"Where are we going?" he asked.
"North Vegas airstrip," Purdue replied, his voice little more than a croak. He pointed to the tablet. "I will have someone waiting. We can get somewhere safe."
"We're not going home?"
"We can't, Sam," said Nina, "not yet, at any rate. These people are dangerous, we've seen that. If Dave's got somewhere safe where we can hole up for a while, at least until our wounds have healed, we have to go there. We can figure out whether there's any lasting danger and plan our next move."
It was the right decision, Sam knew — the practical decision, the safe decision. But suddenly his heart ached for home and he wanted nothing more than to be back in his flat in Edinburgh, complaining about the heat and being woken in the night by Bruichladdich.
He turned to Julia Rose. "I'm sorry," he said. "I should never have let you come along. Look where it's got you."
"You couldn't have stopped me," she said. "Besides, I'm not going with you. Mr. Purdue just used that thing of his to wire me some cash, just like he's doing for the cab driver, so I've got enough to get home. He said it's enough to cover replacing my car, too — well, I don't think I'm gonna get it back now, do you? I'm going to hide out back in Minneapolis for a while. Pretend all this never happened."
She fell silent and turned her face away, signaling the end of the conversation. The dark glass reflected her face just enough for Sam to be sure that she looked considerably more frightened than she sounded. There's no point in arguing with her, he thought. If she doesn't want to go into hiding, we can't make her. She'll probably be safest far away from us anyway.
Sam's head was still buzzing with questions and adrenaline by the time they arrived at the airport. Purdue greeted his personal pilot, Gary, and silenced his concerns about the suddenness and irregularity of their trip with promises of obscene amounts of money. Gary took one look at Sam and Nina, looking as torn as his employer and shook his head. With a weak wave of acknowledgment they greeted him. Gary was thankful he was not involved in this pursuit of Purdue's, as he was last time when he almost did not get away alive.
While Gary introduced them to the only medic he had been able to acquire at such short notice, Sam said goodbye to Julia Rose. He waved until the cab was out of sight, bound for McCarran International in Las Vegas, and then followed Nina and Purdue up the steps into the charter jet.
Purdue was already stretched out in a reclining chair with the EMT tending to his wound, while Nina had collapsed into the nearest seat and was staring catatonically at the back of the seat in front.
Without a word, Sam dropped into the seat beside her. The engines roared to life. Automatically, he held out his hand for her to grasp during takeoff. She took it.
"This is going to take a hell of a lot of sorting out," he sighed.
The plane thundered along the runway, then soared upward, carrying Sam, Nina, and Purdue away from the horrors of the desert, into an uncertain future.