Hook, Line & Sinking (Completed)

36. The Ride

Just need to share this silly bit: I'm growing tomato plants on my window sill and they're doing so well! Yay.

Enjoy the chapter and have a nice weekend!

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The Ride

We'd all piled into Noah's truck and headed to the McLaren home the moment Matt had disappeared into the water. I didn't know how to feel at this point, scared? Angry? On edge that an attack might happen at any moment? Probably all those things together at the same time.

Right now Matt was swimming through the ocean alone, with four Corenths out there who could ambush him before he'd even made it to the ship with the bomb. He'd gotten an approximate location for the ship but was he going to be able to find it in time? Disable the bomb without setting it off?

Likely they had someone, probably the grandfather Clayton, watching the boat with the bomb, ready to set it off the moment anyone tried to approach it. Matt would have to sneak up to him and take him out first if he wanted to safely disable the bomb.

And we were vulnerable too, there was four of us but only two guys with a gun and likely three opponents. Until we reached the McLaren house, which was a predictable move obviously, we weren't evenly matched. They'd have the element of surprise.

Of course they wouldn't know about Noah and his abilities but I wasn't certain if forcing them to tell the truth would be enough. Noah had even admitted that his gift worked better on those attracted to him and that was unlikely to be the case with the Corenths.

I also wasn't certain how I felt about being under the same roof as Josh and George. Sure they'd tried to stop the others, and warn us, but they also had a hand in that first attack. Maybe rationally I felt like I ought to let that slide, at least for them, because they conceivably could have really thought they were just helping the others to some private time to speak with me. But mostly I was just really angry at them in general, for having put me in that spot, intentional or not.

"Matt's going to be fine," Mariana said from behind me, she and Orly had taken the backseat while I was in the passengers seat next to Noah. "Yeah he is, he's done this before and knows what to do." Orly also tried to reassure me but I could tell that he was tense, he didn't trust this situation either. "When we get to the house we'll call Thorne for an update," Noah said.

We were leaving Conningsby now, turning towards the more quiet back road that would get us to the McLaren home. Feeling increasingly more restless I was craning my head around, searching for something out of place. The others were doing the same, Orly was bouncing his leg restlessly up and down in his seat and Noah had his fists clenched around the steering wheel.

Yet despite our vigilance we never saw it coming. One moment all was quiet, the next there was a thud and the windshield cracked, spider webbing out from a single point in the center. Something hissed and I had time to see the hazy white smoke coming from a small projectile stuck in the center. The next everything was spinning around me, and I had trouble focusing, the world dancing and twirling.

As if I was hearing sound from underwater I heard voices, cursing. The car was jostling wildly, something was screeching, maybe even screaming. I couldn't focus, couldn't get my eyes to track what was going or even get my brain to care.

There was a jerking, my shoulder and chest suddenly aching and some kind of crashing noise. Whoever had been cursing was abruptly silent but some of the spinning stopped. Briefly I got my bleary eyes to focus, to open enough to catch a glimpse of my surroundings in odd disjointed snapshots..