Chasing the Night - Iris Johansen [73]
“Out!” Joe yelled. “Pull over, Kelsov! Everyone out!”
Kelsov didn’t question but skidded to a stop by the side of the road bordering the marsh. He was the first to jump into the muck.
Catherine jerked Eve out her door, and the next moment, she was floundering knee-deep in the mud.
“Joe!” Eve screamed. Where was he? She couldn’t see him.
The car exploded into a fiery mass as the missile hit it.
“No!”
“Easy.” Catherine was dragging her through the mud. “He jumped out the other side. He’s okay.”
“Are you sure?”
Catherine was glancing over her shoulder. “There he is across the road. He’s aiming at—Oh, yes.”
The Volvo’s gas tank exploded as Joe’s bullet hit it. The explosion ignited the missile launcher and the vehicle blew high in the air!
“Yes, your Joe is very much okay.” Catherine’s eyes were glittering with fierce admiration. “Great move. I couldn’t have done better.”
A tribute warrior to warrior, Eve thought.
“Where’s Kelsov?” Joe said as he jumped into the muck and waded toward them.
“Here.” Kelsov called from some distance away. “I was just about to come and rescue all of you. But of course I had to make sure that I was safe first. That’s the only intelligent way to proceed.”
“You’re nothing if not intelligent,” Catherine said dryly as she started toward him. “It was lucky that Joe acted on instinct and not intelligence. It worked out better for all of us.”
“You don’t think that I’d have come back for you?”
“Actually, I do,” Catherine said. “Unless Rakovac was standing between us. Then you’d go after him and let us take our chances.”
“And you wouldn’t?”
“Yes, I’d probably do the same thing.”
“I don’t think so,” Eve said. “Hatred can only twist your character so far. I believe you have the same instincts as Joe and would act on them.”
Catherine looked at Joe. “I’d like to think you’re right, Eve. What do you think, Joe?”
He didn’t answer her. “I think that we’d better get out of this marsh and find a car. Those explosions would have been heard for miles. We don’t know that we’re safe yet. Rakovac might have sent out a second team.” He tucked the forensic case he was still carrying into Eve’s backpack. “Kelsov, if we call Bravski, will he come and get us?”
“Maybe.” He shook his head. “But we can’t trust him not to talk about what he’s doing. It’s safer to get back to the village on our own. Then we can borrow his car to get back to where I dropped off the Mercedes and be on our way.”
“Safer, not quicker,” Eve said. “Six miles, if I remember correctly.”
“You’re not strong enough?” He smiled slyly. “And you were so full of threats of violence to my person when I only mentioned that we might have to leave Quinn. I’ll have no trouble at all slogging my way through this marsh. I might even offer you a hand if you ask prettily.”
“Knock it off, Kelsov.” Joe took Eve’s elbow and half led, half pulled her with him as he started out. “He’s right; we shouldn’t give away our position to anyone. We’ll stay in the marsh for the first few miles to make sure no one else is going to be after us. Then we’ll take to the road. It will make the going faster and easier.” He glanced over his shoulder at Catherine. “Are you all right?”
“Of course.” She smiled brilliantly at him. “It takes a lot to take us down, doesn’t it?”
He stared at her for a moment and then slowly nodded. “You’re damn right it does.”
He turned back to Eve and his arm tightened protectively around her. “And we’ll get through this, too. Just keep moving…”
“Good Lord, you all look as if you survived a mudslide,” Kelly said as she threw open the door. “What happened?”
Her description was probably accurate, Eve thought. She could see what Kelsov, Joe, and Catherine looked like, and she must be the same. She had caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror in Bravski’s house where they had “borrowed” his car. Caked mud up to her waist, in her hair, tennis shoes muddy brown instead of white. The smell was almost as bad.
No, worse.
“We need baths,” she