"I think fifteen miles today was optimistic," Kai said from behind him as they trudged along.

Jeff didn't answer. He was sick and tired of fighting with her. The first hour of their journey had been filled with useless bickering and petty sniping. After that, they had both fallen silent, and Jeff had found his mind thousands of miles away. Only the thoughts of Gordon kept him vertical and moving at all. His head felt as though it were twice its normal size, threatening to burst. But the unbearable notion that he would never see his son again gave him the strength to keep going.

Jeff's foot slid off a wet rock and for a split second, he thought he was going to end up in the river they were walking along. Kai shot out a hand and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him roughly back to the land. He jerked away.

"Fine," she said, backing off, "Next time, I'll just let you fall in."

She brushed past him and walked up the bank. Jeff started to get angry, but sighed and shook his head. The routine of argue, get mad, and then invoke the silent treatment until the next argument was getting old.

Kai looked back at him and then set down the green survival pack she was carrying. They had hidden the other pack and the raft back at the crash site, leaving only one to carry that contained provisions for a night out. She vaulted up on to a rock that jutted out from the bank. Standing, she walked out over the water.

"I'm not fishing you out of there." he yelled as Kai sat down on the stone, near the edge.

"I think I would rather drown, anyway!" She drew her knees up to her chest and sat, staring sullenly over the water.

Did his head hurt so badly because of the probable concussion or the company he was keeping? Jeff tilted his head back in an attempt to relieve the throbbing. Blue sky and trees met his view. The river roared in his ears. They had started out by hiking along a small stream that ran from the lake and had eventually joined a much larger water way. The noise of the water moving swiftly along its path was having a soothing effect on his weary body.

Jeff looked back to Kai. She had not moved from her spot. A sudden wave of empathy washed over him. He was having a bad day, by anyone's standards, but he wasn't experiencing it alone. The girl had been attacked, hijacked, and forced into the wilderness. Someone she cared deeply for was dead, and their own chances of survival weren't all that great. He really couldn't blame her for being short or unpleasant with him.

However, the fact remained that if they were going to get out of this alive, they needed each other. Every time he made a decision, he basically had to drag her kicking and screaming along with it. There was very little satisfaction to be found in the fact that she did concede to him on most occasions. After all, she was knowledgeable about how to survive their predicament. They should have been able to reach a compromise.

He decided to try a hand at some sort of a truce.

"How long are we going to keep doing this?"

"Doing what?" she asked watching Gus as he ran down to the water for a quick drink.

"We can't keep jumping down each other's throats." Jeff replied as he moved to sit down on the end of her warm stone. "We got off to a bad start and that's partly my fault. I have things on my mind and I lashed out at you." He couldn't help but half-smile. "Of course, you seemed stubborn enough to give me a run for my money."

Kai did not take this as a compliment. "Well, if you hadn't been such a pig-headed jackass. . ." she stood up on the rock and moved back towards Jeff, towering over him from her perch

"Would you power down?" he interrupted her before she could explode into a full-out rant. "I'm trying to apologize."

Kai stared down at him, almost unbelieving. She sat back down slowly and quietly for a few seconds, turning her attention to the torrents of the water as it flowed past them.

"Then I apologize as well." She finally said in a civil manner. "I kinda figured something was wrong with you and I still tore into you on the plane. There was no call for that."

"Apology accepted." He stood up, wobbling a bit. Again, Kai put out an arm to steady him. This time, he smiled at her instead of pulling away. "Thanks. Now, I think we need to come to some sort of an understanding."

"What?" Kai looked at him with a bit of distrust still evident in her features.

"We need to stop picking at each other." Kai started to say something, but he held up a hand to stop her. "I am as guilty of it as you are. Now, we're both adults here, and I assume we can both act that way. We don't have to be friends, but the least we can do is treat each other with some respect."

"Agreed," she said. She held up her right hand. "I swear no more name- calling."

Jeff nodded. "All right, I swear no more nagging."

"Let's not get crazy." Kai smirked as she stood up.

"Shall we get moving?"

Kai shouldered the large pack and gave a sharp whistle to Gus. She began to follow Jeff once more.

The effect of the conversation was instantaneous. Jeff felt better, as if one of many cares had been lifted from his shoulders. At least now they could walk in relative peace and avoid the quarrelling. As he moved on, Jeff felt a little bit of hope returning. This was just a setback, and by tomorrow night, he would be where he belonged.

For a while, Kai was silent, but then she asked. "So why is this guy after you?"

Jeff stiffened slightly at the question. He had an idea about the answer, but was unwilling to disclose it to her. "Why are you assuming that he's after me?"

She gave a short laugh. "Mr. Tracy, I'm just a little backwater bush-pilot, but I'm not stupid. You're a billionaire in control of one of the most powerful corporations in the world. Why else would that guy risk so much trying to overtake a charter plane?"

"Maybe he's just some kind of madman." Jeff tried to put her off.

"Then we'd be dead right now instead of having this conversation." Kai replied. "He wasn't insane or out of control. That man knew exactly what he was doing up there."

The girl was smart; he had to give her that.

She put a hand on his shoulder causing him to stop and turn around. "I have a right to know why I'm here and why Al had to die. Do you know why this man is chasing you or not?"

It would have been easy to feign ignorance, but the look in her eyes kept him from doing that. She needed to know what she was up against, just to regain some sort of comprehension.

Jeff turned around and began to walk again. "My best guess is that he is a mercenary who specializes in industrial espionage. The world police have been after him for years now. I believe he was active in Asia last week." He ducked a limb, feeling lightheaded as the blood in his head shifted.

"Who is he?"

"Nobody knows his right name or where he comes from. We're probably one of the few people who have ever seen his real face; he's a master of disguise. The authorities usually just refer to him as the Hood."

Jeff looked back over his shoulder as he went, trying to gauge her reaction. Kai had gone a little pale, but she seemed more thoughtful then anything else as she watched the ground, carefully placing her feet. "What would he want with you? Has your company developed some sort of new technology that he would be after?"

His expression remained neutral. "Tracy Corporation is making technological advances everyday. He could be after any number of them." He changed the subject. "How far do you think we've come?"

"Oh I don't know," Kai said sighing. "We've been going about three hours. Eight or nine miles, maybe?"

"Well, it's not as far as I would like, but I guess we're doing all right."

"Of course we're doing all right." Kai replied, suddenly up-beat. "We aren't walking down the street here, this is rough going." She paused to look out over the river again. "It's a pretty hike, though."

Jeff couldn't help but chuckle at her. He stopped to look at the whitewater as well. "A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees an opportunity in every difficulty."

Kai laughed herself. "Winston Churchill."

"Well, Ms. Taylor, are there any opportunities to be found in our difficulty?"

"Who knows?" she shrugged, "Maybe we'll find some along the way."

************************************************************************



Frustration gripped him again as he looked over the meadow before him. Nothing. No wreck, no sign of the bright red plane. He had been at this for hours, moving steadily in the direction he had seen the plane fall and still found nothing to indicate that it had ever existed.

Perhaps he should give this up. There were thousands of square miles to cover, and the chances of him finding Tracy among it were slim, if not nonexistent. In the distance, he could hear the low rumble of thunder. Shadows were beginning to cover the forest. Falling back was not a coward's option, simply one of strategy.

His persistence won out and he walked on a little farther. This was the perfect situation to capture Tracy. He had wounded him at least, and the element of surprise was with him. If he waited, he would have to start all over again by trailing him and lying in wait for another chance. He didn't have that kind of time. Time was money.

He pushed through some underbrush, cursing as a wild rose caught the flesh of his exposed hand. He could go on like this for days, and not find a thing. He was without provisions, but that was of little concern. He could do without, functioning on the sheer desire to achieve his goal.

The soil beneath his feet became softer, and he found himself looking over the calm waters of a lake. He stared across it, growling.

Then, a thought struck him. Slowly, an evil grin of realization came over his face. Walking swiftly, he circumnavigated the water, leaping a small brook as he did so. He was bent low over the ground, searching for any sign that someone had been here before.

A speck of white in the brown dirt caught his eyes. Squatting to see better in the dying light, he poked the piece of gauze with a stick. The rusty stains of dried blood spoke volumes to him. Someone was alive. Injured, but alive.

He'd bet his life it was Tracy. He must have guessed his assailant's mind. Tracy was nowhere to be seen along the shores of the lake, but he had been there. He couldn't have gotten far.

The man tried to think like his adversary, to climb inside his skin and see what he thought. Where would he go if he were being tracked?

With determined strides he moved back to the stream and looked along the banks. No footprints could be found along the rocky pass. Living most of his life in the Malaysian jungle had given him some sense when it came to tracking animals. A broken twig dangling from a branch showed him the direction his prey had gone.