Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
While Ethan sped away from the hospital, Mei Lin climbed over the console, dropped into the passenger seat, and clicked on her seatbelt.
Ethan glanced at her. “You okay?”
“Of course.” No need to tell him how her legs felt like limp noodles. No need to tell him how she’d burned every ounce of energy running through the hospital. He was worried enough already.
“Michael,” Ethan said. “Where are we going?”
“I’m getting an address.” Michael must’ve connected all three of them because she heard his answer in her ear. “Hold on.”
He went silent, and Ethan’s jaw tightened a little more with every second that ticked by. He looked in the rearview mirror enough that she twisted to look out the back window. “Nobody is following us.”
“Yet,” Ethan said. “Michael—”
“I got you a place.” Michael’s voice came in both their ears. “Sending the address.”
Ethan dug his phone from his jacket and handed it to her. She thumbed it open, pulled up the map, and recognized the street.
“Take a right at the second light.”
She watched the storefronts slide past. She’d walked this stretch on her way to the market, thinking how different this life was from the one she would live with Ethan in America. She’d had so much hope.
Please, don’t let them find us. Get us out of Fuyin.
Ethan took the turn.
She directed him through another couple of turns, away from the markets and into a residential area she’d avoided when she’d lived here. Around them, the world turned grayer and dirtier. So did the people. It would be a good place to hide.
“Take a left at the next intersection.”
He slowed and put on his signal but had to wait for a lag in traffic before he could turn.
She peered down the road.
A shiny black sedan was parked two blocks down, very close to, if not right in front of, the place Michael had secured for them. Two men stood beside the car in dark jackets.
There was something wrong.
At the next intersection, a police car drove past.
“Don’t turn.” She sounded frantic. “Keep going. Keep going.”
Ethan flipped off his turn signal and continued forward.
“What happened?” Michael asked.
“There were police there.”
“There’s no way they were there for you,” Michael said. “I just got the address myself.”
“Does it matter?” Ethan snapped. “Surely the hospital reported what happened. If they saw the car and the plate—”
“Right.” Michael’s voice was flat. “You were smart not to take the chance.”
“Now what?” Ethan’s voice was sharp. “We need to get off the road.”
“Keep moving while I look for something.”
“Won’t work,” Mei Lin said. “There are cameras everywhere. We have to dump the car and get out of town.”
Ethan glanced at her. “Where?”
The alley behind the temple might not have cameras. The footpath along the drainage canal…
There’d been no surveillance of those places six years ago, but now?
She had no idea.
The trail. She used to jog a portion of it when she was twenty-one and her body still did whatever she asked. On warm days when she didn’t have to work, she’d go much deeper into the forest, far from town where the only sounds were twittering birds and breezes rustling the leaves.
She’d never been a stick-to-the-path kind of person. She’d liked trudging along the bracken, seeing what most people never saw. There’d been a place… It could work.
“There’s a forest,” she said. “It’s on the north edge of town.”
“A forest?” Ethan braked at a light and looked at her. “We have no blankets, no food, no water—”
“I know.”
“You’ll freeze to death.”
Not we’ll freeze. He was worried about her, but she was the one who’d gotten them into this. “Ethan, trust me.” She slid her hand around his forearm. “Please.”
He looked forward again. “Michael, what are our options?”
“That place you just drove by—that was my plan B. I don’t have a Plan C. And you need to dump that car. Mei Lin, how far to the trailhead?”
She checked the map on Ethan’s phone. “We’re close. At the next light, turn right.”
By the set of Ethan’s jaw, he didn’t like it, but he followed her directions.
The streets she chose were narrow, the eaves nearly touching overhead. Scooters threaded past, more than one driver giving them a dirty look. The car didn’t belong here.
They came out the other side, turned away from the city, and drove past larger houses, farther apart.
“Don’t park near the trailhead,” Michael said. “I’m looking at a map. There’s a bus station about—”
“I know where it is,” Mei Lin said.
“Good. Wipe everything when you stop. Wheel, gearshift, handles, console. Seatbelts too. Don’t forget the backseat—anywhere either one of you sat. And Han. We don’t want to give them any physical evidence to use against you.”
“Got it,” Ethan said. “Check the glove box, see if there are any napkins or tissues or anything.”
She did and found a package of cleaning wipes. Maybe that made sense, considering this was a hired car. Or maybe that was just God going before them.
She was already wiping her side of the car while she walked Ethan through the turns until she saw the station ahead. “Park anywhere here.”
He parallel parked the sedan between a dumpster and an SUV, killed the engine, and was out before the keys stopped jingling.
She climbed out and continued wiping the car—her side, the driver’s side, ignoring the passers-by and praying God would shield them.
Ethan pulled his pack from the trunk, then reached into the backseat for the clothes she’d given Han and the messenger bag, which she’d seen when Han had given her the mail carrier’s uniform.
Ethan held her coat out to her. “Put this on.”
She did, zipping it up. She hadn’t even noticed the cold until the coat warmed her.
She checked her pants pocket—the pouch containing the evidence was still there—then balled up the mail satchel and shoved it into the dumpster.
The distant sound of sirens came. They were growing louder.
Ethan was wiping the backseat. “Get the door handles,” he said. “Don’t forget the trunk.”
When they were finished, Ethan put the messenger bag over his shoulder and the pack on his back. “Go.”
She led the way, not toward the station but down an alley barely wide enough for them to jog side by side.
They cut through a courtyard, ducked under a low awning, and came out on a footpath along the drainage canal.
She knew this path. Six years ago, she’d run it every morning before her shift.
The sirens were getting closer.
“Up the embankment.” She was already gasping, barely able to force the words out.
The embankment was steep and covered with weeds, scattered trash, and a plastic bag caught in the brush. Her shoes slid.
Ethan caught her elbow and hauled her up. At the top, the forest rose in front of them. They took the trail—just packed earth between bamboo, and climbed toward a dark line of pines on the ridge.
She made her legs move, though they protested every step.
If she’d been stronger, she’d have been out of the hospital faster. Ethan wouldn’t be in danger because his wife was so slow. Han wouldn’t be… She didn’t want to think about what had happened to the kindly older man who’d helped them.
The trail climbed higher and higher. Her thighs burned, and she panted as if there wasn’t enough air in the world. Her foot caught on a root, and she stumbled.
Ethan grabbed her arm and kept her from falling.
“You okay?”
She nodded. She didn’t have breath for words.
The sirens cut off. Did that mean the police had found the car? Were they coming?
If she couldn’t push harder, the authorities would catch up. And then, all of this would have been for nothing. She’d end up back in prison. She could live with that. But Ethan in a Chinese cell because she couldn’t make her body do what she needed it to do?
That, she wouldn’t be able to live with.
She was so stupid. She should’ve left the country like Ethan had wanted to do. She shouldn’t have done this.
Lord. Please.
They reached the top of the hill and leaned on the nearest trunk.
“You’re doing great.” Ethan pressed his hand to the small of her back. “We can rest for a moment.”
“I’m fine.” But she gasped the words.
“Michael,” Ethan said. “You still there?”
He didn’t answer.
“Michael?” After another few seconds, Ethan took the phone from his pocket and glanced at it. “I’m guessing the earpiece thing uses a cell signal.” He turned his phone for her to see the screen. “We’re out of range.”
He pulled the earpiece from his ear, and she did the same and shoved it into the pocket where she’d put the electronic card Han had given her.
Her breath had returned—enough, anyway. Every minute she rested was a minute those men could close the gap.
She met his eyes. He looked worried, but not angry.
“I’m so sorry, Ethan.”
“No reason to be sorry. We’re both doing our best.” He faced the clearing. This was the spot where she’d usually turned around and jogged back to town. Beyond the few trees in front of them was a view of mountains stretching as far as the eye could see. “Do you have a plan?”
“There’s a place we can take shelter.” She started walking, making an effort to look as if she knew exactly where she was going. But it had been a long time. Would she be able to find it?
Lord, lead us. And shield us. We need Your help.