Page 14 of Song of Sparrows and Sorrow

Nate grabbed a pistol from beneath his seat and got out of the Humvee, putting it at the small of his back, and she did the same.

“Oh, and Nate.” Eden waited until he turned to give her his full attention. “The next time you call me sweetheart I’m going to put a bullet in your kneecap. I’m not a fan of endearments.” Not since Jonah Salt had used them so freely.

“Make sure you shoot for my left knee. The cartilage is already worn to hell and back and I’ve heard the R&D lab at Dynamis can give me a new bionic one.”

He turned away from her and started walking toward the docks. Eden blew out a breath. She had no idea how to handle Nate Locke, and it was disturbing to say the least.

“Hell,” she said under her breath and followed after him.

Her eyes were never still, tracking the roads and possible hiding places where Jonah or the Russians could be waiting to ambush them. Nate had been right. The docks were all but deserted at this time of the day, but there was a kid of about nineteen or twenty looping rope in a figure eight pattern around two wooden posts up on a boat.

“Hey, man,” Nate called out. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

The kid looked up from his ropes. His face was pockmarked with acne scars and a red bandana was tied around his head to keep his long hair out of his eyes.

“Time’s money, man.” And then he went back to his rope.

“So it is.” Nate pulled out his wallet and a couple of twenties and the kid let the rope fall. He jumped over the side of the boat and landed in front of them on the dock with the surefootedness of someone who spent most of their time at sea. He held out his hand for the money.

“Information first,” Nate said, making the kid grin and shrug. “How long have you been hanging around today?”

“My old man and me take tourists out for fishing. We had clients this morning that paid big bucks to wake up early and freeze their tails off just so they could take a picture with a fish half their size and hang it in an office on Wall Street somewhere. But we had to cancel the trip and reschedule for tomorrow.

“Denny, he’s the police chief. He came by with a few other cops and said a couple tourists saw a lady get kidnapped this morning. The tourists were making a stink about it so Denny and the others made all the boats stay docked so they could search them for the woman.”

“Did they find her?”

“Nah, it was bogus. Old Jerry told them they was crazy. That’s his boat down there,” he said, pointing to the boat Eden had taken out that morning to search for Jonah. Her face didn’t betray her feelings. It wasn’t the kid’s fault old Jerry was a two-timing worm.

“Jerry told them it must have been a crank call cause nothing but fishing and tourist-type stuff goes on down at these docks. We all make our living from the water, and a day wasted is money gone. Which is why if you want more information you’re going to have to add another twenty.”

Nate peeled off two more twenties and a picture out of the inside pocket of his jacket. “Did you happen to see this man hanging around this morning? It’s possible he was hurt.”

The kid stared at the photo and then shrugged. “I don’t know, man, it was dark. Only thing weird I saw this morning was a yellow Zodiac heading north up the shoreline. Didn’t pay much attention to it. Figured it might have been one of the guys unloading some drugs or something before the cops boarded the boats. We’ve got cargo planes going in and out all the time bringing stuff in and taking it out again. I wouldn’t be surprised if not all of it was legal.”

Nate passed over the money. “I don’t suppose old Jerry is still around for the day?”

“Nah, dude went home sick after the cops left. Didn’t look good at all. He’s a drunk, so I figure he had a bad night.”

“Thanks for your help, man.” The kid scurried up the rope ladder and was back on deck before they’d turned to walk away.

“Lucky for old Jerry he got sick,” Eden said as they headed back toward the Humvee.

“Let’s follow the north road for as long as we can and see if we can find the Zodiac. Salt will have dumped it and had a contingency plan of some kind. You know he was probably here almost twenty-four hours before you arrived.”

They got back in the Humvee and he started it up, backtracking the way they’d come and following the coast road that would eventually dead-end. All of the roads out of Nome led to nowhere. It was well and truly isolated unless you had means to traverse the land in other ways.

“What will he do next?” Nate asked. “Tell me your gut feeling.”

He’d do exactly what Eden was afraid he might do. He was going to disappear. “He’s wounded, but he won’t need help. He’s trained in medical and he’ll know what to do to patch himself up. You’re right. He was here long enough to gather supplies and set up transportation. He’d have to do it here in town though, so we can check that out if we lose his trail. He’s going to disappear right in front of our faces. He’ll use the land and his skills to live until he thinks it’s safe to head somewhere else.”

“Don’t forget the Russians,” Nate said. “We’re not the only ones looking for him. And they’re going to be looking forustoo. Salt is going to need access to the internet, otherwise his blackmail scheme isn’t going to work. And as much as we like to think it isn’t so, technology is the best way to find someone.”

“Say we find Jonah. How are we going to disarm the bombs on those tankers without him blowing them first? He’ll have detonation codes and there’s no way in hell he’ll be giving them to us.”

“That’s the million-dollar question, sweet—” Nate looked at her sheepishly out of the corner of his eye and grinned. “Agent Kane.”

“And your bionic knee is put on hold another day.” She felt her lips twitch and looked out the window to hide it.

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