Midnight Rainbow by Linda Howard Page A

swore
vengeance on Grant Sullivan for making her do this.
                  Finally she scrambled over the top, and after
pushing forward several yards found that the foliage had once again thinned,
and walking was much easier. She adjusted the pack on her back, wincing as she
found new bruises. "Are we heading for the helicopter?"
                  "No," he said curtly. "The helicopter
is being watched."
                  "Who are those men?"
                  He shrugged. "Who knows? Sandinistas,
maybe; we're only a few klicks from the Nicaraguan
border. They could be any guerrilla faction. That damned Pablo sold us
out." Jane didn't waste time worrying about Pablo's duplicity; she was too
tired to really care. "Where are we going?"
                  "South."
                  She ground her teeth. Getting information out
of this man was like pulling teeth. "South where?"
                  "Limon, eventually. Right now, we're going due east."
                  Jane knew enough about Costa Rica to know what lay due east, and she didn't
like what she'd just been told. Due east lay the Caribbean
coast, where the rain forest became swamp land. If they were only a few
kilometers from the Nicaraguan border, then Limon was roughly a hundred miles
away. In her weariness, she felt it might as well have been five hundred miles.
How long would it take them to walk a hundred miles? Four or
five days? She didn't know if she could stand four or five days with Mr.
Sunshine. She'd known him less than twelve hours, and she was already close to
death.
                  "Why can't we just go south and forget
about east?"
                  He jerked his head in the direction from which
they'd come. "Because of them. They weren't Turego's men, but Turego will
soon know that you came in this direction, and he'll be after us. He can't
afford to have the government find out about his little clandestine operations.
So… we go where he can't easily follow."
                  It made sense. She didn't like it, but it made
sense. She'd never been in the Caribbean coastal region of Costa Rica , so she didn't know what to expect, but it
had to be better than being Turego's prisoner.
Poisonous snakes, alligators, quicksand, whatever… it was better than Turego . She'd worry about the swamp when they were actually
in it. With that settled in her mind, she returned to her most pressing
problem.
                  "When do we get to rest? And eat? And,
frankly, Attila, you may have a bladder the size of New Jersey , but I've got to go!"
                  Again she caught that unwilling twitch of his
lips, as if he'd almost grinned. "We can't stop yet, but you can eat white
we walk. As for the other, go behind that tree there." He pointed, and she
turned to see another of those huge, funny trees with the enormous buttressed
roots. In the absence of indoor plumbing it would have to do. She plunged for
its shelter.
                  When they started out again he gave her
something hard and dark to chew on; it tasted faintly like meat, but after
examining it suspiciously she decided not to question him too closely about it.
It eased the empty pains in her stomach, and after washing a few bites down
with cautious sips of water, she began to feel better and the rubbery feeling left
her legs. He chewed a stick of it, too, which reassured her in regard to his
humanity.
                  Still, after walking steadily for a few hours,
Jane began to lose the strength that had come with her second wind. Her legs
were moving clumsily, and she felt as if she were wading in knee-deep water.
The temperature had risen steadily; it was well over ninety now, even in the
thick shelter of the canopy. The humidity was draining her as she continued to
sweat, losing water that she wasn't replacing. Just when she
was about to tell him that she