Malik floored it, pushing hard on the gas. If they went over the side, so be it. He’d take the river and crocodiles over being flattened by a train. “Hang on!”
Kristi screamed as the train came right up behind them.
The SUV reached the other side, catching air as Malik drove it up over the rails and down the embankment, the train tearing by, missing them by mere feet.
For a moment, they sat there, Malik’s heart thrumming, Kristi looking stunned.
“You okay?” Malik reached over, took her hand.
“Yeah.” She gave a stiff nod, but her hands were shaking. “I’m fine.”
He unbuckled his seatbelt, reached over, hugged her. “As long as we’re still alive and fighting, angel, we’re winning.”
She leaned into him, took a deep breath, exhaled. “Well, we just won big.”
He kissed her hair, laughed. “Hell, yeah, we did.”
* * *
Samuel walkedamong the corpses at Jidda’s camp, a cloth over his nose to block the stench. He wanted to see the truth of this himself, wanted to understand how one man could enter their camp in daylight, kill most of their men, and leave, alive and unhurt, with their captive.
It was as Mobo had described with most of the bodies in the center of the camp or near the river. Some had rifles in their hands—rifles they hadn’t thought to use.
Idiots.
Now, flies buzzed around their rotting remains, some of the bodies torn apart by animals. Samuel had to fight not to vomit.
“Here, sir!” Kalu, a hunter who was good at tracking, shouted to Samuel from a rise about a half kilometer north of the camp.
Samuel walked over, glad to leave the reek behind. “What have you found?”
Kalu held up shell casings. “There were two men. One stayed here, concealed, providing cover for the one who ran into the camp to rescue the woman. I doubt our men caught even a glimpse of him.”
“Are you certain there were two?”
“Yes, sir.” Kalu pointed toward the camp with a jerk of his head. “There is a trail of these shell casings leading to the hut where Mobo says the woman was kept. But these large shell casings are only found here.”
“Maybe this son of a whore had two weapons.”
“Look.” Kalu pointed at the ground. “One set of tracks enters the camp, but three sets of tracks return. None of those three sets of tracks matches the fourth set here. There were two men, and they left with two people. The four sets of tracks lead back to a place where they parked their vehicle, about five kilometers north of here.”
Samuel bent down, looked at the tracks, followed them into the camp and back again. Kalu was right. There were four distinct sets of footprints in the dirt, two larger and two smaller. “Get Mobo.”
“Yes, sir.” Kalu whistled, waved to the men guarding their truck.
Samuel had brought the bastard with them in case he needed more information—or found that Mobo had lied to him.
Mobo was escorted to him, looking so terrified it made Samuel laugh.
“Mobo, why are you afraid? Is there something you forgot to tell me?”
Mobo shook his head. “No, sir. I told you all I know, sir.”
“Kalu found that there were two men—one here and the one who charged into your camp. Does that surprise you?”
“Yes, sir. I never saw two men.”
“Here’s another surprise. They didn’t leave with just the woman. They took someone else with them. Was there a second woman in the camp?”