Twelve to thirty-six hours.
That was his best estimate. If his message had been received, and interpreted properly, and if the CIA were inclined to act on the information sent by a traitorous jihadi, it was likely that the small transmitter he'd dropped on the trail would bring intervention within that time frame. Much longer and they would begin to wonder if they would still be in place, though by now, the camp was lighting up a satellite surveillance screen. And who else might intercept that and what else that could bring in on them didn't bear thinking about and he would move camp at the end of that period as a precaution, and try to find another way out for her.
Had he made the specialness of that spot clear enough to Annie? No. But he would. He would make some excuse to Laylah and they'd go there again tonight, take a rug, sleep there. A stealth helo would be the likely transportation sent, especially at the spot he'd selected, at the end of a broad, deep canyon that would provide cover for one - but he couldn't count on that. How he would explain her sudden absence would be another matter, though, since she had run away from him once before, he expected that explanation would hold. He'd tell them that she escaped from him in the night, that he pursued her, couldn't find her … and then launch a massive search for good measure, moving camp as a consequence of that.
She was waking now, looking exceptionally beautiful. He had a passionate desire – to hand her a mug of American coffee and make her an omelet in his kitchen in his old apartment in Washington D.C. Or maybe, better, his place in Israel. No need to be so close to Langley in this fantasy, where she would likely be rushing off to workat CIA headquarters. With Auggie eagerly awaiting her arrival. Auggie. Couldn't she at least find a guy with a name that didn't sound like a glass marble?
This line of thinking was not helping.
She stretched, pushed her hair out of her face – one of the women had threaded a couple of metal beads into a thin braid, and they jangled together as she did so, and looked at him. "Good morning," she cooed, but then her eyes narrowed and he realized he must have revealed something in his expression. "What?"
"Nothing," he told her, and tried to distract her with a welcome-to-the-morning kiss. She responded warmly, but the distraction part didn't work.
"No, not nothing. What's up?'
"You are looking exceptionally beautiful this morning. That's all."
"That's all?"
"More than enough, I assure you." He smiled at her and then, blessedly, Laylah slipped into the tent with a question about Fatima.
II.
Annie watched Eyal talk with Laylah and concentrated on her own breathing. The baby seemed very present to her in her belly, shifting. She put her hand on her own belly and swallowed and was determinedly calm.
But she knew she had seen that expression on Eyal's face only once before. In Israel. At the airport. When she was going home.
When he was seeing her off.
He must have known, she thought. Known all this was coming then. But had he known it as a man about to betray his country, who knew he might never see her again? Or as a man about to risk everything he knew and loved for a still unknown reason?
