When the voice called out again it sounded more distant, so Chism began working his way back up the slope. It took well over an hour, but he finally reached a wall of dirt and rock near the top of one of the mountains that stretched endlessly in every direction. To the west he could see what was left of the hospital—a black smear at the edge of the red dirt road that passed in front of it.

He eased along the steep slope, entering a bank of morning fog that significantly reduced visibility. The ground turned slick, and he tested every foot placement before committing. Just because he could no longer see what was to his left didn’t mean it wasn’t there. One misstep and he’d find himself cartwheeling hundreds of feet before getting hung up in the trees below.

Calling his destination a cave would be an exaggeration. It was more a deep impression covered with woven branches to camouflage the entrance. He rustled them in the coded rhythm that Jing Liu had insisted on and then passed into the gloom.

The space was tight—maybe ten feet square. The sloping dirt walls were still clinging to the moisture from two nights ago, creating a misty humidity that tasted like mold and earth. Fortunately, the heat wasn’t bad. Uganda’s weather could be counted on to hover somewhere between the high seventies during the day and mid-sixties at night.

Liu was sitting near the south wall, knees pulled to her chest, staring through the thick air at nothing. She didn’t seem to notice him crossing her field of vision and kneeling next to Matteo Ricci. While Chism’s luck had held during their unlikely escape from the hospital, the Italian had been less fortunate. His right pants leg had caught fire and had melted to his thigh. The wound was painful, but not as painful as being forced to acknowledge how much polyester had been present in his stylish slacks. The inevitable infection, though, was going to be a serious problem.

“Were you able to call for help?” Ricci said, sounding even weaker than when Chism had left a few hours before.

“I wasn’t able to get signal. But maybe a little later.”

It was a lie, of course. The cell tower that serviced the area had been part of the facility Auma’s people had burned.

“Water?”

“That I managed to get. But you’re going to have to hang on for a few more hours. It’s got to sit in the sun for a while to disinfect. I have no idea what’s in that stream. Maybe—”

“We have to get out of here,” Liu blurted. “We cannot sleep another night in a hole.”

Chism let out a long breath and turned toward her.

“We’ve talked about this, Jing. There are people out there trying to capture us.”