. People will believe it anyway."

Caiman spoke up from the boat. "We need to move. They'll find us here."

"Where do we go?"

"North. Into the mountains. There are old mining towns up there. Abandoned. Nobody's going to look for us there."

Jax looked around at all of them. Kenji. Elias. Rina. Everyone.

Then he nodded. "We go north then."