'With the Authority there would be no choice.'
'So? Is that what happened to you, Jonque senor? Somehow, I don't think you planned from the beginning to betray us. What was it? I know you have fallen for the Chinese bitch. Is that what it was?' Wili heard his voice steadily rising. 'Your price is so low?'
'Enough!' Kaladze's voice was not loud but its sharpness cut Wili short. The Colonel struggled off the driving bench to the ground, then bent till his face — eyes still obscured by the night glasses — was even with Wili's. Somehow, Wili could feel those eyes glaring through the dark plastic lenses.
'If anyone is to be bitter, it should be Sergei Nikolayevich and I, should it not? It is I, not you, who lost a grandson to the Authority bobble. If anyone is to be suspicious it should be I, not you. Mike Rosas saved your life. And I don't mean simply that he got you back here alive. He got you in and out of those secret labs; seconds either way and it would be all of you left trapped inside. And what you got in there was life itself. I saw you when you left for La Jolla: if you were so sick now, you would be too weak to afford the luxury of this anger.'
That stopped Wili. Kaladze was right, though not about Rosas' innocence. These last eight days had been so busy, so full of fury and frustration, that he hadn't fully noticed: In previous summers his condition had always improved. But since he started eating that stuff, the pain had begun leaching away — faster than ever before. Since getting back to the farm, he had been eating with more pleasure than he had at any time in the last five years.
'Okay. I will help. On a condition.'
Nikolai Sergeivich straightened but said nothing. Wili continued, 'The game is lost if the Authority finds Naismith. Mike Rosas and the Lu woman maybe know where he is. If you promise — on your honor — to keep them for ten days away from all outside communication, then it will be worth it to me to do as you say.'
Kaladze didn't answer immediately. It would be such an easy promise to give, to humor him in his 'fantasies,' but Wili knew that if the Russian agreed to this, it would be a promise kept. Finally, 'What you ask is very difficult, very inconvenient. It would almost mean locking them up. He glanced at Rosas.
'Sure. I'm willing.' The traitor spoke quickly, almost eagerly, and Wili wondered what angle he was missing.
'Very well, sir, you have my word.' Kaladze extended a thin, strong hand to shake Wili's.
'Now let us be gone, before twilight herself joins our cozy discussions.'
Sergei and Rosas turned the horse and cart around and carefully erased the marks of their presence. The traitor avoided Wili's look even as he swung the camouflaged door shut.
And Wili was alone with one small mare in darkest night. All around him the rain splattered just audibly. Despite the slicker, a small ribbon of wet was starting down his back.
Wili hadn't realized how difficult it was to lead a horse in such absolute dark; Rosas had made it look easy. Of course, Rosas didn't have to contend with odd branches which — if not bent carefully out of the way — would swipe the animal across the face. He almost lost control of poor Elmir the first time that happened. The path wound around the hills, disappeared entirely at places where the constant rains had enlarged last season's gullies. Only his visualization of Kaladze's maps saved him then.
It was at least fifteen kilometers to Old 101, a long, wet walk. Still, he was not really tired, and the pain in his muscles was the healthy feeling of exercise. Even at his best, he had never felt quite so bouncy. He patted the thin satchel nestled against his skin and said a short prayer to the One True God for continued good fortune.
There was plenty of time to think. Again and again, Wili came back to Rosas' apparent eagerness to accept house arrest for himself and the Lu woman. They must have something planned. Lu was so clever... so beautiful. He didn't know what had turned Rosas rotten, but he could almost believe that he did it simply for her. Were all
It brought him back to reality. Lu was beautiful like oleander — or better — like a Glendora cat. She and Rosas had thought of something, and if he could not guess what it was, it could kill him.
Hours later he still hadn't figured it out. Twilight couldn't be far off now, and the rain had ceased. Wili stopped where a break in the forest gave him a view eastward. Parts of the sky were clear. They burned with tiny spots of flame. The trees cast multiple shadows, each a slightly different color. A long section of 101 was visible between the shoulders of the hills. There was no traffic, though to the south he saw shifting swaths of light that must be Authority road freighters. There was also a steady glow that might be the truckers' camp Kaladze had mentioned.
Directly below his viewpoint, a forested marsh extended right up to Old 101. The highway had been washed out and rebuilt many times, till it was little more than a timber bridge over the marshlands. He would have his choice of any of a hundred places to cross under.
It was farther away than it looked. By the time they were halfway there, the eastern sky was brightly lit, and Elmir seemed to have more faith in what he was doing.
He chose a lightly traveled path through the wet and started under the highway. Still he wondered what Lu and Rosas had planned. If they couldn't get a message out, then who could? Who knew where to look for Naismith and was also outside of Red Arrow Farm?
