Vistaria Has Fallen (The Vistaria Affair/Vistaria Has Fallen #1)(63)

“She will be forced to abandon the car because traffic out of Pascuallita will be too heavy. If she tries to go further on foot, she will have to fight her way through refugees. If she continues she will collide with the fragments of the army, making its way south, escaping the guns of the rebels. The army is broken. The base abandoned. They’re on the run.”

“Is there nothing I can do?”

“You?” Nick’s smile was small. “You would take on two armies by yourself?”

“There is no one else.”

He studied her.

“Do you have a car I could use, Nick?” she said at last. “Minnie took my Uncle’s car. I could follow her up the coast, see if I can find her that way.”

“You would not have lasted five minutes outside the gates here once the people realized who you were. Do you think you would have an easier time of it with people on the run from their homes, from violence?”

“Damn it, Nick, I have to do something!”

“I know.” He touched her cheek. “I would not have you running into the same boiling cauldron as Minnie.”

His cell phone rang. He cursed and reached for his back pocket. “Only the most critical people have this number. I can’t ignore it.”

“It’s okay,” she assured him, with a sigh.

“Sí?” He listened, then looked at her sharply. “Duardo, where are you?” he said into the phone.

Calli sat up straight.

Nick listened for a long time. “Wait,” he said into the phone and looked at her. “I must speak Spanish. It’s quicker for us, okay?”

She nodded.

Nick spoke rapidly, with few pauses. “Do you know for certain that Minnie would go to Duardo’s house in Pascuallita?” he asked her.

Calli shook her head. “Minnie already knew Pascuallita had fallen. That was why she left. She went to find Duardo. I think she would go to the base, or try to.”

He nodded and spoke to Duardo again. Then he shut down the phone and tucked it in his back pocket. “Come with me,” he said briskly.





Chapter Fifteen


Calli scrambled to keep up with Nick as he hurried up the long passage. “Where was Duardo?”

“I’ll tell you all of it in a while,” Nick promised. “First, we must hurry.” He took her up the same stairs she had come down, then back to the gatehouse where the same officer stood watching. He straightened to attention when Nick entered.

“Fernando,” Nick acknowledged.

Fernando nodded. His reply was terse.

Nick raised his hand. “Gracias,” he finished. He turned and strode outside again, and Calli trailed after him, puzzled and feeling useless.

“Where now?”

“Behind the palace,” Nick said. He angled for the covered walkway.

“Why there?”

“That’s where we’ll find transport to Pascuallita.”

“We?” Calli repeated.

He glanced at her. “You don’t think I would let you go there alone, do you?”

“Nick, this isn’t your concern. You’ve got enough problems to worry about.”

He came to an abrupt stop. She almost ran into him. He caught her arms to steady her. “No one gets to choose what to worry about, have you noticed? I have made promises, both spoken and unspoken. If I do not do everything in my power to help Duardo and retrieve Minnie for you, I would not be living up to those promises.”

“As long as you’re not doing it for me.”

He kissed her quickly, then moved on. “That’s exactly why I’m doing it,” he said over his shoulder.

Five breathless minutes later Calli found herself on the other side of the palace. They had hurried through the building, giving Calli glimpses of stairs, empty rooms, elegant foyers, before emerging through French doors into bright daylight. It was not yet noon.

A patio extended for twenty feet, edged by thick balustrades identical to those on the second floor of the building—the balustrades she had climbed and sat upon, only four nights ago. Nick strode toward stairs in the middle of the stone railing. She paused on the top step, her eyes widening. An expanse of concrete stretched out below. On it was a neat row of cars and trucks. Two helicopters crouched behind them.

Nick reached the concrete and headed for the cars. Calli followed him. A soldier stood at parade rest at the end of the row of cars. As Nick approached him, a second soldier emerged from a metal door set into the foundations of the balcony and saluted Nick.

Nick held up his hand. The soldier threw something metallic and shining. Keys. Nick caught them with a downward flick of his wrist and turned on his heel, just as Calli reached the end of the row of cars. “Which one?” she asked.

“That one,” he said, nodding over the top of the cars. He threaded his way between two of them, right past them, heading for the smaller helicopter.

Her heart jumped. She hurried to catch up with him. “The helicopter?”

“There’s nothing else that can get us there faster today.” He opened the rounded glass door of the helicopter and indicated she should do the same.

“You can fly these?” Calli asked, as she fumbled at the catch on the door and opened it.

“I thought I’d just wing it.” He settled into the seat behind the controls.