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"If they'd killed her, they would have left her here and just taken her work I'm sure they took her out alive"

Alive Thank God

"Noelle saved you when you got hit She used her shirt to tie off your wound She's one heck of a s, you'd be in bad shape by now"

David cursed "Sin with Maybe it's better to be stupid"

Across the cabin, Grant was on the phone, speaking in quiet tones

Caleb crouched, squeezing his bulk into a fairly se David noticed there was blood on Caleb's clothes

Lots of blood It was smeared all over hi "Did you get wounded?" asked David

Caleb's jaw tightened "It's not my blood"

Thank God

"Did you see or hear anything that ht tell us where they've taken her?" asked Caleb

David concentrated on rerinding euilt that he'd let this happen She was so vulnerable, and if the Swarm did to her what they did to Mary

"Focus, Wolfe," barked Caleb, giving David a little shake of his shoulders "You've got to pull it together"

David knew Caleb was right If he didn't start thinking with his head instead of his heart, Noelle didn't have a chance

David pulled in a deep breath and tried to recaffthe last thing he could re soured out what the text said, but it was incoht now Do you re swirling in his ht tears to his eyes Noelle had kissed him before she'd been taken

And she'd said so about the first time they made love

David uttered an acidic curse How could he have let this happen? How could he have let the hand settled on David's shoulder in a co now, but she needs you You've got to think What was she doing while you were talking to Monroe?"

David's head throbbed harder as he tried to re the coordinates of where they'd found the text She thought it iven theave her the coordinates "

"And?"

"And she typed them in and" David could see the look of triumph on her face, the way she s

"She ran the prograht up the coordinates on her screen"

"Do you remember the coordinates?"

David shook his head as frustration burst through hiure it out before they do I' her They won't kill her until they have the weapons and know they're done using her We have to get there first and aure out where to go?"

"I don't know," spat David "Her work is gone She's gone!"

Caleb turned to Grant "How long before our ride arrives?"

"They're closing in now," said Grant "I've got the helo pilot on the phone I'uide hi cautious so he wouldn't pass out again Noelle needed hi in his power to make sure he was able to help her

Inside his shirt, he felt so his chest He reached inside and pulled out a shiny disk serprints Noelle's

A spark of hope lit deep in David's heart

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Caleb

David nodded and a feral s to find her "I don't kno she lad she did"

Outside, David could hear the faint thrurabbed his weapon and his duffel bag and stepped out onto the porch, ignoring his pain, silently urging the pilot to hurry the hell up

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Noelle woke up on some sort of military aircraft The hard metal plates under her feet vibrated with the roar of the jet engines Her ankles were tied to the frame of the seat she occupied A harness-style seat belt was pulled snug against her torso and her wrists were tied together with flexible plastic handcuffs

Her head felt like it was going to fly apart and her mouth tasted like it had been cleaned out with dead rat carcasses

She recognized this feeling--the aftereffects of the tranquilizer they'd shot her with--but this time it was different

David wasn't here to take care of her