“About the same distance as we’ve come.”
She panted and he handed her a water bottle.
Nhiari gulped the liquid down and scanned the terrain. “All right.”
He didn’t smile, or show any signs of his elation in case she changed her mind. Instead he tucked the bottle back in his pack and slid his arm around her waist. “Let’s go.”
It didn’t matter that she didn’t want to be near him. What mattered was they had a tentative truce which could hopefully blossom into a partnership to take down Stonefish.
After half an hour Nhiari came to a halt. “Where the hell is your camp?”
He smiled. “About another hundred metres.” He pointed ahead to where the morning sun shadowed the rock.
She squinted, looked at him with suspicion and then moved towards it. He helped her over the last section, which had larger boulders. It had been hard navigating it in his four-wheel-drive. Finally they ducked into the shade of the cave.
Nhiari scanned the area, and nothing on her face gave away how she was feeling.
Lee tried to see it the way she would, ignoring the nerves which cared about her opinion. His one-room tent was set up at the back where it was out of any breeze that might blow this way. It was also the flattest area of the cave and while one door faced the front of the cave, the other faced the tunnel leading into the ranges. A small camp fire was set underneath a fissure in the rock which allowed the smoke to escape, and his four-wheel drive faced outwards, allowing him a quick getaway if needed.
What she didn’t see was the car and the tunnel both had bug-out survival packs in them in case he was caught unaware. “It’s not much, but it’s home for now.”
“It’ll do.” She sighed as she sat in his camp chair, which was next to the unlit fire.
Lee hesitated. This cave was larger than the one the boys had been in. “Will you be OK here? It’s not too enclosed?”
Her eyes showed their appreciation. “It’s bigger than a double garage. I’ll be fine.”
Good. He didn’t want to have to move, but he would have.
He shifted a larger rock so she could elevate her ankle on it and then went to the fridge in the back of his car and got out two bottles of cold water.
He handed her one and she raised her eyebrows, impressed. “You really have everything you need. How do you keep it running?”
“Solar blanket.” He pointed to the cord running out of the cave. Over his two months here, he’d never seen another person in this area, so he kept it uncovered.
“How do you restock?”
He pressed his lips together. She wouldn’t like his answer.
“I thought you were going to share information with me,” Nhiari said when he didn’t speak.
He shifted closer and sat on a rock. “I will tell you, but I need you to promise me you won’t take any action against them.”
“For aiding a known criminal,” Nhiari clarified.
Lee nodded.
“I can’t guarantee that.”
“You’ll want to when you discover who it was.”
Her stare was hard. “Georgie was helping you all this time?”
Georgie was the obvious answer. “No.”
She sat back, thinking things through. Finally she asked, “Who then?”
“Your word she won’t be mentioned in any of this.” It was his one non-negotiable.
