It was a relief to reach the top.
Dawn was still a few hours away.
Dec wanted to put some distance between them and whichever bunch of killers was on their heels before the sun came up.
Decision time. Which way to go?
West towards Syria was the logical choice—but maybe logic wasn’t their best bet right now.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s take a five minute break.”
Annie was breathing hard. She flopped down in the grass beside the horse. Dec got out the water and the map.
“There’s a town west of us,” he said. “See? It’s fair-sized and the last I heard, it hasn’t seen any fighting.”
“And that’s where we’re going?”
He shook his head. “I figure it’s where they’ll expect us to go.” He touched his finger to the map and pointed north. “That’s Turkey. The map shows nothing between here and there and that’s correct. But I know a little about the area. No towns, true, but there are small farms, some sheep and goats.” Dec folded the map and stashed it in his pack. “There’s a road, a dirt road, just a few klicks ahead. Only the locals use it. It’ll take us to the Turkish border and to a small market town. I think that’s our best bet.”
Annie sighed. “All this trouble because of me.”
Dec took her hand, brought it to his mouth and kissed it.
“Hey,” he said lightly, “the last time I was in this part of the world I spent three days in a ditch with two other guys. We got rained on each night, got baked to a crisp each day, and one of the guys had this, ah, this bowel problem…”
Annie laughed, exactly as he’d hoped she would. He leaned forward and brushed his lips gently over hers.
“Another two, three days at the most and we’ll be out of here.”
“I just wish, you know, I wish I could turn back the clock, that we were on the beach at your place in Santa Barbara.”
Dec put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“The best anybody can do is look back at the past, but you can write the future. We’re going to be on that beach again. Together.”
“I hope.”
“We will be. And you’ll give me a hard time about me not using sun screen, the way you always did, and I’ll insist I never burn, the way I always did, and when my nose turns bright red you’ll stick out your tongue and say See? I told you so!”
She drew back a little and smiled. “I never said ‘I told you so!’”
“No? Well, you should have.” He smiled back at her. Then he drew her close. “We’ll be together. We’ll be happy. And this time, it will last.”
They sat that way for another couple of minutes. Then Annie stirred, raised her head and looked at him.
“Declan. We have to talk.”
“I agree. Tonight, after we find a safe place. We’ll talk them. I promise.”
* * *
They found the road—actually, it was a ribbon of packed-down dirt—and, as Dec had said it would, it took them north through an area that seemed almost unpopulated.
They saw an occasional farmhouse, always in the distance and far from the road, and small, wandering herds of sheep and goats.
The only person they saw was an old man with a horse and wagon, and the old guy was actually asleep, his chin on his chest, as the horse clopped slowly past.
Whenever they paused for a break, Dec scanned the vast area all around them with his binoculars. So far, nobody was following them. He saw only more sheep, more goats, and, a couple of times, small herds of horses.