Page 5 of Close Pursuit

The sun slid behind the mountains, and day slipped rapidly into night. The temperature dropped precipitously. They retreated into the tent and Alex carefully tucked in the edges of the tarp he’d hung across the front opening. She wasn’t sure if he was more worried about heat escaping or about light that could give away their presence.

He showed her how to operate the tiny propane stove and let her huddling over its meager warmth as it heated water for their supper.

Her stomach was growling by the time Alex lifted the small pot of steaming water and poured its contents into pouches of freeze-dried beef stew. He stirred the contents, resealed the tops, and passed one to her. She clasped it gratefully in her freezing fingers.

He said quietly, “Tomorrow, we’ll reach the first village on our itinerary. Get all the sleep you can tonight because patients will come at us hard and fast.”

“You’re sure we’ll have patients…and they’ll let us treat them?”

“D.U. put out word that we were coming a few weeks ago,” he answered. “They’ll come from all over this region.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know how her employer “got word out” in a desolate place like this. Doctors Unlimited was a low-profile outfit she’d never heard of until she was recruited to work for it. Apparently, the organization had ties in all sorts of dangerous places most charities didn’t dare to venture.

Even her brother, Ian, hadn’t been able to find out much about D.U., and she was convinced he worked for the CIA or a similar agency. He claimed to work for a think tank so secretive it didn’t even have its own website, and he assiduously avoided saying what he actually thought about in his job.

She’d half-suspected he was behind sending her on this trip and had initially wondered if this was some sort of spy operation. But then it had dawned on her he would never put his baby sister in danger.

She could totally see Alex being a spy. He was ultra secretive, fit, and smart. He didn’t strike her as the military type, though. His vibe was more James Bond than Rambo. Not to mention there weren’t any weapons in the boxes of supplies filling the back of the Land Rover.

She commented, “I doubt we’ll have many patients. This area looks completely uninhabited.”

“Looks can be deceiving. Karshan’s a good-sized village, and it’s only a few miles from here.”

She huddled deeper into her mountaineering coat as a burst of frigid air rustled the tarp door-wall. “Feels like it might snow.”

“Humidity’s under ten percent. Any snow will fall as virga.”

“What’s virga?” she asked.

.“Precipitation that falls from clouds but evaporates prior to reaching the ground. Of course, snow is a solid, so the correct term is sublimation, not evaporation.”

“Of course,” she echoed dryly.

She scooted closer to the tiny heat source and her knee accidentally bumped his. Electricity sparked through her. He drew his leg away fractionally. She sighed. It sucked when the attractive guy wasn’t the least bit attracted back.

“You are right, though. A storm is blowing in,” he observed. “It’ll get windy and turn cold tonight.”

“You mean this isn’t windy or cold?” she exclaimed.

“This area gets one-hundred-mile per hour winds pretty often. And temperatures drop well below zero. Unfortunately, we’re here early enough to catch the end of winter.”

Ugh. Give her a nice cozy fireplace, fuzzy socks, and a cup of hot chocolate, and she was a happy camper. This was the exact opposite of all that.

“Get some sleep,” Alex said briskly. “You look like you need it.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Didn’t anyone teach you not to say things like that to women?”

He looked startled—a first for him. “I beg your pardon?”

OMG. He really didn’t know that?“Women don’t like to be told they look like crap.”

He frowned, his formidable mind obviously examining her statement from ninety-nine different angles. Eventually, he said, “That’s only logical if a woman is insecure about her appearance.”

“News flash, Einstein:allwomen are insecure about their appearance.”

“I have no context within which to place that remark.”

Oh, for the love of Mike. “Are you always such a geek?”

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