sharply. She felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach.
Gideon said quickly, “You know they’ll call as soon as they get to a safe area.”
“Whenever that is,” Eve said numbly. She straightened her shoulders. “Yes, Joe will call me as soon as he can. I know that.”
“Of course you do. Let’s go outside and get some air.” Jill strode toward the door and opened it for Eve. “Like you said, they’re both professionals.”
She watched Eve go out the door before she turned to Gideon. “How bad was it out there?”
“Deadly. What you’d expect from Varak,” he said soberly. “It’s set up to be a killing field, between the land mines and the multiple snipers. If the team had gone in, the chances are we’d have never come out. Novak knew that, but he was desperate.”
“So he took the chance himself.” Her lips twisted. “And he’ll do it again.” She started out the door toward Eve. “If Varak didn’t kill them both this time.” Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “We’ll have to see if Eve gets that call.”
* * *
The call didn’t come until almost an hour later.
Jill’s heart jumped, and she whirled to face Eve.
Eve nodded and quickly checked the ID. “Joe.”
Relief so great it made Jill dizzy. “Thank God.”
Eve answered the phone. “You’re an idiot, Joe,” she said huskily. “Are you both all right?” She nodded at Jill at his answer. “You don’t deserve it. When will you be here so that I can tell you in person?” A moment later she hung up the phone. “Another forty-five minutes. They didn’t leave the stakeout until it was almost fully dark, and it took them longer to get back through the jungle.”
“I would think it would. Was the risk worth it? Did they get what they needed?”
Eve made a face. “Joe said partially successful. But partially is never enough for Joe.”
“Nor for Novak.” Jill tried to keep her voice steady. “I’ll go inside and tell Gideon that they evidently didn’t get blown up. Coming?”
Eve shook her head. “I’ll wait out here. I’m too edgy to be cooped up right now.”
“And you want to see Joe the minute he walks down that path.”
“You might say that,” she said lightly. She leaned back against the wall. “Though I do intend to be very stern with him.”
“Yeah, sure.” Jill opened the door and went into the museum.
Gideon immediately looked up. “Eve heard?”
Jill nodded. “Both okay. They’ll be here in about forty-five minutes. You’ll probably hear from Novak soon.”
Gideon gave a low whistle. “I’ll call the airport and let the team know.”
“Do that.” She was silent a moment. “They didn’t get everything they needed. They’ll probably go back, won’t they?”
He hesitated. “It depends on how successful they were.”
“The only results they’d consider successful enough to stop them from going after Varak would be if they’d managed to kill him or had gotten some scrap of DNA material that would prove his identity. Neither of those things was likely to happen according to Joe. Right?”
“That’s what he said,” Gideon said warily.
“Then no way should they run the risk of going after him again,” she said flatly. “We need to leave him alone and try another direction.”
“It’s Varak, Jill,” he said gently. “He’s out there waiting for us to scoop him up.”
“It’s the wrong thing to do. I sat here all day, going over everything that has happened since I got that first message from Hadfeld, until the moment you showed up with the location of that compound from Dalai. It’s like a story with huge gaps missing, but nothing I thought of or tried to put together made going after Varak in that jungle the right thing to do.” She held up her hand as he started to protest. “And I’m not going to argue with you. I know where you’re coming from. I’ll talk to you later.” She turned and headed for the door. “Will you stay here with Eve until Joe and Novak get here? I’m tired, and I think I’ll go down to Hajif’s hut and rest for a while.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “You don’t want to wait until they get here?”
She shook her head. “So I can hear about how they avoided the killing fields? Maybe later. Right now, it doesn’t appeal to me. It makes me feel sick to my stomach.” She headed down the hill toward the village.
She needed to be alone. She didn’t know what her attitude would be when she saw Novak