Chapter 55

Chapter Fifty-Five

As the sun passed directly overhead, Connor lied to himself that it was cooling. A quick glance at his pocket computer would be enough to confirm the temperature, but it would also mean looking at the stop watch he’d kicked off when he’d started the descent down the side of the butte. He didn’t need to see that to know they were running behind.

Maybe thirty meters ahead, Kalpana stuck her head out from the cover of a tree. She signed that there was movement, confirming the signal she’d sent over the team combat integration system.

Three red forms moved somewhere ahead of her on Connor’s helmet AR overlay. Whatever they were, their scent was like an intensified musk version of the terrarium rot smell.

And there was a soft, easily overlooked clicking and chattering sound coming from the same direction as the smell, barely louder than the sound of his boots on the soft loam that made up the forest floor.