Identity Zero novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: Kalispell

The flashlights swept the water and found nothing.

Then one of them found Jesse, standing in the shallows up to his shins.

"Seventeen." Gideon's voice. "Out of the river."

Jesse didn't move.

He was still looking at the place where the dark had closed over his brother.

Twenty-Two came crashing down the bank behind Gideon, breathing.

"Man, the horn went," he said. "You chased a ghost into a river?"

"Go back up," Gideon told him. "Tell the squad leaders to load the trucks."

"Is he okay?"

"He's wet. Go."

Twenty-Two looked at Jesse one more second, then went.

Gideon took the radio off his vest.

"Seventeen located at the river," he said into it. "He's fine. I'll walk him up."

The radio hissed.

Then Sallow's voice came through, slow and suspicious.

"Copy. Ghost Lead's off the net. You see him down there?"

Gideon looked at Jesse over the radio.

Jesse didn't say anything.

"Negative," Gideon said.

"Strange night," Sallow said, and clicked off.

Gideon clipped the radio back on and held out his hand.

Jesse walked past it and out of the water on his own.

They climbed in silence.

The trees dripped. Somewhere above them, truck engines turned over one by one and pulled away down the fire road.

Halfway up the slope Jesse stopped.

"He thinks I'm dead," he said.

Gideon stopped too.

He didn't turn around fast enough.

He didn't look surprised at all.

"You knew," Jesse said.

The rain started again, hard, rattling on the salal.

"Yes," Gideon said.

Jesse hit him.

He didn't decide to. His fist was just in Gideon's face, and Gideon let it land.

Gideon's head turned with it.

He turned it back and looked at Jesse with rain running into the split Jesse had opened in the ring.

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