“My thought exactly,” he remarked.
They were no longer on an airplane. Nor were there any kidnappers in sight. They appeared to be alone in a hot, humid, muddy swamp. It was day, which told her absolutely nothing about how much time had passed. She could hear nothing but chirps and croaks and other animal noises, along with an occasional, ominous plop. The ground was soft with mud and weeds, not far from a stretch of dark water. The water was dotted with lily pads and little islands. Beyond it she could see gnarled trees and reeds and more swamp. The air had a very distinctive muddy smell that no one would ever use in a perfume, not even as a bottom note.
“Did they dump us here?” Fen asked.
“Apparently.” Carter sounded like he didn’t believe the evidence of his own senses. “I guess they drugged you too, huh?”
“Yeah, right after they got you. I knew there’d be too many of them for you to fight.”
He looked stung. “I got distracted. Why’d you charge out, anyway? I told you to stay in the cargo hold.”
“I heard a gunshot, and I thought the plane might depressurize.” She folded her arms across her muddy chest, clipping her words off with what she hoped was enough finality that he wouldn’t think to ask her what she had intended to do about the depressurized plane. The truth was, she’d heard the shot and rushed out thinking that Carter had been hit. For some reason, at the time that had upset her.
“There was no gunshot.”
“I heard it,” she said, annoyed. Why did he always have to contradict her?
“Remember the kidnapper who grabbed you, the one they called Bill?” Carter asked. “Did you notice his jacket?”
“Yeah. He’d been shot, but he was wearing a bulletproof vest or something.”
He shook his head. “He wasn’t shot. He had a cell phone in his pocket, and it exploded.”
She stared at him. “What? Really? Did you have a… a tiny bomb or something on you?”
“I wish. No…” His gaze shifted away as if he was hiding something. “No, it just exploded.” He shrugged, as if cell phones spontaneously exploding was totally normal.
“Well, that’s bizarre.” But then, so was everything else. “Look, when I said I knew there’d be too many of them to fight, I didn’t mean it as a put-down. So you couldn’t fight five kidnappers all by yourself, so what? It was brave of you to try.”
Not smart, she thought.But brave.
He gave her a deeply suspicious look, as if he’d heard her thought. Then he said, “Thanks for helping out. That was brave of you, too. Also, excellent aim with the soda can. You’ve got a hell of a throwing arm.”
“I pitch in a softball league of women entrepreneurs,” she said with pride. Then she added gloomily, “It didn’t make a difference, though.”
“I didn’t make a difference either,” said Carter. “And I should have. You did everything you possibly could have.”
“So did you.”
“No… I mean…” He trailed off, looking deeply, genuinely ashamed and guilty.
“I know the Man Code of Manliness says all men should be able to take out an infinite number of bad guys unarmed and singlehanded,” said Fen. “But come on!You’re an inventor and a businessman, not John McClane. And also, ho ho ho, you don’t have a machine gun.”
He managed a laugh. “True. Well, let’s get out of here before they come back.”
“You think they’ll come back?”
“I’m sure of it.” But he looked more guilty than worried.
He was probably thinking he needed to defeat them all to prove his manly, manly worth. It was one of the times when Fen was glad she hadn’t been born a man. Trying to live up to impossible expectations was bad enough for a woman, but at least she didn’t feel guilty for failing to defeat five kidnappers with a soda can. She grinned to herself.
“What’s so funny about thinking they’ll come back?” Carter demanded.
“Nothing. I wasn’t laughing at you. In fact, I wasn’t thinking about you at all.”
“Oh.” He looked deflated rather than relieved.
“I was remembering how I nailed that guy with the Sprite, and then I stomped the other guy with my high heel and then I bit him and then I kicked him in the balls.”
