“And you didn’t seem to be overly worried about it.”
“I was too busy watching and sifting through your weird vibes.”
“I’m glad you held your—Shit!”
His hand closed on Lina’s wrist and jerked her hand away from between his legs. “Dammit, are you trying to tear off my balls?”
“Yes,” Lina said fiercely. “You bastard. You hit me.”
“And I guarantee that you hurt me just now more than I hurt you.”
“Good.” She straightened in the seat. “And I’ll hurt you again. As soon as I get a chance.” Her eyes were blazing in her white face. “I didn’t think you’d—I don’t trust many people, but I thought that you were—”
“I didn’t have time to argue.” He paused. “This seemed the least intrusive way to move you.”
“Well, it won’t do you any good. Let me out. I’m going back.” She glanced out the window. “We haven’t reached the pass yet. It will only take a couple hours to hike back home.”
“And you’ll be welcomed by Millet and his men,” Jane said. “A few things happened while you were unconscious, Lina. They’re not far behind us.”
“Let—me—out.”
“Okay.” Jock stopped the car. “Get out, Lina.”
“No,” Jane said sharply.
“You can’t convince her. She has to make the decision.” His gaze was on the rearview mirror. “Or have it made for her.”
“You’ve already tried that,” Lina said as she opened the car door and got out. “And I don’t appreciate it. This is my life. I don’t want your protection or your pity. I take care of myself. I won’t have—My God.” She was staring at the southern sky, which was glowing orange-red in the darkness. “Fire.”
That’s what Jock was staring at in the rearview mirror, Jane thought as she got out of the car and joined Lina on the edge of the road. That’s why he stopped the car and let Lina get out. The hillside was wreathed in smoke, and the cottage and outbuildings were being devoured by flames. “It’s your place, Lina,” she said gently.
“I know that,” she whispered. “I’ve driven this road hundreds of times, and knew I was almost home when I reached this point.”
Jane put her hand on Lina’s arm. “I’m sorry. It’s senseless destruction. There was no reason for them to do it.” She added bitterly, “But that doesn’t seem to matter.”
“I could have stopped them.”
“No.” Jock got out of the car. “Those are trained killers, and there are too many of them. You might have slowed them down, but this wasn’t the place to stand your ground. If it had been, we’d have stayed.”
Her gaze never left the burning cottage. “I’d have found a way.”
“Headlights.” Caleb suddenly said, his gaze on the valley below. “Get going, Gavin.”
Jock got back in the car. “And this isn’t the place to stand our ground either, Lina. We can’t risk Jane. Will you come with us?”
Lina didn’t answer.
“I’m not going to knock you out again,” Caleb said. “But Jane is wasting time she doesn’t have on you. She’s not going to leave you.”
“That’s her decision.” Lina glanced at Jane, then turned on her heel. “Oh, hell, I’ll go. For now. Get in that car. Let’s get out of here.” She jumped in the car. “But if that car has any speed, it could overtake us in ten minutes if you keep on this road.”
“You should know. It’s your car they stole.”
“Then it has the speed. I made sure of that when I bought it.”
“According to the map, there’s no other road,” Jock said.
“There’s a road. Go straight ahead.” She turned to Caleb in the seat beside her. “And you’ll never be in the position to knock me out again. I trusted you enough to let you near me. I won’t do that a second time.”
“You never know,” Caleb said. “Circumstances usually dictate response.”
“I know.” She leaned forward, and said to Jock, “Around the next curve is a little lay-by on the right that disappears into the brush and trees. Go off the road and into the brush. In about forty yards you’ll see the road. It runs parallel to the main road. But go very slowly and be careful to stay on the road. Four feet on the other side is a three-hundred-foot drop to the valley below. You won’t be able to see it because of the tree cover.”
“How did you learn about the road?” Jane asked.
“I don’t like not to have options. It makes me nervous. I went to the government highway planning office and did some research when I moved into the cottage. It was built by the Swiss government along with several other roads during World War II and leads directly to the highway. Switzerland was neutral but evidently they don’t like not to have options either. They conveniently forgot to list the road when they put out the new maps the Germans requested. It stayed forgotten after the war.” She pointed to the right. “There. Quick. I think I hear their car.” Her lips tightened. “My car. Bastards.”
Jane could hear it, too. Were they that close, or was the air so thin that sound traveled with extra clarity?
Then they were in the lay-by, pushing through the overgrown shrubbery. The BMW jounced wildly over the rocky ground, and branches hit the windshield.
“You’re sure we’re not heading for the cliff?” Jock said. “I can’t see a thing.”
“Cut the lights,” Lina said. “They’ll see us when they come around that curve.”
“Great.” Jock turned off the lights. “Now I’m sure that I won’t know when we reach the edge of the cliff.”
“I will. The road is gravel. As soon as you reach it and feel the crunch, turn left immediately and hug the left side of the road.”
Darkness.
They were surrounded by trees and brush and couldn’t see two feet in front of them.
Jane’s heart was beating hard, her chest was tight.
They had to be heading straight for the cliff. How did they even know that the road still existed? Maybe it had washed away or something.
Crunch.
“Turn left.” Lina said sharply. “Quick.”
Jock jerked the wheel. Gravel flew as the BMW moved onto the gravel road.
“Now slow,” Lina said. “Very slow. The cliff winds a bit here, and we’re right on the edge.”
A beam of light speared the darkness above them.
“They just turned the curve,” Caleb murmured. “At least I think they did. All I can see is that blur of a headlight through the trees.”
“Then they shouldn’t be able to see us at all.” Jane said. Lord, she wished they were off this road. It was like walking a tightrope blindfolded.
As long as she could hear the crunch of the gravel on all four tires, then they were safely on the road.
Just listen for the crunch of the gravel.
The lights above them had disappeared. They must have gone ahead. Perhaps it would be safe to go back on the main road.
“They could come back,” Caleb said as if reading her thoughts. “When they find out they’ve lost us, they’re going to wonder why.”
“Or they might decide that we made it through the pass to the highway,” Jock said. “But I’m going to give it five more minutes, then make an executive decision. I’m going to turn on the headlights. I don’t like this option you found for us, Lina.”
“It works,” Lina said curtly. “Don’t argue.”
“If I can keep this car from going over the cliff,” Jock murmured.
The BMW suddenly teetered uncertainly.
No crunch under the right-side tires.
Jock cursed and jerked the wheel to the left.
“I told you the cliff curved around,” Lina said.
Gravel under all four tires again.
Jane breathed a sigh of relief and tried to catch her breath. “Jock, that executive decision? Implement it now, please.”
“Right.” Jock flicked on the headlights. “I’ll keep them on dim.”
Even with
the lights on, there was little to see but brush, tall grass, and trees encroaching on the narrow road. But at least they could see the direction of the gravel stretching ahead.
“How much farther, Lina?” Caleb asked.
“Fifteen minutes. We would have been at the highway by now if we’d kept on the main road.”
“Which means that Millet has already reached the highway,” Jane said. “The question is whether he’ll assume we’re still ahead of him or cruise back to see if we’re behind him?”
“We’ll see in fifteen minutes, won’t we?” Caleb said.
IN SIXTEEN MINUTES, THEY made the turn that left the edge of the cliff and wandered up through a forest of evergreens. Two minutes later they were gazing down at the traffic racing on the four-lane highway.
“Civilization,” Caleb murmured. “Or what passes for it.”
“There’s nothing civilized about Millet,” Jane said. “And we’ve got to hope that he’s ahead of us still in chase mode and not waiting for us somewhere along the highway.”
“We’ll play it safe and get off at the first exit that has a good-sized town,” Jock said. “Thanks to Weismann, Millet probably has a description of the car and license plates. We’ve got to get out of this BMW. Can you take care of that, Caleb?”
“Not right away. I’ll have to work on it.”
“I’m disappointed,” Jock said as he entered the highway. “I was expecting you to meet our every need.”
“I’ll work on it,” Caleb repeated. “First, let’s get off the highway and find a hotel where we can stay for an hour or so and assess the situation. That will give me a chance to see what I can do about transportation.”
“Studgard,” Lina said. “Two exits down. There are three hotels in the town.” It was the first time she had spoken in the last twenty minutes. “The Merrier is a lower-income motel and would probably be less public.”
“Thank you,” Jock said. “The Merrier. You haven’t steered us wrong yet.”
“I don’t want to help you. I have to do it,” Lina said coldly. “You’re the lesser of two evils right now. And if I decide that I’d do better without you, then I’ll walk away. I’m just a little confused right now, and I need time to clear my thinking.”
Of course, she’s confused, Jane thought sympathetically. She watched the life she had so painstakingly built from disaster destroyed in the space of less than an hour. “I tried to bring some of your personal things when we left the cottage, but I didn’t know what you’d want. I cleaned out your desk drawers and grabbed some clothes. I looked for your photo albums, but I couldn’t find them.”
Lina frowned. “Photo albums?”
“It’s what I’d want to take with me if I was ever forced to leave a place. Memories.”
“I have no photo albums.” Lina looked out the window at the stream of passing cars. “I prefer to live in the present.”
Jane felt again that surge of pity. She had not lived an easy life, but she had good memories of good people. Lina had been brutalized and cut off from family and country. Jane could not imagine being stripped of her memories of Eve and Joe. “But the present is tomorrow’s memory. I guess we just have to make it as good as possible.”
“I did make it good,” Lina said. “And it just blew up in my face.”
“I’m sorry that we were involved. I can’t blame you for resenting us.”
Lina’s gaze shifted back to her. “I don’t know how I feel right now. I have to think about it. I know I resent you interfering with my free will. I do blame you for that.” She glanced at Caleb. “Or rather, I blame him.”
“No, blame me,” Jane said. “I’m not sure if I would have been desperate enough to give you a karate chop, but I suspect it might have come to that. I couldn’t have left you there. And when it all comes down to basics, I’m the one who this is all about. Jock and Caleb are only helping me, trying to keep me alive.”
“What a splendid whitewash,” Caleb said. “I feel like a knight in shining armor.”
Lina ignored him. “You don’t defend yourself?” She studied Jane’s face. “Curious. Everyone is sure that what they do is right even when it isn’t.”
“Not in my world,” Jane said. “You try to do what’s right and hope. Life is too complex to be certain of anything.”
“This Millet is certain that you should be killed.”
“But he doesn’t belong to my world. He’s a monster who hovers in the shadows.”
Lina closed her eyes for an instant. “He didn’t hover tonight. He came out and destroyed my—” Her eyes opened. “I believe that’s a sight that I will hold in my mind for a long time. I must erase it.”
“How?”
“What’s difficult to erase, I find a way to replace.” Her lips tightened. “I don’t like to remember failure. I refuse to do it.” She leaned forward again to speak to Jock. “Next exit.”
“Right.”
She turned to Caleb. “Now. Where is my gun?”
“WE’RE ON HIGHWAY 6, but we’ve lost them,” Millet said to Roland on his cell. “I don’t know how. We were right behind them. Dammit, they just vanished.”
“Weismann didn’t take care of them?”
“I told you, we’ve lost them. The cottage was deserted . . . except for Weismann.”
“And you took care of that problem?”
“I roasted the son of a bitch. Not for you, Roland. For me.”
“I don’t care why, just so it was done. Did you find any sign of the tablet?”
“Nothing. They must have taken it with them. If we find them, we find the tablet. You have the make and number of that BMW, find someone to locate it. We’ll stay in the area and zero in as soon as I get a call from you.”
“I can’t create miracles, Millet.”
“You can call Ned Simpson at NORAD and have them do a satellite scan of the area for the car. He’ll do it. I saw him sucking up to you at the last Offering.”
“It will mean putting his job in jeopardy. You’re sure you can’t find them without Simpson’s help?”
“What does his job matter? We’re on the side of the angels.”
Millet always uses that religious bullshit when he wants to justify doing anything he wants to do, Roland thought. “His job matters because we can use him in little difficulties like this. But you’re right, we should let him help us. Doing this job will cement him firmly under my influence.”
“Then do it,” Millet hung up.
Roland smothered the flare of anger. Things were not going well, and he needed that prick Millet right now. But at least Millet had killed Weismann before he could talk. Now if Millet could get his hands on the MacGuire woman, he’d work on manipulating both her and that tablet out of Millet’s hands.
Roland reached for his phone and started to look up Col. Ned Simpson’s number.
Now what was the best way to persuade him that it was really the angels and not Millet who wanted him to send that satellite over Switzerland in the next few hours?
THE MERRIER INN WAS A MODEST one-story redwood structure, and Caleb had to wake the young desk clerk in the office to check them into the motel.
“Around the corner of the building.” He got back into the driver’s seat. “Two units side by side for Lina and Jane. One end unit that I’ll take, and Jock has one a little farther down.” He drove around the corner. “With any luck, we’ll get a little rest before we have to check out.”
“Is it safe? You had to show the clerk your passport, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but I have a spare in a different name.”
“Of course, you do,” Jane said with irony. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“It would be chaos if they did,” Caleb said. “And I do like to be special.” He handed out the keys. “It’s the middle of the night, and the town seems to be locked up tight. But the clerk said there were kitchenettes in all the units. Gavin, will you call Venable back and see if he has any information we need to know? The team he sent
to pick up Weismann must have gotten to the cottage by now.”
Jock nodded as he headed for his end unit. “Suppose we agree to meet in an hour in Jane’s room? That will give us time to clean up and relax a little. I don’t think we can spare more time than that.”
He meant that Millet was still on the hunt, Jane realized. They had probably only evaded him for a brief time before he caught the scent again. She felt the tension tightening the muscles of her neck and lower back as she unlocked the room. It had been a wild, violent night, and she was still reeling from it.
She glanced at Lina, who had just gotten out of the car. Lina’s night had been as devastating as the one Jane had undergone. No, probably more devastating. “I wish I could tell you that you’re safe now, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Millet knows that you probably learned more than he wants you to know while you were translating that ledger. If we can arrange for you to disappear somewhere, we’ll try to do it. But please don’t run away from us.”
“ ‘Disappear’? I spent years of my life in hiding before I learned how to protect myself.” Lina opened the door of her room. “I won’t do it again.” She slammed the door shut behind her, and Jane heard the slide of the bolt lock.
“She’s not going to run,” Caleb said.
She turned to look at him. “How can you be certain?”
“She’s very intelligent. She’s not pleased with us, but she can see that we’re not the destroyers, Millet is the enemy. She’ll just have to decide how to handle it.”
“The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt her,” she said wearily. “Millet would have killed her, wouldn’t he?”
“Yes. But he didn’t kill her. He destroyed her possessions, not her. Possessions can be replaced.”
She knew that was true. “But I still don’t like being responsible for their loss. She’d worked so hard to make a life for herself. I want to help her.”
“May I suggest you worry about yourself at the moment? You’re the one whose heart Millet wants to carve out of her chest. Everyone else is second in line.” He turned away. “Lock your door. I’ll see you in an hour.”
Jane shot the bolt and leaned back against the door. She would take a moment to get her breath. The adrenaline that had kept her going was beginning to ebb out of her. She had to face the fear and tension again but not yet. For an instant, in this little box of a room, she felt like an animal who had found a cave in which to go to ground. She was safe. She could close everything out.
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