“Thank you, Tibor. Please get your brother and cousins back to Szeged. And all of you, take a different, less direct route home.”

“I’ll call you with the exact location.”

“Thanks.” Sam looked at Remi.

“We both meant good crazy.” She kissed his cheek.

The phone rang again, so soon it surprised them both. Sam picked it up and Tibor’s voice said, “I’m close now and I can see where Bako has pulled over. It’s five kilometers from the east city walls of Alba Iulia. It’s a heavily forested area just past the beginning of a hiking trail. There’s a parking lot and a picnic area. The two black SUVs and the truck are all parked there.”

“Good,” said Sam. “We’re on our way.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

“Positive. Have you sent your brother and cousins home?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Now head for the border a different way.”

“I’m going now.”

“Good luck.”

“I give it back. You’re the ones who will need it.”

Sam and Remi drove past the place that Tibor had described and kept going. They found a second parking lot and a marked trail that might have been the other end of the first trail. They turned around and drove back past the parked vehicles toward the Hungarian border.

They drove past Alba Iulia, and then, a few miles on, they reached an area that was more mountainous. As they drove, the highway became a narrow road, with winding pavement and nearly vertical canyon walls that were a tangle of rocks, trees, brush, and vines. Sam kept driving, scanning the land for the perfect spot.

At last, he was sure he had found it. There was a quarter-mile ribbon of road that wound to the left and right, then rose and disappeared over a crest. The mountains of Transylvania held the largest remaining area of the virgin forest that had once covered most of Europe, so the vegetation was thick and wild. Sam stopped the car, then backed up at a high speed until he reached a turnout to allow cars to pass, killed the engine, and popped the trunk.

Remi got out too and retrieved the two shovels, climbing rope, and a crowbar. As she reached for the night vision goggles, Sam said, “We can leave the goggles.”

“Good. That means we’ll be done by dark.”

“Come to think of it, we’d better take them.” He took a shovel, the crowbar, and the rope and began to climb up the wall at the side of the road to the rocky slope above. Remi took the second shovel and began to climb beside him.

“While we’re climbing,” she said, “you can help me find a title for my memoir. Do you like Remi: An American Woman in a Transylvanian Prison? Or does that give away too much? Maybe just Remi: Girl Behind Bars.”