The first thing they saw was the smoke. It took another ten minutes after they reached the coordinates they’d been given before they located the cave.

But it was only a few minutes later before they found Nojer.

He was roped, gagged, and tied to a rock inside the cave. He was squirming and fighting the gag, and they didn’t notice the blood until they were almost on top of him.

The note Jane had mentioned was beneath a smaller rock nearby.

MacDuff

This is Eric Nojer according to the documents I found on him. All I know about him is that he’s the sniper who shot Rodland and was trying to track me. But I figured that was reason enough to shoot him so that he’d be out of commission. He was on the phone with someone, and I couldn’t afford to have him behind me and bringing up reinforcements. I thought you might be able to get information from him about where to find Bohdan. I made sure he wouldn’t bleed to death if you get to him in time.

Jane

Caleb handed the note to Rodland. “Shall we untie him and see how accurate Jane’s aim was?” He was taking off the gag as he spoke. The moment he slipped it down, Nojer started to spew curse words. His eyes were glittering with fury. “She shot me! The bitch wasn’t there one minute and the next I felt the bullet tear into my side. I’m going to kill her.”

“I wouldn’t try that.” Caleb was examining the wound in Nojer’s side. “It looks like she patched you up pretty well. She could have just let you bleed out. But Jane has problems with death except in the most extreme cases.” He added with soft menace, “I have no such hesitancy. And if you decide to ignore my advice, I’ll make certain that you’ll die very soon and in great pain. Do you understand?”

“I’ll do what I please,” Nojer snarled. “Who do you think—” He stopped short as he met Caleb’s eyes. “I guess I understand.” He moistened his lips. “You’re Caleb, aren’t you? I’ve heard about you.”

“But I’ve heard practically nothing about you, and Jane went to a great deal of trouble to keep you alive so that you could tell us about yourself and all your friends.” Caleb smiled. “Which you will do. I won’t have her disappointed.”

“Bohdan would kill me.”