Page 218

“This is where I leave you,” he shouted through the small, open window between us as he pulled onto the shoulder beneath a row of trees. “The private aircraft area of the airport is less than a kilometer ahead. Straight down this road, then right at the fence. Go toward hangar six.”

Lachlan was already moving.

I slipped the backpack over my shoulders and climbed out of the truck bed.

Miguel came around to the back of the pickup and held out his hand to me.

I ignored it and hugged him instead.

He stiffened in surprise before wrapping both arms around me.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “For everything.”

“You get on that airplane,” he said quietly. “And stay safe.”

When I stepped back, Lachlan clasped Miguel’s forearm and tugged him forward for a pat on the back.

“My people won’t forget what you did for us.”

Miguel gave him a small smile. “No worries. Good luck to you both.”

Lachlan’s hand settled at the small of my back and guided me forward.

Miguel climbed into the truck and drove away without looking back, the old red pickup disappearing into ordinary traffic as though it had never carried two fugitives down a mountain.

No one watching the airport would ever know he’d been there.

“You ready, Mouse?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

His hand stayed against my back as we started walking.

The closer we got to the airport, the more industrial everything looked.

The farm roads and scattered houses gave way to warehouses, high fencing, and long buildings with enormous doors. Traffic moved faster here. Trucks passed us in bursts of diesel and hot air, and somewhere beyond the fence came a deep mechanical roar unlike anything I’d ever heard at La Cruzona.

I turned toward it just as an aircraft swept low overhead.

The sound hit me first.

I jumped hard enough that Lachlan’s hand closed around my waist.

“Easy, Mouse.”

I looked up as the plane crossed above us, impossibly large against the blue sky before dropping toward the runway.

“I had no idea they were that loud.”

His mouth twitched. “It’s hard to understand how powerful those things are until you’re up close and personal with them.”

“No kidding.”

He kept his hand at the small of my back as we continued.

Ahead, sleek cars turned between landscaped entrances and low modern buildings that looked more like expensive offices than anything I’d imagined an airport would be.

“This area is for private aviation,” he explained.