Page 75 of Hot Zone

Eighteen

The next week fell into an exhausting pattern for Tessa of nearly round-the-clock travel, with Rustam only calling for short rests every few hours. She ate in the saddle, drank in the saddle and even dozed in the saddle. The horses were tired, but Rustam poured energy into them every time they stopped.

She didn’t complain about the brutal pace, however. If she stood any chance at all of catching up with the medallion fragment, she had to get to that pinprick of energy to the south before the main body of the Persian army reached it. The good news was that the winds blew steadily in their faces, which would significantly slow the progress of the Persian fleet down the coast and make it easier to catch.

Every time she sensed the bronze wedge now, she got a clear impression of water. There was no doubt about it, the bronze piece was traveling by ship. How they were going to get from shore out to the vessel, she had no idea. She would figure that out when the time came. For now, it was enough to get close to the darn thing.

Hour by hour, the grueling journey stripped her anger at Rustam from her, leaving behind only exhaustion. It was impossible to stay furious with someone who was so unfailingly courteous and considerate.

In spite of the horrendous heat and his obvious fatigue, he steadily engaged in pleasant conversation with her, telling her of his home world and people, and asking endless questions about modern human culture. They compared politics and philosophy and the arts…not to mention a hundred other subjects from children’s education to sports to foods.

Despite her best efforts to hate him, she learned to see him and his race as not so very different from mankind at all. They had the very same hopes and dreams for their children and their future. It just so happened that humans and Centaurians were going to end up competing for the same slice of intergalactic power someday.

And in the meantime, as much as she hated to admit it, Rustam really was a noble, kind, courageous man whose humor and intelligence made him completely irresistible to her.

After yet another of their all-too-short power naps, this one taken during the worst of the afternoon heat to spare the horses, Rustam muttered, “Are you really sure a lost map is worth all this? The horses are about done in.”

She winced. There wasn’t a chance in hell she was telling a Centaurian that she was chasing down a piece of the Karanovo Stamp his race desperately didn’t want mankind—or womankind, to be precise—to get its hands on. She certainly wasn’t into cruelty to animals, but time was against her in a big way.

“How much farther until we catch up with the Persian fleet?”

He looked at the hills around them. Scattered huts had begun to dot the region, and here and there rows of olive and fig trees striped the hillsides. “We’re getting close to the southern tip of the Greek peninsula. Once the Persian fleet rounds the end, it will sail against Athens. According to our records, the Persian ships get bottled up in channel islands near the city.”

Tessa nodded. “That’s what human histories relate, as well.” And there was a line she’d never thought to hear herself utter in her lifetime!

“The Persian fleet will hug the coast as it rounds the southern cape since the Aegean winds and currents offshore are treacherous. We might be able to flag it down there. I would guess that by tonight we’ll reach it. The horses have made good time, but I have no way of knowing if we’ve beaten the ships there or not.”

“Is that our best bet to catch up with the fleet?” she asked.

He shrugged. “It’s probably our only bet if you want to join the ships before they engage the Athenian navy.”

“Let’s ride, then.”

Rustam looked over at her in quick concern. “You aren’t overexerting yourself, are you? After all, you have my child to look after.”

She rolled her eyes. They’d had this argument a dozen times already. She kept insisting that she wasn’t necessarily pregnant, and he remained adamant that she was.

Exasperated, she said, “We won’t know for a few more days if I might be pregnant. And even then it’s not a sure thing. With the amount of physical strain I’ve been under, I could easily skip a period and have it mean nothing.”

“I have never met a woman as stubborn as you.”

She flashed him a grin. “And you love the challenge, don’t you?”

He grinned ruefully. “I am learning to. I must say, you human women are never dull.”

A strange thing happened then. His smile faded and a regretful, almost haunted look passed through his expressive eyes. She’d caught him gazing at her that way a couple of times during the past few days.

She asked quietly, “What’s on your mind?”

He started guiltily. “Uh, nothing.”

Riigghhtt.What could possibly put that much worry in a Centaurian star navigator’s gaze? She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to know.

Dusk was turning to night around them when they rode around a large outcropping of rock. Tessa stopped in surprise. Moonlight illuminated a broad expanse of water before them. The Aegean Sea. Only a steep shale slope separated them from the shore.

Rustam murmured, “The fleet’s not here yet. It’ll stretch for miles when it comes.”

She nodded in relief. They’d done it. Now all they had to do was intercept whatever vessel carried the Karanovo fragment before the great naval battle of Salamis happened. With her luck, the ship bearing the medallion would sink, and she would have to introduce scuba diving to ancient Greece to recover it. She mumbled, “May I borrow your hand?”

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