Chapter 69

 

 

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

0957 hrs.

 

That was easy enough. Mason struggled his way to the plane. “Go!” he shouted at the pilot.

The pilot nodded.

Sage jumped in after him as Mason glared down at his injury from Japan. It had started to ache, having not had proper medical attention. He’d only needed three seconds.

He’d barely made it out alive of St. Peters Hospital with the security Shields had instigated. He’d extinguished the lights with one shot at the switch and stolen past terrified attackers with speed he didn’t know he still had. He managed to get the help of three greedy guards who’d cowered to the floor with Jack. They’d given him the escape passage only twenty minutes earlier and his pockets were now lighter. Money was never a problem . . . why should it be now? Twenty-thousand pound sterling was all it took.

He’d needed to get out of there fast. How he did it, he didn’t care.

And now, Stan or Nicole, it didn’t matter.

Cress had failed to decide. Or had she been saved by the blast?

All he needed was those damn notes. The idiot would get them for him. The man had been avaricious enough when he came to him mumbling unintelligible threats about Shields.

What did he care? Shields was no operative, granted he knew much about them and he could fight in a ring with the best of them. But what did he care what Lascar’s misgivings were about Nash? That made it easier for him.

Lascar was driven by jealousy. What was it about that Cress girl that tore both men apart? He remembered the pain he’d seen in the operative when he came to him to bare his soul. The first time he’d cracked an operative’s brain activity, which would make Cress easier to handle.

Mason had never had much time for the tender side of human sentiment.

Things were set in motion.

Lascar knew what to do.

 

 

 

HUNZA, NEAR CHINA-PAKISTAN BORDER

 

Jack peered at him quietly as Nash watched the truck depart. It slugged the mud as the trickle that had started settled into a mountain downpour that beat over their heads. Nash’s hair was wet throughout, his mountain boots moist, his jacket soaked through. He stood on the road for several minutes without moving.

“Nash, I’m so sorry. She didn’t mean it.”

Nash turned to face Jack, his face expressionless. The last ten minutes had scarred him deeper than any knife wound. “Yes, she did.”

 

Jack scratched his head. Granted, Calla had searched for her mother all her adult life. He knew that from the moment he’d met her. Nash had not once surrendered any knowledge of his communication. Nicole hadn’t wished it, because it was not safe for Calla to know where she was. Nash had only tried to protect them. Shouldn’t that be commended? I mean, the guy’s a man of his word. That’s a rarity these days.

Jack didn’t understand the opposite sex at all, especially the smart ones.

The connection his two best friends had was something he one day desired to find. Who was this Lascar anyway?

Nash shrugged out of his jacket and wrung out the rain. Jack noticed that though the temperature was low, Nash didn’t feel the cold as he slung the coat over his shoulder.

Jack retrieved his phone. “We’re not far from Hunza.”

“How many miles?”

“About five.”

“We can walk that.”

“Nash, are you really giving up on her? What about—”

“She doesn’t want me. I can’t change that,” Nash said shrugging.

“I don’t believe that. I’ve known her a long time. Nash, she may have all the pieces left to her by her mother, but she still needs to figure out what they mean and most importantly, where she is. She can’t do that without you.”

“Looks like she’s going to—”

“We need to help her.”

“Calla’s decided she doesn’t need our help. Let’s get to Hunza and rent a Jeep that will take us to Islamabad. That will be the easiest route home.”

“Home?”

“Where’s home, Nash? You yourself have said home is where people you care about are. Calla is out there with frankly a very questionable guy and you’ve been on this journey with her since it began. Don’t give up on her, Nash. I know it’ll kill you—”

Nash threw his hands in the air. She doesn’t need my help.”

“You know she needs us. This Lascar guy may be an operative with muscle to match a bull and bitter breath to go with it, but he lacks one thing . . .” Jack edged closer. “He doesn’t have your belief in her, your determination and guts! All the things that Calla needs right now, and you’re the only one who can give them to her. None of these other people have ever given her that, or are capable of it.”

Nash started walking in the direction of Hunza. “Let’s go.”

“I’ve never known you to give up, Nash. If not for Calla, do it for you! Prove to yourself that you’re right, that your instincts about people are never wrong! That’s one of the first things I noticed about you. You can read people a mile away. And I know you know something’s not right!”

Was he convincing himself? Nash wasn’t one to give up. Whatever he decided, Jack purposed that he’d stand by Nash.

He needed to.

“Calla’s with people who want her most,” Nash said.

Jack’s face angered. “Bull! But they’re not the ones who she needs most.”

 

 

 

ISLAMABAD AIRPORT

 

“You made the right choice.”

Calla glanced over at Lascar who buckled his seat belt next to her in the First Class compartment of British Airways flight en route to London. She stretched her legs. She’d not spoken a word to either Allegra or Lascar on the long ride to Rawalpindi avoiding them as best she could when they chartered a flight from there to Islamabad.

Her head hurt. She’d taken an aspirin from Lascar to counter the pain and slept most of the trip. She would find her mother, didn’t need anyone–never had in her twenty-nine years. She’d managed without anyone–for the most part. Her father she could forgive. He’d had no knowledge of where her mother was and didn’t know that Nicole was contacting Nash. Stan was family and those you couldn’t choose.

But Nash was her . . . She could not find the words. It was as if Nash were part of her soul. A silent hero— dependable . . . a liar! No, that he’s not. But he’d keep an important piece of the puzzle from her.

Had Allegra and Vortigern been right all along?

The plane chortled it engines and soon they were airborne. As they took height, Calla tried to put the past day’s events in perspective. Her eyelids weighed down with fatigue and she drifted off to a deep sleep. She shut her eyes as the plane made its way through the clouds and what looked like a smooth ride ahead.