“Don’t you know anything else?” Lily persisted.
“Need-to-know basis,” Hawk said. “That’s the nature of the business, Lily. Thought you knew.”
Lily shrugged. “Surely there’s a big picture. There’s always a big picture.”
Amber caught Brad looking at Lily as if he were going to say something, then appeared to change his mind. He turned his attention to Amber instead. “So,” he said, “we’re going on this romantic vacation.”
She smiled at him, knowing what it took for him to avoid starting an argument with Lily. “Yes, but we’ll have to detour because Dilaver will be keeping tabs on us to make sure we’re actually going somewhere.”
“Where are we actually going?” Brad turned to Hawk. “We can’t stop at every place they dropped off shipments. It’d take more than a week.”
Hawk nodded. “I’ll confirm this later, but the main plan is to get out of here without being spotted. Too bad you’re dark-haired, Lily, or we could use you as a decoy with Brad. Both of you can drive off in the opposite direction.”
“There’s such a thing as a wig, you know.”
“There’s that possibility,” Hawk said, looking at Brad, who kept silent. “Amber and I will head off to retrieve the bomb. We can keep in touch by cell.”
Amber found it interesting to see how these two men were becoming sort of friends. They hadn’t talked that much with each other, but she could tell that they were backing each other up in a way only males did, by diverting attention.
“What are you going to do with the bomb when you get it?” Lily asked.
“I call my contact and wait for instructions.”
“Then the mission is over? That’s it?” Lily hid a yawn behind a hand. “Where’s the glory? No payoff, nothing?”
“We get to save the world, Lily, or some part of it,” Amber said, amused. “Guess that isn’t a big enough payoff?”
“I’d much rather save a bunch of girls’ lives than some bomb that might be used somewhere. Who knows? It might explode in Dilaver’s face before he sells it, killing him and his buyers, and that’s a good thing.”
“I think Dilaver and his aunt have very big plans for this particular bomb,” Hawk said. “First, they don’t even know what it looks like, which makes me think it’s a new weapon of some sort. Second, they have a deadline of a week, which points to the possibility of them using this bomb in a big way.”
“That’s how it sounded when Greta talked to me. She offered me a big sum of money for you,” Amber said, smiling wryly at Hawk’s raised eyebrows. “I’m to call Dilaver if you contact me and to try to get you to tell me where you are. Huge sum of money.”
“Glad to know my price tag is so high,” Hawk said.
“I suspect they let me off so easy because they want to see what I’m going to do next. If I put the word out on the street looking for you, they will hear of it tomorrow. They also know that if they cut off your sources of help, they might get to you sooner. They didn’t mention to me how injured you are, by the way.”
“Wouldn’t want you to feel sorry enough to help me, now, would they?”
Amber reached over and lightly touched his bruised cheek. “He’s going to pay for this,” she said softly. “I’ll think of some ways to really hurt him back.”
“This is tolerable. You came just at the right time, sweetheart,” Hawk said, covering her hand with his. “This boy would have been quite badly injured if Dilaver had started on me. Thanks to you, I only get to limp around like him for a while.”
The knowledge of how close he had been to dying hit her like a bull’s-eye. She had avoided that very thought all morning. She had lived in Macedonia for four years. Lives were cheap here and many people she knew had either gotten hurt or had died. She had grown to accept that as part of her current job.
Somehow Hawk had become important to her. She had fallen hard for him and had put his life before hers, running off to save him on her own. And what she was going to do now could also jeopardize her future here in Velesta. Lily was right. She couldn’t have it both ways—going off on a tracking missionandrescuing girls from Dilaver’s clutches. Dilaver’s suspicion could put the whole venture in danger. When this was over, she and Lily would have to talk things over. She had a feeling it was going to be a sobering conversation.
“Hey, you okay?” Hawk nudged her with his leg.
“Yes. Just thinking about everything.” When she caught Lily yawning again, she added, “I vote we take a break before we get our final plans together. We can get going easier in the dark, anyway. Hawk, you need to rest up or we can’t go anywhere.”
“Yes, ma’am. I second the vote.”
“I have a few of my most trusted men stationed outside,” Brad said. “I get the feeling that Dilaver will soon be on the way out of town, though.”
“He didn’t seem too affected by the tear gas last night,” Amber observed.
“CS gas isn’t long-lasting,” Hawk explained. “But he does have a lot of injured or dead men to take care of this morning, so that gives us a little time.”
