The Trail to Buddha's Mirror - Don Winslow [142]
Then he heard voices echo below. Li Lan stood up and peeked over the rock. Then she slammed her fist on the rock in rage and frustration. She turned back to Neal.
Tears of anger streamed down her face.
“It is too late!”
Neal leaned out over the rock. His ribs exploded in a burst of pain. He saw Simms pacing steadily across the saddle, almost to the base of the ladder. Peng waddled about a hundred yards behind him, followed closely by Wu, who was shuffling along in his distinctive pigeon-toed gait.
He turned back to Li.
“We can run. We can make it. We can warn them.”
She looked steadily in his eyes. “Fate is fate. You cannot change it. You Americans always think you can change it. You must learn to face your fate, learn to face the truth. Face what your stubbornness, and selfishness, and lust have done.”
“Love.”
“No, lust. I begged you to stop, but you wouldn’t stop. Now see what you have done. See what we have done. Accept it.”
Neal slipped the pistol from the small of his back.
“Go. I’ll buy you the time.”
“Neal Carey, listen for one time. I do not love you. That is the truth. I love Robert. That is the truth. I was never going to go with you. That is the truth. I made love with you to deceive you, to buy your silence. But now your silence is worthless.”
She pointed down the hill.
She’s right, he thought. Everything she says is true. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done because of her. Because I wanted her and couldn’t have her.
“Run,” he said. “If you run you can make it.”
“Do not make this sacrifice for me. I do not lo—”
“I know. You don’t love me. But neither do I.”
But I do love you, he thought.
She turned and ran.
Now think, he told himself. For the first time on this whole fucking job, think. Simms can pick you off from here, and that’s no good. You need to shorten the range so that your pistol is as good as his rifle.
He looked uphill to where Li Lan was scrambling up the slope. There was a slight curve in the path, and some rocks off to the uphill side.
If I can make it there, that might do.
He rolled onto the path and started on all fours. His ribs slammed at him, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t look up, either, but he could hear Li Lan running, as bits of rock and shale slid down behind her.
Go, go, go, he thought.
Now he could hear Simms on the path behind him. Also running. Shit. Have to make it to that curve. Have to make it there with a few seconds’ lead.
Neal stood up straight and burst up the hill. He screamed as his ribs exploded and screamed again as he reached the curve and threw himself behind the rocks. He could see a bit of the path below him and all the path in front of him. He saw Li Lan on all fours, and then he watched as she stood straight up, waving her arms and shouting, trying to warn the three men to get off the edge of the summit.
“She is waving!” Xao said. “But where is Carey?”
“He must be resting.”
“Can he see from there?”
“I am sure.”
I hope so, Xao thought. I hope so. Come on, Mr. Carey. Where are you?
Where are you, you little bastard? Simms wondered. The Chinese babe was flattened against the hill like a bug, but Carey had disappeared. Planning another little ambush, are you?
Simms saw the path curve about forty yards above him.
Okay, he thought.
He left the path, working himself down the slope on the seat of his pants. There was a nice rock down there to steady the rifle on, and it would give him a beautiful fire angle at the summit. They would be silhouetted, backlit by the setting sun.
Then he could deal with Carey at leisure. Leisure … what a nice concept. He sure could use a little leisure.
Simms slid down behind the rock.
What the hell is he doing? Neal wondered as he watched Simms’s maneuver. Then he saw Simms drop into a shooter’s crouch, wrap the rifle sling around his wrist, and lay the barrel against the rock. He watched as Simms put his eye to the scope and began to scan the summit,
Li Lan