Hunger

his neck and back. Like the bullet wound, but so much worse for being on such tender skin.
    Jack cried out in shock at the pain.
    Drake was coiled to strike again, but Caine yelled, “No!”
    Drake seemed ready to ignore the order, but contented himself with wrapping his tentacle around Jack’s throat. He squeezed, and Jack felt blood pounding in his head.
    Caine walked over and in a reasonable voice said, “What’s the problem, Jack?”
    “The wires,” Jack said, barely able to form sounds. “I don’t like what you’re doing.”
    Caine blinked. He was honestly puzzled. He looked at Diana for an explanation.
    Diana sighed. “Puppy love,” she said. “It looks like Jack’s gotten over me. There’s another girl playing the leading role in Jack’s shameful dreams.”
    Caine laughed, disbelieving. “You’ve got a thing for Brianna?”
    “I don’t…it’s not like…” Jack squeezed the words out.
    “Oh, come on, Jack. Don’t be an idiot,” Caine cajoled him. “Let him go, Drake. Jack’s just losing focus. He’s forgetting what’s important.”
    Drake withdrew his tentacle, and Jack breathed in deep. His neck and back burned so badly, he forgot the lesser wound on his thigh.
    “Jack, Jack, Jack,” Caine said, sounding like a disappointedteacher. “Bad things happen sometimes, Jack, you have to accept that.”
    “Not Brianna,” Jack said.
    Jack saw color rising in Caine’s face, a warning sign. But he knew Caine needed him. Caine wouldn’t kill him, he was sure of that, no matter how mad he got. Drake might let his rage take over, but Caine wouldn’t.
    “You think she’d defend you?” Caine asked. “She’ll come zooming in here, maybe carrying a gun, shoot anyone she sees, Jack. Now, get back to work and let me take care of making the big decisions.”
    Jack turned back to the keyboard. He started to rest his hands on the keys. But he couldn’t do it. He froze there with his fingertips half an inch above the keys.
    Not Brianna. Not her. Not like that.
    “I could talk to her,” Jack said. “I could maybe get her to come over to your side.”
    “Let me just deal with this,” Drake pleaded. “I guarantee you, he’ll get back to work.”
    “That’s right, Drake,” Diana said. “Torture him into it. You’ll never know if he gets pissed off enough to maybe flood this room with radiation. Until your hair starts falling out.”
    That had not occurred to Jack. But it did now. Diana was right, they wouldn’t really know what he was doing.
    Caine was biting his thumb again, his habit when frustrated.
    “Drake, cut the wires. Jack, figure out how to turn the lights off in Perdido Beach or I’ll tell Drake to not only putthe wires back up, but whip you till he gets too tired to lift his arm.”
    Jack carefully concealed his feeling of triumph.
    Drake started to object, but Caine snapped, “Just do it, Drake. Just do it.”
    Jack felt a wave of some warm feeling flow through him. Something unlike anything he’d ever felt before. There was still the searing pain on his neck and back, and the all-but-forgotten pain on his leg. But the pain was secondary to this feeling of…something. He didn’t know quite what to call it.
    He had stepped up to protect someone else. Brianna might never know it, but he had just taken a big risk for her. In fact, he had risked his life for her.
    Diana drawled, “Our little geek is growing up.”
    Jack began tapping away at the keyboard.
    “But still so naïve,” Diana added.
    The word bothered Jack, vaguely. He kind of knew what it meant, the word “naïve.” But now he was into the directory he needed, and there were commands to be learned, sequences to be deciphered.

TWENTY-THREE
    18 HOURS , 7 MINUTES
    “ THEY’LL HAVE SOMEONE on the gate,” Sam said. “It’s just around this bend. Stop here.”
    Edilio braked, and the other two vehicles came to a stop behind them. Dekka driving Orc and Howard in a hefty SUV. A handful of Edilio’s soldiers in the third car. All the people Sam could round up. He’d tried others, but these were the ones who came when they learned they were to do battle with Caine and Drake.
    Fear of Caine, and especially Drake, ran deep in Perdido Beach.
    Sam turned in his seat so he could see Brianna and Taylor in the back. “Okay, girls, here’s our problem: I need to know where Caine’s goons are. I have to figure he left at least a couple of guys on the front gate. Armed, of course. They’ll have instructions