Destiny

NINETY-EIGHT

Fifteen minutes later, Marcus opened the trunk and found the first aid kit. He turned on the car’s headlights and set Alicia down in front of the light so he could better treat her injury. Marcus used sterile gauze to clean the wound. “I have to stop the bleeding and need to get that bullet or bullet fragment out of there, but I don’t have a knife.”

Alicia’s face dripped from perspiration. Her hair was damp in the cool desert air. “You’re hurt, too, Paul. Maybe we can find help…a clinic…maybe.”

Marcus pulled the spear from his pocket. He opened a plastic packet and removed gauze, damp with antiseptic. He folded a clean napkin. “Open your mouth and bite down hard on this. Look the other way.” He placed the napkin between Alicia’s teeth. Marcus used the tip of the spear to open the wound, causing blood to flow down her arm. Alicia’s nostrils flared. She stared at the moon, neck muscles knotting in pain. Marcus dug in flesh a half-inch, found and removed the bullet fragment. Then he saw something else. It was about twice the size of a grain of rice. It was black with a tiny red tip. He removed it. “Now I know how they’re tracking us. It’s a sub-dermal microchip, and it’s pinpointing our location via satellite to someone’s monitor. Who the hell implanted it in your arm?”

Alicia’s breathing was fast, her mind racing. “Oh my God…it was the mosquito bite that took a week for it to go away. I was drugged! That microchip had to have been injected into my arm a few days before I left to join you.”

“Who drugged you?”

“A guy from the state department I’d met. We had lunch twice and dinner once. It was after the dinner, at an outdoor restaurant on the water called Captain Nemo’s. I woke up in my bed and couldn’t remember how I’d got there. And I’d only had two glasses of wine. Paul, they set me up. They set us both up. I might as well have been sent here, but they did it so they could track you.” She turned her head to Marcus. “Jonathon Carlson has been watching everything we do.”

“And we’re going to let the world watch him.”

Marcus cleaned the wound. He found a needle and thread in the kit, sterilized the needle and began stitching the wound, closing it. “Just rest. The worst is over. Lay down.”

He ripped his blood-soaked shirt from his shoulder and used another piece of gauze to clean the deep knife wound. He applied pressure to stop the bleeding. A minute later, he closed his eyes and leaned against the bumper of the car, blood seeping through his fingertips.

Alicia turned her head toward Marcus. “We’ve got to stop your blood loss. She struggled to sit.

“No…you have to rest.” Marcus folded another small towel and held it against his shoulder. He set the microchip on a flat rock and looked at Alicia. “The assassin’s mission was to kill us. If this chip doesn’t move, they’ll believe he succeeded. If they don’t hear from him in a few hours, they’ll assume he didn’t and come looking for us. This chip discovery will buy us some time, and we need it. It’ll be dawn in a few hours. Let’s get some rest, make sure the bleeding has stopped, and move on.”

Alicia smiled. “You look like shit, Paul. Maybe an hour and we can get outta this place.”

Marcus nodded and leaned back against the car, his clothes damp with sweat. Then he lifted his eyes to the heavens, the stars now on fire — the vast land around him flooded with serenity, the hills pocketed in deep shadow. Marcus felt as if the dark blue universe had poured down from the deepest reaches of creation to flood the desert with its quiet strength. He watched a meteor arc through the sky, carving a rooster tail of light across the cosmos. Sleep encircled him.

He saw Tiffany walking her horse at sunrise. She was in a meadow, leading the horse by its reins. She’d been crying, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Marcus wanted to reach up and wipe it away. Wanted to hold her one more time.

Seven other horses appeared at the top of the hill. Seven riders, all in silhouette, sitting quietly on horseback, a blood red sun rising in the sky behind them.