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Gray knew the only hope for the villagers was for his team to flee, to draw off the hunters They had to e was secured
He stretched an arm back to Rosauro "Keys"
They were slapped into his hand, but Rosauro had more bad news "Kowalski Elizabeth They’re not here"
Gray glanced back In the h the twisted alleys, he’d failed to notice "Find them," he ordered Rosauro "Now"
She nodded and dashed away
Gray stared hard at Luca "Guard the professor Stay out of sight"
The Gypsy nodded Two daggers glinted in his fingers
Gray could wait no longer
Crouching low, he ran out of hiding and into the open
Elizabeth fled with Kowalski down a crooked alley A sewage trench lined one side, reeking and foul
"Follow that," she urged "It has to lead out of here"
Kowalski nodded and took the next corner He had a pistol clenched in a un?" she asked
"You shoot?"
"Skeet In college"
"Not ets just scream a bit more"
He reached under his jacket to the small of his back and slipped out a small blue steel Beretta and passed it blindly back to her
Her fingers tightened hard on the grip, drawing strength from the cold steel
They set off The alleyas deserted, but gunfire spat froers defended their homes and lives
One of the helicopters swept low overhead The wash froe They ducked out of sight into a limpse of children huddled behind a low cot
After the helicopter flew past, Kowalski tugged her toward the door--but then piled back into her A soldier in black dashed past the opening The war e proper Kowalski peeked out, waved for her, then led her back outside
"We’ll strike for the hills," he said
They zigzagged through two ht shot toward open hills Bodies lay on the street ahead, blood sluicing into the sewage drain At least one of thee Kowalski kept close to one wall and hurried forward He led with his pistol up
A spat of autoet past that?
Kowalski paused at the soldier’s dead body He tugged off the ht Not bad thinking
But as Kowalski yanked, the soldier’s head came off with the helled, they both sturound
A dark shadow appeared behind them
Another soldier
She raised her pistol and shot wildly The rounds cracked stones and ricocheted,him back around the corner Kowalski’s weapon blasted behind her, sounding like a cannon in the narrow alley She risked a glance over her shoulder and sao more soldiers at the end of the street
They were pinned down and outgunned
Gray ducked out of the alley and into the open He dove under the bullock cart that still stood by the pyres of burning garbage Sliding on his stoed even with one of the fires Shielded by the cart, he reached out to the edge of the bonfire If the gunshots and helicopters didn’t spook the ox froht a fire under its tail
Literally
Snatching up a chunk of burning tire froe, Gray flipped it into the oily pile of refuse still stacked atop the cart It didn’t take long for the fla branch in his other hand, he crawled fully under the cart and goosed the ox in the hind end
It roared a loud bellow and kicked back at hiood blow Gray snatched the front board of the wagon as the ox took off, lowing angrily It shot straight for the hills, dragging the cart, leaving behind a trail of flae
Bumped and jarred underneath the cart, Gray kept a hard clamp on the front board and made sure to stay clear of the heavy wheels The ox and cart reached the hills and bounced across a runoff ditch
Gray let go and sank into the watery mud and muck
The cart continued off into the hills, a fieryto points unknown Gray hoped any eyes in the sky would keep watching that fla the e He reached the far side of the Mercedes and waited for the nearest helicopter to drift farther away--then lurched out of the gully and ran low to the ground, keeping the SUV between hiet inside the vehicle quickly The SUV’s doht would illuminate when he opened the door Keys in hand, he took a deep breath