Page 79 of Cross Down
I shrug off my M4 and rucksack and dig in a side pocket, not quite believing it, but yes, it’s my burner cell phone, chiming with a text.
Breathing hard from the altitude, I bring up the screen. A garbled message appears:
Ran records check best I could on E. Deacxxx. Smart, ruthless, divorced…herself is first, Agency s@#ond, country third…8*&^….
Can she be trusted? Well…it seems ##@@
Be safe get home ASAP ti09876…
#674mpw9,,,,
We need to know what you know…
Ned
I want to reply but the little icon saysNo Service.
Then how in hell did this message get through? I look around but see nothing that wasn’t there before. How did I get this message?
I put the phone back in my rucksack. Could be weird atmospherics or the magnetic field of the Earth shifting, or maybe the signal piggybacked off some drone or high-flying aircraft.
Almost anything’s possible in this land.
Deacon says, “What was the call?”
I say, “Wrong number. Let’s saddle up and get moving.”
Our hike continues, slow and painful. I take point and Deacon is right behind me, so close I can hear her panting and smell her skin. I think of our little moment last night, and I think of Ned Mahoney’s scrambled message and how the most important part didn’t make it through.
Can she be trusted? Well…it seems ##@@
Not very helpful.
I reach the top of the rise, look at what’s in front of me. Deacon comes up and stops next to me, breathing hard.
“Good God,” she whispers.
“Sorry,” I say. “Looks like God was somewhere else that day.”
Chapter
88
As fast ashe can, Bibi Ahmadi moves along the trail leading to what is left of Mir Kas. Five of his cousins are trotting behind him, all of them heavily armed, and Bibi carries hate and a desire for revenge in his heart.
No man who has humiliated him will live, and especially not a man who humiliated him in front of a woman!
His plan is simple: They will find and ambush the pair of Americans, kill the male, and take their time with the woman.
And with the woman, he will be first, and his cousins can fight over who gets to be next.
He turns, his vest and pants legs flapping in the wind, and says, “Hurry, hurry, there’s no time to waste!”
Bibi’s cousin Azeez calls, “But the village is haunted—full of ghosts.”
“And we will add two more before the day is out, but only if you move faster than a mule, fool!”
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