Nick spoke. It sounded like a question.
The officer pursed his lips, then shook his head.
Nick looked down at the ground and sighed. After a moment he straightened again. “Okay,” he said and spoke more Spanish. Short sentences. Emphatic.
Orders.
The officer saluted again. He turned on his heel and strode away. He called out to others, who came running to his side as he walked, some wearing uniforms, some not. He issued orders, too. They scurried off to do his bidding.
Nick stopped in front of Calli, picked up her hand and pulled her from her comfortable seat, while all around them the courtyard burst with activity. Lights came on everywhere. In the distance came the “thwock-thwock” of helicopters.
“Come here,” Nick said.
She let him lead her to the dark far corner of the yard, the left side where, beyond the jagged remains of the courtyard wall, the truck in which they had traveled was parked. It seemed like a long time had passed since she climbed from the truck.
Nick turned her to face him, letting her rest against an intact section of the house. The cut below his eye had stopped bleeding, although his face was dirty and scratched. “You look like hell,” she said.
“You should check in a mirror.” His grin faded. “Calli...” He shook his head. “You’re a hero, Calli. You saved Duardo’s life and every man here knows it. Only there can never be any acknowledgment of what you did here tonight. There can’t be.”
“I don’t want it.”
“You deserve it. There is a handful of Vistarian men who will for the rest of their lives consider themselves in your debt because of what you did for their captain. They cannot speak of it and neither can I.”
“No problems.”
“Yes it is a goddam problem!” His fist slapped the wall by her head. “We should not be in such dire straits we dare not breathe about the efforts of an American amongst us, yet we are and it will only get worse.”
“Worse?”
“Much worse. This is the beginning, I think. I will know more later. If I’m right, this is the first faint sound of disaster for Vistaria.”
“You mean, this explosion was deliberate?” Calli shook her head. “Someone blew up the house on purpose? My god.” She caught at his arm. “Nick, I know someone was hurt. Is Duardo...did he...?”
“Duardo will be fine,” he said. “Menaka died. She sat right next to the kitchen. She had no chance. Nor did Hernandez.”
“Oh, Nick, and the baby?”
“Lives, poor orphaned soul. They delivered it a few minutes ago.”
“Elvira?”
“She is badly hurt.”
Deep sadness welled in her. Calli hung her head. Nick drew her to him and she rested her cheek against his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, only nothing stirred in her. The waste, the pointless loss, pained her too much.
A more terrible possibility occurred to her. “Nick, this didn’t happen because of Minnie and me, did it? They didn’t do it because we came here?”
“No,” he said quickly. “This valley is full of army personnel and a party at any house here would be thick with officers. The valley is a natural target if one is looking for targets. We just didn’t think they were looking for targets like this.” He sighed.
She closed her eyes and let her hand rest against his shoulder. Silk and firm, warm flesh beneath.
His arms came around her, tightening. With a low groan, he pulled her away from him. “I only have a moment, Calli. You must listen, for this is important. You and Minnie will fly back to las colinas. I’ve arranged medical care for you both—you’ll be checked and treated as needed. You’ll get fresh clothes, a chance to clean up, then you’ll be dropped at your apartment tonight just as if you had been to the party. You may feel the need to tell your uncle what happened. I won’t prevent that. You must tell no one else, though. Things will happen now and you must stay removed from them. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
He paused and drew back, surprised, as if he had been expecting a protest from her.
“I’m not stupid, Nick. I can see what is happening here as clearly as you. If this was not an accident, then the rebels have made their first move. You must find out how they knew about this party, how they penetrated it without detection. The only way that could have happened is that you have rebel sympathizers inside the army. That means everyone is suspect, no one can be trusted.”
He cupped her cheek. “You continue to astonish me.”
His praise, his admiration, warmed her. It made the touch of his hand more than a simple comfort. Her senses stirred. She pushed aside the distraction because another horrible possibility occurred to her. “It also means you’re a target, doesn’t it?”
His hand dropped away. “Yes,” he said flatly.
From the valley came a roar of an engine. A rhythmic percussive sound beat at her ears, inside her head. It was a helicopter, very close.
A man stepped around the corner. He carried a rifle and wore a bandolier of rifle shells over one shoulder. “El helicóptero espera, señor.”
“Gracias. Deme un momento,” Nick murmured.
“Sí, señor.” The man stepped back around the house.
Nick turned back to her. “This is a race, Calli. If we can find them and root them out, we may still win the day. We have to pull their teeth—weaken them before we can dig them up out of their mountain strongholds. We must do it quickly, before this gets out of hand. So for now everything must appear to go along as usual. The mine must still operate, people will work and live and we must give no hint we are hunting them. And you must stay out of it.”
She gave in to her need to touch him and rested her hands on his chest. “I’m afraid for you, Nick.”
“Don’t be. I have the nine lives of a cat, don’t you know?”
“Señor?” The soldier had returned.
Nick barely glanced at him. “The helicopter is here for you,” he told her.
“I know.” She looked at the soldier. “Uno más momento, por favor.”
“Sí,” he agreed and moved away again.
Nick smiled. “You’ve been studying.”
“I’m a fast learner.” She sighed. “Economics seems very remote right now.”
“You have one moment more,” he reminded her.
She gripped his shirt. “It’s not enough,” she confessed. “I’m confused, Nick. I thought I had it sorted out before all this happened, only now...I don’t know. You’re right to send me away. All I know is that I don’t want to leave you.”
His hand settled around her neck, curled around it as if he would draw her to him. She held her breath, her heart leaping and her pulse fluttering. He gazed into her eyes.
“Nick,” she whispered. “Nicolás Escobedo. El leopardo rojo. I have seen you all ways. I want them all.”
He closed his eyes. She knew he battled temptation and his own better judgment. Right now she didn’t care about prudence and good sense. She only cared about the truth in her heart—and damn the price of speaking it aloud.
“Señor!” came the imperative call.
Nick growled under his breath and opened his eyes. He pushed her toward the waiting soldier. “Go,” he told her.
She was hurried away, toward the military helicopter, with no answer, not even hope to cling to.
Chapter Eight
For the first time since she had landed in Vistaria, Calli slept the sleep of the dead. They had been dropped at the apartment a little past midnight, after being checked over and given a shower and a change of clothes. Calli was barefoot. They could find no shoes that fit her. She dropped into bed as soon as she had seen Minnie tucked into hers and slept dreamlessly for ten hours.
Minnie woke her just after eleven a.m. Her cousin bubbled over with happiness, for Duardo had phoned and assured her he was okay. Now Minnie was doing her best to work the stiffness out of Calli’s shoulders. Calli had found herself unable to move for the soreness.
“Calli, the way the men deferred to Nicolás Escobedo yesterday...he’s the one they call the Red Leopard, isn’t he?” Minnie asked.
“Why do you think that?”
“Red hair, red leopard. And Duardo said ‘rojo’ yesterday just before you spoke to him. He’s the one that helped you in the jail. That’s how you know him.”
“Yes.”
“You know who he is, don’t you?”
Calli sighed into her pillow. “Yes.”
Minnie kneaded and worked at a knot by her right shoulder blade. “He would be a dangerous man to get involved with.”
Calli jumped a little at her unexpected statement. “I rather doubt he’d trouble with the likes of you and I, Minnie. He’s virtually royalty here, or so your dad keeps telling me.”
“Maybe. He wants you, anyway.”
This time the leap of her heart made her whole body twitch. Calli rolled over and drew the gown back around her shoulders. “How do you know that?” she asked her cousin.
“I know men. Much better than you, Miss Academic. I saw him watching you, and later when you talked, just before the explosion. He wants you. Most people wouldn’t see it. It came off him in waves. He barely held himself in.”
Calli chewed at her lip. “No one else would guess?” she repeated.
Minnie wrinkled her nose. “Unless they could tune into that sort of thing, like me.”
“God, I hope not,” Calli muttered.
“You can’t get involved, Calli. Not with him.”
“I know.”
“You told him no, didn’t you?”
“Well, more or less, but...”
“But?” Minnie pounced on the prevarication.
“Afterwards...” She shook her head. “After the explosion, Minnie, nothing mattered. I cut through all the bullshit and told it like it is. I told him how I feel.”
Minnie drew her knees to her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on them. “What did you tell him? That you’re in love with him?”
“It’s more in lust. I go a little crazy when he’s near. I can’t breathe properly. The ache to have him is overwhelming and I can’t think of anything else. It’s the first time I’ve felt that since...”
“Since Robert,” Minnie finished.
Calli shook her head. “I’ve never experienced this, not even with Robert. Not this way.”
“You don’t believe that could be love?”
“I don’t even know him,” Calli protested.
“You don’t have to know him,” Minnie whispered and Calli was alarmed to see two big tears roll down her cheeks. She brushed them away impatiently.
“What is it?” Calli asked. “Duardo?”
Minnie laughed, even as she cried. “I’m such an idiot. Watching him hanging there yesterday… I would have died if he’d let go, if you hadn’t been able to hold on for as long as you did, if Nick hadn’t come along.”
Calli’s eyes welled with tears, in reaction to Minnie’s genuine distress. She rubbed her cousin’s shoulder, trying to find something appropriate to say. “It could just be the stress of the occasion,” she offered.
Minnie gave a gigantic sniff, like a little girl. “Yeah and tell me that the way you want Nicolás Escobedo is just the stress of the moment.”
Calli stayed silent.
“There you go, then,” Minnie said.
* * * * *
Uncle Josh listened in total to silence to all Calli had to say and even Minnie repressed her natural tendency to slide in shocking side commentary. He remained silent for long moments after she had finished, absorbing it all.
He blew out his breath, making his cheeks pop. “I’m glad you were there, Calli. For Minnie’s sake. Thank you for that. What concerns me more, though, is Escobedo’s airy assurance that Americans are safe. Why would we be safe?”
“There’s no advantage to hurting Americans,” Calli explained. “Or anyone but the Vistarian army, who are the power-holders.”
“And how long will it take the rebels to figure out that the army needs us here to get to silver production going? How long after that will they start taking potshots at us?”
Calli had no answer to that. Nick would have and she wished he was here to supply it.
“Can you give me any reason why I shouldn’t phone Dan Mellon right now and recommend we shut down the mine and ship everyone back home?” Josh asked.
“If you do, then the President will have no chance to sort this out. None. The rebels will have won.”
“We’re miners. We can’t get mixed up in their politics.”
“Dad, you threw your lot in with the government just by coming here,” Minnie said. “You can’t leave them to the wolves now.”
“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t like this at all. Knowing this—in a way I wish you hadn’t told me. It’s a responsibility.”
“It is,” Calli agreed. “What if you spoke to Nicolás Escobedo yourself, Uncle Josh? Would that reassure you?”
He thought about it and shook his head. “It’s not just me I must consider, or even you two. It’s the whole damned company. It’s everyone out here.”
Minnie sat forward on the sofa. “What if Dan Mellon spoke to Nicolás Escobedo? Or even the President?”
“That,” he declared, “would make a difference.” Then he looked at them both. “Don’t tell me you can pull that off?” He looked sharply at Calli. “You can?”
“Not without Minnie’s help,” Calli said. “Minnie has to make a phone call.”
Joshua turned his head to look at his daughter. Minnie shrugged. “What can I say? It’s this Femme Fatale quality I have.”
He shook his head. “I get the impression you’re not joking. I don’t think I want the details. Okay, make the call.”
* * * * *
It took one phone call and a great deal of waiting. Eventually the phone rang. Uncle Josh went off to meet with the President, wearing a worried look. He returned several hours later, thought-filled.
“We’re staying. For now,” he added. “Nicolás Escobedo can be very persuasive.”
“What did he say that convinced you?” Calli asked.
“It’s more what he didn’t say. The President was clear about economic impacts, even the impact on the company should we pull up stakes. They have a sophisticated understanding of our own financial situation. He insisted there was no proof the explosion at Dominio de Leo was rebel action. Rebel action or not, it was aimed at the army. No one else. Dan Mellon didn’t accept any of it. That’s when Nicolás leaned forward and said in a quiet way he would personally guarantee no harm would ever come to any American in Vistaria. Not one. Because the moment that happened, his country would be lost and he had no intention of losing it to rebels who would run it into the ground inside a generation. Dan Mellon looked at him and nodded. That ended it.”
Minnie smiled.
Her father lifted a finger. “You stay away from the army from now on, Minerva. It’s too dangerous. I can’t lock you up behind palisades because you’re a grown woman. I wish to God I could. I want you to promise me.”
Her smile faded. “I can’t promise that, Dad.”
He stared at her, surprised. “Why not?”
She put her hands together in her lap. “There’s a man. A captain in the army.”
“With you, there’s always a man, Minnie. D’you think just because I’m your father I’m deaf, dumb and blind?”
“This is different.”
“Calli, help me,” he pleaded.
“I can’t,” Calli said. “I believe her. This is different.”
He scrubbed his hand backward and forwards through his hair. “Oh hell’s bells,” he muttered. “Minnie, don’t you understand that hanging around with army personnel is liable to get you into trouble?”
“It already has.”
“I could ship you back to America,” he said. “I’m considering sending your mother home, anyway. The climate here isn’t helping her.”
&n
bsp; “I’d just leave home,” Minnie said. Her tone was gentle.
He growled a little under his breath.
Minnie’s passive, truthful answers were driving Josh into an unaccustomed corner. Calli put a hand on her uncle’s forearm. “I’ll watch out for her, Uncle Josh, and we will be careful. We know, better than you, the dangers here.”
“Do you? Are you so sure?” he shot back. “I was in Vietnam when the communists rolled their way through town. Revolutions are the ugliest events in the world. Terrible things can happen. No one is spared.”
Calli tried to keep her gaze steady. “I will watch out for her.”
“You already have, I know,” he said, relenting. Then he straightened and put his hand over her own. “Stay away from Nicolás Escobedo, Calli. I can see there’s a connection there, only he is a far different sort of trouble than an army captain. When revolutions happen, the heads of government tend to end up dead and so do their kith and kin. Stay away from him.”
“That’s an easy promise to make,” Calli assured him.
Josh considered this for a moment, then looked at Minnie. “An army captain, huh? And Vistarian. Here’s me hoping you’d settle for a Wall Street guru, when you finally took the plunge, to look after me in my old age.”
* * * * *
In the cooler evenings, Minnie’s mother sat with them at the dining table and tonight Beryl even cooked a little. She talked of her return to the States and it seemed the impending departure energized her. It saddened Calli that Beryl’s health prevented her from enjoying the beauty of Vistaria. The return to the States would do her good, though.
They were still eating when a child came to the door bearing a huge bouquet of vivid colored flowers. She curtsied when Minnie answered the door and held out the flowers with a lovely smile.
Minnie took them and read the card tucked in amongst them. “Ah!” She held them out to Calli. “They’re for you.” She smiled.
Calli opened the little card.
Thank you, Miss Calli. D.
She looked at Minnie. “You knew.”
“He said he might. I encouraged him like mad.” She giggled. “They don’t have a delivery service here, so he had to pay a local kid.”
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