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She nodded. “I’m glad she had the chance to do it. Some of the things they put her through were a torment, and she had to keep it all inside.”

“She’s not the only one.” He glanced at his watch. “Eve’s right. Time is up.”

He held up his phone toward Celine. “You said you wanted to take turns when we saw a problem ahead. Well, this is one of those times, and it’s both of our battle to fight. You give the command.”

She took the phone and looked at it in bewilderment. “What command?”

He covered her hand on the phone with his own. “Initiate,” he whispered.

She shrugged but then she suddenly smiled as she met his eyes and spoke into the telephone. “Initiate.”

BOOM!

As Caleb promised, a huge explosion lit up the western sky. The ground shook, and the roar echoed off distant mountains.

FESTIVAL CEREMONIAL ALTAR

SHAFIRA MOUNTAINS

Caldwell sluggishly pulled himself to his feet and staggered forward. Fire and body parts were lying everywhere. What the hell had happened?

Dominic. Dominic had happened.

Caldwell was suddenly overcome by the odor of burning flesh. His own, he realized. His left leg was on fire, and every nerve ending was screaming in pain. He patted his leg to extinguish the blaze.

The blast’s few survivors were lurching forward one step at a time, like extras in a zombie movie. They were dropping like flies all around him.

Caldwell reached for his hair, and he realized there was none. There wasn’t even much of a scalp left.

He looked down. Zakira was lying half on, half off the sacrificial altar, twitching and vomiting. Most of his clothes had burned off, and he was desperately mouthing something. Before Caldwell could understand what he was trying to say, Zakira was dead.

Good! Stupid bastard. Caldwell was glad to see the end of him. But a few moments later, his own pain overcame him, and he stumbled and fell, screaming as he fought desperately to get away from the agony attacking him.

In the next instant, he was dead as well.

Dominic put away his phone and took Celine into his arms. “Well done.”

“Was it? I’ve never blown up anything before.” She was gazing at the smoke darkening the sky. “What happens next?”

“Now we go and check out the helicopter and see if we can use it to take you to Caleb’s encampment to make sure all is well with the people we care about.

Then we make a number of decisions that I don’t want you to have to think about yet.

Will you trust me not to insist on blowing up anything else until we’re certain it’s needed? ”

She nodded, her gaze still on the wisp of smoke on the horizon. “I believe that’s not going to be a problem anytime soon.” She turned and took his hand again. “Though I might even be willing to let you teach me exactly what I did with that one word you gave me to say…”

The first person Celine saw when they set the helicopter down in Seth Caleb’s encampment fifteen minutes later was Kontara, who immediately strode over to Celine when she saw her get out of the aircraft.

She grabbed her by the arms and gave her a shake as she stared into her face.

“Are you all right?” She didn’t wait for an answer.

“You don’t deserve to be. This wasn’t supposed to happen. You promised you’d be careful.”

“I tried to be.” Celine shook her head. “Stop yelling at me. I did what I thought was best. I’m sorry you didn’t think so, but you and Michael and Quinn got away and I’m not sorry about that.

” She added coaxingly, “And because you did, Eve was able to help me when they managed to catch me. And Dominic said that it was because of you getting Jossland’s phone to Caleb that the two of them were able to get rid of Zakira and Caldwell. So it wasn’t all bad, Kontara.”

“I don’t think you’re convincing her,” Dominic said as he shut the cockpit door. “Though I have to admit that I was probably more upset than she was at the time.”

“No, you weren’t,” Kontara said curtly. “You should have taken better care of her. Eve told me her shoulder was injured. But it’s clear that the bandage needs changing. Why didn’t you do it?”

“We were a little busy,” Dominic said. “I was about to do it the minute we landed.”

“But you probably got busy talking to Caleb and Joe about the attack and put it off. Never mind. I’ll take care of it.”

“No, you won’t,” Celine said. “It’s nearly healed.

I’ll do it myself.” She turned back to Kontara.

“Ever since you came here, you’ve been trying to watch out for me and practically trying to run the camp.

And Dominic told me that you’ve also been trying to protect those women captives that were so mistreated. How are they?”

“Alive,” Kontara said baldly. “Other than that… bewildered and grateful. It will take time for them to realize their lives have changed.”

Celine nodded. “And you’ll be there to help. It’s clear that you’ve been a very important part in what went on here today, and other people probably need you more than I do.” She reached over and gave her a hug. “But I could use a coffee or a cup of tea.”

Kontara stared at her for a long moment. “So that’s the way it is?”

Celine nodded. “Until it changes again. Because life is always changing. We both know that.”

“Yes, we do.” Kontara turned away. “I’ll get your tea. But then you have to sit still while I bandage that wound.”

“Compromises?” Dominic smiled. “If I can do anything for either one of you, let me know. I’ll tell Rashid to keep an eye out for any problems.” Then he gave a distinct grimace.

“But it’s important that we figure out how we’re going to handle the diplomatic and financial nightmares that might face us after what happened tonight.

Quinn is already talking about putting me in the center of it all.

” He was scowling. “But that’s not going to happen if I can help it. ”

Celine shook her head. “By all means, pull all strings possible.” She took the cup of tea Kontara was handing her. “Though both Kontara and I have learned to either adjust or handle those changes I mentioned… We’ll get through this, Dominic.”

“You’re damn right we will.” But he was no longer frowning, and she could see he was already planning exactly how he wanted those changes to proceed.

He started to head across the grounds to where Quinn and Eve were talking to Caleb.

“We’ll talk about it later…” He glanced back over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, you’ll definitely get your turn, Celine. ”

“I don’t have the slightest doubt of that.” She smiled. “After I finish my tea, I’m going to take a short nap, and then I’ll tell you how we’re going to do it.”

He chuckled. “I can hardly wait. Will you give me a hint?”

“It has to do with me going back to Boston to finish my internship and you staying here until you make sure that everything is going to be what you want it to be. That’s necessary because we’re both very demanding people.

It also has to do with that lovely Gulfstream jet plane that you’re going to use to come see me very frequently so that I can keep an eye on you when I sense there might be a need to watch your back.

” She smiled. “Does that sound like a good start?”

“An exceptional start,” Dominic said. “But it’s also going to take us an exceptionally difficult period to develop it in the way that will suit us best. I can think of all kinds of side trips and interesting byways that we’ll have to explore.

” He smiled back. “So keep thinking and planning, because we have a long way to go!”