Identity Zero novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: Sumac

"Luke," Jesse said.

The masked man let go of him.

He was on his feet and backing away before Jesse could sit up.

"Luke. Luke, it's me."

Luke shook his head.

He kept shaking it, slowly.

Up on the tower, Ollie was still yelling about the flag.

Lights were coming up the trail. Flashlights, voices, a truck engine grinding up the fire road.

Somewhere close a radio crackled.

"Ghost Lead, report. Ghost Lead, report your position."

Sallow's voice.

Luke looked toward it.

Then he turned and ran into the smoke.

Jesse went after him.

"Seventeen!" Twenty-Two shouted behind him. "It's over, man, the horn went!"

Jesse didn't stop.

Luke was faster downhill.

He always had been.

He went off the ridge into the trees where there was no trail, crashing through salal and devil's club.

Jesse went right behind him with branches cutting his face.

He knew how his brother ran.

He'd chased that back across every vacant lot in South Tacoma.

Luke favored his left side on a slope.

He jumped logs instead of climbing them.

When the ground fell away toward the sound of water, Jesse knew where he was going.

The river.

It came out of the dark all at once, fast and black and loud, spilling white over the rocks.

Luke stopped at the edge of it.

He was breathing hard. So was Jesse.

Jesse stopped ten feet away.

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