“I mean it,” he said flatly. “You won’t hear from me after I hang up, but that might not help with Bohdan. He was the general’s second in command, and he was lusting to take over the entire business. Now that I’ve eliminated his competition, he’ll think he has to prove himself all over again. He’ll be on the hunt, and he’ll track you down because you’ll be one of his only leads to me. The stakes on this job were too enormous. Bohdan bragged that no one could take down the general as long as he was in charge of his mercenaries. You know he was damn good at that. Any threat and they ended up like Zeller. That’s why he has to make an example of me.” His lips twisted. “So if Zeller also told him about you, then you’ll be on his list, too. He’ll be going after you. If you’re stupid enough to stick around and try to obey orders and do your duty to save me, you’ll be disappointed. Just get out of here. I don’t need you. You’ll be in my way.” He paused. “Take care of yourself.”

“We will. Who needs you? I’ll report back to the director that you completed your mission when I get back to London.”

“Send him a text from that desert island I mentioned. Good luck, Jennings.” He cut the connection and took off through the woods in the opposite direction from the airport. It would take him about thirty minutes to reach Kelly’s cabin, where he could steal a vehicle that he could use to get to the border. Unless the borders had already been closed, then he’d find another way. There was always another route if one failed. But it might be close, and he had to be very sure to cover his bases. Bohdan was the crazy bastard Jennings had called him, and he knew that the hunt would already be on. He’d prefer not to be cornered here where Bohdan had a virtual army to call on. Better to set up the conflict on his own turf.

But first make sure both his valuable assets and that turf were absolutely protected.

He reached for his phone and quickly dialed.

“Speak of the devil,” MacDuff said when he answered the call. “I was just talking about you earlier today with Jane. But it’s really not too interesting having discussions about you with her. She persists in defending you whether or not she really believes you’re innocent of all the things we’ve all heard about you. Perhaps she feels sorry for you? What do you think?”

“I think that emotion doesn’t enter into our relationship, and you’re trying to find a way to annoy me,” Caleb said. “How is she?”