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

thing. Let’s get going.” For good measure, once she’d climbed back into the vehicle, Jasper fired off two more rounds—this time at the rock walls. He didn’t fool himself into believing his barricade was impenetrable, but it would hopefully buy them time.
    He stowed the weapon, then climbed back behind the wheel.
    Moments earlier, he’d been too warm, but now that the adrenaline had worn off, he shivered.
    Even ten tense minutes later with the heat blasting, he couldn’t get warm.
    What the hell was he doing down here? He and Eden should be back in Denver, getting her treated.
    A glance in her direction showed her grim-faced, holding her arms crossed defensively. The fact that neither had spoken a word after one of the most stressful binds he’d been in since his former SEAL days didn’t bode well for their relationship. What was she thinking? Was she scared for her father? Worried about Leo’s men breaking through the barrier? Pissed about him harming the environment? Why wasn’t she talking? Why couldn’t he think of anything comforting to say?
    They jostled along the narrow canyon floor for a good couple hours when the unspoken fear he’d most dreaded when cutting off their exit became their new reality.
    Not only was the route impassable with the cat, but even to climb out would require specialized climbing gear and expertise they didn’t have. Back in Denver, his pal, Everett, got his weekend adrenaline dosage by free-climbing sheer cliff walls, but heights had never been Jasper’s thing.
    Steam vents and a boulder-field were dead ahead, reminding him that if the climate wasn’t already forbidding enough, volcanoes stood by, ready to make life even more exciting.
    “Now what?” Eden’s question barely rose above the cat’s steady chug.
    “Not sure.” Not only was there nowhere to go, but even if they’d wanted to bolt, their sole means of transport was perilously low on fuel. He kept that fact to himself. They had enough food to last weeks, but the cold could prove far more deadly than the crew they’d been trying to outrun.
    “A few years ago, Dad took me and a few students to a steam vent that was near a small cave. Maybe these vents have one nearby. It might be warmer than the cat once it’s out of fuel.”
    “You noticed we’re getting low?”
    “You thought I wouldn’t?”
    Staring straight ahead, he shrugged.
    “I appreciate you trying to protect me from the realities of our situation, but I’m a big girl, Jasper. I can take it.”
    “You shouldn’t have to. None of this makes sense. Even back to the dead orcas you found on the shore. What killed them? Why?”
    The cab had grown overly warm. She’d removed her gloves and coat. Holding her fingers to her temples, she rubbed in a tight circle.
    “Headache?”
    “A little. I’m just trying to think of what could have happened to those whales. The penguins, too. It had to be something quick. I remember reading once about how military sonar has been linked to mass strandings and even deaths, but how would that apply here? There’s no military presence in Antarctica.”
    As far as we know .
    Jasper had worked in special ops long enough to know things weren’t always what they seemed. “What I wouldn’t give for ten minutes with my iPad to research fringe sonar usage. Just for grins and giggles, let’s say there is a treasure. Could our buddy Leo actually have a sub that was searching the coast with ground penetrating sonar that killed the whales? Could it have been strong enough to have even caused a localized earthquake?”
    “I guess? I mean, sure. At this point, anything’s possible, but even if there were a treasure—and that’s a very big if —why all of the weapons? Why kill everyone at the station? Why keep only me alive?”
    “Because somehow, you’re connected to solving this mystery, and it might be bigger than we ever imagined. You asked earlier why Leo wouldn’t have ordered his men to blast through the