Alessa let out a breath. The truck driver’s interest was concerning. He could be an insurgent who was suspicious about them, or he could be looking to rob them, or maybe he was just overly curious. None of the scenarios were good. Neither was the return of the pain raging through her shoulder. She’d gotten more than enough sleep to be functional but she wanted nothing more than to fall back asleep. Get it together, Parrino.
Luke was eyeing her. “You okay?”
She began to nod her head, then looked at Luke and shook it. She’d been about to placate him, but it was time to trust him. The mission was too important; the guys were counting on her and Luke. She couldn’t jeopardize them for selfish pride. “My shoulder’s been bugging me.”
He sucked in a breath.
“You should have said something earlier.”
“I can still continue, I just need to be careful.”
He opened his backpack and handed her some pills and his canteen. She pushed them away. “I need to be clear.”
“It’s just ibuprofen, to take the edge off. Once we get to Pakistan, we’ll go to a pharmacy and get you something stronger. Right now I want you to rest.”
Her heart tumbled in her chest. She’d never had anyone take care of her and it felt good not to have to play the strong, indestructible one. She leaned toward him and he wrapped an arm around her. She snuggled her face into his chest and fell asleep listening to the steady beat of his heart.
* * *
NO MATTER WHAT she said, he would never forgive himself if something happened to Alessa.
It seemed this mission had been doomed from the start. Rodgers and Boots were still dark and Dan, Steele and Dimples hadn’t made any progress since last night. They should have crossed the border; the cover of night was the best time. Were they hurt or captured? If Ethan were here, he would abandon the mission; that was the prudent course. Too many things were going wrong, and it was risky to continue. But this was Luke’s only shot at finding his brother. He wouldn’t get another chance, and even if the army’s mission was a bust, he had to check out the clue Alessa had found that could bring him closer to confirming that Ethan was still alive.
Alessa’s head bounced as the car hit a pothole and she shifted and put her head in his lap, curling up into a ball on the seat. He lifted her veil so he could see her face, then dropped it back. It seemed like an invasion of privacy somehow, but the brief glimpse of her peaceful face, her lashes casting long shadows over her cheeks, lit his heart. Ever since Nazneen had died, he hadn’t felt a spark with anyone. He’d met plenty of intelligent, attractive women who had captured his attention but none who had made his heart flutter like it just had.
She’s a soldier in your command. He looked out the window. Alessa was off limits. Unlike him, she was army material, the next generation of army leaders. She was the kind of woman his father would have wanted for a daughter: a soldier who believed in the army. He didn’t care about himself, but even the hint of impropriety would ruin her career. Her encounter with Aidan Connors had been bad enough. Luke didn’t need to add to her problems.
He had done his research on Second Lieutenant Aidan Connors and had some opinions on him that he was sure Alessa didn’t share. He’d gotten his hands on the internal investigation report on the incident that had halted her career, and it was obvious to him that Alessa had been thrown under the bus. But that was the army way. Darling officers were protected and good soldiers scapegoated. Once something ended up in a personnel file, not even an act of Congress could remove it. Alessa would be haunted by it for the rest of her career.
The taxi driver hummed as he drove. Luke wanted to engage him in conversation and would have normally drawn the man out but his cover was thin given his lack of language skills. He hid his terrible accent by coughing and grunting like a chain smoker, but the less he communicated, the lower the chance of being caught.
Luke studied the inside of the taxi. There were pictures pasted where sun visors should have been at the front of the cab. The driver caught him staring and smiled.
“My family. In India now, I goodbye them before the Americans come so they live.” The man spoke to Luke in halting English and smiled reassuringly.
Luke nodded. There was no point in pretending; the man had obviously figured them out.
“My heart is crying for them. But I am happy.”
Luke knew exactly what the man meant. All he hoped and wished for was to find Ethan alive. No matter his differences with his brother, Luke felt a void without his twin, like a piece of his soul was missing. Once he knew his brother was alive and safe, he’d be happy.
He directed the cab driver to drop them at the Jalalabad bus depot. The sun was rising and early morning commuters were already crowded in front of the station. Merchants were setting up tables to sell their wares to both passengers and locals who came here just to shop. Some buses were already full with new arrivals jockeying for space on the roofs, where thin handrails created the illusion of a safe place to sit.
The sky was a colorful mixture of orange and purple. The thick cloud of dust that always hung in the air had settled overnight, replaced by a cool, morning dew. Luke shook Alessa awake, and she rubbed her eyes through the veil.
It was less than seventy miles to their destination, the safe house close to Peshawar, and there were buses that serviced that route. It was a tempting option, but a bus meant an official border checkpoint. Given the volume of illegal crossings into Pakistan, authorities and insurgents were on the lookout for those who could be asked to pay “taxes” to cross. While money was not a problem, sometimes Americans got kidnapped for ransom. In all cases, the situation was dangerous at best, deadly at worst.
They exited the taxi and blended in with the throngs of people.
“You looking for a guide?” Alessa asked.
“Yes,” he said into the comms system.
There were plenty of entrepreneurs who made it their business to get people across the border illegally. Men and women who knew the terrain and could get them through certain unofficial checkpoints. For just as many of those, there were insurgents who found those with means who were desperate to leave the country and kidnapped or robbed them. Luke and Alessa had to find the former and stay away from the latter.
“Black turban, brown vest.” Luke whispered into the comms. Thanks to the burka, Alessa could more easily study someone without drawing too much attention. The man Luke was interested in stood away from the ticket counter, shuffling on his feet. He kept muttering things to passersby. One family stopped to talk to him, then walked away.
“No good. He’s wearing a Rolex.”
Luke swore quietly. “I should’ve seen that.” Missing little details could make the difference between life and death. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he focus?
“I have the advantage of being able to stare at them longer.” Alessa reminded him. A Rolex meant the guy wasn’t exactly the kind of person who was working hard shuttling someone through dangerous passes. No way a valuable watch would survive one of the checkpoints.
“How about the guy standing by the telephone booth?” Alessa suggested.
Like the black turban guy, he was standing around muttering under his breath. As Luke watched, a couple approached him. The woman was obviously pregnant. They chatted for a while, then exchanged something while they each looked around nervously.
“Okay, let’s go,” Luke instructed.
They walked past the telephone booth guy, who predictably tried to get Luke’s attention.
Here we go. If I’m wrong about this guy, he’ll be the death of us.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ALESSA COULD HEAR their conversation through the comms system. After chatting for a few minutes in broken English, it was clear the guy could get them across the Khyber Pass. He had a car that would get them mo
st of the way, then they would have to walk about six miles. His detailed description of the route and modes of transportation made Alessa feel more comfortable that the guy was trustworthy. She tuned out as Luke haggled over the price, studying the other couple the guide had been talking to. They were speaking quietly a few feet away. Alessa could see the woman gesturing under her burka, her movements muted by the tented cloth.
Luke stepped away from the guide and toward her. The walk across the Khyber wasn’t going to be easy, and Alessa could see the worry in Luke’s now-brown eyes. But he had the good sense not to ask her if she was okay, which she was. The nap in the taxi and back at the guest house in Kabul had refreshed her. Maybe that was all she had needed all along.
Older soldiers had warned her to sleep when she could because as she got into her late thirties, she would no longer be able to go for days without rest. Was she really getting that old? The thought tightened her chest.
When she was in high school and the class had done the baby exercise where they had to take care of an egg for a few days, she’d thought a lot about whether she would want children. At the time, she’d concluded that the world was too unkind a place to introduce a new life. But as her fellow soldiers married and tacked up pictures of their kids on their bunk beds, she’d wondered whether she’d be happy doing this all her life without something else to hold on to.
Nearly all the soldiers she knew who were her age had someone to go home to, a family who served as their motivation to get through the day and stay alive. Even the single guys in the unit had people who cared for them. She looked at Luke and for a fleeting second wondered what it would be like to know that someone else cared about her, would be there to welcome her home when she returned from deployment.
“His name is Ali,” Luke said, pulling her attention.
“We all set?”
Luke nodded. “He wants to leave right away. We’re going to have company,” he said, raising a brow in the direction of the other couple.
Ali motioned for them all to join him. Alessa wasn’t sure whether crossing with more people would hurt or help them. If they got caught, it would certainly obscure their intentions to be traveling with others, but they now had two additional people—one of them pregnant—to get across a dangerous crossing.
As if reading her mind, Luke whispered, “Let’s hope they change their minds once we get to Khyber.”
Alessa had never crossed the Khyber on foot, but she had patrolled the area and been on routine transports through the pass, overseeing supply trucks shuttling between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Though there was never anything routine about Khyber. Insurgent attacks were common, as was interference by both the Pakistani government and the Khyber Agency, the tribal government that ran a fraction of the pass near the Pakistan border.
Ali instructed Luke to buy a shawl and sweater from one of the children who was walking around selling those items. Luke had a sweater in his backpack but he followed Ali’s advice. Locally bought clothing would make them stand out less. From this point on, they’d be going up in elevation to cross the Hindu Kush mountains, and both day and nighttime temperatures would be cold.
The other couple didn’t speak Pashtun but they did speak English and so did Ali, so it was decided that would be the language of their group. The pregnant woman, Amine, quickly sidled up to Alessa, glad to have a compatriot. She was dressed in a near-identical burka. The man with her was not her husband but her brother, Reza.
“How far along are you?” Alessa inquired as the men broke off to go buy water and food for the journey.
“Six months,” Amine said, touching her belly.
Alessa’s stomach turned. The woman was pretty far along, and while still three months away from giving birth, traveling would be difficult.
“I know what you are thinking,” she said softly in her musically accented voice. “I should not be traveling, but we had no choice. Reza wanted me to get my baby to safety.”
She didn’t have to say anything more.
“I do not know you, but I must ask something,” Amine continued.
Alessa couldn’t see more than the shadows of the woman’s eyes, but her voice was laden with desperation.
“Are you okay?” Alessa asked.
The woman nodded. “If something happens to me along the way, you must tell my brother to leave and go on without me. He won’t, but...”
She didn’t have to finish the sentence. Alessa reached out her hand and Amine extended hers and clasped Alessa’s. It was a gesture Alessa had seen other women do but had never done herself. Now it felt like the most natural thing in the world and she found herself oddly comforted by the squeeze of the other woman’s hand. It was a silent promise that they would get through the coming adventure together.
Growing up, Alessa had often been socially withdrawn, unable to relate to the other children in school who obsessed over boys and whether their mothers would let them wear slinky clothing. She loathed those girls who said they hated their fathers because they wouldn’t buy them the latest hit CD or a new car. She had wanted nothing more than to scream at them, to tell them they were lucky they didn’t have to come to school wearing long sleeves on a hundred-degree day to hide the bruises on their arms.
However, she sensed that Amine’s life had been just as dark as hers, if not more. They held on to each other until the men approached, then retreated inside their burkas with a nod of solidarity.
“Stay alert.” It was an unnecessary warning from Luke. They had just hired a human smuggler and were travelling with two strangers; she wasn’t about to let down her guard. Still, she instinctively trusted Amine and Reza.
Luke crouched down, ostensibly to put his new purchases into his backpack, and muttered into the comms system, “Reza is getting his sister away from an abusive husband.” Alessa tensed. If Amine was escaping her marriage, they had the added complication of family members possibly coming after them. That was the last thing they needed and she could tell by the clipped way in which Luke had relayed the news that he felt the same.
Ali motioned to all of them to follow him and they wove through the crowds around the bus station. The smell of sweat and exhaust fumes was stifling, and despite the cooler morning temperatures, Alessa found it hard to breath as they made their way to the periphery. Overloaded buses coughed their way through the crowds who didn’t seem to notice the black smoke.
Alessa longed to lift the veil that clung to her face. She stumbled as someone pushed past her and Luke’s strong arms went around her. Her initial instinct was to push him away, but then she felt the strength of his body against hers and it felt good to have someone to lean against; for just one moment to feel like she didn’t have to do it all on her own.
The crowd was packed so tightly that hardly anyone noticed Luke’s arm around her. There were few women in the crowd, so it was easy to spot Amine’s blue figure ahead of them. Alessa worried about how she was getting through. It couldn’t be easy for a pregnant woman with the pushing and jostling.
They finally broke through the masses, but the air was still stale under Alessa’s veil. She lifted the cloth a fraction and fanned her face, but stopped when she noticed an old man staring at her. Luke stepped away from her, as if feeling the glare of that old man on him. They made their way to Ali’s truck, an old pickup with no doors and panels of so many different colors that the truck looked like it had been constructed from spare junkyard parts. It probably had been.
Without discussion, they squeezed Reza and Amine into the passenger seat and Luke and Alessa took the truck bed. Ali wasted no time getting out of the bus depot. Luke and Alessa marveled at his ability to maneuver around the crowds and other double-and triple-parked vehicles. Jalalabad was awake and in full swing as Ali pulled onto the main road and navigated the traffic, joining the other horn-happy drivers expressing their frustration throu
gh noise pollution.
The sounds pounded through her head, making it hard to see, to breathe or to think.
“It’s quite the place isn’t it?”
Alessa lifted her veil, desperate for a breath of air.
“Are you okay?”
She was about to say yes, then it all went dark.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LUKE HAD COVERED Alessa’s body with his own. The car didn’t slow but increased its breakneck speed, now bumping over sidewalks and even the median in the road. Luke risked lifting his head just enough to peer over the side but saw nothing other than the usual mix of rickshaws, cars, trucks, buses and pedestrians on the road.
“Get off me, Luke, I’m suffocating in this thing,” Alessa shouted from underneath him. He sat back and Alessa straightened herself, lifting the top of the burka off her head some more and sucking in some breaths.
“There are a lot of guns in this area,” she said softly. He could process that. Now. Gunfire was not that unusual in the area. “It was too far away to get us,” she said. Again, he knew she was right, but in the moment he’d heard the sound, the only thing he could think about was protecting Alessa, making sure the shots wouldn’t hit her.
Alessa leaned forward just as Ali jumped another curb to bypass a slow-moving bicyclist and he wrapped his arms around her as she fell into his lap.
“I seem to be making a habit of this,” she said awkwardly as she fought to regain her balance in the unsteady truck.
She pushed aside pieces of wood, metal brackets and other junk to make a space next to him, then sat down with a sigh. Their sides touched, and he liked the feel of her so close to him...and the fact that she wanted to sit so close.
They finally left Jalalabad and the ride became smoother as Ali bumped over the potholes in the country road.
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