Free The Battle for Earth (Teen Superheroes Book 3) by Darrell Pitt Page B

sentence a man to a fate worse than death to do it.
     

Chapter Sixteen
    It was the longest journey of my life.
    I left in darkness and I arrived in darkness. Judging by the device on my wrist, it appeared that Alexi Kozlov was located somewhere to the south of Moscow. As I neared my destination, the darkened landscape slowly morphed into hills, towns, roads and rivers. I descended slowly, eventually landing in a forested area outside a small village. A farmhouse with a dilapidated barn lay nearby; I could just make out a faint light in one of the windows.
    A dog barked distantly. The faraway engine of a truck growled into life. A bird took flight in a nearby tree and disappeared to parts unknown.
    I felt exhausted. I had flown for fifteen hours straight. My head ached. My back ached. A cramp painfully cinched my left thigh. Checking my watch, I realised it was about nine in the evening. I sat back against a tree. I needed rest. I would sleep for a minute, but no longer.
    Just a minute…
    When I awoke, most of the night had passed. Panicked, I examined the timer on the compass. Nine hours had passed. I tried to calm my breathing. I still had enough time to complete my mission. 
    My mission…
    A deep well of misery opened up within me. I had betrayed my friends. I had destroyed my relationship with The Agency. I could never go back to the life I had led. To get Brodie back I would have to consign a stranger to a fate worse than death. And that stranger was the Premier of Russia! What would be the repercussions of carrying out such an attack?
    My actions could start a war.
    My stomach rolled over at the thought. I absently wiped tears from my face as I made out a faint glow on the distant horizon. Dawn. Soon it would be day and then I would deal with the next phase of this nightmare. I had to wait for daylight to arrive. It was bad enough bumbling about in a foreign country. Trying to consider assassinating – and it was a type of assassination – someone in the middle of the night was ridiculous.
    “So,” a voice said from behind me. “Sleeping Beauty is finally awake.”
    I scrambled to my feet and readied myself for an attack. At the same time, however, my weary brain recognised the voice.
    A figure moved from behind a tree.
    Chad.
    “A bit of advice,” he said. “When you’re on the run, look behind you sometimes. You’ll live longer that way.”
    “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” I peered into the darkened forest behind him. “How did you keep up with me?”
    “You remember that Flex that disappeared from The Agency a few months back?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That was me,” he said. “And Ferdy.”
    “You and Ferdy stole a Flex Fighter?”
    “I hid it in the desert,” he said. “Just in case.”
    “Looks like it came in handy.”
    He ignored me. “I heard the conversation you had with your alien buddies.”
    “They’re not my friends.”
    “I know.” Chad paused. “I’ve been following you for hours.”
    “So you know they’ve got Brodie.”
    He nodded. “And you’re supposed to take out the Russian leader with –”
    “The Stonekiller weapon.” The words sounded foreign to my lips. “It doesn’t actually kill the person. It freezes them so they can’t move.”
    “Sounds great.” He shook his head. “You can’t mean to –”
    “I don’t have a choice! They’ll kill Brodie if I don’t do as they say!”
    “But it’s the Premier of Russia,” Chad said. “You could start a war!”
    “I know.” I felt miserable. “But I can’t let Brodie die!”
    “Look, Axel,” he said. “I’m not suggesting you should. But you can’t just consign someone to a living death.”
    I turned away. In my heart, I knew what he was saying was right. I looked up at the horizon. The sky was growing brighter by the moment. Three shapes moved across a distant row of roofs.
    “You have to trust your friends,” Chad said. “We’re stronger as a team –”
    “I just saw something,” I