I have to save Nate before they take off with him in the van, she thought.


    They stopped to open the back of the van and were saying something into it. Arena crouched, adjusted her direction, and ran straight into them from the side. The impact knocked both to the ground. She tumbled off the board and it dropped to the ground. Impact knocked the air out of her, but she had been prepared for the fall and staggered to her feet. Thankfully, the thick wetsuit had protected her from too much injury or scrapes.


    One man sprawled on the ground, unconscious, but the other was lurching to his feet. She snatched up the board just as the other man did, and he tossed her against a car like she was a towel. Pain shot through her back, and she cried out. Scrambling back to her feet anyway, Arena launched herself at the man, who tried to close the van doors while holding the board.


    Leaping onto his back, she tightened her arms against his neck. He spun in circles several times. Her feet were hanging more than a foot off the ground, so he slammed her backward against the van. The door swung back open and they both tumbled into the van. She unconsciously dropped her arms from his neck. His weight was nearly unbearable.


    He rolled over and pushed up, but suddenly two feet swung out and caught him in the nose, right over her face. Blood dripped onto Arena’s wetsuit, but she took the pause to kick up and out at him, and caught him in the knee. He cried out in pain, and then slumped to the ground. She sat up weakly and saw Sterling with a needle in his hand.


    “Nice kick,” he said. “Both of you.”


    “Oh!” she sat up fully, and turned to Nate, who was bound hands, feet, and mouth. Her fingers were very stiff, but she managed to pull off his gag. He coughed a few times, then smiled weakly.


    “Nice goin’, short stuff,” he said faintly. “I liked how you took them out with the board.” Arena looked up at him, but continued to work at the knots until she pulled them all off. “You must have had a good teacher.”


    “Obviously not one who told her to always follow orders,” said Sterling dryly at the door of the van. Yates and Sophia appeared behind Sterling. Yates had a bloody gash on his chest, and half of Sophia’s facial latex was hanging off, giving her the look of a mutated outback zombie.


    “You all already replaced me?” Nate said weakly as Arena helped him out of the van. She tried to support his weight, but crumpled. Yates caught Nate while Sterling caught her.


    “Let’s pull this party behind the van, shall we?” said Yates, and he sort of half-carried, half-dragged Nate around the side of the van. “We’ve already drawn some attention from the fight on the beach.” Arena was able to walk well enough, but Sterling held onto her tightly anyway. Sophia closed the van doors and picked up the surfboard as they rounded the side of the van.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Yates had given Nate a water bottle, from which he was drinking thirstily. Arena slumped to a kneeling position on the ground, a position she soon found uncomfortable due to the wetsuit, so she pushed her feet out in front of her. Sterling kneeled next to her, with his hand on her shoulder. Sophia peeled the remaining latex off her face.


    Bertha came limping around the side of the van. “Lorna pulled the van over here. Did you get the boards?” Then she smiled. “Hiya, Atticus. Glad to see you’re not too bloody.”


    Nate just nodded at her, still drinking from the bottle.


    “We got both of their boards, and Arena used one, but I don’t know if the other one is the item,” said Sterling. He stood up reluctantly, went over to where two of the boards were sitting next to Sophia. Sterling picked one up and brought it over to her. Arena ran her hands over the other board.


    “It doesn’t have the top fin,” she said. “I don’t think this is it.”


    “Do we still have the other hoverboard?” said Sophia.


    Sterling nodded. “We left it in the van, and Allen stayed with it when Bertha went to investigate this van.”


    Lorna pulled the van right up behind them and got out. Allen was in the front seat.


    “What are we going to do about Celeste?” said Sophia.


    Yates frowned, as did most of the others. “We don’t know where she is. From the way these guys acted, I would say they are hired and not directly part of her team, although I’m not sure why she trusted them.”


    One of the men on the ground stirred, and most of the team reacted, pulling out guns. It was Lorna who leveled her pistol at the man’s face as he sat up, rubbing his bald spot. He turned and looked at the gun, jumped, and then cowered. “I’ll tell you anything! I dunno a lot; I just came as a replacement!”


    Yates walked over to him, “Where is the woman that hired you?”


    “Her?” he whimpered. “She was supposed to take a private jet back to the States while we did all the dirty work. I dunno where exactly she was going, but we were supposed to wire the money to some account, and he was taking the boards to the airport before she left.” He swept his hand over the other man. “She’s probably going to the airport right now. But I found out she paid me half of what she paid them. We knocked out the guys who sold the boards and took both the money and the boards. I thought we should try to break the boards open and see what they were transferrin’. Probably worth more than what she paid us. I needed the money.”


    Yates turned to the rest of them. “We need to stop her before she suspects something is wrong and disappears.”


    They pulled the guy up and handcuffed him, and pushed him into the red van, then dragged the other man into the van. “We’ll take both vans,” Yates said.


    Yates found out from the handcuffed man which airport Celeste chose, and they raced there. Arena crouched next to Lorna, who was still holding her gun and eying the man who was awake and tied up. He kept looking at them nervously and seemed like a big baby more than a hired mercenary. Arena wondered if he would cry if she poked him, then immediately felt bad for thinking it.


    Nate sat across from them, looking weary, but happy. He seemed thinner and more gaunt, and he had some slashes and bruises on his face and arms, though he looked better than Lorna when they had rescued her. Arena thought maybe Celeste had treated him better in hopes that he would agree to whatever she had planned. He said little, but kept looking uncomfortably at the captives.