Lupa

Chapter 4

The next morning, she woke up feeling very heavy eyed but not remembering anything about the night before. She did notice James looking at her searchingly a time or two but she put it down to the day ahead and him wondering how things would go.

As they started out, the weather cleared and they made good time. Natalya had no idea exactly what James' job was to do up in this place but they came to a ridge above the area in the late afternoon.

"This is the place I was telling you about" she said.

She took her cue from him as she saw him crouch down behind some rocks.

He got out a pair of compact binoculars and scanned the valley below. Natalya could see faint movement down there, a number of people clustered around what appeared to be large trucks.

He watched them for about 10 minutes or so, looking at what appeared to be temporary buildings set up in a compound surrounded by large wire fences strung with barbed wire. The terrain was a small rocky plateau with large patches of snow on the ground surrounded on three sides by the forest they were currently hiding in. The fourth side dropped away into a valley. He could see a helicopter pad in the compound and what appeared to be a small winding road coming in to the right, through the forest.

His brows drew together as he thought. Mentally tracing a possible route down to the area where he could get there unseen. It was very isolated and obviously here because there would be small chance of people camping or hunting this high up and far in. He put his binoculars down and sat back on his heels.

"Is this what you wanted to see?" Natalya asked him. He turned to her and nodded, his mind on his task. "Yes." He was silent again, thinking.

"How long will it take to do what you need to do?" she said.

"I will need to go down so I can be in position then wait till dusk but hopefully no more than an hour or so" he said. "Will you be alright here till I get back? It's not too cold?"

She shook her head. "I have ways of staying warm. Don't worry about me. I'm just concerned about you." She remembered what he had said the previous night about if he hadn't come back in an allotted time, then she was to leave. He moved over to where she was sitting and took her hands in his.

"I have to do this" he said. "There are a lot of people whose lives depend on the information I can find down there. But...." he hesitated. "If I don't come back by, say, 1800 hours, I need you to get out of here as fast as you can." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small phone and a slip of paper. "There's a phone number on here that you should ring. Explain what has happened and things will get taken care of"

He drew in a breath and was silent a moment, running his thumb over her palm. "I have only known you for a couple of days but if I don't come back, you should know that had things been different and had I not come across you in that bookshop. I would have tried to find you by any means necessary after the night we spent together."

She looked into his eyes, intently.

He shifted the hold he had on her hand and once again, dropped his lips to the inside of her wrist, lingering there for a moment. She caught her breath as feeling from him flooded through her.

He stood up abruptly and turned to pick up his bag. Slinging it over his shoulders he looked at her again, seeming to try and memorise her face.

"Remember what I said. If I don't return. Leave here fast." Then he smiled crookedly "Who knows, with any luck I'll be back before you know it and then I'm going to be doing everything I can to pick up where we left off the other night" And with that, he turned and leapt over a rock and disappeared from view.