Chapter 4
Ryan redialed Annie's cell, there was no answer although he was hopeful, he knew even before he tried that there would be no answer. She had more than a two hour head start by then and that's when it hit him. She knew what she was doing all along. She was the one who planted the idea of returning to Caracas. As for Ryan he had enough of watching his back in dangerous situations, he would have preferred relaxing at an all-inclusive resort, but he loved Annie's sense of adventure so he brought them to Venezuela. He wondered what she was thinking and why she needed to resort to disappearing on him. Why didn't she tell him what was going on and why did she feel a need to keep him in the dark.
Knowing what he knew about her, she had to have a damn good reason, but he kept going back to the question of why she didn't trust him with whatever bind she was in. His mind kicked into gear and he replayed everything that happened. He tried to put himself in Annie's shoes and think like her. Where would she go? How would she do it?
With his eyes closed he replayed the background noise he heard as he spoke to Annie. He had enough high school level Spanish to get by, but the more he thought about it, the more he remembered, it was the sound of hawkers selling bottled water at the border. She was at one of the border crossings. The only way she could make it to a border crossing in such a short amount of time was to fly, but which crossing? He refreshed his memory of the nearest crossings and tried to think like Annie.
/
"You know our friend at the Columbian border?" asked Ryan without any greetings.
"Yeah, he was Caitlyn's asset," replied Costa his assistant.
"Give me his number, he got a huge payout from our last encounter, make sure he knows that he's still onboard now that Caitlyn is gone," ordered Ryan.
"Okay, give me a minute," said Costa.
"Text it to me and would you wire some 10K to the bank closest to my location and let me know when it's there?"
"Yes sir," said Costa.
Ryan hung up.
As he headed out to the airstrip where he remembered seeing Annie wandering around, he tried Annie's cell again. It was hopeless, she ditched it, he was sure of it.
As soon as Costa sent him the border guard's cell, Ryan called. He spent a few minutes on idle chit chat and letting the man know he was still valuable with Caitlyn Cook gone. He offered him use of his villa for the duration of the rental in exchange for information on Annie. Hell he wasn't going to enjoy it, so someone else might as well. The asset checked the databases for Ryan and said an Austrailian woman fitting Annie's description crossed into Maicao from Maracaibo just thirty minutes earlier.
"What name was she using?"
"Penelope Wyatt," said the border guard.
"Gracias."
"Mr. McQuaid, are you looking for a man as well?"
The notion that she wasn't alone hadn't occurred to Ryan at all.
"Excuse me?"
"According to the notes, she entered with her husband and they are traveling on their honeymoon."
"What is the man's name?"
"Jorge Garcia," said the border guard.
"Do me a favor and send me a picture of him," asked Ryan.
"Yes, Mr. McQuaid, but our cameras, they are old so the image will be not so good."
"Thank you and I appreciate your discretion as always," said Ryan.
Ryan clenched his jaw, a dozen questions flew into his head as he finished up his paperwork to fly out of Caracas. When he got to the part about destination, he hesitated. Chase Annie or go home. As he contemplated, his phone rang, it was the doctor on his payroll in Maracaibo. Not someone he expected to hear from. It had to be related to Annie.
"Yes, how may I help you?"
"I thought perhaps you were with the senorita, the same one you asked me to treat a couple of months ago," said the doctor.
"You saw her?"
"Yes, she came to me for her medication, but I was only able to give her six doses, she ask for double."
"You have no way to reach her?"
"No senor, that is why I call you. I located another six injectors and I wanted to offer them to her, but I had no number for her so I try you Mr. McQuaid," said the doctor.
"Thank you doctor. I'm on my way to Maracaibo and I'll pick them up."
"Did she give any indication of where she was going?"
"No sir," said the doctor. "But she was in a hurry."
"Was she with anyone else?"
"No," said the doctor.
/
Annie felt a cool damp cloth on her head as she tried to will her eyes open. For a few moments she had forgotten where she was and whispered, Ryan's name before closing her eyes again.
"Shh, just rest up," said Ben.
Ben had lifted Annie onto the bed and elevated her head after she landed on the floor. He checked her pulse and pupils, unsure of what to do, but she was breathing and her heartbeat, although weak was palpable. He quickly looked up the medication and found it was a vasodilator. Ben concluded it was her heart causing all the trouble. He poured water from his bottle, there was barely a glass left and Annie's water bottle was empty. He didn't want to leave her, yet he needed to get some water and food for them as well as new cell phones.
"Annie, can you sit up?" He asked as he helped her. She was slowly coming around.
"Here, have some of this," he said handing her the glass.
"I need to get you some more and a doctor," said Ben.
Annie shook her head.
"No doctor, I'm okay, the medicine is working," said Annie.
"Annie, I know you don't trust me, but right now I'm all you've got. That's why you resorted to me isn't it?"
"Can I have a moment, you can go get the supplies, I'll be fine."
Ben looked at her for longer than usual. He didn't want to push her. "All right, I'll be back in thirty minutes, I need to phone in too, so I'll take care of that."
"Ben?"
"I know, I know, I won't mention where I am or you," said Ben.
"I was about to say, thank you," said Annie.
They smiled at each other. Ben reached out and touched her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'm just glad you weren't alone when that happened."
Annie nodded remembering what Ryan once said to her about not having to be alone.
"We'll talk more when I get back," said Ben.