She had relied on Novak, Gideon, Joe Quinn, and Eve herself to make most of the moves forward. She’d been content to merely sit on the sidelines and watch over Eve.
And Kimbro had died. Eve had been poisoned. There was no telling how much blame Jill had to shoulder about the bombing of that U.N. building because she hadn’t been more aggressive.
She had to close her eyes for an instant. She couldn’t be sure that everything would have been different if she’d been more true to herself. But what if it had been? When you wrote a story, every chapter, every paragraph, every plot point made a difference.
She opened her eyes and drew a long breath. Okay, don’t look back. Look forward. Do what Eve said she could do, use her primary talent. Figure out a way to change the way the story would go. Pray that trip to Varak’s encampment would yield dividends but don’t count on it. Rely only on yourself.
Look at the principal characters and how they would behave. Explore weakness, strength.
Varak was a sociopath, almost impossible to judge.
But Zahra…
What had Eve said about Zahra?
And now he’s got Zahra Kiyani in his corner.
But did he really have her in his corner? Could her character be moved, shifted?
Think about that…
And who else had moved into the spotlight?
Dalai.
Strange to think of that slender, vulnerable girl in anything as bold as a spotlight. She had fluttered in and out around Gideon, then had run away. But there had been no doubt that she had been honest and helpful about Varak. Jill hadn’t realized until now that something about her encounter with Gideon had made her uneasy…
Put the thought aside. Let it simmer.
Go back to the beginning, when she’d first gotten that offer from Hadfeld.
That was really the start of the story…
* * *
Nagali Rain Forest
2:35 P.M.
“Quinn’s not back yet?” Gideon murmured to Novak as he crawled back from checking on the other men on the team. “It’s been almost an hour. I don’t like it. He stopped us four times before we got half a mile into the property to disarm land mines. I have an idea this whole jungle is one big time bomb.”
“So does Quinn,” Novak said grimly. “That’s why he wanted to explore ahead to make sure that it would be minimally safe for us to go forward without blowing ourselves up. The sentries are the least of our worries.”
“Well, they may not be the least of Quinn’s worries. I didn’t hear any explosions, but one of the sentries might have gotten him.” Then he shook his head. “No, Quinn’s too sharp. Forget I said that. I just want to get moving. So do the rest of your team, Novak.”
“Do you think I don’t?” He paused, struggling with his own impatience. “Quinn knows what he’s doing.” He added, “I hope.”
“That didn’t appear to be a sincere vote of confidence.” Joe Quinn was suddenly moving out of the palmetto bushes next to them. “But I can see why. I thought I’d be back before this.”
“Why weren’t you?”
“I knew after a half hour that I wasn’t going to be able to bring any of the team much farther than this point. I’ve never seen an area so heavily seeded with land mines. Varak must be truly paranoid. I watched one of his sentries, who obviously had a defined path, and he was very careful about not going off that path. He probably didn’t know where all those land mines were either.”
“And that surprises you?” Novak asked. “Varak would have been amused if one of his men was careless enough to get himself blown up.” He asked, “Where were you for the rest of that hour?”
“Taking photos. Trying to determine sentry placement. I found the helicopter pad.” He looked at Novak. “And I located the main house and bunkhouses.”
Novak tensed. “Varak?”
“I didn’t see him. And that area is so heavily fortified, there’s no way we’d be able to get into his house or get a shot at Varak without being blown away ourselves.” His lips twisted. “I thought I’d better get back instead of staking him out. After all, you are heading this team.”
“Not so that anyone would notice,” he said. “You said that the team wouldn’t be able to go any farther, but you managed to flit all around the damn encampment.”
“I knew what I was doing. One man with experience. An entire team tramping through there would end up in pieces. The odds are someone would make a