Free The Impossible Alliance by Candace Irvin Page A

them to buy them time.
    Air.
    She shoved the discarded ends of the Mag, as well as the batteries and spring, into her trouser pocket and gripped the empty black steel tube as she latched on to his arm once more. They leaned on each other as they waded out into the lake, stopping when the water reached chest level. From the stats he’d skimmed, it wouldn’t get much deeper. Not soon enough to do them any good. He kept the ruck on his back and slung the rifle on top. The gear’s weight would help keep them down.
    He glanced back. “This is far enough.” Besides, the snarling hounds were just over the rise. He could hear them. Feel them. It was now or never. “Ready?”
    She nodded firmly.
    â€œThen let’s do it.” He sucked in one last breath along with her as he knitted the fingers of his left hand firmly into her right, pulled her close and dragged her under.
    He settled the ruck into the rocky lake bottom, settling her body beside his in the murky water. Ten seconds later he refused first pass at the Mag’s tube with a squeeze of his hand. He raised his arm slowly, guiding her toward the surface, instead. The squeeze she sent back told him she’d reached it, had emptied and refilled her lungs, and was ready to come back down. He pulled her to the lake bottom, holding her there as he accepted the tube with his right and pushed off with his boots. A silent exhale, a fresh store of air, and he was headed down. They repeated the drill for close to a hundred breaths apiece before he felt comfortable enough to let his gaze skim the water.
    Dogs.
    Half a dozen, near as he could tell. Twice that many handlers. Though the deer urine had destroyed the hounds’ single-minded resolve, it hadn’t put a dent in the handlers’. The camouflaged men were still milling about the perimeter of the lake, determined to pick up the trail.
    Crap.
    Jared slipped beneath the surface once more. The moment he settled on the bottom and prepared to nudge Alex to the surface, he realized he had more to worry about than DeBruzkya’s goons. Morrow’s hand was locked to his, her fingers tense. Shaking. He pulled her close when she completed her breath, skipping his turn to seal her torso, hips and legs to his side. Damn. Her entire body was trembling. A three-mile sprint on top of a coma? He didn’t care how in shape she’d been. If those soldiers didn’t leave soon, her battered body was headed straight into shock. Her grip tightened as he claimed his next breath, the shaking in her limbs increasing as he settled back.
    He forced himself not to panic.
    She was fine. They’d be fine.
    Just as long as she didn’t pass out.
    The world was dark again. Silent. And she was damned near frozen.
    Alex clamped down on every major instinct in her body. The ones screaming at her to shoot to the surface, to stand and kick her legs into motion, to run as far away from this dark, suffocatingly wet coffin as she could get. If it wasn’t for the steady hand still locked to hers, guiding her toward the surface of the lake for what had to be the thousandth time, she would have. A wave of almost violent chills ripped through her body as she sank back down to the bottom and passed the steel tube to Jared. She locked her jaw against them, willed herself not to take in water. If she did, she’d be done for. If she didn’t go insane first. Though she hadn’t wanted for air since she and Jared had settled in, the pressure on her chest was slowly but surely driving her over the brink. The next wave of chills didn’t help.
    And then, suddenly, it was over.
    She hadn’t even realized Jared had broken the surface of the water until he reached down and used both hands to drag her to her feet. Water streamed down their faces and bodies, as well as the machine gun and rucksack on Jared’s shoulders. He wrapped his arm around her waist and led her to the bank. She stopped when