He felt utterly detached as he listened to the strange sounds…whines and zings and thunks…and then felt the sting of something hitting his arm. Just a tiny sting-a bit of rock or gravel thrown up by a bullet, he thought. No problemo.

Then he was on top of the wall…scrambling, falling, tumbling down the other side. And running, pounding through the rain as if the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels, not looking back, not looking anywhere, focusing only on his destination-the dark and wind-whipped jungle. No matter how sinister it looked, he knew instinctively that the jungle meant safety-at least for a moment.

Behind him he could hear the guard scraping and scrambling over the wall, yelling at McCall to stop or be shot. And a great exhilaration exploded through him, lifting him on a new wave of adrenaline into the sheltering trees. Yes. The guard had followed him. That meant Ellie would have her chance to escape.

Now, all he had to do was lose the guard and get to the designated meeting place. The cages-crude wooden structures built to temporarily house the hundreds of birds and animals now awaiting shipment-were off to the right, he was sure of that. Somewhere just beyond the giant Olmec heads, he remembered, he should come to a raised causeway leading off into the jungle to the left. Flanked by remnants of ruined columns, it had probably once been a magnificant promenade ending in an open court at the base of a smallish pyramid that was now no more than a steep-sided mound rising out of the jungle floor. The cages had been assembled in that courtyard, under a canopy of palm thatch and camouflage netting. He’d figured it should be easy enough to find, even in the twilight and pouring rain, which was why he’d suggested it-that, and he’d known it had made a big impression on Ellie, so she’d be unlikely to forget it, either.

So. The way McCall saw it, all he had to do was stay in the jungle, follow the perimeter of the ruins until he came to the causeway and then hang a left, meanwhile avoiding the other guards and not getting himself caught-or shot. And then hope and pray Ellie could do the same.

He didn’t think about what he’d do if she didn’t make it. His mind just refused to let him.

Not in a million years would he have imagined she’d get to the rendezvous point before him. Which was why, when she jumped out at him from behind a ruined pillar, he attempted to knock her into next week. And found himself flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him instead, and a rock that looked about the size of Iowa ready to smash down on his head.

“McCall!” Ellie let go of the rock-actually a broken chunk of Mayan sculpture-and dropped to her knees in the sodden grass beside him. “Oh God-McCall, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize-I thought-are you all right?” She didn’t hear anything but some strangled gasping noises. Leaping to her feet, she straddled his hips, got her fingers inside the waistband of his jeans and heaved upward. Lowered…then lifted again…lowered…lifted…and was finally rewarded with some really beautiful wheezing croaking coughs.

“Dammit…enough…already!”

She dropped to her knees, still astride him, weak with relief. “Oh…God…” And a moment later, furious and shaking, “Don’t scare me like that! I almost…I could have-”

His arms came around her, and she was lying on his chest, their bellies bumping together with-of all things-laughter. “I guess-” and his whisper was scratchy in her ear “-I know now how you took care of those two guys the other night at José’s Cantina.”

“That was the first time, actually-except for in class. You’re the second.”

“Lucky me. Help me up and let’s get the hell out of here. The general’s men are going to be swarming all over this place in a minute. Wait a minute-” He paused in a half-crouch to haul in great gulps of air. Swiping a hand over his face in a futile attempt to get rid of the water, he lifted his head to glare at her. “How’d you get here ahead of me? I was running like a bat outa hell, and you were behind me.”

Face-to-face with him in a similar crouch, she gave a breathless, exhilarated laugh. “Simple-you went around the perimeter of the ruin. I went straight across-took a shortcut.”

“This place is a maze. How’d you know-”

“Never mind that now. Like you said-we’ve got to get out of here before they figure out which way we’ve gone.”

“Speaking of that…” McCall said morosely. He straightened up and made another swipe at the water in his eyes as he looked around him. “I have no clue which way the car is. I thought I had us covered there, but…I guess the rain’s taken care of that.”

“Had us covered? What do you mean?”

Even in the near-darkness she could see his look of chagrin. “Ah, hell,” he said with an embarrassed little throwaway gesture, “it was probably stupid anyway. I was just…you know, thinking about that ‘trail of bread crumbs’ thing. Seemed like it was worth a try…”

“You left…a trail of bread crumbs?” She said it on a yeasty bubble of laughter, full of a strange lightness, warm and cozy as the smell of Aunt Gwen’s fresh-rising bread in the farmhouse kitchen of her childhood. “What on earth did you use?”

He hesitated, trying again to wipe rain from his face. “Cigarettes.”

Still laughing, she said incredulously, “Cigarettes? You used your cigarettes? So that’s what happened to them. I wondered.”

“But,” he muttered gloomily, “I don’t imagine there’d be much left of ’em, not after this.”

Ellie fought to straighten her face and failed miserably.

“I’d think you’d be taking this a little more seriously,” McCall said in a crochety tone as he watched her double over with mirth, “considering we’re lost in a jungle in a tropical storm, Lord knows how many miles from anywhere, not to mention surrounded by cutthroat killers.”

“You’re right,” she managed to mumble, winding down through a series of chortles, “except for the part about being lost. I can get us back to the car-at least, close enough. But first-”

“You can get us-how?”

“Remember those tracking devices the general mentioned? What I told him was the truth-they were in my bag, and his men did throw it into the jungle. Except for one.” She tapped her ear, and McCall noticed that it was missing its earring. “This one I planted in one of the cages, when we were here earlier. That’s so government forces-” she paused for an ironic snort “-can find them later. But-” and she tapped the stud in her other ear and smiled broadly, radiantly “-this one’s a receiver, and it’s set to the frequency of the ones in my bag. All we have to do is follow the pings. But-” her smile disappeared and was replaced by a look of grim purpose “-there’s something I have to do first.” She looked around, squinting against the pummeling rain, then darted into the maze of cages with a breathless, “Come on-help me. It’ll be quicker…”

Funny, how he’d already known what she meant to do. And even funnier was the fact that, as crazy a thing as it was to be doing under the circumstances, he didn’t even think of trying to talk her out of it. He didn’t say anything at all, just took one row while she took another, and together they ran from cage to cage, struggling to pull apart makeshift latches and untie sodden twine, throwing wide the rickety wooden doors. Behind them they could hear squeals and squawks and caws, a few confused flappings…and then the air seemed to fill with beating wings, brilliantly colored wings-all painted in primary colors, like the crayons in a small child’s toy box, but muted and blurred, now, by rain and twilight into a misty rainbow swirl.

“Ellie,” McCall panted, “we have to go. Come on-leave the rest.” In the distance he could hear shouts…gunshots. Coming closer. “We can’t-”

“I can’t leave them,” she gasped. “There’s just a few more…”

Crazy woman. She was going to get them both killed yet. And, as much as he was beginning to love her crazy ways, enough was enough. Intercepting her in a narrow aisle and blocking her way, he caught her by the arms and gave her a little shake and shouted down at her through the wild storm-sound, “We can’t save them all. They’re coming-can’t you hear? You want to die for those birds? Because I sure as hell don’t.” He paused while she glared at him, charged-up and furious, spitting fire and water at the same time. Then he ducked his head down and kissed her cold, drenched mouth-kissed it hard, kissed it deep and with unmistakable intent, while the storm raged around him and the sounds of deadly pursuit got louder. He pulled away finally, breathing hard, and in a guttural growl he didn’t recognize, said, “I want to live, dammit! Those birds mean more to you than your life? My life? Our lives?”

She stared at him with wide, dazed eyes. Her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear what she said. Then she shook her head and caught haphazardly at his hand and they were both running, heads down, as a half-dozen shadowy figures burst out of the jungle and into the courtyard and gunshots crackled through the storm like exploding firecrackers.

“Which way?” McCall gasped as they ran.

“Doesn’t matter,” she sputtered back. “Just…quickest way to cover.”

Cover. Cover of jungle or of darkness? Neither one seemed very friendly to McCall. Either could be their salvation or their doom. Still, considering the alternative… “This way,” he hissed, grabbing her hand and tugging her toward a jumble of stone blocks and fallen pillars half-buried in vines. While there was still enough light to see by, he reasoned, the ruins would afford them more substantial cover than vegetation. Leaves couldn’t stop bullets. Stone would.

The jumble of blocks turned out to be a collapsed section of wall. They scaled it together, pulling and pushing each other over the hard parts, scurrying like lizards over the easier stretches, using vines for handholds and praying they wouldn’t turn out to be snakes, and all the time listening for the crack of automatic rifles and the whine and zing of bullets, and bracing for the thunk of impact.