Page 70 of Vistaria Has Fallen

Right by her elbow, aphone rang. It was so unexpected she jumped sideways and turned to look at the counter, her heart hammering. Only Nick’s jacket lay there.

He reached past her to pick up the jacket and pull out a cell phone from the inside pocket. His eyes had narrowed, as if he was thinking hard, and his mind was miles away. In Lozano Colinas, she realized—that was where his mind had turned.

“Sì?”he answered.His frown deepened. Then he took a deep breath, the kind a person takes when they’ve received bad news. His eyes closed briefly.

Calli’s heart beat so hard it hurt. It wasn’t simply that this call marked the end of her time here. It was also the news that Nick was hearing, that made him look much older than his thirty-plus years.

“Gracias,” he murmured and ended the call. He dropped the phoneonto the jacket and leaned against the counter, his head low.

Calli rested her hand on his shoulder, unsure whether he wanted comfort, yet unable to stand by and watch him suffer alone. She didn’t prompt him to tell her about the call. He would, or he would not. She had no right to insist on anything, anymore. She shared her empathy in silence, knowing it was one of the last things she coulddo for Nicolás Escobedo before he went back to his life and the country he loved.

He straightened and picked up her hand and held it in both of his. His sigh gusted out. “Fighting has broken out at the mine on Las Piedras. Two Vistarians have been killed.”

“Fighting? Who is fighting who?”

“Vistarians.” His expression was bleak. “It’s the rebels, Calli. They’ve come down from the mountains,much sooner than we thought they would, and not where we guessed they would strike first.” He pushed his hands through his still damp hair. “I have to go.”

“Of course you do.”

“You must return to the city, you and Minnie, and you must wait for your Uncle to return from the mine. The army has standing orders to evacuate foreign nationals, especially any Americans, as a first priority if violencebreaks out. They will get him and his people back to the city. You must stay with him until we know if this is a sustained attack or if it is simply a skirmish.”

“Do you think it’s just a skirmish?”

“I don’t know. The timing, the location, goes against all good strategic thinking, so there’s hope this is a single moment we are dealing with. Until we know for certain I want you in the city andsafe.”

“Is the city safe?”

“Safer than Pascuallita.” He picked up the cell phone again, paused to think, then punched in a number. The conversation, all in Spanish, seemed to be with two people, for after a short time he paused, then his manner became more abrupt and brusque. He closed the phone with a snap and thrust it into the jacket. He put the jacket on.

“Pack your things, Calli. Quickly.We must leave at once.”