Chapter 98

  I WAS FRANTIC¹.

  The audio had been coming in loud and clear from the transmitter in Yuki’s wristwatch, but now we’d lost her! We’d gone out of range! I grabbed Conklin’s arm, stopped him in the path that had petered out onto a small clearing before snaking out in three directions.

  “I’ve lost the transmission!”

  “Hold it,” Conklin said into his mic to the SWAT team that was moving through the woods in a grid² formation.

  And then the static cleared. I couldn’t hear Yuki, but Twilly’s voice was tinny and clear.

  “See, when I was thinking about this earlier,” Twilly was saying, “I thought I could get you to spread your wings and fly off this cliff. But now I’m thinking, you’re going to shoot yourself, Yuki.”

  Yuki’s scream was high-pitched. Wordless.

  Twilly was threatening to kill her! Why didn’t Yuki use her gun?

  “Up there. Top of the ridge,” I shouted to Conklin.

  We were at least two hundred yards away from the summit. Two hundred yards! It no longer mattered if he heard us. I ran.

  Brambles grabbed out at me, branches snapped in my face. I stumbled on a root, grabbed out and hugged a tree. My lungs burned as I ran. I saw their forms between the tree trunks, silhouetted³ against the sky. But Twilly was so close to Yuki, I couldn’t get a clean shot.

  I yelled out, “Twilly! Stand away from her now.”

  There was the crack of gunshot.

  OH, GOD, NO! YUKI!

  Birds broke from the trees and flew up like scattershot as the report echoed over the hillside. Eight of us boiled out of the woods into the clearing at the ridgeline. That’s where I found Yuki, on her knees, forehead touching⁴ the ground.

  The gun was still in her hand.

  I got down on the ground and shook her shoulders.

  “Yuki! Yuki! Speak to me! Please.”

1 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

2 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

3 silhouetted   

显出轮廓的，显示影像的

参考例句：

• We could see a church silhouetted against the skyline. 我们可以看到一座教堂凸现在天际。
• The stark jagged rocks were silhouetted against the sky. 光秃嶙峋的岩石衬托着天空的背景矗立在那里。

4 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。