Free Light of Day by Ruth Wind, Barbara Samuel

be.
    She had no idea what she would do when she found him. It didn’t matter. She ran.
    As she neared the waiting dock of one of the larger airlines, she saw Hassid again, still dressed in the suit he’d worn at the reception. A camel-hair coat was thrown over his shoulders, and to any passerby, he would have seemed the very picture of a dignitary—cool and sophisticated, even scholarly. But as he approached, Lila saw the same predatory look in his eyes that had offended her at the party. It chilled her.
    She ducked into an alcove with a collection of vending machines, fairly sure he hadn’t seen her. Breathing with short, shallow breaths, she tried to clear her brain, tried to think past her terror.
    Samuel did not seem to be a man who would flee without reason. That meant he had reason to believe he couldn’t survive in Seattle.
    A man with a cause, John had said. It might not be Samuel’s life he worried about, but the good of his cause.
    Biting her lip, she poked her head out of the alcove. Directly across the hall, staring at her, were two more Arabs, young, with beards. A cold fist slugged her chest.
    Oh, please, Lila, she thought a little wildly. They were probably just students. Maybe she was overreacting to everything out of her overwhelming attraction to the mysterious, compelling Samuel, who was about to walk right out of her life.
    Then she thought of the bloodstains she’d seen on his car seat, and, at the same instant, Samuel emerged from a men’s room seven or eight yards to her left, his suitcase in his good hand. He saw the two young Arabs, and his face showed a murderous anger for an instant. When the two began to move toward Samuel, Lila dashed out of the alcove and threw herself like a long-lost love into Samuel’s arms.
    He gasped with a quick, harsh noise before he could catch himself. “I’m sorry,” Lila said urgently. “But Hassid is here,” she breathed. “I wanted to warn you.”
    “Do exactly what I say, Lila. Don’t think, don’t argue, don’t take any stupid chances again.”
    “I won’t.”
    “Walk with me.” He flung his injured arm casually over her shoulders, and she saw his jaw clench in pain from the gesture. They passed the two young men, who fell in behind them. “I don’t know how we’ll get out of here,” he murmured under his breath.
    Lila looked at him. The pallor she’d noted in her living room had deepened, giving an almost unnatural gleam to his dark eyes, and a line of perspiration beaded along his upper lip. His breath came unevenly, as if it were painful. “Are you all right?”
    “Don’t talk,” he said grimly. “When I tell you, we will run.”
    “Okay.”
    “Up there,” he said close to her ear, “there is a set of double doors. Do you see them?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m going to hold your hand. We’ll pass the doors, and when I squeeze your fingers, we will double back and run out.”
    “Okay,” she said again. He let his arm fall away, and took her fingers lightly in his, swinging their arms with a carefree attitude. An uncomfortable slick of sweat had grown on her back and down her sides, and her heart skittered in adrenaline-fed fury. She had been frightened before. She’d even faced death and emerged on the other side of it, still alive. But she’d never walked in an open place with the knowledge of a bullet awaiting her. Doing it made her dizzy.
    They approached and passed the double glass doors, their feet triggering the automatic openers. All of Lila’s concentration gathered in her right hand, where Samuel’s fingers were laced with her own. At the instant their toes touched the chrome at the far end of the door runners, he squeezed and tugged her out.
    “This way,” she cried when they reached the pavement. She sprinted with all her might, hearing the sickening sound of heels following behind them. Wildly, she thought,
doesn’t anyone think this is a little strange?
    They reached the car gasping for breath. Before her