They continued through the jungle. The valley floor was muddy, still sodden from the storm, but the relatively flat ground let them move at a decent pace. Before long, the trees thinned out as they neared the steep earthen wall of the valley’s west side.
Chase looked up at it. ‘Okay, somewhere at the top of that’s the camp where they were keeping you and your friends. So a bit south of it there’ll be a big mudslide.’ His gaze moved along the stepped cliff, spotting an area largely stripped of vegetation about a quarter of a mile away. ‘That’s where we fell down.’
They picked their way along the valley until they reached the swathe of destruction. Chase turned his attention to the ground, trying to match what he remembered from the darkness of the previous night with what he saw now. ‘There!’ he finally said, pointing out a shape half buried in the mud.
Natalia recoiled when she realised what it was: the body of a woman. ‘Who is she?’
‘One of the Russians — she came after me when I was carrying you out of the camp, but we all got washed away by the mudslide.’ Feet squelching in the sludge, Chase went to the broken-necked corpse. Insects had already started to feast on it; revolted, he swatted the flies away before picking up the body. Its head lolled horribly.
The young German was appalled. ‘What are you doing?’ she shrilled as he carried the dead woman towards her.
‘Saving your life. Take your clothes off.’
‘What?’
‘You need to swap clothes with her.’ He laid the body on the ground and, with a degree of disgust at himself even though he knew it had to be done, started to undress it. ‘I’m going to do what you asked me to: put a bullet in your head and burn your body. Except she’s going to be you — that’s hopefully what Lock and his people’ll think, anyway.’
Realisation dawned. ‘You are going to trick them into thinking you have killed me?’
‘Yeah. I’ll make damn sure that they find me and see what’s left of the body. If it’s so badly burned that they think they won’t be able to get anything useful from it, then they’ll leave — and they’ll stop looking for you.’
‘But if they find you with the body, they will kill you!’
‘They can try,’ Chase said, with a confidence he didn’t feel. ‘The main thing is that you’ll be safe.’ He looked away as Natalia started to remove her clothing, concentrating on the unpleasant task of stripping the dead Russian. ‘Once you’ve got dressed, I want you to go back to the village and stay with your friends. I know roughly where we are, so if you head east,’ he gestured over his shoulder with a thumb, ‘you’ll get to the river, and then you can follow it back to that crossing we used. If you even think there’s anyone nearby, hide until you’re sure they’ve gone — and for Christ’s sake don’t step on any more landmines!’
Even without looking at her, he could tell she was dismayed. ‘You… you are going to leave me?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘You’re going to leave me. And here’s another promise. I’ll never tell anyone — anyone — that you’re still alive until I’m absolutely sure that nobody’ll be able to use you to restart your grandfather’s experiments. You won’t ever see me again unless I’m one hundred per cent sure of that. Otherwise there’s a risk I might lead somebody to you.’ He removed the last piece of the Russian’s clothing. ‘Here. Put these on,’ he said, still not looking around at Natalia as he held up the bundle.
She took the damp and dirty garments from him, then passed him her own. ‘Let me help.’
Chase shook his head. ‘No. Soon as you’re dressed, get to the village. I’ll take it from here.’
‘But—’
‘Don’t argue. It’s the only way to keep you safe, and you wouldn’t want me to break a promise by not protecting you, would you?’ He began to dress the body in Natalia’s clothes. The Russian was slightly bigger than the young woman, but the clothes she had borrowed from her friends in the village were loose-fitting enough that it did not matter.
He was halfway done when he felt a hand on his shoulder. ‘Eddie? I… I am ready to go.’
Chase turned to see that Natalia was now dressed — and that despite her words, she did not want to leave. He stood and faced her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘No,’ she admitted. ‘I am frightened. And not just for me. These people, when they find you, they will—’
‘Hey, hey. It’s okay.’ He put his hands on the young woman’s shoulders and kissed her on the forehead. ‘I’ll be fine. It’s the only way to keep you safe. Although,’ he added as an idea came to him, ‘sorry about this.’
‘Sorry about what— Ah!’ She gasped as he twiddled a skein of her blond hair around his forefinger and tugged hard, strands snapping. ‘That hurt! Why did you do that?’
He tucked the hairs into a pocket. ‘Her hair’s darker than yours. If I make sure they find these, it’ll be more convincing. Now go on, get moving.’
Chase straightened, gently but firmly pushing her away. Natalia got the message and, with an expression of deep regret, set off into the jungle to the east. Then she paused, looking back. ‘Eddie. Thank you.’
He nodded. ‘Can you make me a promise?’
‘Of course. What is it?’
‘That you’ll make the most of the life you’ve got.’
Tears shone in her eyes. ‘I will. If you do the same.’
‘Always do.’ He gestured for her to go. Reluctantly she turned away and headed into the trees. Before long she was lost to sight amidst the undergrowth.
Chase watched until he was sure she had gone, then looked back at the dead woman. ‘Okay,’ he said with a sigh, ‘sorry about this, but I’m going to have to kill you again.’ He finished dressing the corpse, then raised it over one shoulder in a fireman’s lift. ‘Now, where’s the best place to start a fire?’ He got his bearings, and headed back into the jungle…
‘So that’s what happened,’ finished Eddie. He and Nina were seated with Natalia on the same makeshift bench on which the young woman had told the Yorkshireman her story eight years earlier. ‘Lock and Hoyt bought it, and so did Kagan and the Russians. They actually believed I’d executed Natalia. As if!’
‘Yeah, and I believed you too,’ said Nina, still reeling from the revelation. ‘You jerk! You lied to me!’ She punched him, only semi-playfully, on the arm. Natalia looked on with a mixture of amusement and concern, unsure exactly how angry she was.
‘No I didn’t!’ he protested. ‘And by the way: ow.’
‘You did, you said you killed her!’
‘No, I said I did what she asked me to do. Which was to make sure nobody used her DNA to recreate the eitr. Lock and the Russians both thought she was dead, so they stopped looking for her. Problem solved!’
‘I did not agree with him at the time,’ said Natalia. ‘But now I am very glad that he did what he did. It has not been easy, but the friends I have made here, the help I have been able to give to the children — I would not give that up for anything.’
Eddie’s expression became more serious. ‘So how are you?’ he asked her. ‘Have there been any more… symptoms?’
She gave him a sad look, then discreetly rolled up the hem of her thin cotton shirt. Several lumps, ranging in size from the width of her little finger’s tip to slightly smaller than a golf ball, ran in a ragged line up from her waist. ‘The first one appeared last year,’ she said, indicating the largest. ‘The others came soon after. They are only growing slowly… but they are growing all the same.’