Outcast (SEAL Team: Disavowed Book 2) by Laura Marie Altom Read Free Book Online

didn’t inherit the science gene from my father.”
    A quick look in the rearview did zero to squash the growing hum of frustration in Jasper’s head. Learning about Eden’s cancer was enough for one day. Though he hadn’t wanted to mention it to her, Jasper figured their path would eventually cross with that of Leo and crew, but he hadn’t expected it to happen this soon.
    There was a shitload of firepower in the back, but if the two losers he’d offed had that obscene amount, how much would Leo’s main crew have? Meaning him and Eden were hopelessly outgunned.
    “On this plain, there’s nowhere to hide.” They rode along the center of a wide valley lined by foothills and then peaks. “Look for an opening where we can veer off. We might even get lucky and have a wind whip up the snow, hiding us—and our tracks—from view.”
    “See where those two hills seem to overlap?” She pointed to an area maybe three miles away. The light was different here—the air too clear. Judging distance was nearly impossible.
    “Good job. I like it.” Even if he hadn’t, it wasn’t like they had much of a choice. He gunned the engine for all it was worth, getting a couple extra miles-per-hour. Would it make a difference? Probably not. But for Eden’s sake, he had to try.
    The cat shuddered from the pace, but held up long enough to enter the snowy canyon’s mouth well ahead of Leo’s contingency. The trouble was that with such clear visibility, there was no such thing as hiding. Not only would Leo have seen where they turned, but the tracks stood out as if they’d been spray painted blaze orange.
    Perpetual winds had topped the canyon’s jagged walls with freeform towers of ice and snow. They were beautiful, but delicately balanced. What would it take to bring them down?
    Steering the cat beneath them didn’t do much for his nerves, but then an idea struck. “Have any idea how long this canyon is?”
    “Sorry, no. It could wind on for miles or end around the bend.”
    Clenching the wheel, he craned to view the snow towers from a fresh angle. Would it be enough? He had no choice but to try.
    Stopping, he killed the engine to save fuel.
    “What are you doing?” she asked. “We have to keep going.”
    “You saw how Leo was gaining. See the snow up there?”
    She nodded. “It’s beautiful. Ice towers that large might have taken a decade to form—maybe a century.”
    “My apologies to Mother Nature,” he said as he climbed over the seat to reach the weapons cache. Finally, something that made him feel at home. The guys at Trident would be jealous when they heard about his new toy. He dug out the RPG-7, then grabbed a few rockets before leaving the cat.
    “Are you crazy?” Eden shouted after him. “You can’t fire that in this canyon. This entire continent is protected. The damage may never be repaired.”
    “I’m real sorry, but at the moment that can’t be helped.” Leaving the rear door open, he set spare ammo on a food bin, then loaded and prepared to fire. “Cover your ears,” he shouted when the low rumble of Leo’s cats could be heard.
    “If you have to play with explosives, why not just shoot the vehicles?”
    “Because they no doubt have even better toys than we do, which means by the time I disabled one of their cat’s they’d decimate ours.”
    “Oh.” She tugged her gloves back on, then did as he’d asked.
    Bam . He fired at the overhang nearest the canyon’s mouth.
    While his ears still rang from the first rocket’s concussive force, then the rumble from the cascade of falling snow and ice, he fired at the canyon’s opposite side, bringing down yet more ice and snow.
    Yes . His plan worked—even better than expected. A thirty-foot wall of snow had fallen, closing the entry with a wide, frozen swath.
    “Hate to be a Debbie Downer,” Eden said from behind him, “but if Leo has a rocket launcher, too, what’s to stop him from blowing through your pile?”
    “Honestly? Not a damned