Vistaria Has Fallen (The Vistaria Affair/Vistaria Has Fallen #1)(64)

Even as her jaw dropped, she realized he was teasing. She scowled at him and sat in the other seat. There was a bench seat behind them. It was narrow but would seat two people, perhaps three. There was room for Minnie and Duardo.

“Strap in. This will be a rough trip.” Nick buckled the H-style belt over his chest.

While her heart skittered, Calli fought with the belts to fasten the buckle. Nick inserted the key into something that looked like the ignition slot on a domestic car and turned the key. Nothing happened.

“Flat battery?” she asked sweetly.

He grinned and prodded a green button. The engine coughed and revved up. Shadows moving overhead caught her attention. The extended bubble of glass showed the sky above and the rotors turning slowly as the engine cranked.

Nick tapped her knee and held out a pair of headphones. A curly lead attached them to the console. He already wore a similar pair. She slipped them on. The noise of the engine muffled to almost nothing.

“Can you hear me?” Nick’s voice sounded in her ear.

“Yes.” She adjusted the voice pickup, so it was closer to her mouth.

The blades above became a blur. The helicopter shivered beneath her.

Nick had his hands on the controls. He listened and watched his readouts. He adjusted the stick between his knees and played with the pedals under his feet, then looked down at the ground.

Calli gasped. They were airborne.

The ground dropped away. Calli watched the lawn recede beneath her feet, for the glass curved right over the nose and stopped four inches from her toes.

With another small adjustment of the controls, Nick turned the helicopter to face north. It hung motionless in midair, then he pushed the controls forward.

She caught her breath, alarm seizing her, as the nose of the craft dipped and the tail came up. They slid through the air, the muffled “thwock-thwock” of the blades dimming further under the rush of wind.

“You’ll get used to it,” Nick assured her, his voice issuing in her ear. It was an intimate whisper.

She looked at the view in front of her feet. Las colinas was tiny. Already she could see the outskirts ahead and green tree canopy beyond that. “How fast are we going?”

“One hundred and fifty knots.”

She wrinkled her forehead, trying to remember what knots meant. “Can you put that in terms I can relate to? How long will it take us to get there? Where is there, anyway? Are we going to pick up Duardo? How did he get to phone you? I thought he was with his unit somewhere, fighting the rebels.”

Nick held up his hand. “Enough. I promised you an explanation. I have not forgotten. Now I have time to spare—a small amount. We’re heading for a place southeast of the Pascuallita base, where the front line is estimated to be. We should reach there in just over ninety minutes. Yes, we will pick up Duardo. With luck, Minnie, too.”

“How? How did he get through to your cell?”

“He phoned. How else?” Nick seemed puzzled.

“I thought the army was scattered and on the run. He carries a cell phone with him?”

“They’re scattered, but not entirely on the run. They will try to regroup into units, to find each other and build guerilla bands to impede the progress of the rebels until they can contact the proper chain of command and receive fresh orders.”

“That was what Duardo was doing? Where was he?”

“On the coast. There are seaside villages that are so far untouched. He found a working phone and called headquarters. Because you specifically named Duardo in your efforts to enter the building, that information and your presence there was passed on to him for feedback. Then he was transferred to my cell.”

“What did you tell him? Is he all right?”

“He’s cut off from his unit but he’s fine. He’s almost directly south of the base, which puts him in an ideal position to quarter the area around the coast road. He will find Minnie’s car and track her from there. Southwest of the base, where we’re heading, there’s a campground. It’s not used much because the jaguars like the area, too. Duardo knows it well. It has an open, flat space I can get this beast into and still maneuver.”

“That’s where we’re meeting him? It’ll take him hours!”

“Duardo knows his limits. He estimated he was only twenty minutes away from the campground. That gives him ninety minutes to look for Minnie before he has to make for the camp.”

“She could be anywhere!”

Nick shook his head. “It might seem that way to you. There are few places to where Minnie could safely move. She’ll be driven back to the city if she tries to go north or west into the mountains. The easiest route south, the route she will be forced to take, is the road she used to get there. She’ll go by foot. If Duardo finds her car, he will find her shortly after that. He’s an excellent tracker.”

Calli sat back in her seat, feeling a huge swell of relief. “Are all your officers so useful?”

“Duardo is a good sample,” Nick said judiciously. “He will do well.”

She rubbed her forehead and let her eyes close. They were gritty with lack of sleep.

“It may not be as straightforward as that, though,” Nick added.

“Why?” she demanded, opening her eyes.

“There are rebels throughout the hills and Duardo is wearing a uniform. If he is seen, he will have to fight his way out of it.”