Bolan took her hand and moved to the door. She kept close to him, as though she could find some reassurance. Carlos stepped through first, darting into the shadows. Bolan went out and followed Carlos around the corner and into the darkness alongside the hut. Overhead the stars sparkled and something opaque swerved like a drunken kite, then vanished into the trees.
He nearly knocked Carlos down as he swept around the second corner. Carlos held a finger to his lips and waved for Bolan to follow suit, then sprinted into the bush. Bolan plunged after him, tugging Marisa more firmly, half hauling her through the tangled growth. Carlos used the trees as a shield as he circled behind the full length of the compound then halted on the edge of a small clearing.
Bolan saw the jeep squatting there in the darkness. An M60 machine gun was mounted in the rear. Now Bolan took the lead. He dashed into the open and swiftly helped Marisa into the passenger seat. Carlos scrambled behind the wheel as Bolan climbed over the tail and knelt beside the M60.
Carlos turned the key, and the engine sputtered for a second before catching. Marisa got up from the seat, her hands groping for the side of the jeep as Carlos floored it. She lurched to one side. Bolan thought for a moment she had fallen. Momentarily stunned, he realized she was trying to climb out.
"No, no, no," she said, her voice beginning to break as it climbed in pitch and volume. "I can't. I can't leave."
Bolan snaked an arm around her waist and hauled her back. He plopped her firmly into the seat as Carlos swung out of the clearing and bounced through a thin stand of trees.
The jeep rattled through a trench, rose at a steep angle as its left wheels climbed along the length of a fallen tree, then fell with a sickening jolt as it slid off.
Marisa still struggled to pull free of Bolan's grasp, but her writhing gradually stopped. She slumped forward, her head on her chest, and her shoulders shook. Carlos reached over to pat her, then withdrew his hand as the jeep started to fight against him again.
A moment later they were free. The jeep bounced through another ditch and gained the road. Bolan looked behind, but everything seemed as dark and quiet as before. Carlos settled down and let the engine drop from a full-throated roar to a steady rumble. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he couldn't believe they hadn't been followed.
Marisa continued to collapse in on herself. She seemed to shrink in the seat as though dissolving in her own tears. Bolan kept one hand on her shoulder to provide her with reassuring human contact.
They drove without headlights, Carlos leaning forward now to see the road as well as he could. The yellow beige of the clay surface looked like a washed-out brown under the starlight. It snaked ahead of them, but the jeep held steady and Carlos began to relax a little. Four or five miles from the camp, Bolan tapped him on the shoulder.
"Pull over," he said.
Carlos turned to look at him as if he'd just been asked to do the impossible. He glanced at Marisa, but she was still lost in herself. She either hadn't heard Bolan's command or didn't care enough to object. Carlos shrugged, threw the transmission into neutral and coasted until he found a small open area off the left side of the road. The jeep rolled to a halt as branches began to scrape at its undercarriage.
"Now," Bolan said, "what's going on?"
Carlos shrugged again. "We had to leave, senor."
"Why?"
Carlos looked at Marisa again. Clearly he was waiting to see if she'd object to an answer. When she didn't say anything, he sighed.
"Senor McRae..."
"What about him?"
"Senora Colgan... she heard him talking."
"Spit it out, Carlos. What did she hear?"
"He was talking about you, senor. And he said... he was going to kill you, just like he did the boys. Only slower."
Bolan nodded. That figured. But why had Marisa intervened? And where had Colgan been while that had been going on?
"And Senora Colgan objected, is that it?"
"Si, senor, and Senor Colgan, too. He objected, too."
"And what did McRae do?"
"Nothing, senior. He left, that's all I know."
"Where did he go?"
"I don't know."
"Did anyone leave with him?"
"Si, senor. Three or four, maybe more. But I don't know where they went."
"Does anyone else know? Any of the other men?"
"I don't know, senor. I don't know anything more than I just told you."
Marisa stirred in her seat, and Bolan thought she was going to say something, but she just curled up and continued to shake. It was a noiseless tremor. Her whole body quivered as if she were inhabited by a silent motor.
"What about Senor Colgan? Where is he?"
"He went after Senor McRae..."
"Alone?"
"With two men. He took guns and he went. He didn't say when he would be back."
"Why did he go after McRae?"
Carlos shrugged and spread his hands in a helpless gesture.
Marisa unwound slowly, like a flower blooming in stopaction photography. She turned to Bolan but said nothing at first. In the darkness Bolan couldn't see her face very well, and he was grateful.
After swallowing hard, she started to speak hesitantly. "He accidentally found out something about McRae," she said. Her voice was cold, remote as the moon. "I don't know what it was."
"Didn't he say anything?"
"He was in a rage. Whatever it was, it must have been terrible. He said McRae was a traitor, that he had betrayed him and that he had to be stopped."
"Stopped from what?"
"I don't know."
"Did he say where McRae had gone? Anything that would tell us where to look?"
"We can't do that. McRae will kill you. He has several men with him. I don't know how many, but he was probably going to meet up with others. Who knows how many they could be? What can we do?"
"We can try to find your husband. He's not safe with McRae."
"McRae wouldn't dare hurt him. Thomas is frightful when he's angry, but he's not afraid of anyone or anything."
Bolan bent close to her, looking into her eyes intently. "Marisa, stop lying. If you know anything, you better tell me now."
She wrenched her head away. "There is nothing to tell."
"Your husband's life is at stake. He's gone after Harding, hasn't he? He knows where to find the man. And that's where McRae went, too, isn't it?"
"No!"
"Tell me!"
"I don't know, damn you, I don't know."
She jumped from the jeep and started to run. Within a half dozen steps, her feet became entangled in a vine, and she fell heavily. Bolan raced to her, but she kicked at him and rolled on her back. He caught one hand, then the other.
"Leave me alone."
"I just can't do that."
"It's your fault. All your fault. If you hadn't come here, none of this would have happened."
"I didn't come of my own free will. You know that, and you know why. That's more than I know. Now tell me what I want to know. Come on, Marisa, there's no time."
"He... he found out that McRae was working with the Leyte Brigade. They were going to attack the NPA camp we visited the other day. McRae was using Thomas, sabotaging everything he tried to do. Learning the location of NPA camps and passing them along to Harding."
"And what about Cordero? What do you know about him?"
"Nothing. He was here once, that's all."
"What do you know about Harding's plans to terrorise Manila?"
"Only that... Thomas said maybe something like that would happen. He was arguing with McRae and I over heard them. But it was a while ago, before Thomas learned what he later found. He, Thomas... It's got nothing to do with him. That's Harding."