Part 23 (1/2)

The SUV drifted across an empty parking lot bordering Mariposa Boulevard, headed toward a smaller lot on the other side of the building. The parking area looked to be concealed from the boulevard by a screen of bushes and small palm trees lining the road, but that privacy came with a price. There was only one way in or out of the lot.

”I can drive,” she blurted. ”I've been napping off and on since Sonoyta. We can find a hotel along the interstate, south of Tucson. It has to be better than this.”

”If we could count on just cruising down the freeway, I'd be all over you driving. But if we run into trouble, I need to be behind the wheel. Counterambush driving is its own thing, and I've been through more training than you'd believe,” said David, easing the SUV into the small lot facing the motel office. ”This actually doesn't look that bad-and the town is quiet.”

”Creepy is a better word,” she said.

”We'll gas up the car, have breakfast, and take a short nap. Back on the road in a few hours,” said David.

”This is the last place anyone would look for us,” said Nathan.

Her husband didn't sound convinced by his own statement. She could read him well enough to decipher the subtleties of his inflection. Then again, the last forty-eight hours had demonstrated they weren't safe anywhere. There was no reason for Nathan to sound convinced.

David pulled into one of the parking s.p.a.ces deep inside the lot, facing the two-story main building. To the SUV's left, beyond a wide concrete sidewalk, a row of four tightly s.p.a.ced motel room doors extended from the corner office to a breezeway that pa.s.sed through the main structure. She glanced over her shoulder at the opposite side of the lot, seeing that it backed up against a row of tall palm trees. The backs of several businesses crowded the line of trees, separated by a narrow service road.

Even if David could manage to squeeze the SUV between the palm trees, which she doubted, there was no way he could turn onto the strip of asphalt behind the business building. The only way out of this parking lot was back the way they came. Keira decided not to bring it up. Surely both David and Nathan had considered it.

”We'll refuel first, in case we need to leave unexpectedly, then figure out the room situation,” said David. ”We should probably take a room on the second floor, where we can see the car.”

Nathan turned in his seat. ”How's Owen doing?”

”Asleep.”

”Why don't you get him moving while we refuel.”

She opened her door to get some fresh air. As soon as they parked, the temperature inside the vehicle spiked, leaving stuffy, dust-caked air. She hadn't minded the dust while cool air poured through the cabin during their all-night, open-window ride, but now it was intolerable. She couldn't imagine what the motel room was going to feel like. Within a short span of time, the sun would be beating down on the rooms. Whatever the reasoning for stopping, Keira still wished like h.e.l.l they had kept going. The thought of hiding inside a sweltering, stagnant room for a few hours was repugnant. She was losing it for no reason, she told herself.

While David and Nathan topped off the vehicle, she woke Owen, preparing him for their transfer to one of the rooms. Nathan leaned inside her door while Owen stretched.

”Hey, bud. We're taking a short break here before we get back on the road.”

”Mom told me,” said Owen, still looking half-asleep. ”I'm pretty hungry.”

”We'll bring our packs into the room. You can eat whatever you want.”

”How are we going to get into a room?” said Keira.

Secretly, she hoped the rooms were locked. Without electricity, they probably wouldn't be able to open any of the doors, even if they managed to find a master key in the office or on a custodian's cart. They could try to kick one of the doors in, but she suspected they would move on instead.

”David thinks they lock in the open position when the batteries in the key-card reader fail,” said Nathan. ”It doesn't look like this place has had any power in a long time. I'm going to check a few of these doors.”

”Be careful.”

He nodded before walking toward the row of doors facing the SUV.

”I don't like this place,” said Owen.

”Neither do I, but we won't be here long.”

”How long?”

”A few hours,” she said.

Owen looked genuinely frightened by her answer. ”I think we should get out of here. It doesn't feel right.”

Keira didn't know how to respond without scaring him even more. Instead of lying, she went with a half-truth and nodded toward Nathan, who stood in front of an open motel room door with a smile and a thumbs-up. He walked to the next room and opened another door effortlessly.

”Your father and David have gotten us this far,” she stated a.s.sertively. ”We'll be fine here.”

She pulled him in for a hug, wis.h.i.+ng that the motel room doors had been locked. Like Owen, she had a bad feeling about this place.

CHAPTER 34.

Jose stared through the winds.h.i.+eld at the yellow-orange strip of sky lifting above the horizon. The sun would be up in a few minutes, and he sincerely hoped that Fisher was in Arizona by now. His last report from Alpha indicated they were on schedule to reach the border before sunrise, but you could never tell what might happen in Mexico, or anywhere in the Wastelands, which was why he had opted to bring three armored vehicles west.

They certainly hadn't antic.i.p.ated what happened in Sonoyta. Their intelligence sources had indicated only that the Sinaloa cartel had given up trying to send s.h.i.+pments through the town, not that they'd been encouraged to do so because Sonoyta had been converted into a helicopter gun range. He was even more surprised to discover American snipers hidden throughout the town. If Jose had known any of this, he would have routed Fisher south, toward the Sea of Cortez, and risked a broad daylight crossing. Sonoyta was supposed to be safe, if you didn't turn north and approach the border. Now the entire town was off-limits, by order of the US military.

What would his Mexican armed forces contacts think of that? Maybe they already knew and didn't care. The Mexican government had long ago quit fighting the cartels. If the United States was finally taking a more proactive stance, Mexico only stood to benefit in the long run. Cartel influence and its a.s.sociated violence had been a key talking point for US legislators keen on severing major trade ties with Mexico. His satellite phone buzzed moments after the sun peeked over the jagged hills ahead.

”Perfect timing. I was just about to check on our friends,” said Jose.

”You're not going to believe this,” said Alpha.

His heart sank.

”What happened? How bad is it?”

”No. It's nothing like that. They crossed the border without incident, but-”

Alpha paused.

”But what?” said Jose.

”They stopped at the Motel 6 on North Main Avenue,” said Alpha. ”Two miles from the border.”

”Are you f.u.c.king kidding me?”

”I wish I were. We thought maybe they'd come under attack when they turned off Interstate 19, but their car continued at a normal pace. We tracked their transponder to the Motel 6.”

”This can't be real. Something is up. Are you sure they don't know you're following them?”

”Not a chance. We stayed two miles back, running completely dark at all times.”

”What are they doing right now?” he said, making eye contact with the operative driving the car and shaking his head.