Walker guided the Colt from Monica’s hands and led her to the truck. She settled on the front bench seat and he climbed in behind the wheel and took off. He drove across the bridge, through the billowing black smoke, navigating by instinct, and then he was through the smoke and across the bridge and he sped down the mountain trail.
“I just—”
“No,” Walker said to her, checking his rearview mirror before taking a turn down the track, not seeing any men or vehicles in pursuit. “You shot at him. You hurt him, sure. But he killed himself.”
“You think?”
“I know. And you saved me—and yourself. You did the right thing.”
Monica was silent.
Walker downshifted and took another tight turn down the steep track, then glanced to Monica holding on to the dash and said, “You okay?”
“I don’t know what happened.”
“You tripped out.”
“How? Did I fall?” She put a hand to her head but felt nothing. No bump, no graze, nothing that could account for the blackout and woozy feeling. Then she looked down and saw the syringe on the floor of the truck. “Did I . . .”
“That? No. That was me.”
Monica looked to him. “You?”
“You had an e-cigarette, and it wasn’t loaded with tobacco. Or weed, or any other kind of soft recreational drug.”
“I—I don’t remember. I remember seeing it, on the floor back there.” Monica looked into the footwell at the back seat and saw only trash. “What was in it?”
“Some kind of hallucinogen. You’d have to ask Paul to be sure.”
“Paul—where’s Paul?”
Walker sped up as the track started a long sweeping decline along the side of the mountain.
“He’s out there somewhere.”
•
Harrington looked down at the burning wreckage of the Suburban. He could see a charred corpse in the driver’s seat. But not his other guy. He sent Kent down to take a look. He waited.
Kent saw something down there that confirmed both team members were dead and he looked up and shook his head.
The soldier next to him said, “What now?”
“Get the helo to pick us up,” Harrington said.
“It’s tracking the contact on the motorbike.”
“Our mission is Monica. Re-task the helo.”
“Copy that.”