Comeback

by Doranna Durgin

  "I'm thinking it sounds good for all of us," Selena said. Plenty of pallets and blankets farther back in the cave…it had clearly seen extensive use.

  "Sleep," Aymal said approvingly, "would be welcome." He picked up the food basket, hesitated just long enough to see that no one else would make a claim on it, and walked past Selena to head for the darker part of the narrow, zigzaggy cave—past the food stores, past the little jumble of belongings left by previous occupants.

  Dobry watched him go and said, "Well…at least one of these infamous caves is being used for the good guys." He glanced back at Selena. "I'm going to grab a meal, and then I'm out of it. We've got the whole afternoon to use up, and I'm not in the mood for small talk." Except then he belied his own words by hesitating, looking between Cole and Selena. "You're sure about this? Splitting up again?"

  Instead of responding, Selena looked at Cole. He lifted one shoulder in a shrug, sitting more or less cross-legged against the cave, here where the strong light still reached indirectly. Not so much as a peek of blue sky from here, just pale limestone with calcite flowstone and curtains hugging sections of rock, the worn sections attesting to generations of touch by human hand.

  Or weary human body. And when she looked at Cole, Selena couldn't help but think of the look on his face only…what, was it no more than an hour earlier?—when he'd realized who she was. When he'd grabbed her and kissed her, revealing a hungry desperation she'd never seen in him before. And then moments later when he'd refused Dobry's help, a flicker of wariness crossing his expression.

  When he'd put his trust in her and her alone.

  "If I go…" she started.

  He shook his head, cutting off her words. "It's okay," he said. "I'm okay."

  Through sheer strength of will, she suppressed the entirely disbelieving snort that worked hard to find its way out. She saw the faintest hint of a smile at the corners of Cole's eyes, as if he well knew it.

  Well, he couldn't fool her, either.

  Cole looked away from her long enough to tell Dobry, "It's not about us. It's about getting the job done."

  "Well," Dobry said, awkwardly enough so Selena suspected he'd detected the currents of emotion swirling between herself and Cole. "We've got through the night to think about it, anyway. I might find something in Oguzka that changes our minds."

  "There's that," Cole agreed, and then offered up a hazy frown. "And there's something…something I should be doing…or remembering…or stopping…I just can't get a handle on it."

  "Maybe by tomorrow," Dobry offered.

  "Maybe." Cole gave up on it, his expression clearing. He nodded at Dobry as the man moved on, back toward the area where chiseling and tool marks indicated that this particular cave, like many in this area, had had some homo sapiens help.

  And that left Cole and Selena alone together, watching each other. Just watching, with Cole's focus visibly wavering but his fortitude holding fast. Selena moved closer—a few steps was all it took in this limited neck of an opening—and crouched before him. "The thing is," she said evenly, "I don't want to leave you."

  He grinned; it looked a little loopy. He'd always been susceptible to pain meds. She hadn't even given him the other half of the pill yet. "Well, that's something else again." He patted the ground between his knees, a little scoop of ground just big enough to sit in. Which she did, leaning back against the same cave wall that supported Cole's shoulder, her knees passing over his outside leg. A partial pretzel. "Dobry will do well enough by me."

  "That's not the point." She raised an eyebrow at him to let him know she wasn't that stupid…not that distractible.

  "No," he said, and pulled her in close enough for her head to rest on his shoulder, her hair scraping the rock behind her. "It's not." He kissed the top of her head. "And I don't really want you to go, either. So just sit here a while and let me soak you up."

  He smelled of barnyard; he smelled of sweat and pain and something herbal she couldn't identify. He smelled…

  Wonderful.

  So she sat with him, and they soaked each other up while they still could.

  Chapter 18

  While Dobry headed out in the early evening to hunt either a guide or a compass, Selena again cleaned Cole's wound. With the pain meds and food already in his system he had an easier time of it, and afterward, together they made what Selena quickly came to think of as the grossest decision she'd ever thought to contemplate.

  "Hospitals use 'em," Cole said.

  "Those are sterile maggots." Selena paused with her fingers dipping into the salve from the Oguzkan doctor's office and looked down at it. "What am I saying? Here I am about to put bag balm all over you. There's something totally surreal about this whole situation. Yes indeedy, maggots would be perfect."

  Cole grinned, and if he still trembled tensely from her administrations, the grin was still more convincing than it had been earlier in the day. Sleep, and food—even with the infection still eating at his back and into his body—made a difference. "They didn't have sterile maggots in the Civil War," he said. "And it worked back then."

  Selena sighed, rubbing one eyebrow with the heel of her hand. "I wouldn't have expected it this late in the season…but there have been a few flies hanging around the bucket." No need to say just which bucket. At this point in the day they all had a constant awareness of its presence.

  "They say you can't even feel them," Cole added, far too cheerful about the prospect. She wrinkled her nose at him, but it was acquiescence. So she rubbed the salve on her fingers only around the thickening, reddened circumference of skin on his back, trying to be gentle with the sticky stuff, backing off when Cole swallowed too hard, too frequently. But she left the wound itself alone, and made no effort to cover it with gauze.

  "God, you're good," Cole said when she was done.

  "Not the conditions under which I really want to hear those words." She gave him a little shove—but gently. Carefully.

  "Seriously," he said. "The thought of Dobry doing this job…? No. No, thanks." He rolled to his back—not quite flat, just far enough to sit up—and made sure his tunic was still pulled up. "Come and get it, little blowflies." And, adopting a professorial tone that Selena confidently labeled as drug-inspired, he said, "A day for the eggs to hatch. And three days of liquifying and munching the bad stuff before we need to pull them."

  "There's plenty of liquid in there already." She scowled at him. "And you'd damned well better be in friendly hands by then."

  "I could be in friendly hands right now," he suggested.

  And from the interior of the cave, Aymal said loudly, "Do you two never stop?"

  No, Selena decided. Not if she could help it. And she realized if it weren't for Cole's injury, she'd actually be enjoying this time with him. Stuck in a narrow cave, stuck with a cranky defector, stuck waiting out their fate. Enjoying his cutting humor…enjoying their partnership, a newly discovered facet of their relationship. She'd always done her work apart from his though they shared the same goals, sometimes the same risks. He'd always done his in silence, sworn not to reveal details. And now here they were in the same place at the same time, and no explanations were necessary.

  "If you're serious about getting some fly buddies, you'll have to move closer to that bucket," she told him.

  "I'm thinking not." He returned to his side on the pallet and beckoned to her, and she lay down in front of him, letting him be the outside spoon, his lower back still carefully exposed. He tucked his arm around her, snuggling up under her breasts. His breath came softly across the side of her neck. And if his body was still hot, his breathing still ragged, still catching on pain, she was nonetheless content for the moment.

  Sleeping, eating…saving their energy.

  Because soon enough, they were going to need every personal resource they could muster.

  DOBRY RETURNED AFTER DARK, slipping into the cave with a sigh of tired relief.

  "Guide or compass?" Selena murmured, not moving from Cole's
sleeping grasp except to straighten the leg that was cramping.

  "Compass," he said. "Though it's amazing how much more willing they were to talk to me without you there."

  Selena pondered whether she should awake enough to determine just how much sarcasm had been present in those words, and decided against it. Typical Dobry, either way you looked at it. "Any trouble?"

  "All quiet." He paused, hesitating on words so close to being said that Selena could practically feel them. Words other than what he actually said next. "We'll talk in the morning, then?"

  She woke a little more at that. "I don't think any of us are ready to move tonight. Did you see anything that made us think we should reconsider?"

  "No," he said, quickly enough. She woke a little more at that, and then decided the man was merely tired…relieved, as they all were, at the prospect of stocking up on food and energy. She herself was replete…she'd easily caught up on what little sleep she'd lost by getting up in the middle of the previous night, and the nonstop nature of their day until they'd hit the early afternoon cave nap had been nothing compared to the hostage incident.

  Right. Because that's the sort of thing everyone should have in their lives as a benchmark.

  Her body, on the other hand, was waking more fully with every passing moment—offering her all the signs of its hyperawareness of the dangers their situation posed. That superfluous adrenaline rush, sly in the way it sneaked up on her, leaving her caught unaware when she could barely stop herself from leaping to her feet and going for a midnight ran.

  Yeah, that would be the safe thing to do at this moment. Wouldn't attract any attention at all.

  Better to try to sleep through it—to give Aymal the chance to rest, to give Cole the chance to heal—and hope he didn't simply sink further into the infection, into sepsis and organ failure and death. It was already beyond a simple local infection, or he wouldn't have the fever with which he so clearly burned.

  She suddenly realized that Dobry still waited. "There's room back by Aymal." She slipped her hand in the pocket of the bulky coat that now acted as a blanket, and pulled out the tiny, flat LED flashlight, angling it to light his way.

  "Thanks," he said, in a gruff voice that sounded like the Goff voice but..somehow wasn't quite.

  When he'd found his way, he murmured his thanks again, and she snuggled her arm back under the coat, resting her hand on top of Cole's. Of course he'd slept right through it. Just as well.

  The next day was likely to be a big one.

  SELENA RAN HER TONGUE around her teeth and decided that the MREs should come with those little finger tooth swipes. Fresh breath on the run.

  Second thought of the day…surprise that she'd gone back to sleep, after an hour or so of deep breathing and ineffective visualizations of calm. Surprise that she'd slept through Cole's departure from their shared pallets.

  She sat, scrubbing her hands across her face and through her hair, then turning to hunt her hair band out of the pallet bedding. "Don't give up on me now," she muttered at it upon finding it, discovering that it had lost some of its stretch. She finger-combed her hair back and bound it in a low ponytail, and then covered herself with the hijab. From the front half of the cave she heard low conversation, including a high voice she didn't recognize. So after she straightened her shirt, she shook out the long, proper coat—somewhat the worse for wear—and slipped it on. It not only served as an excellent tentlike shelter for her good-morning encounter with the bucket, but the morning was still chill, and the locals would still be appalled by her formfitting clothing.

  A few moments later at the cave entrance and sitting just within the sharp morning sunlight slanting into the cave, she found an interesting little men's club. Comfortably hunkered down next to Cole, the boy she'd saved eight months earlier spoke with some animation, relating a tale in such a swift stream of Berzhaani words that she doubted anyone else could follow it. His four-year-old's lisp didn't help things; she couldn't help but wonder if his family knew he'd come up here.

  Boys. The same the world over.

  Cole looked little better than the day before—still bleary-eyed, still drained by fever. But he'd had food and he'd had sleep, and though he favored his back considerably as he shifted in the half cross-legged position that seemed easiest for him, he no longer looked as though he might possibly fall on his face at any moment.

  Not quite.

  Dobry noticed her first, and nodded a greeting, one that Aymal echoed. The boy leaped to his feet. "Selena Shaw Jones!"

  "Hey," Selena greeted them all, figuring English would do for a word that didn't really mean anything anyway. The fresh breeze from outside the cave reached in to brush her face, and she breathed it in. The cave itself, it had to be said, was already getting a little ripe.

  Cole turned to look at her—carefully, so carefully—but did it with a grin on his face. "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

  Selena couldn't hold back the healthy snort of amusement at the infamous quote from The Princess Bride—one repeated endlessly during the movie in much the same manner as her bus-stop performance. "I gather our little friend has been telling stories."

  "As near as I can tell, he thinks you were magnificent. He says even when the strongest men of the village removed you from the rocks, you defied them."

  "That's one way to put it." Dobry plied a toothpick between his front teeth.

  "Hey," Selena said, not at all the same tone as when she'd said that word moments earlier. "It worked, didn't it?"

  "Oh, you got attention all right."

  "Point made," she told him tightly. "Point made last night. Now let me make a point—you were going to give up. You didn't offer any alternatives. You might as well have not been there."

  "Whoa," Cole said, but the bulk of his attention landed on Dobry. "Let's just look to the future on this one."

  "The choices we make about the future are affected by those moments in the village." Dobry, never one to let go of a matter.

  "Fine." Cole's voice got grittier, and Selena watched Dobry take notice. "Now let's figure out the best way to move ahead. You got the compass, and we've had some rest. Our friend here—" the boy who watched them, suddenly silent, and very much recognizing the tension running between them "—says there haven't been any more new visitors. But that doesn't mean there's not someone lurking outside the village."

  Selena turned to the boy. "Do your people watch the area around the village? Out beyond it?"

  The boy nodded. "Since the big fight…sometimes."

  The exchange had been too quick for any of the others, so Selena translated into Russian, adding, "So we might have advance warning, and we might not."

  That put one of Dobry's sour looks in place; Aymal just looked disgruntled. He said, "Then we will have to be careful when we leave. Perhaps early this evening, just as night is falling."

  Selena winced at the thought of leaving Cole with Dobry, but forced herself to add, "We could at least slip past the town perimeter, make it out far enough to hole up and start fresh at dawn. It's two days to the border, if we keep a good pace."

  Dobry opened his mouth, closed it…and then finally spoke up. "If you wait until this evening, we might discover more options."

  "You have a stealth chopper coming in that we don't know about?" Cole asked.

  Dobry offered a more or less obligatory grin. "Yeah, don't I wish." He rubbed his upper lip, and said, "I suppose there's no rush on heading to Suwan on this end."

  Cole looked startled; Selena didn't wait for Dobry to think through what he'd said. "The sooner Cole gets medical help," she said tightly, "the better. All we've got is maggots and bag balm." And broad-spectrum antibiotics, but if things went septic he'd need IV meds and support to have a chance.

  "Won't do either of us any good if they're waiting out there for Aymal. You think they won't take us as a consolation prize?"

  "Then don't get caught," she snapped at him. "You're the disguise m
ogul—think of something."

  Dobry spoke distinctly, carefully. Looking from Cole to Selena, watching them for reaction. "I only meant…we, too, might wait until this evening. It seems best. Then no pair of us is left here alone in the cave."

  Selena exchanged a look with Cole, her attention lingering on the unnatural flush of fever over skin tones she couldn't even assess because of the dye. He was strong…he had medicine now, even if it wasn't enough. The wound had been cleaned and though she hadn't seen it today, the afternoon before it had drained nicely. Still, she hated to think of any delay.

  But Dobry had something of a point.

  "Look," he said. "I can go back down there now and try to make arrangements, but that puts me in plain sight in daylight. But if we go down after dark, I can appropriate some transportation much more easily."

  "There's that," Cole said.

  "But we leave tonight for sure," Aymal said. "For the border. I want to get out of this accursed country."

  Cole shifted uncomfortably. "It's either the border or…" But he trailed off oddly, looking at Aymal with a puzzled frown. "Son of a…" he said, still not quite certain, and then shook his head, abruptly more assertive. "Son of a bitch. You were going to do it, weren't you?"

  Selena wanted to ask what, wanted to demand it. But when she saw the same on Dobry's face, she shook her head. This was between Cole and Aymal for the moment, and they'd know soon enough.

  Whatever it was got Cole to his feet quicker than she would have thought, if no more steady. Aymal jumped up to meet him, his trepidation speaking clearly of his complete understanding. No fool, the boy ran into the cave to Selena, and hesitated between doing the manly thing and putting himself in front of her or hiding behind her. But he was, after all, a very young boy, and he ended up behind her.

  Cole stalked Aymal like prey, his abaya hiding the stains from his wound but the movement of it highlighting every unsteady moment he had. Not that he seemed to notice. All his attention was focused on Aymal. "You would have let Selena take you away without even mentioning the capitol. You would have let us head for Suwan with no warning of what's about to go down there."