BAM!
The snake jerked and lay still.
Connor held his breath as the soldier walked over to his kill, picked it up, and turned to show it to his friends, somehow not seeing Connor, who lay in the grass a mere three feet away. The soldier walked back to the others, showing off his prize.
Holy shit!
Connor exhaled, backed away from the road and down into the ravine, making his way slowly and silently toward Shanti.
She lay in the undergrowth, a look of terror on her face. She threw herself into his arms when he reached her, holding onto him as if their lives depended on it. “I thought he’d seen you. I thought he was going to kill you. And then the snake…”
Warmth blossomed behind his breastbone to know she cared. “For a minute there, I wasn’t sure which one of them would have the honors—him or the cobra.”
But they didn’t have time for this.
“The forest ends up ahead at a highway. Troops have set up a roadblock—about thirty hostiles with rifles and bayonets.”
“Bayonets?”
“We need to backtrack.” He saw the fear on her face, touched a hand to her cheek. “Hey, it’s okay. They don’t know we’re here.”
He led her back the way they’d come then pushed more to the west. Once again, they reached the highway—it was nothing more than a two-lane dirt road—but this time there were no soldiers.
They crouched near the roadside, Connor listening for helicopters or approaching vehicles. “Go!”
Shanti ran, heading for the cover of the forest on the other side, Connor beside her, rifle at the ready.
“That’s one obstacle down. The bigger one lies ahead.”
It was late afternoon when they reached the river.
Shanti stared. “How can we cross that?”
A torrent of muddy water rushed through a rocky gorge a hundred feet deep, tossing up foam, swirling in rocky eddies.
Yeah, no way were they swimming that.
Connor locked down his own emotional response. “Let’s work the problem.”
He reached into his pack for his binoculars. “There are three suspension bridges—two to our north and one farther south. The bridges are under guard, so we need to find a safe place to downclimb, cross the river, and climb out again without being seen.”
Hope seemed to fade from Shanti’s face. “What we need is wings—or a miracle.”
“Don’t give up on me now, princess. We’ll make a miracle if we have to.” He kissed her, shouldered his rifle. “I’m going to do a little recon. Stay here. Keep low, and stay quiet. I won’t go far.”
Exhaustion and despair on her face, Shanti plopped down on a rock.
Connor walked along the rim of the gorge, looking for a good place to downclimb. The rock was solid with lots of holds. For a serious climber, it would be a piece of cake. He could probably manage it. But Shanti…
Then he saw it just ahead—a cairn.
He walked over to it, saw that it marked a stairway cut into the stone. The stairs went down about ten feet and seemed to stop at the edge of the cliff. He walked down the stairway, wondering who had carved it and why it was here—and then he saw.
A rope ladder spilled down the side of the cliff to the river, connecting with a bridge made of rope and planks of wood. A rope ladder on the other side led back to the top again. It had likely been used by the people who lived in this area prior to the construction of the suspension bridges.
With any luck, it was still intact.
He made his way back to Shanti, grabbed his pack. “Come on. I want to show you something.”