Page 36 of What is Found

“Because maybenocan also mean maybeyes. Davila, all you did was walk around in here. I don’t think you’ll be up for a lot of hard mountainous trekking or even a bouncy ride back to Dushanbe without someone sitting next to you the whole time. On top of everything else that’s happened, you dropped alung. If I’d been even five minutes later…”

After a moment’s silence, Davila said, “What about you? What are you going to do when help gets here?”

Actually,John thought, it might be more accurate to say what he’d doifhelp got there. For such a small word, thatifwas huge.Their bat-signal might not bring anyone at all. If he’d been in charge and picked up an SOS, he’d check the area out first, maybe do a flyover with a drone as soon as the weather cleared.

I could make some sort of SOS.He’d seen a movie about a pilot who’d crashed in the Arctic. Who was the actor? Definitely not an American…but why did he keep thinking of Hannibal Lector? The actor wasn’t Anthony Hopkins, he was pretty certain.

He was startled from his thoughts by a quietsss.The sound waslike the movie hiss of a cobra. His watch read 17:39. “Not bad.”

“Easy foryouto slay.”

“Listen to him,” John said. “The Sphinx makes a joke.”

“Savor it. One a day’s my limit.” As Davila reset his watch, he asked, “What were you thinking about? And don’t say all the years you wasted stamp collecting.”

He was tempted to point out Davila’s second joke in less than thirty seconds but bit back on the impulse. “Hannibal Lector.”

“Seriously?”

“Scout’s honor.”

“I don’t think we’ll be here long enough to be the next Donner party.”

“Oh, ho, look atyou. Well-read and all. And here I thought you were only a muscle-bound hunk.”

“Nowwho’s stereotyping?”

“You’re right.” He held up his hands in surrender. “My bad. I’m sorry.”

Davila waved off the apology. “What does a cannibal have to do with us?”

“Naw, I was trying to figure out the actor.” He explained about the movie. “I’m thinking that stamping an SOS into the snow would be a good thing to do. That, and keeping those bat phones charged. Sooner we get you off this rock, the better.”

“The sooner help gets here, the sooneryou’reoffthis rock and back on track. John, if it’s possible, youhaveto go on. I don’t know what your relationship with Captain Keller was, but Idoknow that she’s counting on you.”

I loved her with all my heart.Words he had never said and now would not say because they would do no good and, in the end, were nothingmorethan words. Besides, he had failed when she’d most needed him.

“This where you give me anoorahpep talk?” Turning away, he busied himself with pouring bottled water into a pot. “About comrades in arms?”

“Just stating the obvious.” After a pause, Davila said, “What happened, John? There wasn’t an after-action report on whatever you guys were doing.”

“There wouldn’t be,” he said, tearing open a soup packet and dumping the contents into the pot. “Because there was no report.”

“And why was that?”

“You’re not a dumb guy, Davila.” He stirred water with a camp spoon, watching the crystals dissolve. “Why do you think?”

“Off the books. Something deniable.”

“Very good. Give the man a gold star.”

Davila ignored the jibe. “What was it about? The mission?”

He debated for a half second then said, without looking up, “Our mascot. Or, rather, kids like him.”

Davila’s eyes narrowed. “I wondered about that. Him.” He inclined his head toward Matvey. “I knowhe’s more thanjusta pickpocket. I was watching you when he came up in the restaurant. The way you looked at him…as if you recognized him. Nothim-him, butwhathe is or was, and you almost said something, something you were almost positive about. What was that?”

He debated. Decided, finally, the hardest thing to run from was the past because that was always just over your shoulder. “Around his eyes. Where it’s kind of dark, smudgy? You can still see the ghost of it, like black eyeliner.”

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