Chapter 112 Section fifteen

The nervousness brought back that familiar pain in his stomach that he had suffered from when he worked in the Intelligence Service.The fried eggs he ate on the plane in the morning were still undigested in his stomach. In the afternoon, when he was shopping for firearms, he bought a hamburger and fried food for each of them.Now, his portion was burning his stomach like acid.It's just like before, he thought. He wondered how far away his pursuers were, and what they were deciding on.Are there any accomplices waiting for Santa Fe ahead?Perhaps, just a few of Renata's friends waiting at the Best Western Hotel wasn't enough to stop him.Perhaps, they had already notified the people in front by mobile phone to arrange reinforcements.Or, maybe Decker was wrong and didn't have a seeker hidden in his car at all.Maybe his plan wasn't working after all.No, he emphasized to himself, I've been in this business for years and I know what to do.In this situation, I knew what Renata would do.

Alas, he thought gloomily, wouldn't it be nice to be sure? He took the three exits to Santa Fe and continued on Interstate 25.His pursuers must be confused, he thought, and they would argue wildly, wondering why he hadn't stopped, where he was going.It amuses him.They would all be chasing after him now, though.Not just the ones who followed him from Albuquerque, but the ones in Santa Fe.He knew that, just as he knew that the biggest danger of the night was yet to come—say, that stretch of uninhabited Interstate 50. It was a two-lane road, dark, narrow, and winding, with small settlements here and there, but mostly shaded bushes.This stretch of road offered his pursuers a perfect opportunity to knock him off the road without anyone seeing what happened.He couldn't have been driving as fast as he was on the interstate.If so, he would have overturned at the first sharp turn.In some places, even 45 miles is the limit.He hunched over, staring into the darkness ahead where the headlights couldn't reach him, trying to win every second he could on the straight, then slowing down, slamming the steering wheel around the turn, and accelerating again.

"I can't risk taking my eyes off the road ahead and looking in the rear-view mirror," he told Beth. "Look back, see the headlights?" "No. Wait, now I see." "what?" "Turned the bend just now. One - I was wrong - looked like two cars. The second car just turned the curve." "My God." "They don't seem to want to catch up with us. Why don't they come up? Maybe it's not them," said Beth. "Or maybe they want to know what they're getting into before they do it. Look ahead." "light."

"Yes. We're in Pex." It was nearly midnight again on a Tuesday night, and there was little activity in the town.Decker slowed the car, but he didn't dare to slow down too much.He turned left onto the quiet main street, heading north toward the mountains. "I can't see the lights," said Beth. "Those cars must belong to people who live in town." "Maybe." As soon as the lights of the sleeping town were thrown behind him, Decker picked up his speed again, and drove up the slope along the dark and narrow road, heading into the wilderness. "Or those two cars really belonged to Renata and her gang, keeping their distance so that it wouldn't be easy to see that they were following us. They must be curious to know what we're doing here."

In the darkness, the dense pine trees seemed to form an impenetrable wall. "This place doesn't look very hospitable," said Beth. "Very well. Renata will think that the only reason whoever comes here is to hide. We're almost there, right away. In a few more—"