Page 6 of Prisoner of War
“When the base fell, we knew Pascuallita would fall, too. It was inevitable.” He held out his hand to her. “Come. We do not have much longer and the campground is a distance from here.”
She hesitated. “What willbe at the campground?”
“If we get there in time, Nick and Calli will be there.”
This was the most astonishing answer Duardo had given her to date. “How the hell will they get there from the city? Sprout wings and fly?”
“Almost,” Duardo agreed, with a grin. “Nick will steal a helicopter.” He picked up her hand again. “Come.”
“Steal?” Minnie repeated as they moved off. “Steal from whom?”
“Ido not know. From his brother’s fleet, I imagine.”
“Well, sure, the President of Vistaria probably has a dozen of them lying around.”
Duardo set a cracking pace. She could barely keep up. She broke into a slow jog just to stop dragging on his hand. “Why did you take off your shirt?” she asked.
“So I do not look like a soldier at first glance.”
Thewhy?was on the tip of her tongue and shebit it back. If the area was crawling with Insurrectos, then the more Duardo looked like a harmless civilian the better. Although, even civilians weren’t guaranteed safety right now. Which was why, she realized, Duardo was dragging her through the forest and up the side of a mountain, to make a meeting with no less than the president’s brother, the man called the Red Leopard by the army, who movedbehind the scenes making things happen. Nick had made it possible to pull Minnie out of this mess and was seeing to it himself.
Duardo was also making sure it happened. God knows where he had come from, what distance he had traveled. He must have tracked her from the road.
“How did you know to come and find me?” she asked, at last. This was the one piece of information she could not figure outfor herself. She had to push the question out with each exhalation. She was starting to breathe heavily now.
“Nick told me.” Duardo’s voice was unaffected by the pace. Damn him.
How would Nick have known? Calli. Calli must have reached him somehow, told him she had taken the car and left the city. Minnie felt sick. God, how many other people had been dragged into this because of her stupid,stupid decision? She had to smarten up. This sort of stuff could get people killed.
The slope abruptly steepened, to the point where they were scrambling up a hill. Duardo let her hand go and they both used hands and feet to climb up the crumbling, sandy slope. Minnie found footholds in tangled pieces of vine and clumps of the tough stringy grass that grew where the sun reached.
From fartheralong the slope, a bird gave a long, warbling cry and took off in flight. The sound of flapping wings and the brush of tree branches was loud because the rest of the forest was silent. Duardo grew still and turned his head, listening.
Minnie halted and tried to quiet her heavy breathing. The tension in Duardo’s body was warning enough.
He relaxed and the hand that had lifted to the holster onhis hip lowered. He studied her and grinned. “You are having fun, no?”
“Yeah, Duardo, just a ball. You really know how to show a girl a good time.”
He reached into a pocket on his trouser leg and pulled out an ivory-handled folding knife and popped the blade. It was about four inches long and looked deadly. He folded the blade away and held it out to her. “Keep it in that little pocket on yourjeans, there,” he said. “If there is any sort of trouble and I can’t help you, they might just be stupid enough not to search you for weapons.”
“Shit no, I’m not taking that,” Minnie said, holding up her hands. “That’s how trouble escalates, when you start brandishing knives.”
Duardo grabbed her wrist and slapped the knife into her hand. “You must listen to me now, Minerva Benning. If you arein a place where I cannot help you, then you can be certain you are in the worst sort of trouble there is. Your only choice will be to use the knife or die. Do you understand?”
She swallowed. “That means if you can’t help me, you’re probably dead, right?”
“Probably,” he agreed. His calm gaze would not let her go. It kept her pinned, kept the lid on her fear.
Reluctantly, she curled her fingersaround the knife. “All right,” she said, her voice hollow. She’d take the knife but knew that if Duardo was dead, then she wouldn’twantto use it.
He read her reaction. His grip on her wrist tightened. He shook her. “Youuse it, you hear me? It does not matter what you do with it. Stab, slice, hack. You keep using it and you get yourself out of trouble if you can. Do you hear me?”
“But, Duardo...”
He shook his head. “No, do not say ‘but’. Do you not understand, Minnie? I am the one who must serve his country, yet if I must die to save you, I will do it gladly, as long as I know you will survive.” He shook her hand once more. “You use the knife, yes? If it comes to it, you use the knife.”
She felt like crying, but Duardo’s relentless gaze wouldn’t let her. She cleared her throat and lookeddown at the knife. “I don’t suppose you’ve got one in blue, do you? This color just doesn’t go with my jeans.”
