Bullets shattered the rear windshield. "Get down!" Jason said, helping Elena crouch down below the seats with him. "Are you okay?" She nodded, her eyes wide with fear.
The car sped faster, and dust flew into it. Glass rattled on the leather seat, some of it blowing into Jason's face. He turned toward the back of Tasha's seat to shield himself.
Dear God, he prayed, help us to escape. He and Tasha were trained agents, but Elena was just a brave woman who had tried to help, and now she was mixed up in this mess. He didn't want to think about what would happen to them if they were caught, but he would protect her at his expense, if at all possible.
He grasped her hand; she squeezed it back.
They sped up into the foothills. "The border should be close," said Tasha.
"There will be checkpoints!" said Elena.
"If I can't find a way to drive past them, we might have to leave the car."
The gunshots receded into the distance. Jason took a deep breath; he didn't know if he'd breathed during that whole altercation.
They wound up into the hills, the car shifting gear, chugging up the road.
"There's a checkpoint up ahead," said Tasha. "I've got to stop."
"We can't stop!" said Elena.
"We have to. I don't think they've seen us yet; I kept the headlights off. We've lost the trucks. Now's the best time."
"It'll be okay," said Jason, though he didn't know if he believed it. He took Elena's hand and helped her out of the car, and he grabbed his pack, the only one left since Tasha had left hers at the house she'd escaped from.
They followed Tasha into the woods. Pain shot through Jason's leg; he'd left his crutches in the broken-down car when Tasha had picked them up.
Tasha led them in a zigzagging course through the darkness; branches scratched at his arms and face. Harsh voices echoed behind them.
"They must have found the car," said Tasha. "Come on." She sprinted through the woods; Jason could barely make her out in the dim moonlight. He followed, never letting go of Elena's hand, his heart pounding, pain shooting through his ankle.
Voices neared, heavy footsteps running through leaves.
Tasha stopped. "Wait!" she said, when Elena kept walking. She held out her hand; Elena stopped, inches from barbed wire.
Tasha knelt beside the wooden post, where the wire was highest from the ground. She motioned them forward, and Jason followed. Elena knelt in the dirt, and crawled under the fence. Her skirt snagged on a low hanging part of the wire.
Lights flashed through the darkness, moving steadily closer.
Jason tried to pull Elena's skirt off of the barb, but it wouldn't move. He fumbled in his shirt pocket for the pen knife, and sliced a slit through the fabric. She crawled through and he helped her up, and they raced through a small clearing.
A light flicked on from a guard tower along the fence.
"Run!" said Jason, and they tore through the woods, stumbling over rocks and fallen branches. Elena tripped, and fell headlong into the dead leaves.
"Ow!" she shrieked.
Jason knelt beside her. "Come on." He helped her up; she gasped.
"I think my ankle is sprained," she said. She took a step forward, and faltered again. "Maybe you should just leave me here."
"I'm not leaving you," said Jason. "If it comes down to it, I'll stay with you and let Tasha go on ahead."
"Jason," said Tasha, "you know what they'll do to us if we're caught. I'll carry you both if I have to. Now let's go." She grasped Jason's wrist, pulled him to his feet.
They carried Elena between them; Jason's ankle protested the extra weight, pain bursting through it with each step. But he pushed on, up a hill, as soldiers shouted through the woods and flashlights lanced through the trees.
They veered to the right—and almost stumbled off a cliff. The sliver of a moon barely illuminated the forested valley below.
Jason led them toward a small ledge along the upper edge of the cliff, hoping that the soldiers would lose their trail rather than trap them there.
The ledge slanted downwards, and Jason pressed close to the rock. Rocks crumbled beneath their feet, tumbling down the mountain.
Elena stopped. "I can't do this."
He put a hand on her back. She was trembling.
"Yes you can," he said. "Look—it gets wider further down."
"I—just can't move."
"I've got you," he said, taking her arm in his, lacing his fingers through hers. He nudged her forward, and she inched along the edge, her whole body shaking so much that he thought she might send them both hurtling off the cliff.
"Look!" said Tasha behind him. "I think there's a cave up ahead."
A black hole yawned in the face of the rock. They crept toward it and stepped inside, and it swallowed them whole.
Light streamed in through the window, hitting Jason' closed eyelids; he turned over to shut it out.
But when he moved, aches shot through his muscles like electric shocks. His ankle felt like fire had bored a hole through it.
He opened his eyes. Beside him lay a woman, her back to him, her head lying on a backpack. Her golden hair, glistening with morning sunlight, flowed onto the dusty ground. Was it Gloria? No—Elena. His mind zoomed back to the present.
The race through the night in the car, then on foot through the woods, and finally down the ledge to the cave. They were fugitives, and they were still in an enemy country, though not the one that they'd been spying in.
Jason struggled to sit up. Just a few yards away, sunlight hit the back wall. At the mouth of the cave, Tasha crouched, silhouetted against the sky.
"So you're awake," she said, without looking at him. "Good. It's about eight o'clock Muldavian time."
"I was out for that long?"
"You had a good reason for it."
He got to his feet; pain shot through his ankle. He sank to his knees.
"I should have a look at that," said Tasha. She left the mouth of the cave and walked over to him. He sat down along the wall, and she rolled up his pant leg. As she unwound the bandage, he gasped in pain, gritting his teeth to hold back a cry.
She grimaced. "It looks swollen. It's been bleeding again. And it could be infected." She grabbed some things further back in the cave and returned. "We've got to make our water last as long as possible, until the patrols have moved on. I'll have to use these." She ripped open an alcohol pad and swabbed the wound. Fire raged into it; he clenched his fists. Tears sprang to his eyes.
"There," she said. "We'll have to use these sparingly too." She tucked the other packet into her pocket. Then she wound the bandage back around his leg.
"Thank you," said Jason.
She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "You're welcome. I don't want you dying on me now that I've gotten you this far."
"How long do you think we should stay here?" Jason wasn't in much of a hurry to move for a while.
"Probably a couple days. I might have to go out and get some water soon—what we have won't last long."
"Do you think she'll be okay?" He gestured toward Elena, still sleeping further inside the cave.
"It didn't seem like any more than a sprain when I bound it up last night," Tasha said, turning her head. For the first time, the light hit the left side of her face. A dark bruise marred it.
"Are you okay?" He reached for her face; she flinched back, but his fingers brushed her chin, skirting the edge of the bruise.
"I'm okay," she said. "It was an accident—the boy at the farm thought I was a thief."
"I didn't get a chance to hear what happened there."
"They locked me in a shed, and I tried to escape. Then their son came home, and he thought I was stealing something, so—"
"So he hit you?"
She nodded. "I don't blame him, really. It was his house, he was a soldier—"
"A soldier?"
"He works at Zohr. Elsa—the woman at the farm—said that they're mining uranium there. It's making the prisoners and the guards sick, but they won't do anything about it. Elsa's husband wanted to take the bounty for me at first, so Jensen—the soldier—could get medical treatment."
"How did you escape?"
"They let me go. Jensen wouldn't let his parents take the money for me. Then the army showed up, and I escaped out the cellar. They let me have the car."
"So….that's why you showed up with a car instead of just a battery. And Stefan—Rovann's son—is at Zohr…He's probably sick by now."
"He probably won't survive unless something happens to shut the camp down. Soon."
"I wish we could do it."
"So do I." Passion stirred in her dark eyes, the same passion he felt for these people's freedom. But they couldn't do anything now. They were in a cave somewhere in Czechoslovakia, being hunted by soldiers. They couldn't even save themselves; how could they even consider saving anyone else? Like Tasha had said—advice he should have heeded: they would just have to be objective, treat this as just another mission, and hope their efforts would play a part in the overall strategy of overthrowing communism. Although, for some, salvation would come too late….
Tasha rose, cut some bread and cheese, and made some sandwiches. Elena woke, yawned and stretched; Jason helped her to sit up, and gave her some water. "Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome. Are you okay, Elena?"
"I feel very stiff. But otherwise—" She tried to stand; her leg faltered, and she collapsed. Jason caught her in his arms. He helped lower her back to the ground.
"Neither of you will be going anywhere for a while," said Tasha. "Let me take a look at that ankle."
Tasha inspected Elena's ankle; it looked swollen, bruised. Worry seized Jason's heart. "It's not broken, is it?" he asked.
"I don't think so," said Tasha. "Just a severe sprain. Ideally, she should be off of it for several days at least."
"We'll be here that long?"
"Unless the soldiers find us."
"If they do, our injuries will be the least of our worries."
Tasha gave him a sharp look. "They'll use our injuries against us, I'm afraid."
"You're talking like it's going to happen," said Elena, fear in her voice.
"Not if I can help it. But we have to be prepared for any contingency. As soon as I can, I'll go to the nearest town and contact Donovan. He'll either send a helicopter to an extraction point, or he'll leave us to fend for ourselves, if the risk is too great. We knew the risks, after all."
"Not Elena," said Jason. "She didn't ask for this."
"She helped you. This is her reward."
"But—"
"I know, it's a twisted world where standing up for what's right gets you in trouble. But if you had just kept to the mission parameters, Jason, she wouldn't have had to rescue you."
"I'm sorry, Tasha."
"It's Elena that you should say you're sorry to."
"I'm sorry, Elena. I–"
"It's okay. Even after all that's happened, I'd still help you escape. I don't regret a thing." Her blue eyes caught his. He longed to embrace her, but he didn't think it would be appropriate, especially with Tasha present.
Tasha handed them each a sandwich, and they ate in silence.
Jason finished his sandwich; he was still hungry, but they had to conserve food as much as possible now. "If—when—we escape," he asked Elena, "do you want to come back to America with us?"
"She may not have a choice," said Tasha.
"What do you mean?"
"She's been too involved with us. She'll have to be debriefed."
"But she's a civilian."
"The Agency is very thorough."
"I want to come with you," said Elena. "For now, anyway. I don't know if I could stand being away from Muldavia for long—even now, I can feel that I'm not in my country anymore. But I…don't know if I'll be able to come back."
Tasha said, "I have a feeling that Muldavia, like other communist countries, is going to be changing for the better soon."
"You think so?" said Elena, her eyes lighting up.
Tasha nodded, and took the last bite of her sandwich, as if she'd been making it last, unlike Jason, who'd pretty much devoured his. It was too bad that they couldn't have taken a transmitter with them to contact Headquarters, and a helicopter would have come by now to rescue them right from the mouth of the cave….
They spent the rest of the day resting, and at night, when cold came, they made a small fire. Tasha took the two water bottles to find more water.
"Be careful," said Tasha. She handed Jason the camera gun.
"They're more likely to find you out there."
"If they find me, I can run. You two are easy targets; with a weapon, you can hold them off."
"As long as I have bullets."
She looked at him, a solemn look in her eyes. "Make them count, Jason." She pressed the gun into his hand; their fingers brushed, and her hand lingered against his for a moment. Then she dashed out the cave, and was gone into the night.