The passenger door opened and a tall, beautiful woman with hair that was a platinum blond as light as her companion’s hair stepped out of the car. “What gorgeous horses,” she said. “Where did you get them?”

“We stole them,” said Remi. “We’re running away from a Russian gangster and his men. They kidnapped me.”

“You poor things,” she said. “We’ll get you two out of here. But we’ll need to do something about the horses first.”

“Janet likes animals,” the man explained. “That pasture over there is fenced, and I see water reflecting the moon. We could set them loose inside.”

The man helped them remove the top two rails. They led their tired horses inside and put up the rails again. They removed the saddles and bridles, then left the gear on the fence. Sam and Remi gave the horses a pat and a hug, and then Remi whispered to them for a moment.

Sam and Remi came back to the road, and the man opened the door for them to get into the backseat. He got in front and drove off down the road.

Remi said, “What kind of car is this?”

“It’s a Tucker,” the man said happily.

The woman said, “He likes cars.”

“Yes, I do,” he said. “And we both like to travel. So when I learned this one was for sale, we decided to come pick it up ourselves. It’ll make a nice addition to my collection.”

“How did a 1948 Tucker get to the middle of Russia?” Sam asked.

“So, you know about them.”

“I know they just had a year in production,” said Sam. “I’ve never seen one before.”

“Tucker made fifty-one of them. Up until now, there were only forty-four left. This is going to be the forty-fifth. An astute Russian official in 1948 realized the Tucker was something special and had somebody buy one for him in the United States. I think he wanted to take it apart and copy it, but by the time the car got here he had gotten into trouble and was sent off to Siberia. The car has been in storage all these years.”

“How are you getting it home?”

“By rail from here to Vladivostok, by ship to Los Angeles, and we’ll drive from there,” the man said. “You’re welcome to ride along with us for as far as you’d like to go.”

Remi said, “We’d be honored and delighted. We’re headed for the eastern end of Kazakhstan.”

“I know this is going to sound odd,” said Sam, “but do we look familiar to you? I think we met you once before in Africa.”

The man looked at them both in the rearview mirror. “Not that I recall. Lots of people think they remember me from someplace, but I think it’s probably just my beard. Anybody can grow a beard.”