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"Which way?" Get the details first, Gabe told himself, feeling his pulse rate accelerate.

"Look, it's somewhere down there." The guy pointed in the direction that Cora had headed, and Gabe felt his uneasy feeling getting stronger.

"That's where the white roofed cabin is. But you don't wanna mess with the owner. He's… not the kind of person you wanna mess with."

"Why's that?" Gabe asked.

The guy hesitated, as if weighing his options, before finally speaking. "He's scary. The way he shouts and threatens anyone who goes near that cabin - well, I think he could get violent. I’ve heard him do it to others as well. Anyone walking on their own. He doesn’t do it with groups. So, you don't wanna go near him. If you have to, I’d advise you to take someone with you."

Gabe nodded, slowly, as if mulling over the information. "Thanks for the warning," he said, patting the Chihuahua one last time before straightening up. "I appreciate it."

The guy headed on, down the track.

Gabe took a deep breath, trying to suppress the fear that now boiled inside him. There was a faint path, leading between the two tracks, winding its way in the direction Cora had gone, and the direction the dog walker had warned him about.

He barged his way down the path. What was going on, and would he be in time to stop it? Now that he was heading this way, he thought he could hear faint shouts from far ahead, a man's voice. Anger in the words. And then, nothing. Nothing except his own frantic footsteps that were charging in that direction.

There it was, ahead of him.

A white roofed cabin, with gnarled, weathered boards, the white paint peeling and yellowed.

He scanned the perimeter, looking for any signs of danger. The voices had stopped. Where the hell was Cora? She'd walked this way. Now, she'd disappeared.

The side path continued, winding up into the hills, and as he stared around, feeling torn apart by stress, Gabe guessed that his best option would be to follow it. Most likely, Cora had checked the cabin, found it empty, and continued on this way. So that was what he should do, too. The cabin was clearly empty. A glance in the window confirmed it. There was nothing else nearby, and a wall of vegetation beyond the cabin.

But, as he walked back, Gabe couldn't stop thinking that perhaps he was missing something. That this silence was too extreme. That maybe the warning from the dog walker had been a timely message, something he should take seriously.

After all, if Cora had gotten this far, why hadn't she texted or called him? Why hadn't she told him immediately that this was where the cabin was? Of course she'd do that, and the realization hit him like an icy shock.

Then he saw it.

A scrape on the ground, deep and deliberate, and the way it was positioned looked to him like a message, a sign.

It was leading in the direction of that impenetrable looking leafy wall.

Perhaps there was something beyond?

Crashing through it, heart racing, Gabe followed his instincts, hoping that he might be on the killer's trail.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Cora had to get the grenade away from Boris. That was the one action that was imperative if she wanted to survive this hell ride. That grenade was deadly. She’d seen the destruction. She didn’t want to be blown to bits in the car. The threat was all too real. He might decide to take her out with him along for the ride. Or, he might shove her out of the car and then throw it at her. That was the strategy she thought he’d use, so she needed to get the damned thing out of his hand.

Once that was out of the picture, even though she was handcuffed and belted into her seat, she could at least fight him. Without the risk of the entire car becoming a lethal fireball.

Right now, he was driving like a madman, the car jolting and bouncing over the rough track, on a route he clearly knew well.

Getting the grenade away from him was a sound strategy. But she’d need to build up to it. She’d need to try and give herself some space to work, see if she could get some slack into the belt if she leaned gently against it.

And in the meantime, she had to try to distract him as much as possible. It would be a good thing to try to get his mind off of that grenade, as well as deflect his attention from what she was trying to do.

"Why did you do what you did to those soldiers?" she asked, trying to keep a calm tone, hoping that talking about it would divert his mind from his deadly agenda.

Boris turned to her, eyes narrowed, his expression tense. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Why did you go back into the Army base and take those people?" Cora continued. "What did you hope to achieve by doing that?"

She saw his grip on the grenade tightening. Instinctively, she guessed, he was reading any attempt at talking to him as a threat. Maybe conversation hadn't been such a good idea, but it was too late now. He took a breath, and it was as if his own personal pin had been pulled. Now the words exploded out of him, as the car burst out of the woods and slewed its way onto a narrow asphalt road, winding up into the mountains.

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