"Hiss—" Julie Masters couldn't help but let out a soft cry as the clean water touched her wounds.
This girl was definitely tough. Even though she had cut her arm breaking the bathroom's glass window to escape, she still gritted her teeth and picked up a large shard of glass to defend herself. As a result, the wound on her right hand was much deeper than the one on her arm.
Alcohol was too harsh, and Jack was worried that her screams might attract the pursuers. So he had to first rinse the wounds with purified water, then apply the Yunnan Baiyao powder he carried, and finally wrap them with gauze.
"Take me to court. We can't let Allen Bryner get away with this!" Julie grabbed Jack's sleeve firmly with her uninjured left hand.
The tension and fear of being hunted didn't seem to have broken this strong-willed girl—instead, it seemed to have enraged her. Her wide eyes locked onto Jack with fierce determination.
"I can, but you'd better eat something first." Jack glanced at his watch. He'd been in the jungle for over an hour now. Cheng Hao's search team should have already set out.
He handed Julie an energy bar and then used the satellite phone to contact Cheng Hao and Danny. After confirming each other's positions using GPS, Jack discussed the situation with them briefly. Hanging up, he turned to Julie and said,
"We need to head uphill. Whether it's to find a clearing where a helicopter can land or to reach a road, we'll have to move along the ridge."
The search team was less than 3 kilometers from them in a straight line, but the terrain between was difficult. Not everyone could move through a jungle full of decaying undergrowth as effortlessly as Jack.
Keep in mind, Jack had spent an hour tracking Julie's trail, but she had taken nearly three hours to cover the same ground in blind panic.
And because of the two assassins posing as officers, Cheng Hao couldn't afford to split the team too much. HPD had sent only four patrol cars as backup. Including the four officers who had come earlier, and accounting for the need to send personnel to escort the two bodies back, they were stretched thin.
With Cheng Hao and Danny included, there were only 12 people total. They could only divide into three teams of four, each with two search dogs.
Jack suggested they just pull back, return to their vehicles, and set up ambushes on nearby small roads—there was still a chance they could intercept the cop killers.
Perhaps the fact that Jack had managed to find Julie in the jungle boosted their confidence. After some deliberation, Danny and Cheng Hao decided to take his suggestion.
While Jack was on the call, Julie nibbled on the energy bar he had given her while secretly observing the young FBI agent, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.
She looked to be around the same age as Jack. Ignoring her current messy, disheveled state, she was actually a pretty white girl with an oval face and a hint of sharpness in her features.
Possibly due to some mixed heritage, her nose wasn't as tall and sharp as most white women's, but instead was more delicate and refined, more in line with Asian aesthetics. Her skin was also closer to the creamy hue of East Asians, rather than the pale tone of Northern Europeans.
"We might still have to walk another mile through the jungle. Can you handle it?" Jack sprayed himself with mosquito repellent and applied menthol balm to his exposed skin. Then he handed the balm to Julie and signaled for her to do the same.
To avoid other scents interfering with his tracking earlier, he had refrained from using these products—allowing the jungle's mosquitoes to have quite the feast.
Mosquitoes were an invasive species in Hawaii and had even caused the extinction of some native birds. If Jack didn't have healing abilities, he'd probably be covered in welts by now.
Julie had clearly dressed formally for court earlier—a button-down shirt with a black pencil skirt that reached near her knees.
By now, her shirt was in tatters from the branches. Underneath, she was only wearing a sports bra-like crop top. Her shoulders and neck were covered with bloody scratches—she had clearly suffered a lot on her way here.
Her skirt had been torn open along the seam for easier movement, and the high heels had been thrown away long ago to mislead her pursuers.
After hiding for a while in that damp "cave" beneath the tree roots, her arms and thighs were covered in welts of all sizes. Compared to the cuts on her hands, Jack's mosquito repellent and balm were the real life-savers.
"I should be fine as long as this stuff lasts." Feeling the unbearable itching slowly fade, the girl let out a long sigh of relief and grabbed Jack's hand firmly to help herself up.
"I went to college in Hawaii. Surfing and hiking are my hobbies."
She didn't really need to say it—Jack had already figured it out. Once she stood up, her astonishing figure perfectly illustrated the saying: "slim tree, heavy fruit."
Body types in Hawaii tended to be polar opposites. Among native locals, especially the poorer population, obesity rates were shockingly high.
And not the kind of "fat" Chinese people imagine—these were 300-pound super heavyweights.
The other group was like Julie—typically well-off white residents or Asian immigrants, health-conscious, fit, and often with that healthy golden-tan complexion.
As they chatted, the two had already left their previous hiding spot. Jack oriented himself and began leading the girl up the mountain.
It was obvious now why Julie had managed to escape from those two assassins. Years of physical training had given her great stamina and agility.
Even though Jack consciously slowed his pace, the fact that she could keep up and still talk meant she really was an athletic type.
"Also, I have to thank Rick Castle. I learned the trick of turning deodorant and a lighter into a flamethrower from his books," Julie said with lingering fear in her voice when Jack asked how she had escaped the two killers.
That guy stole the idea from me, Jack muttered inwardly, recalling the stack of novels he had seen on the coffee table back in the safe house.
"When you get back to New York safely, I'll give you a signed novel by Castle himself."
"Uh… actually, the detective novels by Rick Castle were brought by Frick. I prefer the bestsellers by Joan Doyle. I only picked up his books because I was really bored," Julie said with a slightly embarrassed smile. But then, as if remembering something, her face darkened immediately.
Jack naturally guessed the reason. Frick Moore was the veteran FBI agent assigned to protect Julie. Based on what she had described earlier, she had witnessed him get shot right in front of the window.
"Frick should be fine. We got there in time and managed to save him. He's probably in surgery at the hospital right now. If all goes well, once this is over, I'll take you to visit him."
"God bless. Are you telling the truth?" she asked, though her face broke into a genuinely happy smile.
"Of course. But the two officers who came to pick you up weren't so lucky. We found their bodies in the trunk of the patrol car."
Jack paused after saying that, feeling it wasn't the right moment for such heavy talk. "Anyway, you're a really brave girl."
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