Page 43

T he journey to Shafira was just as rough as Kontara had told them.

It was no wonder that she’d had such a miserable time breaking out of the village even after she’d reached the maze that bordered the waterfall.

The jungle foliage was almost impossible to navigate, and they would have been hopelessly lost without Kontara to lead them.

But once they reached the maze, Celine felt safer.

The walls of the maze, made of densely clustered trees, were high and thick with twists and turns so complicated, she could see why even Kontara had trouble with them.

“Who built this maze?” Celine asked.

“No one knows,” Kontara said. “It was cut into the jungle over a hundred years ago and paved with stones from a nearby riverbed.” Kontara looked over her shoulder at Celine.

“We’ve only got another mile or so before we reach the area where I dug a tunnel under the maze to reach the village wall.

If you want to make that call to Dominic, do it now.

I don’t know what kind of high-end electronic detection equipment Caldwell might have installed since I broke out of here a couple years ago.

” Her lips twisted wryly. “Though I imagine I might be able to hear Dominic without a phone when you get through to him.”

Celine was already dialing. “I’ll make it as quick as possible.

” Then Dominic came on the line and she rushed into speech.

“Don’t say anything yet, Dominic. You’re not going to like any of this, but things have happened.

It turns out Kontara did some searching on her own after we left her at the camp and she found an alternative trail to get to Shafira.

She agreed to take Joe there because he was so worried about his son. ”

“I thought that was where this might be going,” Dominic said grimly. “I’m just hoping it’s going to end there. Is it?”

“No. I have to tell you the rest.” She quickly gave details, even though she could almost hear how upset he was getting with every word.

Then it was over.

“That’s all,” she finally said. “With any luck we should be back at the camp by tomorrow with Joe’s son with us. How did your night go with repairing the bridge?”

“Well enough. We got a good start. We’ll be able to finish quicker than I thought.

If you don’t mind, though, I don’t want to talk about that hellish job when all I can think about is how close you must be to that damn Shafira.

” He was speaking very slowly and precisely.

“And wondering if you’re going to come back at all.

Why the hell couldn’t you have come to me when Joe brought up everything Kontara had told him? ”

“Because you had a job to do. And I could tell she was frightened, and I thought I was the one who should help her. She didn’t want to come along and try to help us find Shafira but she did it anyway because we convinced her that we needed her.

I figured it was my turn to make sure she knew she wasn’t alone. ”

“Bullshit.” His voice was low and intense. “You’re the only thing important when a situation like this comes up. Now I’m supposed to sit here going crazy until I know you’re safe?”

“No, you’re supposed to finish the job you started, which I know you’re going to do. I’m sorry this happened, but I’ll be very careful and wait in the maze while Kontara and Joe do the tough work of getting Michael.”

“That’s not good enough. Give me the coordinates so that I can follow you.”

“I’ll have to let Kontara do that as soon as I’ve finished talking to you. This route is just as confusing as the one Caldwell blew up at the bridge. She doesn’t have any trouble with it, but I’m not certain Joe or I could find our way without getting lost.”

“Then let me talk to her. But I want your promise you’ll stay safe.”

“I never expected to do anything else. I like the idea of living a long, productive life. I’ve found a lot of things to educate and amuse me lately.

” She saw Kontara motion her to cut the call.

“I’ve got to go now. I’ll ask her to call you later if possible.

I may not be able to call you again myself until after we manage to free Joe’s son.

Kontara is a bit nervous about whether Caldwell might have upgraded the spy equipment here.

Goodbye, Dominic.” She hung up the phone.

Dear God, that had been hard to do. She drew a deep breath before she turned back to Kontara.

“It was about what we’d both expected. But he had a right to be upset.

It’s not easy to be the one who has to sit and wait for someone you care about and not be able to step in.

It made me very angry with Dominic when that happened. ”

“And this time he knows you’re probably a sitting duck for Caldwell,” Joe said grimly. “I believe both of us are going to hear about that from him at a later date.”

“Maybe,” Celine said. “But right now all I can think about is Michael. We’ll worry about the rest after he’s safe.”

“I’ll second that motion,” Joe said bitterly. “I can’t do anything else.” He turned back to Kontara. “Let’s get going.”

Rashid took one look at Dominic’s expression as he hung up and gave a low whistle. “That bad? Is she okay?”

“How the hell do I know?” Dominic asked jerkily. “She’s somewhere within spitting distance of Shafira courtesy of Kontara and Quinn, and you know what that means.”

Rashid nodded. “I know it means that Quinn will do anything to get his family away from there. He almost went crazy when you told him about the wait because of the blown bridge.”

“Well, Kontara evidently found a way that he wouldn’t have to wait.

Now the only thing we have to wait for is whether those sons of bitches will manage to catch and kill them.

” His lips tightened as he strode back down the hill toward the construction site.

“And then we’ll go after all of them and slaughter every single one of them.

Until then, we go back to work and repair that bridge and the trail that will lead us to Shafira on the only path we know.

Because Celine had to hang up before I could ask her to let me talk to Kontara so that I could get directions to lead us to the trail she used to get them there.

I can only hope Celine will call me later… before it’s too late.”

SHAFIRA PERIMETER

NEXT MORNING

It wasn’t yet dawn when Celine and Joe Quinn saw Kontara streaking back across the village.

Celine kept her rifle in readiness until Kontara reached the hedge and slid down the sloping earth.

Quinn stepped immediately forward and dragged the large piece of foliage they’d cut out of the hedge to block it again.

“Teamwork,” he said to Kontara. “I just wish you’d let me go with you. ”

She shrugged. “And that would have looked suspicious as hell and probably meant we’d have both been caught if anyone saw us strolling around those huts.

You definitely wouldn’t have fit in. The only thing that the men here in the village are interested in doing with a woman is dragging her into the nearest hut and raping her.

We were all fair game.” She moistened her lips.

“It all came back to me when I was slipping around the village trying to be as invisible as I could.” She dropped down in front of the hedge and drew a deep breath.

“But I think I’ve located your son, Joe. ”

“You saw him?” Joe asked eagerly. “Did he look okay?”

“As far as I could tell. He looked to be the right age, and he resembled you a little. He was the only white child I saw there. I only saw him for a few minutes. He was getting a pitcher of water from the well in front of the hut on the next street over, and one of the guards was practically on top of him for the entire time until he went back into the hut. I waited outside, but he didn’t come out again. ”

“Which hut?” Celine asked. “What kind of guards? How many?”

“It was the seventh hut on the street,” Kontara said. “And it was almost adjoining the workroom where Zakira has special people come to do the jewel insets, ornaments, and fancy gold trim to decorate his throne room and special museum.”

“That makes sense,” Joe said. “It’s where he’d bring Eve to work on the death mask for the sarcophagus.” He paused. “So they’re probably both there. Maybe we could find a way to—”

“Stop right there,” Kontara said. “I wish I could say that we’d be able to bring Eve with us when we take your son, but it’s not going to happen.

You asked about the guards, Celine. Caldwell has assigned five men to watch Eve and Michael.

I watched them as they came on duty. Four of them were on the back side of the hut, and evidently they were assigned to patrol the entire village except when they took over to relieve the guard stationed at the well at dawn.

” She made a face. “Who, by the way, was your old friend Jossland, and I don’t have to tell you what a vicious bastard he can be.

But he’s also scared of Caldwell, and he won’t be careless if he’s guarding Michael.

The only good thing is that he’s so arrogant, he won’t accept any help from any of those other guards.

But those odds still aren’t good. I might be able to slip Michael out of the hut and over here to the maze, but if anyone sees Eve leave someone’s bound to raise an outcry and she might be hurt… or killed.”

“Then how are you going to manage to get Michael out?”

“Most of the work on Zakira’s museum items was done in a huge room in the basement so that the craftsmen wouldn’t disturb Zakira when he was playing his priestly dictator role for his loyal followers.

Some worked cutting gems, one was a specialist in melting and handling gold, another made fine furniture and weapons for his new museum.

It was hot as hell down there and very hard to breathe, but Zakira didn’t give a damn. ”