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on Likelike Highway.”
    “We can stop. Regroup.”
    “No. Let’s get to the base. Maybe that colonel can get us another flight.”
    “I hope so.” They reached the busy intersection and stopped at the light. He cast a glance sideways. Mara huddled in her seat, appearing small and fragile, but he’d witnessed her formidable inner strength before and hoped to hell she could draw on that now. “You okay?”
    “Not by a long shot. But I’m alive.”
    He patted her shoulder. “Good girl.”
    “Don’t do that.”
    “What?”
    “Condescend to me.”
    “I thought I was being encouraging.”
    “You withheld something from me—you found out about the explosion before I arrived at the house, right?—and now you’re patting me like I’m a dog. Don’t. Don’t hold things back from me, and don’t talk down to me. It demeans us both.”
    “Fair enough.” The light changed, and he turned onto the highway. He was more than happy to skip the kid-glove treatment. “Did you call your uncle today?”
    “No.”
    “How about your mother, have you called her?”
    “How the hell could I do that? I don’t have a phone.” She hit her thigh. “Crap, I plugged it in to charge, and we left so fast, it’s still at my house.”
    Traffic moved slowly. They inched along the highway toward the next light as the air blowing through the vents got progressively hotter. “Someone told a reporter we’re alive.” Sweat dampened his shirt. He fiddled with the controls.
    “The air-conditioning only works sometimes.” She rolled down her window.
    “Maybe the person who gave you a ride off base talked.” He rolled down his window, but the relief was minimal. The vehicle wasn’t moving fast enough to create a breeze.
    “I got a ride from a friend. I don’t think she’d tell anyone, and like me, she probably doesn’t know about the explosion.”
    “Who is she?” He loosened his tie.
    “I don’t want to get her in trouble.”
    “By getting you off base, she saved your life. She’ll need to talk to investigators.” The light changed, and he stopped unknotting his tie in favor of operating the stick shift.
    “She doesn’t matter. She’s just a friend who gave me a lift when I needed one.”
    The prosecutor in him had to ask. “Like Roddy in North Korea?”
    “No. Roddy abducted me.”
    A welcome breeze wafted in as they picked up speed. “Conveniently, Roddy is dead. He cannot confirm or deny your story.” The road narrowed to one lane in each direction. He merged into the remaining lane, then resumed working the knot on his tie.
    “I thought you were going to stop being a prick.”
    “And I thought you wanted me to stop being condescending. Which do you want?”
    She huffed out a sigh and grabbed his tie, unknotting it while he drove.
    “Thanks,” he said as he popped open the top two buttons. Sweat had plastered his shirt to his skin, but now he could feel the airflow.
    “At least you’re easy on the eyes,” she said. “This would suck completely if your face matched your personality.”
    A sharp laugh escaped. He glanced sideways and caught her amused expression.
    Mara gasped. “Look out!”
    He swung his gaze back to the roadway and saw a huge pickup truck coming at them head-on. He swerved to the right, but there wasn’t enough shoulder to evade it. The truck clipped the Accord, sending it into a spin. He gripped the wheel and tried to recover control. He turned into the spin, and they came to a stop.
    He glanced at Mara. “You okay?”
    “I think so. You?”
    They faced the wrong way on the highway. A line of cars was stopped before them, some having narrowly avoided their own collisions.
    The behemoth white pickup that had started the accident had ricocheted to the left after clipping them, and now rested with the front tires off the road, the fender against a palm tree. The engine roared as the vehicle revved, then lurched in reverse, dropping off the curb with a thunk. The truck paused, then