The atmosphere inside the Toyota Land Cruiser had varied throughout the duration of the drive. When they’d first started out early that morning in New Delhi, there’d been near panic to get under way. Santana in particular had been remarkably agitated, exhorting in a tense voice for the others to hurry. Her big concern was not to wake any of the nurses other than Samira who’d been sleeping with Durell.

After they’d been in the car for three hours, everyone had significantly mellowed, including Santana. Cal even began to question if they had overreacted, saying there was no way Veena would implicate herself.

“I’d rather be sitting in Kathmandu and be told we overreacted than be sitting in New Delhi and learn we underreacted,” Petra had said.

They had had lunch in Lucknow and had tried to hear if there had been any news involving Nurses International that morning. But there had been nothing: no news whatsoever, stimulating a discussion of where Veena had gone, and whether she had gone with the Hernandez woman after freeing her or by herself. There was even talk about what the Hernandez woman knew to tell the authorities. She certainly had limited knowledge of where she’d been held, having escaped in the dead of night, unless Veena specifically told her. Samira doubted she would have, emphasizing that Veena was a team player.

Ultimately, they all had agreed they’d made the best decision to get out of town and out of India until the dust settled, and until they could rationally evaluate the damage they could expect from Veena’s flight and Hernandez’s escape.

“I’d always had a nagging concern about her,” Cal admitted from the third-row seat. “I suppose in retrospect we should have dropped her when we found out about her history. Man, living like that for sixteen years has to knock a few marbles loose.”

“If Nurses International is out of business, what do you think SuperiorCare Hospital Corporation and CEO Raymond Housman are going to say?” Petra called from the driver’s seat.

“I think they are going to be very disappointed,” Cal said. “The program has had a terrific impact on medical tourism this week. It’s going to be a tragedy of sorts for them not to get more bang for their buck. Unfortunately, we’ve burned through a fair amount of cash to get where we are right now.”

“It’s a good thing you arranged for this contingency plan, Durell,” Santana said. “Otherwise, we’d still be in New Delhi.”

“It was Cal’s idea,” Durell said.

“But you did the work,” Cal said.

“We’re coming up on Raxaul,” Santana said.

Durell cupped his hands around his face and pressed them against the window. “Certainly is flat and tropical, and the opposite of what I had assumed when I started looking into it as the place for us to cross the border.”