Close Pursuit. Cindy Dees

water purification tablets.

      “How is it that you had a whole backpack of medical and survival supplies ready and waiting to go last night?” she asked.

      He shrugged. “Call it a hunch. Those rebel forces kept showing up at exactly our location and attacking, and it made me suspicious.”

      “Of?”

      “Do you always ask so many questions?” he demanded.

      “When people are being cryptic with me, absolutely,” she declared.

      He sighed. “I was suspicious of somebody not being happy we’re out here.”

      “Are we in direct danger? And don’t dodge the question. I grew up listening to cops and soldiers. I know exactly what kind of danger we’re in if someone wants us dead.”

      He shrugged. “I won’t ever bullshit you, Katie. That I promise. I may refuse to answer a question, but I won’t lie. Deal?”

      “Deal.”

      “I think someone not only knows we’re out here, but wants us dead. Which makes me question Doctors Unlimited. They are supposedly the only people who know we’re here. Someone within D.U. isn’t who they claim to be.”

      “There’s a mole? Why would anyone spy on a humanitarian aid group?”

      “That is the question, is it not?”

      She thought hard. Placing and maintaining a full-blown mole had to be a difficult and expensive proposition for a spy agency. Why go to all that trouble to watch a bunch of doctors and nurses.... Unless they were not just doctors and nurses? She looked up at Alex and asked soberly, “What do you think D.U. does besides render medical aid?”

      “I don’t know.”

      “If you had to guess?”

      He shrugged. “That’s obvious, isn’t it? They insert people right in the middle of the hottest conflicts on the planet with covers that make them more or less immune to attack or arrest.”

      “Spies?” she breathed. “For whom?”

      “You tell me.”

      She stared at him, shocked. “I don’t know anything! I didn’t even work for D.U. until they needed a Zaghastani translator for you.”

      Alex was studying her far too closely again. Like he was trying to look inside her soul and see what truth she was hiding from him.

      “Maybe we’re just being paranoid,” she said a little desperately. “Maybe it’s coincidence that the fighting has flared up in the places we’ve been.”

      He snorted. “I can calculate odds out to nine figures in my head in under a minute. And you don’t want to know how many zeros line up after the probability of it being random chance.”

      She put her coat down on the rough bed and tucked Dawn back into her nest, now surrounded by hot rocks to keep her warm, and turned to Alex in the dancing firelight. “Do you trust D.U. enough to call and ask for transport out of here?”

      A derisive snort was his only answer. Frankly, she shared the sentiment. If someone in the organization had set them up to be killed, she didn’t want to talk to D.U., either. She asked, “What do we do now?” Interesting that she had complete faith in him to have an alternative plan. No doubt about it, he was one of the smartest people she’d ever met.

      “We’re going to get some rest and wait for dark.” A look of deep reluctance crossed his face. “There’s a place I know...not too far from here... I was really hoping not to have to go there.” Grim determination replaced the reluctance. “Can you hike twenty miles or so over rough terrain if we break it up into a couple of days of travel?”

      “Depends on the terrain, but I guess so.”