Free Quest for Alexis by Nancy Buckingham

word solemnly, even the little girl, though whether it meant anything to them I couldn’t be sure. I reached forward to put the glass on the table  then, experimentally, I tried to stand up. My legs still felt weak, but I decided I would just about be able to manage. I nodded to each one of them in turn—the old man, the boy, the little girl, and lastly to the woman.
    “Gracias,” I said, moving toward the door. “Mucho gracias.”
    “You go now?” asked the boy.
    “Yes,” I said. “Si si... I must go.”
    “You walk?” he said. “La senora ... sola. It is dark”
    “I was going to get a bus,” I told him. But that meant nothing to him. I tried again. “Taxi.”
    “Ah, taxi.”
    There was another family discussion, concluding in nods all around. Then the boy announced, with a sort of gallant pride, “I, Pedro, will come with you.”
    I smiled my gratitude. The thought of emerging into the dark streets again terrified me. Maybe the unknown driver who wanted me dead was still lurking there, waiting for a second chance to run me down. I knew that it would take all my courage to leave the safety of this room, even with the friendly boy escorting me.
    Outside, I wondered why I had ever been so fool hardy as to take this turning at all. Although linking two busy traffic routes, the narrow street was in al most total darkness, shadowed by the tall, high-walled buildings. As I walked beside Pedro to the farther end, I was shaking with nerves. My eyes kept searching for doorways where we might take shelter if the car should return. But mercifully, the street remained empty.
    We reached the corner at last and were among oth er people again. At once I felt safer and let out my breath in a long sigh of relief.
    Pedro did not slacken his pace, and I presumed he knew where he could find me a taxi. All I wanted now was to sink back in a soft-padded seat and be whisked straight to the hotel. Encountering Brett no longer seemed a problem. His face would look comfortingly friendly, even though he might be in a bad mood be cause I’d walked out on him.
    “Gail. Gail.”
    I heard my name shouted from across the street, above the din of the traffic. In bewilderment, I stopped and gazed around, wondering if I had only imagined Brett’s voice because he’d been in my mind. Then I saw him on the pavement opposite, waving at me frantically. He started to cross, dodging nimbly be tween the fast-moving cars.
    “Where the hell have you been?” he asked in a belligerent tone as he reached me. “And who’s this?”
    Pedro looked startled, and to reassure him I said quickly, “It’s all right. Friend ... amigo.”
    Brett said impatiently, “Will you please explain what’s going on, Gail? I’ve been searching for you all over the place, and then I find you calmly wandering the streets with a local youth.”
    He was angry, all right. But he was still Brett. I would be safe now as long as I stayed with him. In my pent-up state I clutched his arm.
    “Somebody tried to kill me, Brett! Quite deliberate ly. A car just tried to run me down.”
    He looked at me with cool incredulity. “Gail, you’re imagining things. The way some of them drive here is pretty irresponsible, I agree, but whoever would deliberately want to run you down?”
    “I don’t know who it was,” I shouted. “But I was walking through a narrow street back there ... on my way to catch a bus, when a car came along from be hind. Suddenly it accelerated and drove straight at me. If I hadn’t fallen backward into a doorway, I’d have been killed.”
    My voice had risen to the edge of hysteria. Brett held me against him and patted me soothingly, as if I was a child to be comforted.
    “It’s all right, love—it’s all right. I’ll get you back to the hotel. But you still haven’t told me who this young chap is.”
    It was difficult to explain it all, confronted by Brett’s evident disbelief. Pedro stood looking on, nodding his head vigorously, though he