Vistaria Has Fallen (The Vistaria Affair/Vistaria Has Fallen #1)(65)

“If Minnie is with him...”

“Then she will be fair game too.”

She closed her eyes again, ill with fear, and felt Nick’s hand on her knee. “Now you know why I tried so hard to avoid this outcome, Calli. Politicians do not count the innocent amongst their victims.”

“We have to, don’t we?”

He didn’t answer her and Calli felt a heavy, dark weight settle in her heart and mind.

*

Nick held a steady course north, following the spinal mountain chain for another hour. Then he adjusted their course for a northeasterly direction. The mountains fell away to their left. For the first time, evidence of war showed. Black smoke spiraled up to the north of them and spread a gray haze across the sky. As they got closer, small orange lights flickered.

“Gun fire,” Nick said, pointing to them.

“Oh God...” she breathed.

He pointed again, this time toward the coast ahead of them. “The coast road.”

She could just make out a thin, smooth line, merely an indentation in the tree line, running parallel with the coastline. “I can’t see people on it.”

“We’re too far away. Keep watching.”

Abruptly, he yanked on the controls and the helicopter tipped sideways, as if a giant hand had pulled an invisible rug out from under them.

Calli gasped and gripped the sides of her chair, looking over her shoulder at the ground that climbed toward her. “What’s happening?” she yelled.

“Tracers!”

“What?”

Nick pulled back on the stick, slowing the helicopter, although they were still sliding down the invisible chute toward the ground. The engine made a peculiar whining noise. He tugged at the controls, throwing all his weight into it. The helicopter jigged sideways and climbed the air. Calli took a deep breath as her stomach flipped and dug her fingers into the upholstery.

Slowly their ascent smoothed out. Mountains lay ahead. They had made a complete turn. The one-eighty spin let her see what had alarmed Nick the first time. From the forest at the foot of the mountain came flashing. A line of white dashes reached through the sky toward them.

“That’s gunfire. They’re shooting at us!”

Nick wrenched on the controls. The craft once more slid down the invisible sharp slope, only this time, the forest rolled past Nick’s shoulder. Calli swallowed hard, not sure whether it was fear or the aerobatics that made her stomach cartwheel. She hung on grimly.

“I’ll go lower and use the trees as cover,” Nick said. His voice was calm and remote. He might have been discussing using milk instead of cream in his coffee. He eased the helicopter level and pushed the nose down to increase their forward speed. “We’re almost there.”

He guided the craft along the treetops. It seemed as though she could lean down and snag leaves in her hand, they looked so close. It gave her stationary objects against which to measure their speed. They were going very fast.

Ahead, she spotted the coast road again. They were close enough to make out the long row of vehicles and a thick stream of people alongside it.

Refugees.

The helicopter turned. The road slipped beneath her and out of view. They were heading northwest. Nick eased the controls over and they banked in a curve to the left. He looked out past Calli’s shoulder.

“That’s the campground.”

She looked. There was a bald spot amongst the trees—pale green intersected by a thin strip she assumed was a road. “Do you have to circle to let Duardo know you’re here?”

“No need. He’ll hear the helicopter from miles away. If he’s here, he’ll make sure we spot him.”

“You’re circling, anyway?”

“I won’t land until I have to. I’d be a sitting duck down there and I’ve got far too valuable a cargo to take such a risk.”

She realized he was referring to her. Her cheeks bloomed with unusual heat. She could think of no suitable response and her silence had already extended too long to make a snappy answer possible. Instead, she looked to her left, at the ground, scanning the visible area of the campsite.

“There,” Nick said, pointing to the northern edge of the site.

Calli peered. She could see nothing.

Nick brought the helicopter around, bringing it lower.

A small dot moved out from the rim of the trees. Calli’s perspective was skewed. She had been looking for something much larger. The small dot must be Duardo, which made the campsite larger than she had thought. They were higher than she had guessed, too.

The helicopter dropped vertically, turning on its axis. She lost sight of Duardo’s figure and leaned forward to watch past Nick’s chest for Duardo to come back into sight as they swiveled full circle. Then she saw him.

They were at treetop height.

Duardo waved at the trees behind him. He wore jungle fatigue pants and a black sleeveless stretch tee-shirt that looked nothing like army issue. In his right hand he held an automatic pistol, down by his side, while he waved with his left.

From between two trees, Minnie appeared, dressed in jeans and a torn tee-shirt, running for her life. Calli caught her breath as relief, shock and fear speared her chest.

Duardo let Minnie pass him, then ran behind her, a slow lope that covered the ground as quickly as Minnie’s all-out sprint.

“There’s trouble,” Nick said.