The Survivor - Page 76

“No. She’s with the sarcophagus a hundred miles from here.”

He smiled and stepped toward her. “You’re an exceedingly bad liar. I believe she’s in that cave with her beautiful young daughter.” He wiped the blood dripping from his face. “When the avalanche started, I went back when my men went forward. I survived, and they’re all dead. Some of us are survivors, some aren’t. I’ve always been a survivor.”

“You’ll never make it off this mountain alive.”

“I’m tempted to say, Watch me, but I’m afraid you won’t be alive to see it. But whatever happens, I’ll have the pleasure of making Maya watch her daughter die in front of her.”

Maya’s voice came from behind him. “Like hell you will.”

He spun around just in time for Maya to strike him in the head with her shovel. “Never again, you son of a bitch!” She struck his hand twice, sending his gun flying.

He staggered toward her, and she swung with one mighty final blow. He screamed as he flew back off the embankment, onto a bed of ice spikes. They pierced his throat and torso, sending up geysers of blood as he gagged and drowned in his own bodily fluids.

Finally he was still.

Maya drew a deep breath as she looked down at him. She turned back into the cave. “When you reach Kagan, you might tell him he has more cleanup to do. I don’t believe he’ll mind.”

“Somehow, neither do I,” Riley said.

Kagan and his team weren’t able to reach the cave until several hours later. By that time they’d totally cleared the cave entrance. The storm had almost abated and the shepherds were able to begin driving the rest of the herd into the cavern to protect them until they could clear the hills and valley.

Kagan stopped outside the cave to stare down at the twisted corpse of Nadim. “I’d like to keep him there, but I suppose we have to take him down to show that we aren’t the same kind of savage as he was.” He grimaced. “Too bad. It would certainly take anyone’s attention off the unicorns until we find somewhere safer for them. Excellent job, Maya.”

“Then kindly remove him before Bailey wanders out here and sees him,” Maya said. “So far she’s been too occupied with Riva and her baby to leave the cave. She’s gone through enough trauma today.”

Riley nodded. “And Cade has been on the phone most of the afternoon with the world at large in India and Tibet trying to smooth things over and keep them off our mountain. Your spectacular hijinks didn’t exactly go unnoticed. Really, Kagan. Avalanches?”

“It got the job done, and I made sure we did no harm to the mountain that we can’t repair.”

“But it aroused a hell of a lot of curiosity in the outside world,” Cade said as he came out of the cave. “And we don’t need that. I’m going to have to come up with a distraction until we can get a handle on everything.”

“Distraction?”

“Not your kind of distraction,” Cade said. Then as something occurred to him, he suddenly grinned mischievously. “Or maybe we can do something in that vein after all. I hate to leave you totally out of the picture. At any rate, I can’t do anything more on the phone. I’ve got to not only get back to the Lake Cottage, but also work on this bit of sleight of hand.” He turned to Riley. “Are you ready to go?”

“No. I don’t have any strings I have to pull,” she said quietly. “I can help more here for the time being. I’ll follow you later.”

He frowned. “I think you should go with—”

“But I don’t,” she interrupted. “So that’s the end of it.” She gave him a quick kiss. “Go back and do what you do best. Now I’ve got to get back to Bailey. I’ll talk to you later, Cade.”

Cade watched her disappear into the cave “Yes, you will,” he murmured. “No doubt about it, Riley…”

CHAPTER 13

LAKE COTTAGE

TWO DAYS LATER

I thought you’d be at that lab you set up in the city,” Riley said as she entered the cottage. “You weren’t able to get Diane here for Silvana’s exam?”

“Of course I was. Did you think she’d miss coming here and becoming involved with the warrior queen? She’s already at the lab herself and examining samples of the drug Silvana took to ensure preservation.” Eve hung up the phone, crossing the room to embrace Riley. “We both know a brilliant scientist like her would never be able to resist the chance of developing a magic potion like that. But I wanted to see you when Cade turned up here without you. I was uneasy. I told her I’d join her later. How are you?”

“Good enough.” Riley stepped back. “I wanted to stay with Maya and her daughter until I was certain that she didn’t need me any longer, so I sent him on ahead. He had a lot of pesky diplomatic details to take care of about what happened in the mountains. And we’ll both have work to do once we get together about the unicorns and the island itself.”

“And you’re ready to face it?” Eve asked.

“How could I not be?” she said quietly. “We all knew it was coming. We just didn’t know it wouldn’t give us a little more time to prepare. We’re lucky with whatever time is left to find a way out. I’ll stay committed to my career, but we all have another career to worry about now. What happened in the past is important, but saving the future will probably take precedence. Still, there are all kinds of brilliant people out there, a lot of them my very best friends. We’ll get there as fast as we can.” She smiled. “And now I want to see Cade. The goodbye we said in the mountains was brief, and I want everything understood before we go any further. Where is he?”