The rain came down in silver curtains. It slicked the cracked asphalt where their Honda Civic sat like a tired dog. Sawyer and Cormac broke from cover in a sprint toward the car. Their boots slapped through the shallow puddles. The Civic was their lifeline. It was cheap and unremarkable, Cormac had only just stolen it, but they couldn’t make it in time.

  One by one, the Reapers launched themselves from the freighter and crashed down in a maddening thud at four different positions around their shack forming a perimeter. The fourth Reaper dropped from the sky and crashed down onto the hood. The impact would have been deadly and crushed them completely if they had made it to the car. The thing crouched in the wreckage. The Reaper’s eyes burned hell-red.

  Sawyer’s breath caught. He felt a heightened instinct to run.

  Together, Sawyer and Cormac bolted for the jungle’s edge. Wet branches lashed at their arms and fronds slapped their faces as they dove into the green darkness. It was an escape route they’d agreed on day one if things went this bad. When they hit the tree line, they followed the half-forgotten smuggler’s tracks.

  The Reapers gave chase.

  The sounds from the Reapers were animalistic and machine-like combined with their awful alternating off-pitch whistle. The Reapers leapt after them, jumping in one hundred feet vertical leaps which came up high then crashed back down through the canopies and onto the wet ground. During their short sprints, they swung their axes and sheared thick limbs from the trees like machetes through sugar cane.

  Cormac’s shape flashed ahead of Sawyer, who gained distance, but then he vanished again. Sawyer soon lost his brother amongst the green and black maze.

  “Cormac!” Sawyer yelled. But his voice was swallowed by the jungle.

  There was another crash from above.

  Sawyer glanced up just in time to see a Reaper drop from the canopy like a predator. It hit the ground in a crouch and showered him with dirt. Before he could raise his pistol, it lunged. The mouth of its skeletal head seemed to grin, or maybe it was just the way his evil red eyes glared. The Reaper grabbed Sawyer and pinned him down with crushing weight. The stench of rotting blood and scorched oil reeked from the robotic creature.

  The Reaper raised its axe. Its bone handle gleamed.

  Sawyer wrenched his shoulder and slid out from under the thing’s frame. He scrambled away a single beat before the blade bit into the earth where his neck had been. The ground shook from the impact. He didn’t look back. He just ran. His lungs burned and he wanted to fleet away but the vines and shrubs were too thick so all he could do was fight against the brush while those things chased him.

  Somehow the absence of pursuit was worse. Once everything became too silent, he stopped, crouched, and listened to anticipate the Reaper’s direction of movement but they had gone quiet. Even the insects went quiet. He strained for the sound of Cormac’s footsteps crunching through the jungle. He smelled the air, seeking the scent of his brother’s blood. But there was nothing. The trace in the air, the familiar copper that he’d learned to know was gone and there was no sign of Cormac.

  Sawyer’s stomach knotted. He pushed forward and tracked faint disturbances in the undergrowth until the trees opened and Gatun Lake lay before him. It stretched as a black mirror under the fading moon. Across the water, on a distant shore, he spotted the red eyes of a Reaper who leapt into the air. Its arc was high and long and it landed with a booming clang on the deck of the BlackDiamond freighter. Even at that distance, the thing’s burning eyes locked toward the shore as if daring him to follow. The other three Reapers stood beside it, but the first one that looked in his direction held something dark, the shape of a body. And that’s when Sawyer knew they had kidnapped Cormac.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He caught the ship’s name in the moonlight, in large white letters on the hull. ASMODEUS.

  Sawyer scanned the shoreline. He saw a couple of options. There were two small fishing vessels that bobbed in the water at distant docks. Their hulls were barely visible in the fog. He could steal one and set out across open water, but there were no places to hide and if the Reapers targeted him he would never reach the other side.

  He took out his cellphone and called Colonel Bradford.

  There was static. Then he answered. “I’m here,” Bradford said. “What’s wrong?”

  “Listen. Cormac is gone. The Reapers took him. They’re on a freighter called the Asmodeus. I need eyes in the sky…a drone, sat feed, anything we can use to track that vessel. I need you to feed me updates while I go after it.”

  There was a pause “Copy. I’ll get a bird on it. Where are you?”

  “Jungle’s edge on the north shore of Gatun Lake. I’m coming back to intercept. If it's heading south through the canal, then I have to intercept it before it clears customs and hits the ocean.”

  “Time is working against you, Kestrel. The sun’ll be up in less than two hours.”

  “I know,” Sawyer said. He glanced at the paling eastern horizon. Already the canopy seemed thinner and the light sharper. The thought of the sun on his skin made his jaw tighten. “Keep feeding me directions and I’ll worry about the sun.”

  “Understood. I’ll feed you intel when I have it.”

  “Copy.”

  The call disconnected.

  Sawyer quickly returned to their shack which had been completely demolished. However, Sawyer spotted the little wireless camera Cormac had set up the other day. He unclipped it and popped out the SD card. It was still intact, so even if the wireless signal had been disrupted they still had local storage. He quickly played it back on his phone. He stopped the video footage on a pair of a Reaper’s furious red eyes mid-slash as it hacked apart their former hideout.

  He sent the file to Colonel Bradford using a satellite uplink.

  “You should have it now,” Sawyer said.

  There was a beat of silence on the line.

  “Well, I’ll be,” Bradford breathed. “That’s real proof. You just brought me the leverage we needed in Washington. This will secure us real funding.”

  “Credit goes to Cormac. It’s his camera.” Sawyer stepped back into the trees and headed for the road. “Now use it. Get us real firepower and some money for local assets.”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “I’m bringing my brother home.”

  Using his knife and a tarp, he cut away strips and wrapped them around his head. He fashioned a poncho and covered every bit of his skin. Then, he slipped back into the half-light and ran through the jungle until the trees broke and his feet hit the cracked pavement. From there, he broke into a fleet and the trees blurred in his vision as he gained tremendous speed. Bradford’s voice guided him, feeding him course corrections and marking the freighter’s position as it crawled south toward Panama City. Sawyer ran with his head low. The road unspooled in front of him. The orange glow on the horizon grew even brighter.

  With every step, Sawyer remained cold and sharp as a Reaper’s axe which he would surely encounter again. They weren’t done with him.

  I’m bringing you home, Cormac.