Page 58 of Guarding Truth
“Ivy, get on the floor.” A gun-strapped drone hovered right in the path of their car.
The girl complied without a word.
Juliette blinked, willing the scene in front of her to change. But that thing blocked their way. She could hit reverse, but the drone would follow. Or worse, shoot the car up. Her pulse hammered in her ears.
Caleb raised the shotgun, but he’d be no match for the machine gun mounted on the front of the drone. Ivy sucked in a breath from the floor in the back seat of the borrowed sedan.
If there was ever a moment she needed God, it was now.
Out of the corner of her eye, movement whooshed from the wooded area across the street.
The drone exploded, raining fire and mechanical parts in front of the car.
Alana stepped out from behind a tree and lowered a handheld RPG. She waved them on. “Get out of here! I’ll cover all of you.”
Juliette hit the gas, and the sedan engine revved. As she followed the road to the turnoff for the subdivision, another fireball shot across the view in her rearview mirror. Behind them, Alana jumped up and down in triumph, fist pumping the air.
These hackers—no, make thatterrorists—were relentless. Juliette’s blood boiled. “We’re being followed.” Another drone bobbed and weaved behind their racing car. How many drones did these guys have?
Enough to create a terrifying army.
Caleb racked his shotgun and rolled down the passenger window.
Juliette watched the scene unfold through the rearview mirror with one eye while she watched the road with the other. Before Caleb could get off a shot, Alana ran into the middle of the road with the RPG, and the grenade sliced through the machine, sending its parts scattering.
Juliette stomped on the gas pedal and raced to the main road, the stress coursing through her veins faster than the spinning tires of their stolen vehicle. Even if the threat was over, she wouldn’t relax until they were out of this car and off the radar of these madmen with attack drones.
“A drone attack in broad daylight?” Caleb said. “Seriously?”
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life. Whoever is orchestrating this Rushmore group is well funded. They blew up millions of dollars’ worth of equipment today.”
Caleb stared out the window. “I need to call Blake. He might be a target as well.”
“I’m not sure that’s a great idea,” Juliette said. “We don’t know who we can trust at this point. We have two dead FBI agents. It seems like these hackers are monitoring our every move.”
“But how?” Caleb turned to Ivy in the back seat. “Ivy, you said you never turned your phone on since we got to the house and you never got a signal.”
“I didn’t. I was going to, but Juliette found me before I could.”
“Did Layna give you anything else other than that phone?”
Ivy hesitated. “She did give me a friendship bracelet.” She shook out her sleeve, and a beaded bracelet slid down her wrist. She passed it to Caleb.
He turned it around in his hands. “I’ve never noticed this before. Why didn’t you tell us that Layna gave you this?”
Ivy shrugged. “It didn’t seem like a big deal. The phone could be tracked. This is just a stupid bracelet.”
Caleb sighed and examined the beads.
“What did you find, Caleb?”
He blew out a breath, betraying his exhaustion level. “One of these beads has a tracker in it. It’s different than the others.”
Caleb broke the strand of string holding the beads together and rolled them around in his palm. “It’s probably emitting a low radio frequency. They’ve been able to locate us this whole time.” He dropped the questionable bead on the floor and smashed it with the heel of his shoe. He tossed the pieces of the bead, along with the rest of them, out the window.
Juliette stared at the open road ahead. “Well, they won’t know where we are, but right now, we have no place to go.”
“I’m hungry,” Ivy said, her voice soft. Juliette’s heart broke. The girl had endured a terrible ordeal today—one that might shape her future. This threat needed to end so Ivy could get back to her life.