He flipped her off and turned toward the window to watch the trees creeping by. What was up his ass was that being crammed into this car had reinserted the dagger in his shoulder blade. But it was more than that. He’d been lucky enough to inherit a nearly ideal set of genes from two extremely athletic parents and had spent his life honing those natural gifts with a workout regimen that would make a Navy SEAL squirm. Feeling like Superman was his natural state and he was damn well ready to go back to it.

It took another twenty excruciating minutes, but they finally dead-ended into a small clearing. Smith slid a Sig Sauer from between the seats and scanned the shadows in the surrounding forest while Randi did the same. Fujiyama had insisted on no phones, GPS, or radios. So there wasn’t going to be any backup should things go south.

“Does this seem inordinately stupid to you?” Smith said as they stepped out and crouched on either side of the vehicle.

“Come on, Jon. You love this stuff. You’re just in a snit today.”

He frowned and examined the clearing through the sights of his gun. Nothing but wilderness. Of course, that didn’t mean anything. With the complexity of the terrain and the dense foliage, there could be an army out there and they wouldn’t know it until the shooting started.

Instead of shots, though, an engine became audible on the road they’d come up. He and Randi both took cover in the trees and watched in silence as an Asian man in his late thirties pulled up in an open CJ5.

Eric Fujiyama released his seat belt and leaped out, doing a full turn in the middle of the clearing. “Randi! Where are you?”

Smith looked over at her and shrugged. The man was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with no indication of a weapon.

“I’m here,” Randi said, stepping out of the trees and walking casually toward Fujiyama with her gun tucked into the back of her pants.

“Hey,” he said, nodding toward the Gremlin. “You can follow instructions. Good.”

“Well, I can follow some instructions.”

Smith appeared from the trees with his Sig Sauer hanging loosely from his hand. Fujiyama froze for a moment and turned to run but Randi grabbed him by the collar.

“Relax, Eric. We’re just here to talk.”

“Who the hell is he? I told you to come alone!”

“I know. And I apologize. He insisted on tagging along.”

Smith took a seat on the bumper of the jeep and gave Fujiyama a disarming smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Eric.”

He didn’t seem particularly happy about the change in the meeting’s dynamic, but understood that there wasn’t a lot he could do about it at this point.