Buried in the Sky by Ryan Mullaney

Author:Ryan Mullaney [Mullaney, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sunbird Books
Published: 2019-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

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With his legs burning and no breath left in his lungs, Lincoln stopped running.

He slowed to a jog, then to a walk, and then he collapsed to his knees. Kneeling in the dirt with sweat raining down from his forehead, he fell over onto his back and stared up at the bright blue, cloudless sky.

No matter how hard he willed himself to get up, he had reached his limit of exhaustion. His body would not cooperate with his desire to keep moving, to find Simone and the meteor fragment.

He had been running for hours, judging by how dry his throat felt and how desperately he needed water. He checked his phone for the time, but his focus went to the one bar of service he did not have earlier.

Pushing himself up to a sitting position, Lincoln dialed Clark Bannicheck.

"Lincoln. Do you have it?" Clark was careful not to mention their objective over the phone.

"No," Lincoln choked out, coughing from thirst. "Gone." It was all he could muster.

"Gone?" Clark's voice fell gravely silent.

Huffing for breath, Lincoln said, "Simone grabbed it. She … she fell."

"Fell? What do you mean, she fell?"

Lincoln searched for words, but he couldn't speak them.

"Lincoln," Clark said in a calm tone. "Tell me what happened."

Lincoln drew a deep breath to settle himself. "We found the fragment. Simone tried to stop it from spilling over the edge of a waterfall. They both went down."

The pause in the men's conversation teemed with unspoken thoughts and feelings, like a moment of silence for those who have been taken by a great tragedy.

Lincoln continued, "The British hired backup. They took April."

Clark's voice turned on a dime, shifting from calm to concerned. "April has been captured?"

"Affirmative. I'm out here by myself, out near Chachapoyas, I think. I don't know. I've been following the river looking for..." Simone still alive? Or a body? "Looking for something, anything."

Lincoln listened to Clark speaking to someone away from the phone. He thought he heard Clark say something to the effect of eliminating all access for Farren, April -- a phrase he'd heard in the not-too-distant past, the last time April was captured.

"I want you to get to the airport in Chachapoyas," Clark said when he returned to the phone. "I'll arrange a flight to return you to Florida."

With renewed energy, Lincoln pushed himself up to his feet. "What about Simone? We can't just leave her."

"If she's alive, she'll find her way," Clark said. "If not, there is not much we can do."

Lincoln shook his head, not having it. "We don't leave anyone behind. And if she is alive, she won't be in any shape to make it back to civilization. We have to find her, Clark. We have to."

The only reply was silence.

"She has the fragment," Lincoln said, trying a new approach to convince Clark to let him stay. "It's too heavy for one person to lift. The British will find it and take it if we don't bring it back."

With a dry throat and bated breath, Lincoln listened, waiting for Clark's reply.

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