Page 224

The first engine began to spool up outside, a rising mechanical whine quickly deepening into a vibration beneath the cabin floor.

Nik looked up from his laptop.

“Lucian, sit down. We’re about to move.”

There was no teasing in his voice. Just urgency.

Lucian rose and took the seat next to Nik in front of us.

Lachlan fastened his seatbelt, then reached for my hand again as Lucian buckled in.

The second engine came alive.

A moment later, the aircraft began to roll.

I turned toward the window.

The FBO slowly slipped past—the shattered glass, the people crouched inside, security vehicles converging on the building, and the place where only minutes earlier I’d thought our escape was ruined.

But no one had followed us onto the ramp.

Between the armed men we had left behind, legitimate airport security converging on the FBO, and the confusion spreading through the terminal, Marcela’s people had lost their clean path to us.

Nik focused on the laptop open on the table in front of him.

From my seat behind his, I could see part of the screen between the headrests. Information shifted across it faster than I could follow while his fingers moved over the keyboard. Whatever he was doing, his attention had already moved beyond the chaos at the FBO.

He was planning ahead.

A voice of one of the pilots came over the intercom.

“Ground control is holding us.”

Nik didn’t lift his eyes from the screen. He tapped on his phone, and his voice joined the pilot’s over the intercom. “Why?”

“Traffic crossing ahead, and airport security wants us stopped until they sort out what happened at the FBO.”

“We’re not staying here while they figure it out. Let’s go.”

Rory leaned toward the window. “I’m inclined to agree.”

Nik enlarged something on his screen.

“There’s a crossover ahead. Traffic on the other taxiway is stopping.”

The pilot answered, “That isn’t where ground cleared us to go.”

“I know.”

His tone made it obvious he considered that somebody else’s problem.

The jet turned.

Through my window, another aircraft appeared ahead and to the right, moving slowly along a parallel strip of pavement. For one awful second, I thought we were heading straight toward it.

Then it stopped, and we cut across in front of it.

Angry voices immediately erupted from the cockpit radio.