Page 93 of Savage Warrior

“Oh?” Ethan waits for clarification.

“While Grigor kept the car running, I let down a few tyres. Well, more than few…”

“Good job.” With most of Olaf’s vehicles out of action, the danger of pursuit recedes.

“So, I was thinking,” Aaron continues, “what about if the police were to receive a tip-off about what’s going on back there? Do you suppose they’d get there in time?”

Ethan’s phone is out again. “I think there’s every chance.”

There’s no conversation for the next few minutes, just the sound of Natalija sobbing against my chest.

“Is she injured?” Ethan asks at last. “Do we need medical help?”

“Are you hurt?” I translate the words for her but get no intelligible response.

“I don’t think so, at least not physically. Christ knows what’s going on in her head, though.”

“Right. We’ll get Megan to check her over when we get back.” He doesn’t mention rape or sexual assault, though that’s what’s on all our minds. That’s a conversation for another time, when things are calmer.

Ethan tosses the tattered map that Grigor had been using over the back of his seat. “One of you look at that and find us a route back to Bialystok, avoiding main roads as much as possible.”

Tony grabs the map and does the honours. “I reckon it’s about six hours, boss. You need to take a left in five miles.”

“Fair enough. And, Rome, if you can get the kid to stop crying, that would be nice.”

I work on Ethan’s request for over an hour before I make any headway, but eventually my calm, soothing assurances seem to penetrate the fog of sheer traumatised terror. Natalie’s desperate sobs subside to hiccoughs and eventually silence. By the time we’re halfway to the Polish border, she gathers enough courage to actually look at me.

“Hello,” I whisper in Russian.

“Hello,” she mouths back.

“My name is Rome.”

“I am Natalija.”

“I know. You are Arina’s little sister.”

Her eyes widen. “You know Arina?”

“Yes. I am her friend. I’m going to take you to her.”

She ponders that for a short while. “Are you…? I mean… what is going to happen to me?”

“Nothing bad. Not now.”

“But those men…”

“They can’t harm you now. You’re going to be with Arina, and Yuryl.”

She sits up straight. “You know where Yuryl is, too?”

“Arina is in Scotland. Yuryl is already on his way there, and that’s where we’re going, too.”

She stares at me. “Is it true? Are you telling me the truth?”

I smile and make the sign of a cross on my chest. “I swear it. You’re safe now. All three of you.”

She falls silent, and I soon realise she’s asleep. I take that as a good sign, a sign that she trusts me. A bit. Tony and I make room for her to lie across the back seat with her head in my lap, and that’s where she remains for most of the journey, huddled beneath my jacket. She wakes up just as we approach the airstrip.

---