He stared at her for a moment and smiled faintly.

“I had Stang arrange for a rental car before we left Denver. The driver is on standby within ten miles of that motel. All I have to do is call and tell him where to pick us up.”

“Very good.” She started to dial.

“I’m glad you approve.”

“I never doubted that you were an expert in practically every way,” she said coolly. “You’d have to be to have survived all these years. I just question your judgment where daughters are concerned. It’s completely—” She broke off as the desk clerk at the motel answered. She immediately got down to business. During the call, she was aware of Zander’s gazing at her curiously, as if she were some strange, rare species. She didn’t care. She was curious about him, too, and he was stranger than she had ever dreamed of being.

“There’s a man of Doane’s description registered in Room 7A,” she said a few minutes later as she hung up. “He’s easy to describe.” She made a face. “All you have to do is say he looks like your best friend or your favorite brother. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the photos of him. Anyone would trust that face.”

“A number of children whom Kevin wanted lured into his web trusted his father enough to let him bring them to him.”

“So I’ve heard. There’s something completely corrupt about deceiving and harming children.” Her lips thinned. “May they both burn in hell.” She glanced challengingly at him. “Or don’t you agree?”

“Oh, I agree. Just because I expect to be sent to the nether regions myself is no reason to group myself with those beasts. There should be some sort of pecking order.” He leaned forward, and told the pilot, “Put down in those hills while I call for the car.” He glanced slyly at Catherine. “That appears to be the best place.”

She nodded. “And it’s very clever of you to realize—” She stopped as Zander’s phone rang.

“Stang,” he said as he accessed. “We’re in Casper, Stang, is there—” He stopped, listening. “No, don’t double-check. Call Venable and tell him to get the state patrol to be on the alert. No action, just surveillance.” He hung up, and said grimly, “The cameras at the tire shop showed a vehicle of that description leaving the motel parking lot and turning north.”

“Damn.” Catherine’s hands clenched. “How long ago?”

“Ten minutes.”

Ten minutes, and they would have been able to catch them at the motel, she thought in frustration. “Can we turn north and try to locate them in the helicopter?”

“We can do it.” He gazed at her coolly. “But the chances are that Doane would notice that kind of search and surveillance. A helicopter zooming down is difficult to mask or hide. Would you want to risk having Doane panic and kill Eve?”

“You know I wouldn’t,” she said between set teeth. “Okay, let the state troopers try to locate them and hope they don’t blow it. What next?”

“There’s the possibility that camera at the tire company didn’t identify the correct car,” he said, as the helicopter started its descent. “We go to the motel, check and see if that room is still occupied.” He smiled faintly. “In which case, I’ll kill Doane, and we’ll avoid a good deal of bother.”

“You can’t kill Doane until we determine if he’s told anyone about where Kevin placed those nuclear devices.”

“Can’t?” His brows rose. “You’re sounding amazingly like Venable. I can and will do anything I please. It’s Venable’s job, and now evidently yours, to take care of saving the free world. Doane has been very troublesome to me since the day I killed his son.” He added, “And very troublesome to your friend, Eve, as well. I’d think you’d want me to get rid of him.”

“You’re being simplistic. That’s what I do want, but do you think Eve would want him killed at that cost?”

He didn’t speak for a moment. “No, but when have I ever exhibited any interest in what she feels or thinks? You’re not being reasonable.”

“The hell I’m not. I’m just not being callous.” Her eyes were glaring into his. “And I’m not being hypocritical. I think you’re lying about not caring about Eve. Why don’t you take a long look at yourself and see what you find?”

“And I think you might just be as idealistic and unrealistic as Eve.” He opened the copter door and jumped to the ground the instant it landed. “We’ll have to see who is right, won’t we?” He strode toward the car that was waiting several yards away. “Stop talking, and let’s get moving.”

*   *   *

“STAND BACK.”ZANDER WAS pressed on one side of the motel door. He took out his gun and fired a bullet to blow the lock. He waited a moment, then kicked the door open with his foot.

“Empty.” Catherine entered the room and glanced around. She had not had great hopes, but she still felt terribly disappointed. No sign of any occupants except those two unmade beds. Eve was not overly neat but she never left an unmade bed. Even if the circumstances were totally bizarre, Catherine could not see her doing it.

“Come on,” Zander said impatiently. “We need to get on the road.”

“You wanted to be sure it was Eve and Doane in that Toyota.” She went over to the beds and jerked the covers off first one bed, then the other. Nothing on the surface of the bottom sheet on the first bed.

On the second bed she thought the condition was the same.

No, not quite the same.

She reached down and picked up a few tiny crumbs from the sheet. “Clay. It was Eve. She was here. And she was trying to tell us she was here.” She headed for the door. “Now we can go. Zander, contact those state troopers and see if they’ve seen them on the road.”

*   *   *

VENABLE CALLED CATHERINE when they’d been on the road just five minutes. “I’ve had a notification from a state trooper on Highway 25 that they saw a vehicle answering the description pull off the main road onto a side road.”

“What’s on that side road?”

“I’m checking it on the map now. Houses, a trailer camp, a small convenience store … Shit! A small private airport. Get the hell out there!”

“An airport,” Catherine said to Zander as she hung up. “They’re not heading for the state border. They’re heading for an airport. We’ve just got to hope that Doane hasn’t already arranged for his flight and that there will be a delay.”

“You hope. I always operate on the worst-case scenario.” Zander’s foot pressed on the accelerator and the car leaped forward. “And that scenario is that Doane has made contact with Kevin’s old friends, and they sent a plane to pick him up. Tell Venable to scramble some airpower and be ready to try to bring them down.”

She reached for her cell, then stopped. “No.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure how they’d bring them down, dammit. Venable said that Homeland Security was a little too eager about using the drones.”

“He didn’t mention that to me. But that’s no surprise. Venable and I are not always entirely honest with each other.” He increased speed again. He was going close to a hundred miles an hour now. “Then I believe we’d better forget about airpower and get to them before they take off.”

Fast.

Faster.

The hills on either side of them became a green blur.

They’d be lucky if those state troopers they’d put on alert didn’t try to pull them over, Catherine thought.

She glanced at Zander’s face. It was completely intent and resolute. He would not stop regardless of who tried to get in his way. She felt a sudden chill as she realized she was seeing the Zander who had earned a reputation that was feared in every corner of the world.

He was handling the Mercedes like a race car driver. He suddenly made a turn to the left that caused the tires to screech, but he never lost control. “How far?” he bit out.

“Three miles. On your left.”

Dirt bumping and spraying beneath the tires.

Rocky Mountain Airport.

“Just ahead,” she said. “I see a few hangars…” Her excitement was growing. “There’s a Toyota parked before that little terminal building.” She was getting a glimpse of the runway. “And there’s a plane going down the runway!”