Seeker

by Douglas E. Richards

Ella tore through the jungle even faster than she had when her own life was in jeopardy, driven by the need to reach Kagan in time. For several minutes now she had been dying to contact him, confirm he was still alive, but distracting him now was the worst thing she could do. Finally, she was so close to her destination that she needed to give him a heads-up. “I’ll be in position to take out the target in ten seconds,” she said. “Please confirm.” “Hurry!” said Kagan again. He was hanging on by a thread. The South China Sword commando had been inching his way closer since Kagan had saved Ella’s life, craftily finding better angles on the American, shrinking his avenues of escape. He had hit Kagan twice already, but both times Kagan’s chain-mail body armor had absorbed the painful blows and saved his life. But it wouldn’t be long before a bullet impacted his head, which was only protected by a cage of bone that was easily penetrated. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, fifteen or twenty small explosions rocked the jungle surrounding him, creating geysers of thick smoke that shot six stories into the air. The clouds materialized in an instant, driven by the high-speed release of gas from ultra-pressurized tanks, carefully positioned by AIs good enough to navigate the tanks through jungle foliage. The clouds were immense, producing a thick fog of gas at least a square block in area. The fog was so dense, vision was limited to three or four feet, just as Ella had the Chinese soldier...