“Anything that slows you down can be deadly out here,” he’d explained.
Not that they were making great time now.
They’d been following these dirt tracks for almost an hour. The front left tire had gone flat, shredded by three-inch-long thorns, less than twenty minutes after they’d left the road. Zach had quickly changed it. Ten minutes later, the rear right tire had blown. Now they were limping along, driving on two tires, the donut and one rim.
But Natalie was grateful for every mile they put behind them. The terrain was nothing like she’d imagined. She’d thought it would be flat, like the desert that had surrounded the Zeta compound. Tiptoeing through the cactus for forty miles over flat terrain hadn’t seemed like such a big deal.
But the landscape here wasn’t flat at all. There were steep hills, rocky ridges, deep gullies, and sandy washes everywhere she looked, all of them covered by dense stands of saguaro and other strange desert plants, most of which looked like they’d sprung from some dark Dr. Seuss fantasy. She understood why Zach believed it would take four days to cover forty miles.
“Shit.” Zach looked into his rearview mirror.
Natalie’s pulse spiked. From behind them came the sound of engines.
“I don’t think they’ve been following us, or I’d have noticed them before now. Whoever they are, we don’t want to run into them.”
He left the tracks, steered the car down a sandy embankment into a stand of mesquite, and cut the engine. For a moment they waited, the roar of engines drawing nearer. Then a convoy of three battered vans rumbled by them in a cloud of dust.
THE CAR GAVE out a few klicks south of the border.
“So we walk from here.” Natalie didn’t look excited at the prospect.
“No.” Zach unbuckled his seat belt. “We get our gear, take up a defensive position nearby, lie in, and wait for dark. Then we walk.”
“Why not just wait here?”
“You’ll see.” Zach slipped into his pack, then helped Natalie with hers. “Make sure the hip band rests in the right place. It will take some of the weight off your shoulders. How does that feel?”
She looked up at him, sliding her small hands into thick leather gloves, her hair turned auburn by the sunlight. “I think it’s good.”
He gave her a once-over. She was by far the hottest thing he’d ever seen in camo. That was for damned sure.
Get your mind out of the gutter, man.
“This is the tube to your hydration pack. Keep it clipped right here so you can reach it when you need it. I gave us just enough water to get us through the night, so drink when you need to, but don’t overdo it. Steady sips, no long gulps.”
“Got it.”
He checked once more to make sure the AK was easily accessible, grabbed his infrared binoculars, then took a look at the surrounding area, getting the lay of the land. There—a quarter mile to the northwest. They’d settle in on that rocky hilltop, watch for traffickers below and wait for the sun to set. “Let’s go—and watch where you step.”
This was the first time Zach had ever done anything like this with a civilian, let alone a woman. He knew that if he moved at his normal pace he’d exhaust her and leave her in the dust. He tried to set a pace she could manage and was pleased to find her matching it easily.
But reaching the hilltop wasn’t a simple matter of walking directly toward it. Dense stands of saguaro and thorny ocotillos combined with boulders and hidden washes to complicate things, forcing them to snake their way along.
“Watch out for the ocotillos.” Speaking just loud enough for Natalie to hear him, he grabbed a branch with a gloved hand to show her the thorns hidden among bright green leaves, his gaze shifting to scan their surroundings for any sign of other humans. “The thorns can shred both clothing and skin.”
They moved forward again, their approach flushing a desert cottontail out of a clump of grasses, the creature disappearing in a flash.
“The night shift is about to come on.”
“The night shift?”
He’d known she would ask. “The nocturnal fauna. You see the lizards, pronghorns, deer, raptors, rabbits, and maybe a herd of javelinas during the day. And then at twilight the hunters appear—tarantulas, scorpions, rattlesnakes, coyotes, owls, bobcats, cougars.”
“I think I like the day shift better.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Just look before you sit and watch where you walk. You’ll be fine.”
By the time they reached the hilltop, the sun was an orange disc on the horizon, the clouds above it scorched pink. He found a safe place for them to sit, empty water bottles, tuna cans, and other trash proof that this place had been used before. He dropped his pack and turned to help Natalie out of hers, only to find her watching the sunset, a smile on her face, those sweet dimples back in her cheeks.