trees, gradually losing ground. Finally she stopped. There was no sense chasing them.
“Hey!” she yelled after them. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Crap. Crap, crap, crap.”
What the hell was the sense of coming all this way into Vietnam to desert her?
Unless they were setting her up for an ambush.
Mara spun around, then dropped to her knee.
Mara took a deep breath, listening. If it was an ambush, the Chinese would have surrounded the truck by now. Not seeing her there, they’d be fanning out in the jungle.
Or maybe they’d just wait for her to come back.
No wonder Jimmy Choi didn’t want to show her the satellite images, the bastard.
Mara took the night glasses out of her pocket with her left hand, still holding the rifle ready with her right. Even though it was no longer dark, the glasses were powerful enough for her to see anyone hiding in the nearby brush.
No one. She folded them back in her pocket, then took a half step sideways in the direction of the road. As she did, gunfire began reverberating through the jungle.
11
“I need to rest for a minute,” he whispered. “It’s okay. I’m not going to leave you.”
He gently pried her grip loose.
“It’s okay,” he repeated. “Just let me get my breath.”
He knew she couldn’t understand his words, but he hoped his tone might reassure her. As soon as he rose she grabbed his leg, clamping her arms around him.
Josh listened for a moment, trying to hear if the Chinese were following him. If they were, they either were moving very quietly or were a good distance away.
“Come on,” he told the girl. “Let’s go.”
He pushed forward gently, trying to move her. She shuffled back a step, absolutely locked onto him.
“Hold my hand,” he told her. He gripped her left hand with his and gently pushed her to the side. It took several strides before she was willing to walk rather than be dragged. Both of her hands were welded to his.
It was like walking with a weight attached to him.
Even as the words formed in his mind, Josh felt repulsed.
He did what he had to do. And what he had to do now, for both their sakes, was to move more quickly. He scooped her up and began trotting again, willing strength into his legs.
Josh went on like that for another half hour, running and walking, trotting and catching his breath, until finally no amount of urging could keep his legs moving forward. He slipped down against a large tree, all but collapsing on the ground. The girl sat beside him, silent, eyes open wide as if they might let in his thoughts.
The sparse overhead canopy allowed most of the early evening’s moon rays through. Josh could see between ten and twenty yards all around him.
He’d forgotten to turn his phone back on. Remembering it now, he pulled it from his pocket and turned it on. There were no calls waiting, and no indication that Peter had called. But of course it was still locked, on emergency only.
So how had he gotten the call? Because it had happened; he hadn’t imagined it. It was real.
He pounded the ground, then looked up. The girl was still staring.
“What’s your name?” he asked. He struggled to remember the Vietnamese words. “
She didn’t respond.
He tried again. The girl squinted, as if she were trying to figure out what he was saying.
“My name is Josh,” he said.
He tapped his chest several times, repeating the Vietnamese words. He wasn’t sure of his accent, and most especially the tones, but he’d used the phrase several times, and knew he was at least close.
“M?,” she said finally.
Her name, or nickname, was M?. Josh knew the word; it was Vietnamese for seedling.
“A good name,” he told her. “A very good name.”
The sat phone, still in his hand, began to vibrate.
Josh’s fingers trembled as he reached for the Receive button. “Hello?”
“Josh, where have you been?”
“I’m conserving the battery,” he said, not wanting to admit that he’d left the phone off. His voice was dry.
“Okay. I can understand that. Listen, I have people on their way to you. They’ll be with you by tomorrow night at the latest.”
“Where are they meeting me?”
“Josh, we know where you are, and they’re going to come get you. Just stay where you are now.”
“I can’t stay here. I have to move.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t.”
“I can’t stay here,” he told him.
“All right, Josh. Calm down. We’ll work this out.”
“Give me a number that I can call. Unlock this phone.”
“It’s not going to work that way.”
“Make it.”
“Josh, I can’t explain the technicalities right now. And frankly, I don’t know all the tech stuff anyway. You have to trust me on this, all right? We’ll get you out. All right? Josh? Josh?”
“All right. But we can’t stay here.”
“What do you mean, we? Who’s with you?”
“A girl.”
“A girl?”
“The soldiers were going to shoot her. Or something.”
“There are soldiers where you are?”
“A couple of miles away. I’ve been running for a half hour, an hour — ”
“Is she there? Can you give her the phone?”
“You don’t trust me?”
“You don’t speak Vietnamese. I have someone who does, who speaks it very well. I can speak it — ”
“How do you know I don’t speak Vietnamese?”
There was a slight pause. “It’s not on your curriculum vitae.”
“What are you, checking up on me?”
“I wanted to make sure I was talking to the real Josh MacArthur, yes. I did research you. Yes.”
“You have files on me?”
“Josh, don’t get angry with me. I’m trying to help. I know you’re going through a lot.”
“You have no idea what I’m going through, mister. No fucking idea.” Josh looked over at M?. She looked worried, as fearful as he had seen her with the soldiers. “I have to go,” he told Lucas. “Call me back in two hours.
