Luxury. Not military transport.
"Make yourselves comfortable." Colton secures his gear in an overhead compartment. "Flight time is about six hours. There's a bedroom in the back if Lucas wants to sleep."
A bedroom. On a plane.
I guide Lucas to one of the leather seats by a window. He climbs up, still clutching Ghost, and presses his face to the glass.
Colton drops into the seat across from us. Exhaustion shows in the lines around his eyes, the way he moves like everythinghurts. "There's bottled water in the galley. Snacks. Whatever you need."
"This is yours?" I gesture at the interior. "Your team's?"
"Borrowed from a friend who owes Kane a favor. Figured it would be more comfortable than military transport." His jaw tightens. "Especially for Lucas."
The engines rumble to life. Vibration runs through the cabin as the pilot prepares for takeoff.
Lucas grips my hand. "Mom?"
"It's okay. That's just the engines starting." I buckle his seatbelt, then my own. "You're safe."
The jet begins to taxi, rolling smoothly across the tarmac toward the runway. Lucas watches out the window with wide eyes as Tucson spreads out below us—buildings and roads and the desert beyond.
The jet accelerates down the runway. Speed builds, pressing us back into the seats. Lucas gasps as the nose lifts and suddenly we're airborne, climbing fast and smooth into the darkening sky.
I watch Tucson fall away below us. The city spreading out in geometric patterns, roads like veins carrying life through the urban sprawl. The desert beyond, vast and empty and indifferent to everything happening on the ground.
We're leaving it all behind. The safe house. The panic room. The bodies Colton left behind. All of it shrinking in the distance as we climb higher.
Lucas's grip on my hand loosens as the ascent steadies. "It's not so scary," he says quietly.
"No, baby. It's not."
Colton leans back in his seat, closing his eyes. There will be bruises tomorrow where bullets hit body armor. Tomorrow he'll coordinate security at Echo Base and plan next steps and stand between Lucas and whatever comes next. But right now, thirty thousand feet above Arizona and climbing, we're just threepeople on a plane heading somewhere the Committee might not find us.
Maybe.
I tighten my arm around Lucas and watch the world fall away below. The cabin is quiet except for the steady hum of engines. Warm light. Comfortable seats. Space to breathe.
It feels almost safe.
I don't trust it. Can't trust it. Not after everything.
But for the first time since Lucas witnessed that murder, the knot in my chest loosens just slightly.
Maybe we're heading toward safety. Maybe Echo Base will be different. Maybe Colton's team can keep my son alive long enough to stop the people hunting him.
Maybe.
I close my eyes and let myself believe it. Just for a moment. Just while we're suspended between earth and sky, flying toward whatever comes next.
7
STRYKER
The jet descends through cloud cover thick enough to hide us from any surveillance satellite the Committee might be using to track us.
Rachel and Lucas sleep in the seats across from me. The flight gave me too much time to think. Too much time to realize exactly how badly I could fail them both.
Lucas wakes first as the engines change pitch. He blinks sleep from his eyes and presses his face against the window, watching mountains rise up to meet us.
