the truck engine sounded like it was almost on top of him. He turned to his left, only noticing then how much of his vision had been obscured by the swelling and the blood. Horrified, he watched the white truck bearing down on him.
He swung the rocket launcher around and fired.
***
“Look out!”
Lourds had been staring out across the parked cars. He knew the Russia Today man had probably had time to reach the parking area. Anna had thought she’d spotted him. But her startled cry drew his attention back to his driving. He expected to see the killer standing before them on the other side of the bullet-riddled windshield.
Instead, it was one of the Taliban warriors with a rocket launcher over his shoulder. The man was directly in Lourds’s path, and there was no room to miss him. Lourds yanked his foot from the accelerator and stepped on the brake.
The Taliban warrior swung around.
“What are you doing? Don’t stop!” Anna grabbed her seat belt strap and braced her feet against the floor. “He’s going to shoot us! Run him down!”
Lourds pulled his foot from the brake, which wasn’t doing anything more than causing the truck to slide on the slick snow and ice mix, and applied a steady pressure on the accelerator. All four wheels grabbed traction immediately.
The Taliban fired the rocket.
Lourds threw up a hand and immediately felt foolish. His arm wasn’t going to offer much of a shield against the rocket.
Miraculously, the shot passed overhead, missing them by a hand’s span or less. The Taliban tried to run, but the truck ran right over him.
Anna peered through the back window, which had several bullet holes in it. “He’s alive.”
Lourds checked the side mirror as he powered out of the hollow. “The Taliban?” He didn’t see how that was probable, but he had to admit that it could happen if the truck had crushed him into the snow.
“No. Yakov Fursin.”
In the mirror, Lourds spotted the man in the green coat getting up beside a flaming car. “I thought we agreed that’s probably not his name.”
“We did. But that is what I will call him until I find out who he is.”
Lourds looked at her with grim seriousness. “That’s probably not the best course you could pursue.”
“How could I not follow this man? I am a journalist. I write for The Moscow Times. This could be a big story. He has killed Boris Glukov for some mysterious reason, and he would have killed you if not for me.”
Lourds nodded. “You’re right.” There was no question she had helped him tremendously.
“I will gladly accept this story in exchange for that.”
“I don’t even know what this story is.”
“Then we will find out together.”
23
Herat
Herat Province
Afghanistan
February 14, 2013
When he reached Herat, Lourds parked the truck in an alley, left the keys in the ignition, and got out.
Anna hesitated. “What are you doing?”
“Leaving the truck. It’s not safe to keep driving it. Fursin knows what it looks like, and it’s shot up so badly that it’s only a matter of time before the police get curious.”
“But it will get stolen.”
“I hope so.” Lourds glanced down at the end of the alley and noticed a small group of pre-teen boys. “And things are certainly looking up.”
“But shouldn’t you return it to the rental agency instead?”
Lourds shook his head. “Only if I want to leave a trail.” Over the past few years of dealing with assassins and mercenaries, he had gotten smarter about such things. Escape and lying low weren’t quite as easy in real life as they were in the potboilers he enjoyed, but there was a certain amount of truth in those novels. “If I return the truck, that’ll give our pursuers a place to start.”
“You sound paranoid.”
“After everything that’s happened, you bet I’m paranoid. Yakov back there seemed pretty determined. And he shot Boris right in front of me.” Lourds still felt numb over that. There’ll be time to grieve later. Right now you need to concentrate on survival.
Anna hesitated a moment more, then climbed out of the truck and joined him. Together they walked to the street.
“What do we do now?”
“We find a public place and try to figure out what our next step is.” At the curb, he flagged down a taxi. The driver parked at the curb and waved them inside.
Lourds opened the back door of the taxi and allowed Anna to get in first. She slid over immediately and made room for him. Lourds got in and dropped his backpack