“Exactly. That’s what’s holding me back. I made an oath years ago when I joined up, and I can’t just pick and choose when I honor my commitment to my country. This thing with Lucy has got me messed up in the head. I just hope that leaving her behind and doing what I can to hide her existence is enough.”
“Would you go further than that to protect her?” Caleb asked quietly, as if the empty belly of the massive chopper had ears.
“I don’t know,” Kate said. “I can’t answer that question until it happens, and even then, I won’t know until I’m put in that situation.”
“Then I hope that you never have to face that reality.” Caleb patted her leg and smiled at her. “Buck up; we’re almost to New Hope, and then you can take a much-needed break from all this. You’ve been working yourself to the point of exhaustion.”
Her handheld device chirped again, but this time, it was the leader of Team Two in the second chopper.
“General, it’s Thompson,” the man said. “We’ve run a strict grid pattern on the area east of Aldeia, but we’ve come up with nothing. Our fuel supply is dwindling, and we are about one hour of flight away from having only what we need to return to base. Permission to abort the mission?”
“Permission granted,” she said, relieved that they’d found no one, though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why she was relieved. “Head to base and dismiss the team. There’s no need to debrief.”
“Thank you, General,” Thompson said, relief washing over his face.
“Thank the team for me,” she said. “Good work on all of you.”
“We’ve got your back, General,” Thompson said, and Kate could hear the men and women agreeing in the background.
“I know that,” Kate said. “And for that, I am eternally grateful. I will see all of you soon.”
She ended the transmission and looked to Caleb. He looked visibly relieved as well.
“There’s no one?” he confirmed.
“Not a sign of life at all. We can pick up where they left off, but I doubt it will come to that as long as they searched. And as much ground as they covered, there’s no way the Aldeians could have made it further east on foot, and they’re not in Aman.”
“There’s no telling where they went or if they’re even alive. That should be more than enough to convince Pearce that it’s a waste of time and resources to continue to look for people who are either dead or really don’t want to be found.”
“You’re right. I just hope that having the team searching for a few hours longer and showing him the evidence we gathered will satisfy him.”
“You’ll think of something,” Caleb said with a measure of finality and confidence. “You always do.”
***
Lucy hid in the shadows, tucked behind a cargo net in the corner that held an array of backpacks that she suspected were parachutes. Her backpack was between her body and the hull of the ship, her head tilted so that it rested against the cold metal as she drifted in and out of sleep. She’d spent all night the night before wide awake, and it was starting to catch up with her. When Lucy had seen Kate walk out of the house to meet the man beneath the tree, she’d hurried to her bed, closing her eyes in feigned sleep a few moments before Eli had checked on her, then left to watch what Kate was doing. Once she was sure that Eli was gone, she’d snuck out of her room, shoes in hand to avoid making any noise. The well-oiled front door opened silently, and as soon as Lucy was out of the house and creeping across the front yard with her backpack slung over her shoulder, she had begun to get giddy with excitement. Somehow, she’d managed to sneak out when Eli was preoccupied with listening to Kate and Caleb talk through the closed window. Had he not been so focused, he would have heard Lucy, and she would have been caught.
After that, she’d taken her sweet time making her way through the neighborhood so that she wasn’t seen. While the soldiers were busy talking amongst themselves, she’d slipped along the shadows and walked onto the chopper she’d heard someone refer to as “Chopper One.” Without taking too long to look around for a better hiding place, she settled into the space where she sat now. Her body was stiff, and she could only see a sliver of the hull from where she sat, but she couldn’t risk looking for another hiding place, even when the entire team had exited to secure what was left of Aldeia.
And now, Lucy was sitting in that same place, wishing she’d thought to use the bathroom before she’d left the house. She could see the door near the cockpit that was clearly a bathroom, but the only way to get to it was to climb out of her spot and walk across the aisle to the other side. There was no way for her to do that without Kate and Caleb seeing her.
They sat there, occupying the two seats closest to the tail of the chopper, their heads close as they chatted over the sounds of the engine, completely oblivious to Lucy hiding a short distance away. From her vantage point, she could see so much, and she wanted to kick herself for such a hastily chosen hiding place. There was ample room behind the rows of jump seats, and she could have easily hidden there or even in one of the storage areas by the bathroom. Instead, she’d picked the first place she thought would work, and now, she was stuck.
Something in Kate’s pocket rang, and Lucy watched as the woman responded hastily. Her expression was grim as she spoke with Caleb, and Lucy strained to hear over the engines, but she couldn’t pick up enough of the conversation to do her any good.
Lucy was frustrated, and she knew that she’d screwed up. At first, it had seemed like a great idea to stowaway and get to know this woman she’d been dreaming about for the past few weeks. But as the hours went by and clarity invaded, she knew that she had made a horrible mistake in coming onto the chopper. Not because Kate was a danger to her; Lucy was sure that Kate was a good person and on her side. But Caleb was another story, and Lucy didn’t trust him. She couldn’t reveal herself as long as Caleb was there. Even if Kate had been alone, Lucy had no idea how she would go about revealing herself in the first place. Ta-dah, here I am? Lucy thought wryly, then shook her head. No, that wasn’t going to work at all, and she should have realized that before she’d put herself in this predicament. Now, she was trapped, and there was no way out.
She shifted where she was sitting, trying her best to move just a little at a time, but she had been sitting for hours, and her legs were asleep. Her bottom was sliding away from the wall, and she was worried her feet were going to be exposed, though she doubted that Kate and Caleb would notice from where they sat if they happened to look up. Even knowing that, she had to move. She was in pain, and she couldn’t sit folded up the way she was any longer.