Her voice grew animated, and finally she turned off the phone. After a few seconds of silence, Millie said, “Right. So, what was that all about?”
Petra continued to stare across the harbor as she answered, “They’ve moved him. He’s not here.”
Bloody fantastic. “I reckon this changes things, am I right?”
Petra looked over to Millie and said, “Yes. We need to get a flight to Chengdu. He’s inside a research facility in the mountains.”
Millie stared at her sometimes friend. Something was wrong. She decided to drop her mercenary façade and ask, “Are you all right, Petra?”
Petra’s face was like stone. “I will be once we rescue Will.”
Millie sensed there was more; but she was a good enough judge of people to know Petra wasn’t ready to tell her the whole truth. At least, not yet.
She slapped her hands together and rubbed them. “Right. Then let’s hurry up and rescue this bloody man so I can return to a country that doesn’t eat rice at every damn meal.”
Petra cracked a smile. “Okay, then. Let’s head to Chengdu.”
Cam opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. She moved her head to scan the room—small, with just a cot and two chairs—before noticing the door ajar opposite from where she lay. There were two male voices talking in Spanish outside of her room, and while she couldn’t understand what they were saying, she would recognize Marco’s voice anywhere.
The soldier part of her wanted to let Marco carry on his conversation, but for once, she decided she wasn’t going to follow that logic. She desperately wanted to see him again. “Marco.”
The voices stopped, and Marco pushed open the door. His eyes were tender when they met hers, but in an instant he’d shut the door and was at her side with a stern expression. “It’s about time you woke up.”
She frowned. “I remember an explosion, but not much after that. What happened? Are Zalika and Jacek okay?”
Marco sat in the chair next to her cot, took her hand in his, and squeezed. “Yes, Zalika and Jacek are fine. They’re busy outside, arguing. I’ll tell you the rest once I know that you’re okay. How’re you feeling? Is there any soreness? How about twinges?”
She smiled. “You sound like an old mother hen.”
He raised their clasped hands up against his chest. “Considering I had to extract a four-inch piece of metal out of your side—in the middle of a jungle, I might add—my questions are pretty logical.”
Cam touched both of her sides with her free hand, but there was no pain, not even a slight twinge. “I would call you a liar except that I trust you. But to answer your question, I feel a little tired, but that’s all. So tell me, what happened? How did I end up here, fully healed?”
Marco brushed his thumb against the back of her hand as told her about Diego returning with Eduardo, and then about Eduardo healing her with his Talent powers. “So all of our clue-chasing worked? We found the Water Talent?”
He nodded. “Yes, and while it took some convincing, he’s willing to ally with DEFEND.”
“I sense a ‘but’.”
Marco shook his head. “Eduardo wants to stay hidden here, in the jungle. I was against it, but when Diego convinced him to move to a colony of sorts, deep in the Amazon rainforest, I agreed to it.”
“What do you mean ‘a colony of sorts’? Like a hippie commune?”
Marco chuckled. “No, not exactly. Apparently, the Feiru with latent abilities in the area have been banding together. Afraid that the AMT Oversight Committee would find out about them, they decided to move deep into the jungle. Many of the locals still believe in the Encantado myths, so if anyone gets too close to their colony, they break into song—Encantado are known for their musical abilities—and the locals go running. Considering they’ve lived in secret for nearly a year, they must be doing something right.”
“So, that’s it? Our mission is done?”
“Yes, cariño, once you’re fit to travel, we’re done.”
“What does ka-reen-yo mean?”
Marco’s gaze turned heavy, and she nearly stopped breathing. He cupped her cheek, and her body jolted awake, as if she hadn’t just suffered a near death experience and a miraculous healing. Somehow, she found her voice again. “Marco?”
He leaned down and stopped an inch from her lips. “Honey, sweetie, dear, love—it means all of those things. But to me, it means that you’re mine.”
Cam expected to get angry at being claimed in such a fashion, but she realized quite the opposite. “Cariño, is that how you say it?”
“Yes.”