Prism - By Rachel Moschell Page 0,34

Alejo felt himself staring. The girl’s explanation of her name had suddenly brought it home: she was very real, with a very real family somewhere who would miss her if Alejo just killed her here in cold blood. “I have a medical kit,” he said hoarsely. “Cuts from broken glass?”

He sounded like an idiot. His team needed him to kill this girl. For the mission, he had to kill this girl.

And he was asking her if she needed Band-Aids.

She glared at him then, jaw clenched with anger. “Why do you care?” she hissed. “My best friend was sitting right next to me, and if you didn’t find him he could be dead. What have you done?”

Her tone rose frantically, and she curled up tighter on his sleeping bag. Alejo’s stomach burned at her words; the others on the bus had almost certainly been taken out, but he couldn’t think about if Salazar was gone or not until he heard the news that the body was found.

If they ever found a body.

Alejo stared at this girl with the nose ring in his tent and saw a life he had just utterly devastated. “Who else was on the bus?” he asked against his better judgment. His mouth was bone dry.

Wara stared at the olive wall of the tent, obviously exhausted by her tirade. “I was…with Noah. I didn’t really pay attention. There were a bunch of people in the back in suits and then some more people came on at the last minute.”

Alejo felt sick. More people possibly unrelated to Salazar. And this girl in front of him. Wara.

Uncontrollable nausea welled up in the pit of Alejo’s stomach, and he knew there was no holding it in.

“Excuse me,” he told the girl briefly, then ripped open the door to the tent and ran outside into a nearby cluster of banana plants. He threw up until there was nothing left, then wiped his chin on his t-shirt. Alejo sank down onto the ground with a clear view of his tent, still feeling sick and undone. Thankfully, it looked like everyone was in their tents snoring. No one had seen him out here vomiting. Sucking in a slow breath, Alejo tried to clear his mind and think.

If he helped the girl leave this place alive, he would have to leave the Prism. Forever. The guys could even be sent after him to kill him. And then look for his family.

She would have to leave and never come back, always look over her shoulder. And she would tell the authorities everything.

Thank God the Khan is gone.

Lázaro had met him in the jungle near Boris’ house tonight, and the two were driving to La Paz in Lázaro’s chartreuse Brasilia. Ishmael was off to Peru, then home to Peshawar.

If Ishmael were here, she’d be dead already.

This time Alejo felt he had no plan.

There was always a price to pay, he’d learned, for doing what was right.

This time, the payment might have to be Wara, the American missionary girl.

11

coffee

SHE MUST BE SHOCK. SHE HAD TO BE, because how else could she keep breathing, how else could she even think, when Noah might be dead.

She was sprawled on a sleeping bag in some tent, captured by some dangerous guys who had probably made her bus crash and killed Noah.

No!

She forced herself to erase that thought, scrub the eraser madly across the pencil lines on the page until it was gone altogether.

That couldn’t be right.

Noah had to be just fine.

And it was good he wasn’t here, with these awful guys who had threatened Wara outside.

She closed her eyes against the cool material of the sleeping bag, feeling sick and dizzy, but surprisingly, not in pain. The thought crossed her mind that she could just get up and walk out of here, but she was sure they would catch her. Thoughts of Noah in the bus at the bottom of the ravine paralyzed her, filling her body with lead.

The door of the tent rustled and the guy came back in, brooding and dangerous looking, with stormy hazel eyes. She blinked, noticing he wasn’t wearing a t-shirt anymore. The guy looked about her age, maybe five ten, wearing khaki pants with pockets everywhere and leather sandals.

Wara cringed, because she knew whoever these guys were, this one was the leader. She’d heard how he’d ordered the guys around outside, sending them away mumbling with muted curses.

And now she was stuck here with him.

Who in the world were these guys, and where was she?

What