Sure enough, there were the faint, telltale flickers of light against the far walls at the end of the street. Sydney had been right—the woman must have backup here already, waiting for her signal to move in.
Sydney swore under her breath. “Don’t tell me we have to steal a cop car,” she muttered.
Winter stared at the blue glow strobing against the wall. If they stole a car now, they’d never be able to get past the border. They were too far; there would be barricades set up to stop them immediately. And it would be too obvious that Winter was in the car with Sydney—not only would he be added to the fugitives list, but his cover for Panacea would be blown.
Then it occurred to him.
Realization dawned on Sydney’s face at the same time.
“Maybe we don’t have to steal it,” he whispered.
If Winter could have taken a photo of the police officer at the street corner, it would have been a shot frozen in time of a mouth dropping open in shock, of eyes widening in disbelief, at the sight of the world’s most famous superstar walking down the middle of the street toward the barricade, hands in his pockets.
As he approached, he pulled his hands out and held them uppurposefully, letting them see that he had no weapons. He let out a sigh of relief, his eyes welling with intentional tears.
“Thank god,” he said.
The man’s gun was in his hand, but at the sight of Winter, it wavered and he lowered it. “Mr. Winter Young?” he said skeptically.
“Yes,” Winter said with a nod. He looked from the first officer to a second one standing nearby. Everyone’s eyes were on him now, all with the same shocked expression. “That’s why you’re all here, aren’t you? I called my manager to ask if I could be taken to the border, where she has a plane arranged for me in Malaysia.”
The first officer blinked skeptically at him before the other hurried up to them. He glanced at Winter in exhausted frustration. “Mr. Young, you’re not supposed to be here.”
Winter threw his hands up in exasperation. “Of course I’m not supposed to be here,” he began. “I’m supposed to be in Melbourne, Australia, right now, getting ready for the next leg of my tour, but then the lockdown happened, and I don’t have my team with me out here. I can’t be in the streets—unless you’d like to deal with a riot.” He stopped and blinked at the officers. “Why? Why areyouhere, if not to be my escorts? What did Claire say?”
“Who?” the first officer said.
The second officer sighed wearily at having to handle a celebrity. “Mr. Young’s manager,” he said. “I’ve seen her on TV.”
“Then you understand.” Winter stared pointedly at them. “She’s arranged a team from Malaysia to meet me at the private airfield in Kampung Ladang. I have to leave immediately. And if someone doesn’t escort me, I’m going to have to go on my own in broad daylight along this street. Not sure you want to deal with the chaos of that.”
Winter looked expectantly at the men. His mind, however, was elsewhere—counting the seconds as Sydney quietly made her way toward the police barricade.
At last, the first officer shook his head and looked back at the second.“I’ll take him in the SUV,” he said. “The rest of you stay here and wait for orders. I’ll be back in an hour.”
Then he looked at Winter and nodded. “Follow me, Mr. Young,” he said.
“Thank you,” Winter replied with a polite nod. He resisted looking over his shoulder toward the hotel and wondering if Tems had finished yet.Come on,he thought as they headed to a police SUV parked at the back of the barricade.We’re running out of time.
As they neared the car, Winter felt the phone in his pocket buzz once. Sydney’s signal. His heart tensed in anticipation. On the surface, he smiled and thanked the officer as the man opened the back door of the car for him.
“I’d recommend keeping your hat down, Mr. Young,” the officer said before he shut the door. He handed him a standard black face mask. “Here, put one on. We’ll be passing through a bit of downtown, and traffic is starting to build up. Lots of eyes.”
“Believe me, sir, I know all about it,” Winter said conspiratorially, and it earned him a little laugh from the officer.
As the door shut, Winter pulled out his phone and took a quick look at Sydney’s message and location.
His heart leapt. She was already in the car, hiding in the SUV’s trunk space.
He resisted the urge to turn around, as if he could see through the row of seats to where she must be curled up tight. How did she move so quickly? She must have done it in the instant he’d distracted the police, must have popped the back and crept in while everyone was gaping at him.
Then he processed the text that she’d sent.
Tems nh.
He’d gotten used to her quirky shorthand texts.NHstood forNot Here.Tems hadn’t come when he was supposed to.
Winter’s teeth clenched. Of course something had gone wrong—or perhaps Tems was just taking his time, being as insufferable as ever. But Winter could feel the drop in his stomach. Sydney had a better radar than he did for Tems’s timing—she knew something had happened to him.
