Her fingers caressed his face but felt like ice picks.
“Your face is red. You’re going to be miserable for at least an hour,” she said. “Can you make it?”
“Make it where?” he asked.
“The Italian border. I don’t know. I’m kind of making this up as we go.”
He opened his eyes and saw red hair and the bright blue of her jacket. His eyes stung, and he closed them.
“You can really ride,” he said.
“When I have to.”
“Are you afraid?” he asked.
“I just threw my life away, and I don’t know where the hell I’m going.”
“You’re going with me, right?” Jake asked.
“I have nowhere else now.”
“What’s the road look like?” he asked.
“Clear. The police in Avignon don’t have anything that moves as fast as us, but I’m sure they’re coming.”
“We can outrun Avignon police. It’s the rest of the world that scares me.”
“There’ll be checkpoints on the autoroutes,” she said. “Every cop in Provence will be watching for us, and I bet a search helicopter is taking off from Nîmes right now. But if I push it, we can go through the Luberon region. The tree cover will make it harder for an airborne search to find us. We could reach the border in three hours.”
Jake rubbed his eyes.
“I like your style,” he said. “But I told you Pierre and I had escape plans. When you have a past like ours, you’d be stupid not to. I assume Pierre’s place isn’t safe?”
“It’s under surveillance.”
“That rules out escape plans alpha through charlie. We’ll have to jump ahead to escape plan delta. We’re on A-7, right?”
“Yeah.”
“How far from Cavaillon?”
“I saw a marker a minute ago that said ten kilometers. Is that where we’re going?”
“Not quite. Almost.”
Jake groped for his phone, tugged it from his pocket, and handed it to Olivia.
“Dial ‘Alain LeClerc’ from the stored numbers.”
“It’s ringing,” she said.
She placed the phone in his hand and he pressed it to his ear. He heard a groggy voice.
“Allo?” the man asked.
“The fox is trapped in the chicken coup,” Jake said.
“Mon Dieu,” the man said. “Does he want to leave?”
“Yes,” Jake said.
“How many?”
“Two.”
“Only two?” the man asked.
“The rest are already safe,” Jake said.
“Urgency?”
“Immediate. We’ll be there in minutes.”
“All is prepared,” the man said. “It always has been.”
Jake slid the phone back in his pants.
“Who was that?” Olivia asked.
“Pierre’s brother-in-law.”
“Marie’s brother?”
“No. From his first wife. Long story,” Jake said. “Let’s make best speed towards Cavaillon. After the exit, call out street names, and I’ll tell you where to turn. We’re looking for a sunflower farm.”
As the bike slowed, Jake squinted at incandescent lights outlining the silhouette of a large structure. Engines whirred and propeller blades whipped the moist air.
“Straight to the airplane,” he said.
Its twin engines droning like beehives, a blur of white taxied out of the hangar. The bike stopped, and Olivia grabbed Jake’s hand. She guided him to the airplane and opened the passenger door.
“Hide the bike,” Jake said.
He climbed into the passenger seat and smelled the stale scent of plastic and vinyl.
“Alain?” Jake said.
“Yes, of course,” Alain LeClerc said.
“I can’t see very well,” Jake said. “Pepper spray.”
“I noticed a stench.”
The door slammed and Olivia jumped into the backseat.
“The bike’s in the hangar,” she said. “You should have someone hide it better once we’re airborne. We need to hurry. I think I saw a cop turning off the autoroute behind us, but I can’t be sure.”
“And where are we going?” LeClerc asked.
“Unless Pierre has something to say,” Jake said, “we make for Tuscany.”
“I have been trying to call him since the moment you woke me. It concerns me that I cannot reach him.”
“He’s half way across the world,” Jake said. “Can we just get airborne?”
“As you wish.”
Its lights revealing a lane of hard dirt carved in a sea of grass, the plane accelerated and lifted into the darkness. No one spoke until LeClerc leveled at a low cruising altitude.
“I’m heading towards Italy,” he said.
“Good,” Jake said. “I’ll see if I can get hold of Pierre.”
His vision clearing, Jake dialed the number to Renard’s global account, but Olivia grabbed his hand.
“I wouldn’t use that yet,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Your calls are being eavesdropped.”
“How?” he asked. “I have two-hundred-fifty-six-bit encryption on a digital GSM standard.”
“We set up a false base station in Avignon to intercept your calls,” she said. “That lets us unravel the encryption algorithm. I’d wait until we’re farther away.”
“You didn’t stop me from calling Alain.”
“We had no choice,” she said.
“Then I am implicated in whatever trouble you’ve found your way into,” LeClerc said.
“Don’t worry,” Jake said. “By the time you could tell anyone anything you know about us, we’ll be long gone.”
“Would my phone be monitored?” LeClerc asked.
“I doubt it,” Olivia said. “Not yet. We caught people off guard. The planned take down was still days away.”
LeClerc handed Jake his phone. Jake dialed Renard’s number but heard only a recorded voicemail.
“Escape plan delta is in effect,” he said and hung up.
“Thank you,” LeClerc said.
“For what?” Jake asked.
“That message just secured my bonus,” LeClerc said. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name, miss.”
“Better that you don’t know a damned thing about her,” Jake said. “Let me try something.”
Jake scrolled down numbers on his phone until he found Henri’s. He punched it into LeClerc’s phone and listened.
“Allo,” Henri said.
“Sweet!” Jake said. “I was afraid you were already at sea. Assume we’re being monitored. Tell the boss that escape plan delta is in effect and to call me at this number. Don’t say it, but do you have it?”
“Putain!” Henri said. “Yes, I see your number. I will have him dial that number within minutes.”
While waiting for Renard, Jake kept the phone in his lap and looked for a topic to ratchet down the tension.
“Alain used to fly Mirages in la Marine Française.”
“I always loved flying,” LeClerc said. “What I wouldn’t give for a Mirage, or any jet for that matter. As you can see, my Cessna lacks speed.”
“How did you meet Pierre?” Olivia asked.
“Aspirants at l’Ecole Navale,” he said. “Class of Nineteen Eighty-Two.”
“Jake mentioned you were related.”
“He married my sister, but my sister and nephew were killed by a drunk driver. It was horrible for me, but it nearly destroyed Pierre. It is good to see him remarried to Marie and that he has a new son. I was beginning to fear that he’d take his misery to the grave.”
Jake’s vision became clearer. He noticed gray stubble caking LeClerc’s chin, but with his slicked-back silver hair and burgundy turtleneck sweater covering his beige dress shirt, he looked dignified.
LeClerc’s phone rang and Jake answered.
“Yes?” he asked.