'Have the Russians landed?'
'Look!' said Lily excitedly. 'A forest fire.'
Giordino made a quick study of the black smoke that abruptly billowed above the treetops, chased by columns of flame. 'Fuel concentrated,' he stated briefly. 'I'd say it was a burning structure, probably a house or condominium.'
Pitt knew Giordino was on target. He swore and pounded the steering wheel, knowing with sickening certainty it was his family's lodge that was feeding the growing mushroom of fire and smoke.
He said, 'No sense asking for trouble by stopping. We'll drive past and check out the action. Al, you come up front.
Lily, climb in the rear and keep your head down. I don't want you hurt.'
'What about me?' Giordino asked in resigned indignation. 'Don't I rate a little concern? Give me one good reason why I should sit up there exposed with you?'
'To protect your trusty chauffeur from harm, evil and unsavor-y felons.'
'Definitely not a good reason.'
Pitt tried another tack. 'Of course, there's that fifty bucks I borrowed from you in Panama and never paid back.'
'Plus interest.'
'Plus interest,' Pitt repeated.
'What I won't go through to protect my meager assets.'
Giordino's weary despair sounded almost genuine as he scrambled through the open divider window and changed places with Lily.
Farther down the highway, a half-mile before the entrance to the lodge, people were stopping and crouching behind their parked cars, gawking at the swirling smoke and listening to the rattle of automatic rifles. Pitt thought it odd that the sheriff's department hadn't put in an appearance, and then he saw the bullet-riddled patrol car barricading the road to the lodge.
His attention was focused to his right and the inferno beyond when suddenly, at the very edge of his peripheral vision, he caught a vague form running down the road on a collision course with the Cord.
He stomped on the brakes, hard, and cramped the steering wheel to the right, whipping the Cord into a ninety-degrre angle and sending it on a broadside skid. The high, narrow tires shrieked from their treads'
friction against the pavement. The Cord ended up sideways, blocking both lanes of the highway, the driver's side not more than a meter from a woman standing stock-still.
Pitts heart had doubled its beat. He let out a deep breath and looked at the woman he'd come within a hair of mashing like a bug. He saw the fear and shock in her eyes slowly transform into an expression of incredulity.
'You!' she gasped. 'Is it really you?'
Pitt stared at her blankly. 'Ms. Kamil?'
'I believe in d'eji vu,' Giordino mumbled. 'I do, I do, I do.'
'Oh, thank God,' she whispered. 'Please help me. Everyone is dead.
They're coming to kill me.'
Pitt climbed from behind the wheel at the same time Lily stepped from the passengers' compartment. They helped Hala inside and lowered her on the rear seat.
'Who's they?' Pitt asked.
'Yazid's paid assassins. They murdered the Secret Service men guarding me. We must get away quickly. They'll be here any second.'
'Rest easy,' Lily said soothingly, noticing Hala's smokeblackened skin and singed hair for the first time. 'We'll take you to a hospital.'
'No time,' Hala gasped, making a trembling gesture through the window.
'Please hurry or they'll kill all of you too.'
Pitt turned just in time to see two black Mercedes sedans burst from the woods and veer onto the highway. He studied them for no more than a second before jumping into the driver's seat. He shifted into first gear and jammed the accelerator to the floor. He twisted the wheel and turned the Cord in the only direction open to him-back toward downtown Breckenridge.
He looked briefly into the mirror strapped to the side mount spare tire.
He estimated the distance between the Cord and the terrorists' cars at no more than three hundred meters. That brief glimpse was all he had time for. His rear view was suddenly cut off as a bullet drilled through the mirror and shattered the reflection.
'Down on the floor!' he yelled at the two women in back.
There was no drive shaft on the Cord, and the women were able to curl up and press themselves against the flat floor. Hala stared into Lily's face and began trembling uncontrollably. Lily put an arm around her and forced a brave smile.
'Not to panic,' she said encouragingly. 'Once we make it to town we'll be safe.'
'No,' Hala murmured as shock began to set in. 'We won't be safe anywhere.'
In the front seat Giordino hunched low to get what shelter he could from the gunfire and higid wind whistling around the windshield. 'How fast will this thing go?' he asked conversationally.
'The best top speed ever recorded for an L-29 was seventy-seven,'
answered Pitt.
