The Adventurer

sidetracked, "what happened at the scene of the ambush? Why did you and Jake get separated and each think the other might be dead? What went wrong?"
    Gideon took a mouthful of beer and thought about the question. "I don't know."
    "What do you mean, you don't know? You were there."
    "I was there, all right. But that doesn't mean I know what went wrong. All I know is that one minute we were alone in a Jeep on the trail. We were carrying the cash the so-called archaeologists had paid for their supplies. The next minute I just sort of knew we weren't alone."
    "You
knew
it?" Sarah's attention was caught by the odd phrasing. "What does that mean?"
    Gideon moved his hand impatiently. "Just what it sounds like. There was no one in sight ahead or behind us, but I had a feeling we were in deep trouble. I told Jake I thought we'd better get out of the Jeep and get into some cover. I knew a place we could disappear to until the coast was clear. Usually he trusted my instincts. In fact he always did. This time he insisted I was crazy. But I was driving. I stopped, picked up the suitcase full of cash and headed into the jungle. Jake didn't have any choice but to follow."
    "But he didn't want to go with you?"
    "No." Gideon was quiet for a moment, reflecting on some private vision. "About two minutes after we had left the Jeep we heard gunfire back on the trail. Then a lot of noise in the undergrowth. Whoever had attacked the Jeep had realized it was empty and was looking for the principal stockholders of Savage and company. I took off in the direction of a cave I had found on one of the maps. Jake kept stalling. I couldn't figure out why he was having such a hard time keeping up with me, why he kept arguing."
    "He was probably disoriented and scared."
    "Hell, I was scared, too, but at least I wasn't disoriented. I never get disoriented."
    "Instinct again?"
    "Whatever. At any rate, I got Jake and the money into the cave and we found the cavern tunnel that an old guide had told me about. It led through the heart of a small mountain and out the other side. The perfect escape route. I'd earmarked it for just that kind of emergency."
    Sarah momentarily forgot about her need to stay firm. She was enthralled with Gideon's story. "That was brilliant of you."
    His mouth quirked. "Well, it was the best I could come up with under the circumstances. Unfortunately there was a narrow ledge over a gorge on the other side of the cave. Only room for one man at a time to cross it. I went first with the money and Jake started to follow. Then he seemed to lose his nerve. He told me he'd take his chances hiding in the cave. I yelled back that he was a fool and I tried to throw him a vine to use to steady himself. But he panicked and raced back into the cave."
    "And you never saw him again," Sarah concluded.
    "Not until today. When I walked out of the jungle a few days later, I discovered we were both supposed to be dead. The local gossip, though, was that there was a price on our heads if we did happen to show up. The smugglers wanted us to stay dead. I obliged. I got off the island on a fishing boat and that was the end of it."
    "Why did you change your name and create a whole new identity for yourself?"
    Gideon turned the beer can in his hands. "It's hard to explain. The truth is, I saw it as an opportunity to start over. I wanted out of the kind of business Savage and Company did. Twelve years is long enough in that line. Thirteen years in it could get a man killed. But it's not always easy to walk away. I wasn't famous like Jake, but a lot of people knew me, knew the kind of work I'd done in the past. Some held a few grudges, like those smugglers who had tried to get rid of us after the last trip. All in all, it was simpler to just start fresh."
    Just like one of my heroes
, Sarah thought with a surge of empathy. Gideon had turned his back on the past in search of another life. "What about Jake?"
    "I wasn't sure Jake was dead. In fact, I figured there was a good chance he wasn't. It took several months and a lot of research but I eventually found out he was very much alive and doing business under the name of Slaughter."
    "You've known who he was and where he was all this time?"
    "I told you, I like to cover all possible contingencies," Gideon explained quietly.
    Sarah picked up her wine and sat down across from him, thinking quickly. "You didn't want him to find you again, did you?"
    "No."
    "Because you were afraid he'd pressure you into going