going?”
“To brush my teeth.” His groan of disappointment made her smile. She would have loved to have kept it up, enjoying reciprocal
treatment in return. But even Gus knew better than to go that far.
People who fell in lust got stupid. Lucy was too smart to be stupid, especially now, when the stakes were so high.
CHAPTER 4
L ucy saw Gus glance at his watch, the only indication that this unforeseeable delay was getting to him. It sure as hell was
getting to her.
In the rear seat of a stuffy little van chartered to drive them to the edge of civilization, they sat motionless on Highway
40, just one link in a chain of vehicles heading into the tunnel that burrowed through the side of a mountain.
Thanks to an avalanche of rock that had strewn debris across the road, the tunnel was blocked. Lucy could see highway workers
under the vigilance of Colombia’s equivalent of the National Guard scrambling to remove the obstruction.
If sitting in a stuffy van doing nothing could get her stomach churning, then how the hell was she supposed to come face-to-face
with guerrillas and not embarrass herself?
Her slowly drawn breath caught Gus’s attention. “
¿Estás bien?
” he asked her.
You okay?
“
Claro.
”
Of course.
Why wouldn’t she be?
She tried to focus on the scenery. To the east, Bogotá sprawled like a patchwork quilt, its lush green parks breaking up squares
of steel and concrete. With the mountains looming protectively behind, the megalopolis looked downright picturesque, till
one looked more closely and saw the shanties pushed up onto the sides of the mountains.
A high-pitched whistle snatched her attention forward. At last, the road was clear! Engines roared to life and their van inched
toward the tunnel. But then a national guardsman waved them down.
Fournier swore under his breath, and a guard leaned into the passenger window demanding to see their passports.
One by one, the peacekeeping team was scrutinized. Lucy fought to hold the guardsman’s gaze as he looked up from her passport
to scrutinize her. Her heart sank as he stepped from the vehicle to confer with his companions, taking all the passports with
him.
While a ripple of excitement seemed to pass through the ranks of the guards, Lucy sat in a cold sweat, wondering where her
composure had flown.
“
Mon Dieu,
” Fournier muttered, looking as ill at ease as Lucy felt. Cars honked impatiently behind them. If they were detained much
longer, they might miss their rendezvous with the FARC tomorrow.
At last, the guardsman returned with their passports. “Where are you headed?” he demanded inscrutably.
“To Villavicencio, to see how the peace is being kept,” said Fournier, answering in a half-truth.
The man nodded. “You may proceed,” he announced, handing back the passports and waving them on.
As the window closed, the entire UN team, Lucy included, heaved a sigh of relief.
With horns urging them to hurry, their driver lurched forward, eager to make up for lost time. They surged into the dark,
unlit tunnel, and Gus pinned Lucy against the seat with his shoulder, bracing her with his arm in the absence of a seat belt.
Lucy snapped her eyes shut.
Please don’t do that,
she wanted to tell him, recognizing his attempt to save her life in the event of a head-on collision.
The tunnel ended abruptly, spilling them onto lush, rolling plains called Los Llanos, where Gus’s vigilance relaxed. Their
first destination, Villavicencio, stood less than thirty miles away.
With a squeal of brakes, the van stopped for lunch. Seated at an outdoor café, the team enjoyed a midday meal under the watchful
eye of soldiers patrolling the industrial city. Once terrorized by the FARC, Villavicencio was now occupied by the Colombian
army.
“Eat well,” Fournier murmured to them. “We have no way of knowing if the FARC will be able to feed us.”
While Gus slipped away to place a call to the JIC, Lucy
“To brush my teeth.” His groan of disappointment made her smile. She would have loved to have kept it up, enjoying reciprocal
treatment in return. But even Gus knew better than to go that far.
People who fell in lust got stupid. Lucy was too smart to be stupid, especially now, when the stakes were so high.
CHAPTER 4
L ucy saw Gus glance at his watch, the only indication that this unforeseeable delay was getting to him. It sure as hell was
getting to her.
In the rear seat of a stuffy little van chartered to drive them to the edge of civilization, they sat motionless on Highway
40, just one link in a chain of vehicles heading into the tunnel that burrowed through the side of a mountain.
Thanks to an avalanche of rock that had strewn debris across the road, the tunnel was blocked. Lucy could see highway workers
under the vigilance of Colombia’s equivalent of the National Guard scrambling to remove the obstruction.
If sitting in a stuffy van doing nothing could get her stomach churning, then how the hell was she supposed to come face-to-face
with guerrillas and not embarrass herself?
Her slowly drawn breath caught Gus’s attention. “
¿Estás bien?
” he asked her.
You okay?
“
Claro.
”
Of course.
Why wouldn’t she be?
She tried to focus on the scenery. To the east, Bogotá sprawled like a patchwork quilt, its lush green parks breaking up squares
of steel and concrete. With the mountains looming protectively behind, the megalopolis looked downright picturesque, till
one looked more closely and saw the shanties pushed up onto the sides of the mountains.
A high-pitched whistle snatched her attention forward. At last, the road was clear! Engines roared to life and their van inched
toward the tunnel. But then a national guardsman waved them down.
Fournier swore under his breath, and a guard leaned into the passenger window demanding to see their passports.
One by one, the peacekeeping team was scrutinized. Lucy fought to hold the guardsman’s gaze as he looked up from her passport
to scrutinize her. Her heart sank as he stepped from the vehicle to confer with his companions, taking all the passports with
him.
While a ripple of excitement seemed to pass through the ranks of the guards, Lucy sat in a cold sweat, wondering where her
composure had flown.
“
Mon Dieu,
” Fournier muttered, looking as ill at ease as Lucy felt. Cars honked impatiently behind them. If they were detained much
longer, they might miss their rendezvous with the FARC tomorrow.
At last, the guardsman returned with their passports. “Where are you headed?” he demanded inscrutably.
“To Villavicencio, to see how the peace is being kept,” said Fournier, answering in a half-truth.
The man nodded. “You may proceed,” he announced, handing back the passports and waving them on.
As the window closed, the entire UN team, Lucy included, heaved a sigh of relief.
With horns urging them to hurry, their driver lurched forward, eager to make up for lost time. They surged into the dark,
unlit tunnel, and Gus pinned Lucy against the seat with his shoulder, bracing her with his arm in the absence of a seat belt.
Lucy snapped her eyes shut.
Please don’t do that,
she wanted to tell him, recognizing his attempt to save her life in the event of a head-on collision.
The tunnel ended abruptly, spilling them onto lush, rolling plains called Los Llanos, where Gus’s vigilance relaxed. Their
first destination, Villavicencio, stood less than thirty miles away.
With a squeal of brakes, the van stopped for lunch. Seated at an outdoor café, the team enjoyed a midday meal under the watchful
eye of soldiers patrolling the industrial city. Once terrorized by the FARC, Villavicencio was now occupied by the Colombian
army.
“Eat well,” Fournier murmured to them. “We have no way of knowing if the FARC will be able to feed us.”
While Gus slipped away to place a call to the JIC, Lucy
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