Hunting Eve

“No, he won’t want to talk to you. He’ll hang up. I’ll compromise and put the call on speaker.” He pressed the access. “Hello, Zander. This is unexpected. What can I do for you?”

“You’re damn right it’s unexpected. I’m sending you coordinates where I am right now. I want you to contact Dr. Eland and bring him here. Pronto.”

“Someone is hurt?”

“Me. Compound wrist fracture. Nasty. I’ve been trying to set it myself, but I keep blacking out, dammit.”

“Imagine that.”

“You imagine. It’s very clear and real to me after spending seven and a half hours climbing from that damn mine shaft.”

“What?”

“Long story. You have to come in from the north, not the south. Get a helicopter and land on the opposite side of the mountain with the stream ru

“You keep saying you,” Stang said. “You want me to come, too?”

Zander was silent. “Yes, I want you to come.”

“Extraordinary.”

“Just get Eland here within the next few hours. I have to get on the move. I don’t know how much time I have.”

“Eve Duncan?”

“I think she’s alive. I couldn’t find the body.” He hung up.

“He thinks she’s alive?” Joe said. “Call him back.”

“Not if you want to find him at the coordinates he gave me.” He pulled the door closed behind him. “Which you’re now not going to have to pull out of Weiner. Convenient timing for him.” He strode toward the car. “I’m sure he’s extremely grateful.”

He followed Stang. “Give me your phone. I want those coordinates.”

“You’ll get them when I give them to the pilot who takes us to Zander.”

“I could take your phone from you.”

“You could, but I’d fight. Since I’ve been wonderfully cooperative, I don’t believe you’d want to hurt me unless there was no other way to save your Eve.” He got into the driver’s seat. “And there’s a better way if Zander feels like cooperating. Evidently he’s at least interacting with her if he knows she’s not dead. He’s ahead of you in all this, and that might make a difference. You go into that area without knowing what’s happening, and you might start something rolling that proves fatal for Eve.”

Joe was silent. Then he gave a low curse. “I don’t want you to be right, dammit.”

“Because you want to be totally in control, and now you may have to depend a little on Zander.”

“A very little.” He fell silent again, trying to see some other way that made sense. “He wanted you there in a couple hours. He must have thought it possible.”

“Yes.” He glanced at Joe as he pulled away from the curb. “And it’s my job to make it possible. Three hours, and you may be near where Doane is keeping Eve. Think about that instead of having to work with Zander.”

Three hours.

Joe felt a sudden rush of excitement as he thought about that short time span. He was close. In three hours, she would be near after all this agony he’d gone through. What the hell was he thinking? Who knows what she had gone through, what she was still going through?

“Let’s move,” he said crisply. “What about this Dr. Eland? Are you going to have any trouble rousting him out of his bed?”

“No.” Stang reached for his phone. “Zander has an arrangement with him. He comes when called. I’ll call him and tell him to meet us at the airport. Then I’ll phone the pilot of Zander’s jet and tell him the same thing.”

“And does he come when called, too?”

“Of course, it would be dangerous for Zander to take a chance on someone who would fail him. He wouldn’t tolerate it.”

“You’re failing him. You’re taking me with you. What will Zander do to you?”

“I’m not failing him. I’m just entering into the picture instead of just staying on the sidelines.”

“And you think that Zander will make that distinction?”

“I have no idea.” He smiled. “But if he doesn’t, I’ll have you there to protect me.”

“Don’t count on it.”

“But I do count on it,” Stang said as he dialed the phone. “You’re one of the good guys who should know better but don’t. I knew it the minute I saw you in that library. That’s why I took a chance on doing what I wanted to do without its interfering with—” He broke off and spoke into the phone, “Stang, Dr. Eland. Sorry to wake you, but we have a possible situation that Zander needs…”

Denver International Airport

“YOU’D BETTER BE PREPARED for a big payback, Trevor,” Professor Hansen said sourly. “I can’t believe you talked me into schlepping out to the airport at midnight to see this sketch.”

“I’m prepared,” Trevor said. “It’s worth it if you can identify the area.”

Hansen held out his hand and took the sketch. He studied it for a moment, then shook his head. “It’s … familiar. But I can’t identify the area for certain.”

“You’re sure?” Jane’s hands clenched into fists. She had been hoping against hope. “Perhaps somewhere in Mineral County?”

Hansen frowned. “Maybe…” Then he shook his head again. “Wild country. It’s my kind of country. I think I would have remembered it if I’d ever seen it before.” His tone softened as he saw Jane’s expression. “Sorry. Look, I’ll go back to my lab and look through my photos in the computer. Maybe it will jog my memory.” He turned and shook Trevor’s hand. “I’ll remember that you owe me. Expect a call.” He turned and left.

“Zero,” Caleb said. “You struck out, Trevor.”

“And it could have been a home run,” Trevor said coolly. “We have to try every avenue. What have you done lately except fly that airplane?” He looked at Jane. “I could go check out a few more sources in the forestry department at the university, but Hansen is the best man I know.”

“That doesn’t mean someone else might not have been in that particular place at some time. It’s a big country.”

“It’s your call.”

She thought about it. She was tired of searching through books and making calls on the off chance a dream might have some basis in reality. “Yes, send e-mails and make phone calls, but we’re not going to track anyone down for face-to-face interviews. I want to get out in those mountains and see for myself. Kendra actually sounded hopeful.” She added wearily, “God, I need hope.”

“I think a little of that is begi

She tried to look away from him. Dammit, she could feel her body’s response begin to heighten, heat, as it seemed to do whenever she was near him now. He had warned her, and it had come to pass.

Get over it. Once she became accustomed to the reaction, then it would surely lessen, and she could ignore it. “Well, I don’t feel it.”

“You will,” he said softly. “It’s buried deep, but it’s coming to the surface. It might be Kendra, or it might be instinct, or your Eve trying to reach you. Who knows? As I said, it’s there, I feel it.”

And looking at him, she realized she was begi

Trevor nodded. “For once, I hope Caleb is right.” He smiled. “It pains me to say that, but I hate the worry and the pain. I want you over it. It hurts me.”

Glowing, golden, magnetism. Nothing dark or burning or hypnotic about Trevor. She drew a deep breath as she looked at him. It was like being held in velvet, protected, knowing that he would keep all pain and sadness from her path. Why had she turned away from him and walked away?

“I’ll go get the car,” Caleb said. “All this sentiment is making me a little nauseous.”