Page 59 of The Death
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Kontara finally said shakily. “I’ll have to slip into a few of those huts and get information on where they’re being held. That’s not going to be easy. And it’s sometimes almost impossible to avoid the guards when you’re moving around the village.”
Celine could hear the thread of panic in Kontara’s voice, and she realized she was reliving that time when every moment could lead to attack and pain. She instinctively interrupted: “Quinn will take care of you. We’ll both take care of you, Kontara. You won’t be alone.”
“No!” Kontara said sharply. “You don’t go near the place. I’ll take Quinn, but not you.” She drew a deep breath. “I can do it. I just had a bad moment or two. I’m better now. It’s not as if I didn’t know all those huts in the village like the back of my hand at one time. I wouldn’t have been able to get out as often as I did if I hadn’t made sure of that. I could probably even figure how to get away from the village by using that waterfall I told you about, Celine. I can leave Quinn to wait in the maze on the other side of the waterfall until I locate where they’re keeping his son.”
“The one where you nearly froze to death getting to that maze…”
“That’s right. But it’s summer and not as cold now.”
“You believe you can do it?” Quinn asked impatiently. “Yes or no? We’re wasting time.”
“I can do it,” Kontara said “But I have to have enough timeto check out the village and make sure that I can still find all the foxholes that I managed to dig when I was prisoner there. It will take at least another three hours for me to get you to Shafira. It won’t be dawn yet, and I’ll still have time to explore the village before it gets light and everyone starts stirring. But I’ll have to be back in the maze before that happens.”
“And my son?” Joe asked.
“I’ll have to wait and go get him tomorrow night as soon as it gets dark again. Hopefully we’ll be able to slip him out before anyone knows he’s gone and be on our way back to your camp.”
“Hopefully,” Joe repeated bitterly. “I’m a little low on hope for the moment.”
“It’s all I can offer,” Kontara said simply. “Otherwise you’ll have to sit around and wait until that bridge is rebuilt. I thought you didn’t want to do that.”
“I don’t.” His lips twisted. “And I’m an ungrateful son of a bitch for even letting you take this risk. All I can do is promise I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life, and I’ll guard you as I do my own family. If time is that important, tell me where I can meet you so that we can be on our way.”
“I’m about three miles due west from your base camp near the rock spires closest to a deep creek. I’ll send you a pinned map with my location. We can strike out directly for Shafira from here.”
“I’m on my way,” Joe said curtly. “I’ll see you soon.”
“I need to talk to you, Kontara,” Celine said quickly. “I want you to—”
But evidently she’d not been quick enough. Kontara had hung up.
“Evidently she doesn’t want to talk to you,” Joe said. “She apparently has the same views as Dominic about your going to Shafira.”
She nodded jerkily. “And she has reason, but I can’t let her go alone. I could tell how frightened she is.”
“She’s not going alone. I’ll be with her,” Joe said. “I’ll take care of both her and Michael.”
“I realize you’ll try,” Celine said. “But what if it comes down to Kontara or your son? Who would you choose?”
“My god, Celine.”
“The answer is that you shouldn’t have to choose. If I was along with you, I could watch over Kontara.”
“She won’t let you come with us.”
“I won’t ask her. Just like I’m not asking you.” She turned back to the camp. “Give me a couple minutes. I’ve got to go get my rifle…”
“You don’t have any sense at all, do you?”
That was the first thing Kontara said when she saw that Celine was with Joe when they reached the rock spires. “It’s no wonder Dominic watches you like a hawk. What do you think he’s going to say to this?”
Celine shrugged. “I can’t worry about that. He’s busy doing what he thinks is right. Which is exactly what I’m doing. Besides, he won’t say anything until morning, when someone tells him that Joe and I aren’t at the camp. But by that time, I’ll have called him and told him myself. Because it wouldn’t be right to keep anything like this from Dominic. I know howI felt about it. I was just trying to spare him worry as long as possible. From what you said, we may have a very long day until we can get back to camp.”
“I’m not taking you into that village,” Kontara said flatly. “You might as well go back to your camp.”
Celine shook her head. “I never said I was going to tail behind you when you go into the main village. That would clearly be dumb. From what you said, I’d probably be recognized from that photo in the museum if anyone caught sight of me.” She patted the rifle she was carrying. “But there’s no reason I can’t stay with Joe in the maze and watch your back in case you need a little extra firepower and Joe is busy with Michael. Right?”
“No.” Kontara was gazing at her in frustration. “But you’re obviously going to do it anyway.” Then she added fiercely, “You don’t show your face outside that maze. Understand?”
