Comeback

by Doranna Durgin

  But Selena didn't linger over such thoughts. She barely spared a glance for Dobry as she headed into the cave to gather her things—the backpack o' stuff, a few precious bottles of water, whatever else she could scavenge from the supplies here. "Let's go," she said, keeping her voice tightly controlled. "I need to tape up your side, too."

  "Time to close the impending baby maggots into place," Cole said, the false cheer not enough to hide his understanding of just what they faced.

  As he stood, a scream slashed the air. A high, shrill, terrified child's scream. Selena froze in mid-step, her horrified eyes meeting the grimmer reflection in Cole's as Dobry cursed repeatedly under his breath.

  Lutfi. Betzer was here, and he had Lutfi.

  And then, loud and garbled and mixed with shrieks that made it sound as if he was being tossed from one person to another, Lutfi cried, "In the back! Go…the back!"

  Selena translated for Cole without hesitation, then asked, "Does Betzer speak Berzhaani?"

  Cole shook his head, came to his feet to stand with one hand against the cave wall. "As far as I know, he does what most of the guys do—gets by on Russian."

  "Go…the back?" Dobry said, also on his feet. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  Betzer hailed them from outside. "Hey, Dobry—the party's come to you. Let's go!"

  As if they were just that stupid.

  Except one of them had been. Selena glanced at Dobry, kept those particular thoughts to herself for now. "Stall him," she said. "You're the only one who can do that. Make him think Cole is out of it, that we don't know Betzer's true colors." And then to Cole, "That kid knows more about hiding and surviving than we do. If he says go to the back, we damned well ought to check out the back end of this place."

  Dobry cupped his hands to his mouth and leaned toward the mouth of the cave. "Glad to hear your voice! Jones is out cold, we're making a stretcher!"

  "Need help?" That was closer, and accompanied by the muffled sounds of a child's struggle. Selena hesitated, already turning toward the back of the cave.

  Cole caught her gaze and held it, complete understanding in his torn expression. He knew how she felt about children caught up in the center of adult conflicts; he knew how she felt about protecting them. He shook his head, looking as miserable as she felt. They couldn't help by rushing into the middle of it. Not without thinking things through.

  She didn't know as she'd be much use at all, with the stutter-beat of her heart hammering away. But she straightened, and tore her attention away from the front of the cave. "Just stall them," she muttered again, and ran for the back, fumbling for her flat, tiny LED flashlight along the way.

  Because Lutfi wouldn't send her here without a reason. And he wasn't old enough, wasn't possibly altruistic enough, to think of it unless it might help him. Let there be a back way out…"C'mon, c'mon," she muttered, barely aware of Dobry's voice in the background, still hearty and relieved as he declined help. She swept the light along the walls of the cave as she entered total darkness, several twisty turns away from the cave entrance. The harsh, narrow beam played over the flowstone and popcorn calcifications, creating harsh shadows and twice, deep pockets of darkness that fooled her into stopping, running her hands over rock only to discover nothing more than a depression behind those formations.

  Third time's a charm…

  And it was.

  "Gotcha," she breathed.

  Or so she hoped. It was a narrow opening, not inviting. She peered within, hunting clues, and stumbled over rocks at her feet. She caught herself with one hand, bringing the light back to illuminate the ground.

  Spray-painted rocks. Can't get much clearer than that. She reversed course, running through the cave with long strides and duck-and-dodge moves. She found Cole at their pallet, finishing a hasty gauze-and-tape job on his own back. He let his tunic drop as she drew to a stop, and didn't hesitate in his next chore—stuffing things back into her pack, pulling his own courier bag closed with the other hand. Dobry's damaged Case o' Many Faces sat open and within reach, and Dobry himself came jogging from the front of the cave. "I convinced them it's cramped in here, but I've got no good reason to put them off. I think maybe I should go out there."

  "And I think we should avoid that for now," Selena said. "There's a back tunnel. I don't think Lutfi would even have thought of it if it wouldn't help him, so I'm assuming I'll end up nearby." She glanced at Cole, at Dobry—saw identical words about to spill out. "No," she said, forestalling them both. "Cole has to save himself for whatever comes after this. And even without the vest, there's no way Dobry will fit. Besides, Dobry's got to be available to talk to Betzer. Did you ask him why he grabbed Lutfi?" Not that there was any real question, but a Dobry who still thought Betzer was on their side would certainly ask.

  "Just said he didn't want the kid stirring things up—quiet in, quiet out."

  Yeah, didn't Betzer just wish. "Okay," Selena said, but had no doubt Betzer would use the kid for leverage if it came to that. "You got anything in that case that might help?"

  Dobry flipped it open and gestured that she should see for herself. And she did, right off the bat. A woman's wig, long black hair—half of it singed away, but that wouldn't matter. She grabbed it, and held up a misshapen plastic jar of red liquid. "Fake blood?"

  "For fake deaths." Dobry stirred the chaotic contents and came up with melted plastic squibs. "Always pays to be prepared."

  Hmm. She kept the hair and the jar, stuffing them into the so-convenient pockets of her coat. Dobry stood, aiming himself at the front of the cave. "You'd damn well better hurry. I assume the plan is to come in from the side, take them out as you can?"

  "As I can," Selena said.

  And Aymal said, querulous and demanding, "I don't suppose I have a say in this? Why don't we all use that exit, and leave this place?"

  As one, Cole, Dobry and Selena snarled at him. "Nor

  Cole stood, an understanding but restraining hand on Selena's arm as she took a step toward Aymal. She stopped, restricting herself to words. "I would tell you to go to hell, but if you can even think of abandoning that child, you're clearly already there."

  From outside, clear tones of impatience. "C'mon, Dobry—what the hell are you doing, knitting the thing?"

  "We may need to mock up a stretcher and patient," Dobry said, hustling back toward the entrance.

  Cole didn't release Selena's arm; instead, he gave it a gentle squeeze. "Go make it happen, babe."

  And Selena put her hand over his, knowing he could feel the tension along her arm. "I feel like I know too much this time around."

  He gave her a crooked, weary grin. "You know what it can really come down to," he said. "You know the reality of the consequences."

  "Yes." But it came out as a whisper.

  He touched her cheek, his hand grimy, his own blood still on his fingers. His voice matched hers. "Then use it. Take what it does to you and use it."

  Just exactly what she'd decided on the top of a desert mountain in Arizona. Except…

  That had been lip service.

  This was the real thing.

  Not Taz, not any cartoon character.

  Just Selena, and what she could dig down deep and find in herself.

  She nodded at Cole, short and sweet.

  And of course he knocked the weight of the moment to its knees with that cocky grin and his next words. "And hey, babe…if you can't do it, then fake it till you make it. That's what I do."

  "Gah," she said. " You're…you're—"

  "I am," he agreed cheerfully, though he'd gone back to leaning on the wall. "Now go."

  And she did.

  SHE'D BARELY REACHED THE TUNNEL when she heard Dobry's annoyed shout. "You in some kind of hurry, Betzer? This is my operation, and I'll make sure you get paid. But I'm giving the orders, and if I want Jones secure for travel before we go, then we'll damn well make sure he's secure for travel!"

  Good, she thought. It was about time to take that tone with Be
tzer, who'd gone far over the bounds of any contract employee. She hesitated at the tunnel entrance long enough to strip her coat off, going on the assumption that it was going to get tight in there. Not too tight, she hoped. The men who used this route no doubt had never considered the logistics of doing so with breasts, and even a good solid B cup was enough to get any woman in trouble in a place like this. Otherwise…

  She was abruptly coming to appreciate the body she normally thought of as too angular, and the ass that could have used a little J-Lo mojo. A little twist here, a turn there…she scraped by a tight spot, the tiny flashlight in her leading hand, the coat trailing behind her and laden with her gun, her disguise goodies, and a few fun items from her backpack. Quickly enough, she lost her sense of direction; she gave thanks that she didn't come to any forks in the road—and then gave thanks again when she realized sections of tunnel had been widened by hand. But the roof of it suddenly brushed her hair, and within short order she was crouching, working her way forward until the roof pushed her down to all fours.

  She stopped, then. Took a deep breath, trying to assess the time it had taken her to get this far…convincing herself that she wouldn't get stuck. She tucked the collar of the coat through the back of her belt so it followed her in the manner of a bizarre wedding-gown train. The gun she pulled out and stuck into her back pocket.

  It wasn't until she prepared to move forward that she recognized the faint wash of daylight across the rocks. She flicked the LED off and waited. By the time she'd stuffed it into her pocket, her eyes had adjusted; she eased forward into a space that grew even tighter.

  But she'd fit. She could see that she'd fit, and she scrambled for the opening.

  What she saw there made no sense. She looked out into the bottom half of a pit lined with tightly fit stone—a pit just big enough for someone to curl up in, with a narrow opening at the upper edge. She could barely hear conversation in the background, argumentative enough to fire her with urgency. She crawled out into the pit and eased up to the narrow opening—and quite suddenly knew where she was.

  The temple.

  The pilgrim cells, built along the bottom edge of the half-circle wall inside what was left of the courtyard. From here she could just barely see the freestanding structure that housed the eternal flame, off to her left. Unless they had a guard stationed right here, she was good to go—plenty of cover on hand, between the naturally occurring rocks, the fallen walls, the old pillars…

  She shoved the coat out before her and pulled herself up through the opening. There she hesitated, her hips balanced on the edge of the pit wall, her elbows locked to support her weight—and she saw movement.

  Sonofabitch. Of course they'd left someone in this general area. From the eternal flame you could see the entire village and the stretch of road coming in from Suwan, not to mention the ridge that ran parallel behind the village.

  But he wasn't watching the temple itself.

  Without taking her eyes off him, Selena went inward. She hunted the surge of awareness, of intensity. The impulse to strike out, to run a punishing series of six-minute miles.

  She remembered what it was like to kill a man, and she weighed it against the stakes. Cole. Aymal. Two countries once more at risk.

  Then she silently emerged from the pit, moving slowly but steadily, kneeling right there with her feet still trailing off over open air so she could remove her belt.

  Because this wouldn't do any of them any good if she alerted Betzer to trouble from the start. This first one…he'd have to come down quietly.

  HURRY, SELENA. Cole lay on the hard ground, tangled in the stretcher they'd quickly rigged from two blankets. More like a sling, except that at the moment it wasn't slung between anything. Aymal and Dobry had set him down just outside the cave, where the sunshine warmed his body in a decadently pleasant fashion that seemed totally at odds with the situation.

  And there was only so much longer Dobry could hold this little farce together. They hadn't planned to take it even this far, all of them exposed, all of them playing precarious roles—still armed, because there was no reason in their false scenario not to be, but the guns weren't close at hand.

  Except for Cole, who had his hand wrapped comfortably around the grip of the Browning and hidden beneath a carefully arranged flap of blanket.

  "You still got the kid?" Dobry said, and managed convincing surprise with the Goff voice he'd identified for Cole and now still used simply because it was how Betzer knew him. "Forget him. Tell me you have good solid transport."

  "It's not a Hummer," Betzer said, "but it'll do." The very sound of his voice so nearby triggered Cole's temper, his memory of being under fire from this man. Retribution lured him, the urge to leap up and—

  But no. Even if he was capable of such mayhem, his job for the moment was to be still and look sick and unconscious. Not a huge stretch, if it came to it.

  Fly-egg incubator, that's me.

  "Great," Dobry said. "How about you drop the kid and get serious here, then?"

  C'mon, Selena…

  "I think we'll keep the kid until we're on our way out." Betzer wasn't trying quite so hard to sound amiable anymore. Lufti made a series of small grunting noises that sounded like an unsuccessful attempt to break free. "Where's Jones's wife? Selena?"

  Dobry's irritation might well be real. "Taking a last trip to the bucket. You know how women are. She's probably waiting for the flies to move off—like that's gonna happen."

  "I'll get her," a man said, making a satisfied noise in his throat. "I owe her."

  Betzer's voice turned to a low grumble. "Not now, Buzz."

  Cole noticed he didn't say not ever.

  C'mon, c'mon, Selena. But there was no telling how far she'd have to go in the tunnel, or how far to return here. They had nothing more than Selena's belief the boy wouldn't have mentioned the tunnel if it wouldn't help him. And meanwhile the pebbles beneath Cole's hip and shoulder made themselves apparent, and the role of unconscious man became harder to play.

  "Funny," Betzer said in Russian, and Cole figured he must have turned his attention to Aymal. "I was sure you'd recognize me once you got out here."

  Oh, God. Aymal, the geek terrorist defector. Not so good at these situations. Just keep your mouth shut.

  As if. "I do," Aymal said. "I saw you at both of the failed attempts to reach safe transport. I assume there is some good reason for that."

  Betzer laughed out loud. "Oh, yeah," he said, and there wasn't anything amiable about that voice at all, not any longer. "There's a reason for it, all right."

  Damn well better hurry, Selena.

  HURRY. The little voice in her mind made it hard to stay steady, to think clearly. She only knew it had taken too long to get this far. Their one hope lay in Betzer's willingness to play the friendly role—and that Dobry could make it seem expedient to do so.

  Selena checked her gun, her knives…hung the belt around her neck. She left the coat draped at the edge of the pilgrim cell and crept out across the inlaid stone of the temple ruins. No grass dared to grow between the stones, no persistent local plants. Just grit laid over stone, making the footing less secure than it might have been. She kept her focus on the back of the man she'd targeted. He stood slouched, bored…a Westerner's heavy build that stood out in this land of wiry men. By all rights his back should be twitching from the intensity of her gaze on him, but he remained oblivious, watching that which lay beyond her line of sight.

  Selena moved laterally until she put a stone pillar between the two of them, and then she ran up to the pillar on silent feet, halting there to breathe deeply and listen for any sign of movement from the other side.

  He was either as quiet as she, or still engrossed in the scene beyond. She didn't think he could see the cave entrance, but he could probably watch Betzer and his crew. How many? How many would she have to go through before they gave up or ran out of mercs? At what point would Dobry dive in? Would Cole even be able to help?

  J
ust assume you're on your own.

  She'd done it before, after all.

  With no sign of awareness from the other side of the pillar, Selena dared to peek around it.

  Oblivious.

  Idiot. No wonder he was back here out of the action.

  Selena tested the stones of the pillar, reaching up to dig her fingers into the insecure handholds. One careful step at a time, she climbed the thing—nearly seven feet up to die uneven top, which she peeked over just enough to see that the faint noises of her progress had finally caught the man's attention. Not enough to make him wary, just enough to bring him toward her at an angle, his gun ready at his shoulder.

  Selena silently pulled the belt free from around her neck, taking a wrap at either end. She lurked, waiting as the man drew closer, nothing exposed but the very top of her head over the pillar—and he'd have to look up to see it.

  He didn't look up.

  One final step drew him close enough to the pillar that she couldn't see him, and she leaped into action, shoving her hands against the top of the pillar and surmounting it, coming to a stop on her knees at its very edge, three square feet of landing pad. Gotcha.

  There he was, just on the other side; his head jerked up and he tried to bring the gun to bear—but as he turned, she flung the belt over his head; her foot lashed out to kick the gun away. Leverage did the rest for her, slamming him back against stone with the belt tight against his throat and his feet getting light on the ground.

  "How many of you?" she asked him, breathless rather than demanding. A quick deep breath, a jerk on the belt as he scrabbled blindly at her, and she had a more commanding voice at hand. "How many?"

  "Fuuughuu," he rasped, and his hand dipped below her field of view. Her warning jerk wasn't enough and when the hand reappeared it held a gun.

  For a split second, the muzzle of the gun loomed large, closer to Selena's eyes than she'd ever imagined, a sight she knew right then and there would remain etched in her memory, acid and astonishing.

  She threw herself back off the pillar.