The room was pleasantly spacious, and Saffron lay with her eyes closed at a comfortable angle on her bed with only a saline drip to show any evidence of her trauma. Ethan slipped quietly into the room and closed the door behind him.
‘About time you showed up, tough guy,’ Saffron said, opening one eye to peer at him. ‘Last I heard you were at death’s door with a little splinter in your side.’
Ethan grinned.
‘Go to hell,’ he said, crossing the room to her bedside. ‘The doctors have told me I’m not to exert myself for five days. It could lead to complications.’
‘Sure,’ Saffron said, but her eyes were dancing with humor.
‘How’re you doing?’ he asked.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, shifting her position slightly and propping herself more upright on her pillows, ‘now that I don’t have my breakfast running through my bloodstream. Took a while for them to stitch me up but I’ll make it.’
‘You did good,’ Ethan said. ‘If you hadn’t walked into that police station, Lopez and I would have ended up beneath a few tons of New Mexico rubble and Jeb Oppenheimer would have been planning who lived and who died in his new world order.’
Saffron smiled faintly.
‘Didn’t do me much good though,’ she said. ‘Guards at my hospital door and a lengthy prison sentence to look forward to. You should have left me in that cavern with Jeb.’
Ethan sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.
‘I’m doing what I can,’ he said. ‘I’ve got the DIA over a barrel about what happened in Lechuguilla Cave, both last week and in 1862. They’re looking at options for you.’
‘Why doesn’t that phrase fill me with confidence?’
‘It’s not easy,’ Ethan admitted. ‘You’ve become a high-profile victim of these events, but it’s still going to be hard to keep you out of jail.’
Saffron became melancholy, staring at her bed sheets.
‘I killed him,’ she said finally. ‘I killed my own grandfather.’
‘You defended yourself,’ Ethan replied. ‘He shot you first, remember?’
Saffron didn’t appear to hear his last words as she reached out and gripped his hand.
‘Promise me, you’ll call your parents,’ she said.
‘Why?’
‘Because you still can,’ Saffron replied. ‘Don’t leave it another day, okay? Just do it, before you wake up one morning and realize you no longer can.’
Ethan held her gaze for a long moment and saw the determination in Saffron’s eyes. He nodded and flipped her a mock salute.
‘Okay, I’ll do it. I promise. Scout’s honor. But you’ve got to do something for me.’
Saffron raised a questioning eyebrow as Ethan gestured out of the window.
‘You’re the heir to SkinGen Corp,’ he said.
‘I don’t want any of it,’ she said. ‘The whole goddamned company can go to hell and—’
‘That’s what I mean,’ Ethan cut across her. ‘You want to change things for the better? Selling the company off for nothing will achieve exactly that: nothing. Take the helm, organize something, even if it’s just distributing drugs to countries and people who can’t afford them. SkinGen is not a legacy to be avoided, it’s an opportunity. Use it.’
Saffron leaned back against her pillows with a sigh and released his hand.
‘I wouldn’t know where to start,’ she said.
‘Anywhere will do,’ Ethan said. ‘Just start. Jeb Oppenheimer was a monster but much of what he believed made sense, especially to ordinary people. Find those things, act on them. Don’t leave SkinGen tainted with the memory of Jeb: reinvent it in the image of Saffron.’
Saffron laughed briefly, but she saw Ethan’s expression and the laugh faded.
‘You think it’s worth it?’
‘It’s a no-brainer,’ Ethan replied.
‘Fine, I’ll do it,’ Saffron said. ‘Now get out of here, I’ve got a genuine injury to recover from.’
Ethan grinned and walked to the door. He was about to open it when she called over to him.
‘I won’t be seeing you again, will I?’
Ethan hesitated at the door.
‘If the DIA gets you out of this, you’ll be hidden away for quite a while.’
‘Maybe I’d have looked you up.’
‘Maybe you still should.’
Saffron shook her head and smiled. ‘I don’t have a chance while your Mexican spitfire’s watching your back.’
‘Lopez?’ Ethan said. ‘We’re just partners and—’
‘Like hell,’ Saffron cut across him. ‘She likes you, I can tell it from a mile away. You just watch your step with her though.’
Ethan sighed softly.
‘You mean because she sold out to Jeb Oppenheimer? You know she tossed the tracking device before we found the caves, right after she’d sent the DIA the IP address? She had a plan.’
‘She looks out for you alright, but she’s a firecracker, hard to handle.’
Ethan wasn’t sure how to react. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Put it this way,’ Saffron said, ‘if you’re walking about with a grenade in your pocket, you step lightly because it could kill you just as sure as it could save your life. She’s a wild card, Ethan, nobody knows what she might do next.’
Ethan opened the door, thoughts of Lopez clouding his mind.
‘I’ll bear that in mind.’
74
The New Mexico sun blazed brightly in a flawless blue sky as Ethan stepped out of the hospital foyer, shielding his eyes. Across the street stood Nicola Lopez, leaning against the trunk of a Ford Taurus and jangling the keys in her hand. Ethan stepped across to her, the hot wind rippling his shirt and lifting one corner to reveal the thick dressings. He touched them self-consciously as he walked.
‘You’re not going to start showing that thing off to people, are you?’ Lopez asked.
‘Looks good, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘Another war wound to add to the collection.’
Lopez smiled and shook her head.
‘People will just assume you’ve had your appendix out or something. Jesus, you were in hospital for two whole days. Anyone would think you got your head blown off.’
Ethan, affronted, covered the wound back up.
‘C’mon, I suffered for this one. Doctor said a half-inch higher or lower and I’d have been in real trouble.’
‘Yeah,’ Lopez agreed. ‘My point exactly.’
Ethan shook his head in dismay.
‘Just because you can walk out of a gunfight looking like you’ve been modeling swimwear doesn’t mean everyone can,’ he mumbled.
Lopez looked at him as a smile blossomed on her face.
‘You really think that?’
Ethan sought to backtrack.
‘Sometimes,’ he admitted. ‘But don’t get used to compliments, I’m not paid to blow sunshine at you.’
Lopez smiled again, but the moment passed. Ethan watched her for an instant, and then gestured to the car.
‘We need to talk.’
Lopez climbed into the car with Ethan and drove out of the hospital grounds, heading toward the I-85. Ethan let the cool breeze funnel in through the open window onto his face as they drove.
‘What’s the news on Saffron?’ Lopez asked.
‘She’s recovering well,’ Ethan replied, ‘but she’ll be going to trial in Santa Fe as soon as she’s well enough to stand.’