Chapter 239: Null Signal
The drone hit the earth like a dropped bird—wings curled, eyes glassed. It pinwheeled once, caught a vine, and slammed into a gnarled root with a sickening crunch. Its husk smoldered briefly, exhaling one last hiss of static before going still.
No more recon.
No more thermal pings. No motion overlays. No proximity alerts.
No more warnings.
We were blind.
"Move!" Anthony barked, already shoving through the tangle of branches ahead. His blade sliced low across a patch of thornvines. "Evac’s still ahead! We’re not stopping now."
No one argued. We didn’t need to. The sound of the drone crashing had rung through the jungle like a starting gun. Anyone in a five-kilometer radius knew exactly where we were now. If someone wasn’t tracking us before, they were now.
And if someone already had our scent?
Then we were being hunted.
The jungle closed around us, thicker than before. The light, already dim under the canopy, seemed to collapse with the drone’s fall—like even the sun was backing away. The treetops loomed, limbs tangled tight, knotted like muscle, strangling the last of the afternoon. Shadows bled from every corner, black and wet and hungry. The path ahead twisted into ink. Every footstep felt like stepping deeper into a throat.
Sienna clicked on a wrist-light, the beam flickering against wet leaves and reflecting in a thousand dewdrops like eyes. Alexis mirrored the motion a second later, casting pale gold arcs through the gloom. I didn’t reach for mine. I needed both hands free, and I didn’t want to draw any more attention than we already had.