smoke.” She was struggling to get to her feet. “Probably oil or carbon base…I don’t know why he—” She broke off as the reason came to her. “No one can see through that smoke. You’d be almost blind.”
Smoke. Black. Impenetrable. Curling like thick shadow serpents into the sky from the hill.
From the museum.
That thick black smoke would completely obscure vision from only a few yards away.
And Joe’s position in that banyan tree was more than twenty yards from the museum. He wouldn’t be able to see anything.
Panic iced through her. “No!”
Then she was ripping off her tee shirt. “Keep everyone in the caves, Hajif.” She wrapped the tee shirt over her mouth and nose as she tore away from him. She heard Hajif shouting behind her as she ran through the jungle and streaked up the path.
Through that impossibly thick smoke, she couldn’t even see the banyan tree where, only hours earlier, Joe had shown her he’d set up to take his shot. She didn’t know if he was still there in the jungle or heading toward that museum as she was doing.
She didn’t care. She only knew what she had to do.
Get to Eve.
She reached the museum. The door had been thrown wide.
No fire. But smoke in every corner and pouring out the door.
And there was a gaping black hole where the back windows had been. A hole big enough for Varak to have been able to take Eve out of the museum and avoid that front entrance.
And no Eve.
Maybe Joe had already gotten her out…
But Mila’s reconstruction was still on the worktable. Eve would never have left her there to be destroyed.
She grabbed the skull and took it with her as she tore back out of the museum.
Her eyes were stinging as she ran out into that thick cloud of smoke again. She shouted, “Eve!”
“Here she is!” It was a man’s voice in the distance. “Come and get her, Jill. It is Jill Cassidy, isn’t it? How could I ever forget your voice? I was hoping to see you here.”
And how could she ever forget Varak’s voice? Laughing as she struggled beneath the weight of his body as he beat her. Don’t think of that moment of weakness. Make him speak again so she could locate him.
And so Joe could locate Eve.
“Say something, Eve,” she called. “Has he hurt you? He’s a coward and very good at hurting helpless women…or children.” Her hand tightened on her gun. “Isn’t that right, Varak?”
“Yes, because they’re of no importance. Except when they’re being stubborn. Your friend Duncan is proving to be very obstinate. She won’t tell me where the Great Beloved Wife statue is hidden. Come and help me persuade her.”
“Stay where you are, Jill,” Eve called. “You know you can’t do anything. Don’t give him what he wants.”
Jill was almost sure Eve’s voice was coming from the dense jungle behind the museum. She started toward it. “You’re alive. That means there has to be something we can do.”
Are you listening, Joe? Do you hear us? All that training, all that intensity and boundless passion. Track him. Find him.
She was struggling to breathe. Her throat felt raw. But there was less smoke as she rounded the curve in the trail that led to the rear of the museum. She thought she could see darker figures among the haze. Eve?
“I see you, Jill,” Varak said. “You’re just a shadow in all this smoke, but I can make you out. And I don’t see the gun in your hand, but I know it’s there. Because you had one when we had our little party with you. It didn’t do you any good then. It won’t do you any good now. Because your friend, Eve, also had a gun, and I was forced to smash a few fingers and take it away from her. I admit I was tempted to use my machete on them. But perhaps later…right now all you have to know is that the barrel of the gun is pressed to her temple. That means you’re going to come forward and toss your gun to me, or I’ll press the trigger. I’ll give you to the count of three. I want that statue, and I don’t have time to play games. Unfortunately, I’ve had a call from Markel, and he says things aren’t going as we hoped in the village. So it seems I’ve got to get out of here.” His tone was suddenly harsh. “But I’m not going before I