Page 263 of The Black Trilogy

“Don’t worry about that. She got where you were coming from, and she said as much. She’d never fly off the handle over something so trivial. Besides, since she got back, she’s been different. Less like a robot and more human.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“I’m not sure. The old Emmy was cold as a Siberian winter, but I kinda preferred that to miserable Emmy. Who knows what we’ll get if she comes back from Syria?”

Mack’s face crumpled, and Luke took her hand as she struggled to hold herself together.

“If she’s out there, we’ll find her.” He hoped he could keep that promise.

A tear leaked down Mack’s cheek, and he reached out and wiped it away with his thumb.

“It’s us against a whole country. Sometimes, it seems like an impossible task,” she said.

He pulled her into a hug, liking the feel of her slender arms around him far more than he should.

“We can still win.”

In bed that night, Luke tossed and turned. Visions of Emmy lying beside him swam through his mind. He’d push her away, but then her face would morph into Mack’s, and as he tried to pull her back again, she kept slipping away, just out of his grasp.

He got up and stared out the window. The view of the private park across the road looked almost the same as it did all those weeks ago when they were looking for Tia, but now he had a different kind of problem eating away at him.

Mack. He liked Mack. His head and his heart both knew it. Not only was she beautiful, but he could talk to her about his passion for computers, something he’d never been able to do with another woman.

The question was, did she feel the same? And if she did then what, if anything, was he going to do about it?

CHAPTER 42

SEVEN DAYS. SEVEN days and seven nights I’d been stuck in this sorry piece of desert. I know I always said I liked hot places, but now I was rethinking that. At that moment, I’d have sold my soul for a bat blood slushee.

I was annoyed because I was baking in my own skin. Annoyed because my boots were filled with sand and I had blisters. But mostly annoyed because if I didn’t get to where I needed to be quickly, I’d die in this horrid bit of wasteland. My luck in the cave may have brought me a brief reprieve, but I was beginning to weaken again.

By late afternoon, my mind started to play tricks on me. Non-existent water shimmered on the horizon, and I’d seen Black at least four times. I couldn’t complain about those visions, but when I reached out to touch him, he flittered further away, always out of reach. Bleeping hallucinations. And now there were camels. Camels and people. I shook my head, trying to clear it.

Then they came closer, and rather than disappearing like I expected, they solidified. Either I’d lost my marbles totally, or they were real. I’d never been happier to see a pair of gun-toting Arabs in my life.

“Hal anti bikhair?” one of them called, his accent harsh from years of living in this inhospitable environment.

Was I okay? No, of course I wasn’t okay. I tried to roll my eyes, but they wouldn’t cooperate. “La. Ana ‘atshaan.” No. I’m thirsty.

Their white robes identified them as Bedouin. They stared at this strange, dark-haired girl shuffling along in the middle of the desert, carrying half a bottle of blood and the remains of a parachute, like she’d dropped out of space. Which I suppose I almost had.

I’d pretty much collapsed by the time they reached me, but one of them crouched and held a canteen of water to my lips.

Thank you, karma.

I sipped slowly, resisting the temptation to gulp the water down. Black’s voice in my head warned me of the danger of hyponatraemia, the low concentration of sodium in my blood, and I didn’t want the sickness or seizures that could bring. A little strength flowed into my limbs, and I sat up on my knees.

“Man anti?” one of the men asked.

I wasn’t about to tell them my name; not until I knew who they were. I shook my head and stayed quiet.

He tried a couple more times, but when I didn’t answer, he gave up. Huffing under his breath, he motioned for me to get up on a camel. It knelt so I could climb onto its woven saddle. Then we set off, to where I didn’t know, but the situation was a definite improvement on the state of things an hour ago.

Although they carried guns, that didn’t worry me. Every kid worth his salt in these parts had an assault rifle of some sort, but they didn’t tend to shoot random passers-by. In fact, the Bedouin were mostly peaceful and also bound by ancient customs to offer hospitality to anyone who requested it, even if they didn’t like them all that much.

So wherever we were going, I’d get food, and with food would come strength.

As it happened, Lady Luck stayed with me, hitching a lift on the camel. Although I don’t suppose her bottom was as raw as mine when I finally slid off the flipping thing. I liked riding horses. Camels, not so much.

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