As Lost as I Get (19 page)

The clinic was busy when she got there, and although Maria gave her a stern look, she didn’t refuse when Zoe jumped in to help. There were strangers in the lobby and lingering outside the clinic—CIA, keeping watch over them.

Going back to her usual routine helped. Catching up on the things she’d missed when she was gone helped. Tia Yana came through surgery just fine, and was almost ready to go back home. Several patients had given birth, and there were new babies to see and coo over. The clinic had become a home to her in ways she hadn’t realized before.

Near the end of the day, she saw a new patient, a young woman complaining of stomach pains. Jacira brought her to Zoe saying, “This is Yesenia. She asked to see you. Said you helped a friend of hers when you were on the river.”

“Hi, Yesenia,” Zoe said in Spanish, closing the exam room door. “What’s going on today?”

She was pale as though she were in pain. When Zoe got close enough, Yesenia reached out and grabbed Zoe’s wrist with a fierce grip. “You have to listen to me,” she said, and Zoe realized she wasn’t in pain, she was terrified.

“I’m listening.” Zoe pulled away gently, although her heart was in her throat.

“I’m sorry. They took my little brother. They’ll kill him if you don’t listen to me.” She let Zoe go and folded her arms in front of her, hugging herself.

Zoe didn’t need to ask who “they” were. “Did they give you a message for me?”

“The men said if you don’t go back, he’ll burn this place to the ground with everyone in it.” Yesenia bit her lip. “They said you’d understand. I’m sorry, that’s what they told me to tell you.”

Thank God for years of training and experience; Zoe would never panic in an exam room or clinic setting. She was able to keep her “doctor” face on and not show anything she was feeling, not as long as Yesenia was firmly classified in her mind as a patient. “It’s all right. Did they hurt you?”

Yesenia shook her head. “Just took Diego. The men promised to give him back if you did what they said.”

“Did they say how I was supposed to get to them? I’m being watched right now.”

“They said come to the river after dark but before midnight. They’ll be waiting. Otherwise, tomorrow, the bombings start. After the clinic, they said they’d go to the old woman’s house. The one with the babies.”

La Abuelita. Zoe’s mouth was bone-dry, thinking of Hugo, Maria, all the other children. “Was there anything else?”

“They said, ‘Tell her we have something that belongs to her, and if she comes quickly, we’ll give it back.’ Did they steal from you, Doctor?”

Lee
. Did that mean he was still alive? “Yes. They did.” Would they really let him go if she went to them? What choice did she have? If they could force this woman to walk in with her message, could they do worse? Could they send a woman—or worse, a child—in with a bomb?

“They’re very bad men.” Yesenia looked a little less frantic. “Will you go? My brother is only ten.”

That wasn’t a question Zoe could answer. There were no good options. She had no proof that Lee was still alive, but if she left for the States tonight, a lot of people would die, including Lee. If she told Agent Wishnevsky, she’d still make Zoe leave, and she’d close the clinic for sure. And people would die. But going back to face those men, making herself a captive willingly . . . Was she capable of that?

She squeezed Yesenia’s arm. “I promise, I will do what I can to make sure your brother comes home safe.” Even as she
said it, she felt her options narrowing. The CIA wouldn’t go rescue one of their own men, why would they bother for some poor Colombian child?

Yesenia threw her arms around Zoe’s neck. “Thank you, Doctor. I am sorry. I hope those men don’t hurt you.”

Zoe hoped so too. That was about all she could do.

Chapter Twenty

After the clinic closed for the day, Zoe, Maria, Susan, and Ana went back to the house for an early dinner, presumably for the last time. The flight to Bogotá left at eleven thirty. The four of them were quiet as they ate.

Ana spoke up. “I still haven’t figured out what to tell my family. They’re going to think I ran away with an American woman.”

Susan smiled—she was the one trying to put a good face on things. “I had thought about asking, but I promise, I didn’t think about asking at gunpoint.”

“I suppose it’s one way to come out.” Ana leaned her chin against her hand and picked glumly at Maria’s excellent cooking.

“What about you, Zoe?” Maria said. “Does your family know you’re coming home yet?”

Zoe swallowed the bite of pork she was chewing. “No, not yet. I thought I’d surprise them.” Ever since that afternoon, she’d been stuck trying to figure out what to do. The window of time for heading back up the river was vanishing minute by minute. Questions chased one another in circles in her head. What would happen if she went? Would they kill her outright or keep her around? Santiago wanted her, that much she knew. Would he really release Lee if she went, or would he kill him no matter what? Would he at least let her see Lee one more time? What would keep Santiago’s men from hurting Yesenia’s brother anyway, or torching the clinic?

There were no good answers, and no guarantees.

And if she did decide to go, she’d have to get past the CIA agents who wanted to follow her everywhere. It seemed impossible.

“Zoe? You in there, honey?” Susan had asked her something and she’d missed it.

“Sorry.” She forced a smile. “What’d you say?”

“I asked if you knew what they have planned for us in D.C.”

“It doesn’t sound good,” Zoe said. “Janet didn’t say for sure that we’d be in protective custody, but that’s what it sounds like.”

“So, what—a safe house or something like that?” Susan looked at the other three. “That sounds kind of exciting, at least?”

“I doubt it’s like it is in the movies.” Zoe smiled in spite of everything. “Does anything get you down, ever?”

“Well, I don’t mind telling you, getting shot at was a pretty big bummer.” Susan kept a straight face, then all four of them started laughing. It broke the reserve that had been sitting over the table, and they wound up hugging each other.

It occurred to Zoe that Santiago hadn’t asked for Ana. Maybe, just maybe, if she went, that would be another two names added to the safe list.

The scales were starting to tip in an inevitable direction. She had to at least try to go back.

Zoe realized something else. She was the only one who had actually seen Santiago with the AC. Ana hadn’t. She was the only civilian witness. Wishnevsky wouldn’t okay a rescue mission for Lee for fear of blowing the CIA’s cover. But what about a star witness? This wasn’t Oaxaca. Zoe bet she was what the CIA might call a high-value asset. Trying to force their hand—and a rescue mission—was risky, but she had no choice. She needed to let them know where she was going, but not in time to stop her.

After dinner, Ana was going to go home and finish packing. Zoe pulled her aside. “I need a favor,” she said. “I can’t really leave, and La Abuelita doesn’t have a phone. Can you ask her to send Little Maria over here? I wanted to say good-bye.”

Ana gave her a strange look, but nodded. “Sure.”

Once Ana was gone, Zoe and Susan went to do their packing as well. Maria offered to help, and Susan accepted, leaving Zoe alone. She watched for the girl’s arrival, catching her before she knocked on the door. Zoe tried to tell herself that what she was asking her to do wasn’t that dangerous, just carry a message, and not deliver it until after midnight.

Sending the message put Zoe past the point of no return, and then everything got easier. She packed a few clothes in a small knapsack, and some money. She could hear Maria and Susan laughing together in Susan’s room as she slipped out the back door. Her only hope was that the agents watching the house wouldn’t be expecting her to try and get away at this late hour.

She only glanced back at the house once, then she was gone down a side street, heading toward the river.

All the way there, the back of Zoe’s neck tingled as if she were being watched, waiting any second for someone—probably an American agent—to stop her and demand to know where she was going.

No one stopped her, but at the docks, no one was waiting for her either. The boats were all empty and tied up. Could she steal one and head upriver herself? She didn’t trust her navigation skills; she’d be sure to hit a caiman or a submerged root or worse.

“So you’re here after all,” came a voice from the shadows, and Zoe nearly leapt out of her skin.

The light-skinned blond man who’d been leading the troops through the village was leaning against the boathouse, then came toward her. Zoe fought the urge to take off running.

“I’m out ten thousand pesos. I bet my boss you wouldn’t show.” The way he looked at her didn’t lessen her desire to run any. It must have showed, because he smiled. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna hurt you. I’ve got my orders.”

Zoe tried to swallow but her mouth was bone-dry. “Are you my ride upriver, then?”

The man stepped forward and gestured to one of the tied-up boats. “After you.”

“Wait. You promised to release Yesenia’s brother. I want proof.” She forced herself to stand tall and look him in the eyes.

His face darkened. “Get in the boat. You’ll get proof later. We can do this the hard way if you want.”

The docks were dark and deserted, and she doubted she could outrun him. She climbed into the boat, holding her
knapsack on her lap. As he stepped in after, he scooped it up and took it from her. “Don’t want to take the chance that you’ll pull a gun on me,” he said with an unpleasant smile. Zoe returned the smile and folded her hands demurely in her lap, wishing she’d thought to bring a weapon anyway.

***

Ana arrived at the house with her bags a little before ten thirty. Susan was still trying to pack, and Zoe, they said, was napping.

“I’ll go wake her,” Ana said. “Finish up, we’re going to be leaving soon.” She went down the hall to Zoe’s room. It was empty, and there was no luggage waiting there. “Maria.” She didn’t yell it, not yet.

“What is it?” Maria said, then looked at the room.

“Zoe’s gone.”

“What do you mean, ‘gone’?”

Ana showed her the closet still mostly full of clothes, along with the biggest pieces of Zoe’s luggage. “She’s not in the house. Did you hear her leave?”

Maria’s eyes were huge in her face. “You don’t think those men came and took her, do you?”

“Without you hearing? You were right here.” Ana looked around the room, frowning.

“We have to tell the men outside.” Maria paused. “Oh, Zoe, chica. I hope you didn’t.”

“What?”

“She talked to me this morning. Did you know about her and the American man?”

“Will Freeman? What about him?”

“She’s in love with him.” Maria started to say something else, then stopped. “That’s what she told me this morning. She thinks the CIA isn’t going to go after him.”

Ana sat down on the bed heavily. “Oh no. You don’t think she’s going after him, do you? I mean, I’ve done some crazy things for love, but I don’t know if I’d do that.”

“Wouldn’t you?” The look Maria gave her was shrewd enough that Ana felt heat creeping into her cheeks.

“Maybe she just went out for some air.”

“Without telling anybody?” Maria looked skeptical.

“I don’t know,” Ana said. “We’ll have to tell the agents she’s gone.”

It turned out they didn’t have to tell the agents anything. Agent Wishnevsky arrived a little after Ana did, and she already knew Zoe was gone. Ana sat with Susan while the agents conferred among themselves. She wanted badly to take Susan’s hand, but things had changed between them. What was supposed to be a “for now” relationship looked a lot different when they were going to be fleeing the country together.

“Oh God, poor Zoe,” Susan said. “She was terrified of those men.” Whatever she saw on Ana’s face, she reached for
Ana’s hand, and some of the tension left Ana’s shoulders. She squeezed Susan’s hand.

“Some things are stronger than fear,” Maria said.

“I don’t know what she was thinking,” Ana said, and that was as close to the truth as she could get right now. She overheard one of the agents with Wishnevsky suggest that maybe Zoe was already dead.

Finally, Wishnevsky came back to the three of them. “We’ve got men heading toward the river to try and find Zoe,” she said.

“The men didn’t take her, did they.” Maria wasn’t asking. “She would have fought, or yelled, or something. We didn’t hear anything.”

“No, they didn’t take her,” Wishnevsky said. “I got a visit a little bit ago from one of the street kids that’s been hanging around your clinic. She had a message for me from Zoe. Apparently she wasn’t supposed to bring it to me until after midnight, but she got worried.”

Ana groaned. “She told me she wanted to say good-bye to the kids, so I sent one of them over here.”

Wishnevsky waved that away. “Did she talk to anyone different since she got back?”

“Just patients,” Susan said. “While she was working at the clinic today.”

“Could one of them have gotten her a message, do you think?”

The three women looked at one another, and finally Maria shrugged. “Possible. But our clients are usually women and children. I would have noticed if she’d talked to any strange men.”

That earned a snort from Wishnevsky. “They could have easily convinced a woman to work for them. Damn it. I knew you should have closed the clinic today.”

“What did Zoe’s message say?” Susan asked.

“She knows where our agent is, and Arcangel told her if she didn’t come back tonight, he was going to blow up your clinic.”

Ana sensed there was more, but Wishnevsky wasn’t talking.

“She went back to them?” Susan almost squeaked, and Ana squeezed her hand. “You’re going after her, right? She thought you were going to leave Will behind.”

Wishnevsky smiled thinly. “We don’t leave people behind.”

Susan gave a harsh laugh, but Ana nudged her, then said, “Is that a yes?”

“She’s a witness with valuable information. We need her.”

Put so bluntly, Ana thought she could believe her. “What about Will?”

“That’s not even his name,” Maria blurted. “Zoe told me. It’s Lee.”

“Christ.” Wishnevsky rubbed her neck. “Civilians.”

“What else did the note say?” Ana asked suddenly.

“What?”

“What else? She wouldn’t have just taken off over a bomb threat.”

“They made a few more promises,” Wishnevsky said. “I don’t want to say more until we’ve confirmed her story.” She stood. “Obviously we’re missing that flight tonight. We know where Doctor Rodriguez is going, and why. God love her, as stupid an idea as it is, I admire her guts.”

She paced the length of the living room. “Officially, I should stay out of this, maybe let the Colombians sort it out. So, unofficially, that means I don’t have a lot of resources available. Ana, can you contact Lee’s other agent, that soldier?”

“I think so,” Ana said. “I don’t know if he’ll be able to get away again.”

“Still, another military person on hand—I don’t suppose any of you have any military training?”

“I do, but it’s been a while,” Maria said, and Susan blinked at her. “I was young and foolish,” Maria told her. The idea of sweet, peaceful Maria with a gun turned Ana’s thoughts on their heads.

“I know a little,” Ana said. “I can help.”

“Ana, no.” Susan turned to her. “You can’t.”

“All right.” Wishnevsky ignored Susan’s outburst. “Ana, contact your man and see if he can join us. I might be able to come up with a plan to get everybody back safe.”

***

Zoe hadn’t felt this exhausted since she’d been a resident working twenty-four hour shifts. By the time they reached Puerta del Ángel, she was practically sleepwalking. She was too tired to feel afraid. Nothing registered when the blond man didn’t take her to the main house. He led her to a shed at the back of the house, and down a flight of stairs.

The room he opened smelled terrible, and Zoe instantly recoiled. It was a cell. He was going to put her in a cell. The fear roared back through her, chasing away her fatigue. She could hardly breathe, and any shallow breath she managed reeked of sweat and fear, urine and blood.

He dragged her through the door. She barely got a glimpse of the room before he chained her to a metal ring facing the wall, but she saw enough. Someone else was there, and her heart sank and soared at the same time. It was Lee. He was alive, but slumped in a half-seated position facing the wall opposite her. Even from behind she could see where he’d been beaten, shadows of bruises over his arms and what little she saw of his face before she was chained.

“I’ll leave you two alone.” The blond man smirked. “The boss will be happy to see you, Doctor Rodriguez.”

Then he was gone, and Lee groaned. “Zoe, no. What are you doing here?”

She tried to swallow the worst of the fear so she could speak normally. “I missed you, so I wanted to come visit.”

“Goddamn it, Zoe. You’re supposed to be safe right now.” The pain in his voice and the harshness of his breathing raised alarms in her mind. “How did they catch you?” he asked.

“Never mind me. How badly are you hurt?” Her brain helpfully supplied the possibilities: broken ribs, punctured lungs, internal bleeding. She wished she could see him. It would make this easier.

He muttered about doctors. “Well, I’ll put it this way: my knee isn’t bothering me as much anymore.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I never should have—”

“Stop that. You did exactly what I needed you to do.” He groaned again, and this time it sounded born of pain rather than frustration with her.

“Are they listening to us?”

“No,” he said. “I’ve had another visitor besides you—the owner. He’s not happy with his bargain.”

“Well, that’s a damn shame,” Zoe growled, then sighed. “I had to come.” She leaned her head against the clammy stone wall. Her hands were fastened at waist height, on a short enough chain that she couldn’t sit. “Everyone I know in Inírida was in danger otherwise.”