I caught her eye and tried to mentally warn her about throwing all her trust in him when I wasn’t convinced he wasn’t working against us, but she was busy reading another text. “Roger says they’re all stuck about ten miles back and are going to ditch the cars because of flooding between us and them. Wait—there’s more...taking a train to Warsaw. They’ll meet us there. Oh, good—we don’t have to dress up until we get there. Come on. If the roads are as bad as Roger says, maybe the Esses are not zooming ahead of us.”
She texted wildly while moving toward the car. I raninside the farmhouse, gathered up my suitcase as well as Paulie’s, thanked the farmer’s wife, and offered a handful of euros, which she refused. Anton was ahead of me with his own bag, which he tossed into the back of the car. I emerged from the house with a paper bag with warm muffins.
“Tabby and Sam are with Roger and the other film crew, and they said they heard on the news that all sorts of roads are washed out,” Paulie said, turning to glare at Anton.
He shrugged and held up his hands. “I have nothing to do with their decision, I assure you.”
“Hrmph.”
“Lovely news,” I said grimly, and tossed our luggage into the car. “At least it’s not raining anymore.”
“I’ll take the first shift.” Paulie took the key from me and slid over behind the steering wheel. “You eat and get some rest. You can’t have slept well on the floor.”
I climbed in next to her and was prepared to dispute the fact that I was sore and stiff, but was distracted when she started the car.
Immediately, the engine started knocking loudly.
“What the hell?” Paulie asked.
I sighed and got out, taking off my goggles and hat, both of which I’d automatically put on. “Keep it running. I’ll take a look,” I said, unstrapping the bonnet and pushing it back to stare down at the engine with incomprehension. Anton was at my elbow when I tried to find something that looked wrong. The knocking was even louder, and I could see an oily yellow puddle under the car.
“The hell?” I asked, prodding at a piece that did nothing.
The farmer came out at the noise and was soon joined by his sons.
“What’s going on?” Paulie called.
“I don’t know what the problem is. Everyone is looking and talking, but I don’t speak the language.”
“They say it’s a crank bearing,” Anton translated, asking a question of the men. “We can’t drive the car with it this way. It would be very bad. The oil has been drained as well.”
By this time, Paulie had joined us and swore under her breath. Her fingers found mine and tightened in a show of support and comfort. I squeezed them in return, grateful for the fact that she was there, shouldering the burden of the car alongside me. It boded well for our future.
“Ah. Yes?” Anton held up a hand when Paulie asked him what was going on. The oldest son ran for the house, calling loudly to his mother as he did so. “Yes, yes, that is good. It seems that our host knows of another farmer who used to be a mechanic. They are calling him to come and look at the engine.”
“The engine that your team sabotaged,” Paulie said, and suddenly opened her eyes wide and sucked in approximately half the air in the yard. She turned to look at me, horrified.
“What?” I asked her.
She glanced at Anton and leaned into me. “They did something to the car. While we were in it.”
“Ah.” I thought about that for a moment before answering softly, “We had the blanket over us, if that is what you are worried about.”
“Still.” She shivered and released my hand to rub her arms. “It gives me the creeps to know they were poking around the engine while we—”
I whispered in her ear, “While I was poking around you?”
She made a delightful little half snort, half laugh, and pinched my side.
“What do you know about this?” I asked Anton a fewminutes later, when he was done conversing with the farmer.
“I’m no expert on engines,” he said, shaking his head.
“I meant about the sabotage. It’s clear that your team is taking whatever steps are necessary to leave us in the dust.”
“And I told you both that I refused to have anything to do with that sort of thing,” Anton said firmly.
I looked closely at his face, but saw no signs of deception. I didn’t put much stock in that, however. Despite his having been briefly a member of my team, I hardly knew him.
