He breathed a curse and then looked over to see how Eve had fared. To his dismay, the passenger’s seat was empty. “Damn it!” He squirmed out of the seat belt and pitched forward onto the pavement, feeling acutely every bruise sustained in the crash and in his earlier struggle with Eve. Nevertheless, he got his feet under him and sprinted around to the other side of the vehicle.
There was no sign of Eve.
He searched the woods, certain that he would see her limping or crawling away. With her injured knee, she could not possibly have gotten very far… Unless she wasn’t heading for the woods.
He ducked down behind the end of the SUV and sneaked a look at the car which had come to a full stop about thirty yards away. The doors opened and four figures — all men, judging by their physique — emerged.
“Help me!” The shriek, a woman’s voice liberally accented with the local brogue, was accompanied by a flurry of movement near the crumpled front end of the wrecked vehicle. A woman shambled into the open, waving her arms. “He tried to kill me! Help!”
It was Eve, and yet it was not her, or rather not the woman he had captured in the Changeling camp. Her mask was gone, revealing smooth white skin and a cascade of blonde hair. She had also shed her commando attire, stripping down to her underwear.
“Damn it!” The men in the car evidently weren’t Changelings, just Good Samaritans, but she would turn them against him all the same.
“Help!” she cried again, falling into the arms of the closest man. “Save me!”
While the one man was occupied with comforting the damsel-in-distress, the other three began advancing. Professor pulled back into the shadows. He would never be able to convince the men that she was not the victim she purported to be. He did not think he could outrun them, which left only one option. He would have to fight his way out of this.
He dug the syringes from his pocket. The fast-acting drug might be enough to even the odds, but he would have to let the men get very close in order to inject them. He backed away from the SUV, staying in a low fighting stance, and waited for Eve’s hapless saviors to close to within striking distance. As the first man stepped into view, Professor realized he had made a grievous miscalculation. The men were armed with pistols, all of which were trained on him.
He raised his hands. “Guys, it’s not what you think.”
The plea sounded utterly ridiculous. These men were not going to take his word over that of a beautiful, half-naked blonde with bruises all over her body, and he doubted very much that Eve would implore them to simply take him prisoner until the police arrived.
“You’re American?” one of the men asked, seemingly apropos of nothing. There was something odd about his manner of speech. He did not sound like an Aussie. The man who had raised the question did not wait for an answer, but instead holstered his gun and took out his phone. He held it up as if to take Professor’s picture then turned to the others. “It’s him!”
Professor watched incredulously as the other men put their guns away and rushed forward, repeating the message in a low murmur.
It’s him.
What the hell?
“We were sent to find you,” explained the first man.
“What are you doing?” Eve screamed. “Shoot him!”
The man looked back to where his comrade was still hugging the woman protectively. “Hold her. Do not let her escape.”
Professor ignored Eve’s cries and continued to regard the other man warily. “Sent by whom?”
“Mr. Atash Shah.”
Professor now recognized the odd lilt to the man’s voice. Indian, or more likely, Pakistani. His swarthy features, along with a long but well-groomed beard, suggested the latter.
He also recognized the name. Shah. The founder of the Crescent Defense League. The man who had put Jade on his hit list. Wonderful, he thought, miserably. And I didn’t think things could get worse.
“And Dr. Jade Ihara,” the man continued.
“Jade?” He felt a glimmer of hope, but then just as quickly grew wary again. It’s another trick. Eve’s dire pronouncement still rang in his ears. There is not a soul on this earth you can trust.
Except Shah had no reason to work with the Changelings, much less with Jade. And how would Jade even know to approach Shah, someone who was actively targeting her? If this was another Changeling ploy, it was positively Byzantine.
“Jade sent you?” he repeated. “I want to talk to her.”
The man looked at his phone again. “The reception is a bit spotty out here, but I’ll try.”
A moment later, he brought it to his ear and began speaking in English. “It’s Ahmad. We found him…Yes…Yes… He wants to speak to Dr. Ihara.” His face broke into a broad grin as he held the phone out.
Professor regarded the mobile device cautiously—
Not a soul on this earth you can trust.
— then accepted it and held it to his ear. “Jade?”
“Prof?”
The sound of her voice, the palpable concern and relief in her tone, brought tears to his eyes, yet he could not forget that Eve had perfectly mimicked Jade’s voice. “How do I—?”
“Know it’s really you?” she finished the question before he could get the words out. She thought for a few seconds, then said: “Where did you get that ridiculous hat?”
“I don’t own a ‘ridiculous hat,’” he said quickly. “But I do have a very dashing and stylish fedora that I picked up in Costa Rica last year. My turn.” He searched his memory for some trivial bit of shared information that no Changeling would ever guess at. Finally, he said. “Jade. I love you.”
There was a long silence at the other end. “Knock it off, Professor. And get your ass back here. I need you.”
It’s really her.
“Jade, I…” A short triple-beep signaled the termination of the call. He sighed and finished the sentence. “I don’t know where you are.”
PART THREE — CIRCLES
TWENTY-THREE
The first thing Jade did when Professor stepped off the loading ramp of the United States Air Force C-130 Globemaster cargo plane was run up to him and tug his cheek to make sure that it was really him and not someone wearing a mask.
The second thing she did was kiss him.
He did not resist. Jade was pretty sure that he was enjoying the display of affection, but she also knew he would never let her live it down, so as she pulled away she said, “Just needed to do that for future reference.”
“I missed you, too,” he said. “Future reference?”
“There are some things a Changeling can’t duplicate.”
“Eww. Don’t tell me you kissed… You know what, I don’t want to know.” He threw his arms around her and hugged her. “God, what a nightmare that was.”
“You can tell me about it on the way.” She took a step back and gestured to the man standing a few steps behind her. “Professor, meet Atash Shah.”
Professor regarded Shah suspiciously then extended his hand. Shah accepted the hand clasp, then went rigid, the blood draining from his face, as Professor squeezed.
“I appreciate what you did for Jade,” Professor said in a low voice, “but let me be clear. I think you are a terrorist—”
Jade put a hand on Professor’s chest and gave him a hard shove. “Knock it off. You would probably be dead if it wasn’t for him and his terrorists, so give it a rest.”