Page 119 of Sands of Sirocco
“Sometimes I wonder if we don’t all put too much expectation on unpredictable outcomes.If this war has taught me anything, it’s that any semblance of control I have is just an illusion,” Ginger said.How many times had she heard soldiers making plans one day, only for those plans to go terribly awry the next?
Sarah lifted her canteen in a mock toast.“Hear hear.Which is why I learned to live for myself.Everyone else is too unpredictable.”She nodded in the direction Noah had gone.“Including him.He seems like a good guy though.But if you’re worried that he’s going to disappoint you one day, let it go.He will.That’s just the nature of man.”
As wise as Sarah’s words sounded, a protective feeling curled around Ginger’s heart.She and Noah loved each other in a way she had never imagined possible.Wouldn’t that help them get through the difficulties too?
“Do you think Jack is still there?”Ginger asked instead.
“I don’t know.But if Noah’s right, they may not be in a hurry to move him yet.Or think that a man fleeing from the army is more likely to be worried about his own hide than rescuing his friend.”
Two gunshots punctured their conversation.
Noah.
Ginger lifted a shaky hand, putting the binoculars back up to her eyes.Noah had re-emerged … and appeared to have Jack slung over his shoulder.Her breath caught.How on earth had Noah found Jack so easily?Noah started running toward them.
About thirty yards behind him, a couple of men were giving chase.
Jack’s arms hung limply.
Oh my God.He’s dead.
“Hurry!”Ginger said, but Sarah had already taken off across the sand.Her horse’s hooves pounded against the ground, sending up a trail of dust, and Ginger had to squint to avoid it landing in her eyes.
She followed Sarah, her heart pounding.Please don’t let Jack be dead,she prayed, her body falling into the rhythmic gallop of the horse.Each fall of the hooves pulsed through her like an electric pulse.How had Noah found him so quickly?
Something must be wrong.
They reached Noah minutes later.He’d continued to run toward them, and his face dripped with sweat, the false beard beginning to curl away.As they reached him, Noah set Jack down on the ground, then ripped the beard from his face, wincing and out of breath.
Ginger scrambled from her horse toward Jack.“What happened?Is he alive?”
As she drew closer to Jack, she saw his chest move with breath and relief poured through her.She rolled him onto his back, the smell of vomit and feces reaching her.His skin was a sickly yellow, and his forehead burned to the touch.
Sarah held the reins to the three horses, who stepped in place nervously.She drew a gun, firing toward the men heading their way.
Jack’s eyelids fluttered and then he curled onto his side, moaning.“He has malaria,” Ginger said.She met Noah’s eyes.“How did you get him—”
“He was under the tent, unguarded.”Noah’s eyes were dark.“I think they must have moved him outside to be sick.We have to get him on the horse.”
“There’s more of them, Noah.”Sarah’s voice held a warning.
Ginger swiveled her gaze toward the Serapeum.Four men were scrambling out from behind the walls, surveying the desert, about a hundred feet away.Another man was bringing horses from a separate direction.
As the sound of more gunshots cracked the atmosphere, the gelding Noah had been riding reared backward and broke away from Sarah’s grasp.He took off with a whinny, tearing away from them.
Noah swore.Pulling his gun out, he returned fire toward the men.“Get Jack up on a horse!”he called out.
Ginger and Noah bent down and helped lift Jack onto Sarah’s horse.His body was nearly draped across her legs, but Sarah made no complaint, and handed Ginger the reins to the other horse.As Sarah took off at a gallop, Ginger mounted the horse.
More gunshots.
She steadied her breath, praying they wouldn’t be hit.A glance back revealed the men quickly gaining on them, now on their own horses.
Noah swung up onto the horse, behind her, then they started forward.The mare seemed to resist, then stumbled slightly.Ginger’s hands tightened on the reins as Noah fired behind them again.
“Osborne is with them,” Noah said, his voice a shout near her ear.
Osborne was here?She resisted the urge to look back, but his face flashed in her mind and she shuddered.How many times had the man left her at the hospital in Cairo in the morning and come here?The thought of his duplicity made her skin crawl with disgust.
