Robaku and all those other children slain in this bloody land?
“It’s something to think about,” Novak said. “I promised Jill that I wouldn’t reveal you as a source, but there would probably be suspicions.”
“Of course there would be,” she said impatiently. “She brought me here because I have a reputation. I’d be the first one anyone would suspect. There would be so much uproar, I could lose that reputation, and the entire world would think I’m some kind of radical crackpot.”
“Or a brave woman out to save that world,” he said quietly. “It could go either way, but in the end it would depend on how much it means to you. No matter how we try to protect you, you’ll probably go through a firestorm. I’ll try to move fast enough to get my hands on Varak right away, but no guarantees.”
“There are too many ifs and mights in this scenario. And I seem to be the one who’s bearing the brunt of all this violence and ugliness that’s going on. I was poisoned today,” she said through set teeth. “It’s easy for Jill to wring her hands and talk about how Varak has to be stopped when she’s not taking the punishment.”
“None of it’s easy for Jill,” he said roughly. His coolness had suddenly become ice. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I gave her every chance to get out of this, and she still went after them. And if you bail on us, she’ll still do it. No matter what they do to her. And there are worse things than a bout of food poisoning, Eve.”
His violence had caught Eve off guard. All the smoothness and persuasiveness had disappeared in a heartbeat when she’d attacked Jill. And it had been triggered by that one comment Eve had made. Why? Then she was suddenly remembering two sentences that Jill had spoken that had been lost in the bombardment of information she had been throwing at Eve.
They meant to hurt you and discourage you as they did me.
And that tiny hesitation, Yes, I got away.
She met his eyes across the room. “She said she got away after she found Hadfeld. It wasn’t true?”
“Oh, they let her get away afterward. They wanted to teach her a lesson first. There were four of them. They beat her and they raped her and left her to crawl out of that jungle to find her way back to the road. So don’t tell me about her not paying her dues. The only thing she asked me when I found her on that road was to let her be the one to go after them.”
“And you agreed?”
His lips twisted. “At that point I would have given her anything she asked. She believed that Hadfeld was telling the truth, and she’d paid the price. I could have negotiated that payment and handled the transaction. I didn’t do it. I wanted to go after him my way. So she did it on her own.”
And Jed Novak was not as cynical as Jill had said, Eve thought as she gazed at him. She didn’t know what he felt for Jill, but she could tell that what had happened to her that night had struck a deep chord. And it had struck a deep chord in Eve as well. The mere fact that Jill had not tried to arouse Eve’s sympathy by letting her know about the attack made the feeling even more poignant.
But that didn’t change the situation. It merely made it more painful. “Do you believe that skull is Varak’s, Novak?”
“Maybe. I was convinced he was dead at the time, and I tend toward doubting everything that comes my way. The attack on Jill made it seem less likely. I do believe that skull could be a phony. I’ve been sending agents into the mountains asking questions of the people who were there the day of the explosion. There are a few who have doubts that Varak was on that helicopter. The others are afraid to admit to anything that would disturb the status quo.” He shrugged. “And I’ve already started to trace a few scientists who could possibly fake that DNA. But I can’t make a move on them until I’m sure I know what I’m doing. Varak would be quick to get rid of any witness.”
“If he hasn’t done it already,” Eve said. “You’re not being at all reassuring.”
“Jill made me promise not to lie to you. The decision is yours. I’d appreciate it