get that statue. It appears as if I’m going to need money. But I’d do it even if it weren’t worth a fortune, just to keep it away from that bitch, Zahra. She worships it.” He started the count. “One…Two…”
“Stop.” She knew that the crazy bastard would do it. “I’m coming toward you. We can work this out. Don’t hurt her.”
Where are you, Joe?
He had to be close. He was a much better tracker than she was. There had to be a reason why he hadn’t made his move, and it was probably that threat Varak had made.
She stopped a few yards from Varak. The smoke was still thick here, but she could see him. He had a scarf covering his mouth and nose, and it brought back the chilling memory of that night in the jungle. Forget it. Fear was her enemy, and it would only weaken her. She flinched as she saw that he hadn’t been lying about the gun pressed to Eve’s temple. She quickly tossed her gun on the ground beside him. “If things aren’t going your way, you should let her go and run. If Eve Duncan dies, they’ll never stop hunting you.”
“I’ve been hunted for most of my life. I haven’t been caught yet.” He cocked his gun. “The statue, Eve,” he said softly. “I know you have it. I saw it when you were bragging about that press conference on TV. Where is it?”
“I’m listening. I want to live,” Eve said. “I have a family. I did hide that statue. But Jill might be right. Maybe we can make a deal.”
She was playing for time, Jill knew. Banking on the belief that Joe was close. But Joe couldn’t do anything as long as that gun was pressed to Eve’s temple.
So get the barrel away from her.
Give Joe his chance. Give Eve her chance.
How?
Then, as she looked down at the reconstruction of Mila that she was still carrying, she realized she knew.
“But maybe we shouldn’t give in to him, Eve. He’s bound to be lying to us.” Jill’s voice deliberately rose hysterically. “I told you what he did to me. I can’t let—” In midsentence, she hurled Mila’s skull with full force at the hand in which Varak was holding the weapon and knocked his gun up in the air. The next instant, she dived to the ground next to him, reaching for the gun she’d just tossed to him.
She heard Varak swearing as he stomped on her hand and instinctively swung the weapon in his hand toward her to fire it.
Pain.
She gasped as the hot wave of agony spread through her side.
But he was turning away from her toward Eve again.
No!
But Eve was tearing away from him and dropping to the ground. “Now, Joe!”
A single shot from a Remington 700.
Varak’s body whiplashed as the bullet struck him in the throat. His eyes bulged as he saw the blood spurting. “What the—” Then he started to fall to the ground.
But Joe’s second bullet tore into Varak’s left eye, jerking him backward.
And then the third bullet struck him in the center of his forehead, and his head exploded.
Jill saw him collapse a few yards away, the blood pouring from the wounds. So much blood…
Dead. Is that how monsters died?
Eve was kneeling beside Jill, her face pale. “Lie still.” Her voice was shaking. “Why couldn’t you have just waited? I could have stalled him. You’re bleeding, dammit.”
“Mila…I’m sorry about Mila. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. All that…work…”
“What? Mila? Where did that come from? For heaven’s sake, I think that she’d forgive you. I know I do.” Her voice was suddenly fierce. “Providing you don’t die on us. I won’t have that, Jill.”
“Of course, I…won’t die.” Jill’s voice sounded strange, slurred, even to herself. “I’m just a little…tired…”
Darkness
* * *
Embassy Hospital
There was light streaming through that window, Jill realized as her eyes opened. Strange. It had been dark only minutes ago, but now it was light…
She saw Novak’s face above her. And that hospital smell…
“Nairobi?” she whispered drowsily.
“No, we’re done with Nairobi.” He leaned forward. “Embassy hospital. But we do keep meeting this way. It’s got to stop, Jill. I don’t think I can take much more.”
Then she was wide-awake. “Eve!”
“She’s fine,” he said. “You took the bullet. But you’re fine. It was a flesh wound in your left side, and you have a cracked rib.” He grimaced. “Well, maybe Eve’s not so fine. She was with you most of the night after the