They must have seen what happened by the side of the road just now, Adam thought. If they’re following anywhere nearby, they would have seen White die. And even if they didn’t actually witness what happened, I’m sure they’ll come upon his body. They’ll see him dead, and they’ll realize the poison isn’t going to make it to the intended target.
But would they blame Adam for that?
He was afraid they might.
And what was more, he thought, they might still expect him to carry out the mission he had been given. They might still expect him to kill General Thompson.
How the hell was he going to do that without a stealth canteen of poison?
But maybe he was going to have to find a way.
At this point it might be him or me, he thought grimly. Either I take out Thompson or he’ll have the chance to punish me for White’s death. And if Briggs is right, he’s probably going to assume I’m guilty and kill me for it.
He and Ella had been together for too long to give up on each other now. He couldn’t run out on her, and he couldn’t give up and allow her to live under the oppressive regime General Thompson was cultivating.
And he couldn’t let the nuclear weapon Thompson had built be set off either.
So in the end, there was only one choice.
He was going to have to find a way to kill General Thompson.
Loath though Adam was to commit any further murders—haunted as he was by the deaths that had already occurred at his hands—survival had to come first. His own survival, and that of the people he had aligned himself with. Ella, who had been with him through thick and thin. Her sister Julie, long lost, now finally found again. And Julie’s son Matty, too young for the horrors of this new world.
That was what Artem had taught him during the long weeks they had spent on Cody’s luxury yacht, in self-imposed quarantine against the nanovirus, before the government’s EMP blast had finally killed the nanobots for good.
Survival always had to come first.
So Adam would bide his time. He would cooperate. And at some point, he would be taken to General Thompson to face a reckoning for what had happened to Colonel White.
And then he would act. For the sake of his and his friends’ survival, Adam Parkhead would do what had to be done.
Escape the Dark Book 5: Do or Die is available on Amazon now
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ALSO BY K. M. FAWKES
Dark Tides
Fearful World
Into the Ruins
Caught in the Crossfire
Do or Die
ENTER DARKNESS
The Longest Night
Dead of Winter
The Survivors
Thin Ice
First Light
AT ANY COST
Survive The Dark
Fight For Everything
Bleak Horizons