We ended up taking a taxi to East Moscow's trail before stealing a black 2018 Lada X-ray Cross from a couple that arrived five minutes before us. We waited a good fifteen minutes at a picnic bench before hot wiring the car, making sure they wouldn't come back. By the time the hikers realized their car was missing, we would already be just about ready to ditch the car in Odrino and sneak through the woods across the border.
I lived for this shit and part of that made me sick to my stomach.
It was six by the time we made it to Ordino just a little over five hours later. The drive really should have been only four hours but we had to take some unconventional routes to throw off anyone that might be following us. We ditched the car in the parking garage of a doctors office and escaped into the woods. It was annoying that we had to leave it though. Hot wiring newer cars was so much more difficult because of the transponder from the automatic keys. It was a shame to waste a good stolen vehicle like that.
I wouldn't want to be Potvin right about now. The CIA must have invaded our apartment hours ago. I'm sure one of his little cronies would notice and have a god damn heart attack. Serves them right. Sexist street gangs were a waste of time anyway. Half of them couldn't even shoot straight if the target was two inches in front of them. But, I digress.
Right now I had to focus on the reality of my situation.
It was pitch black in the woods, only the stars guiding us in the right direction due to the fact it was a new moon. At least it was a clear day or else we would be running blindly. "We are breaking so many laws right now," I muttered under my breath. Illegal border crossing, carjacking, speeding, faking passports, espionage, stealing government property. Not to even mention our terrorist charge from a few months ago. The point is, the list went on and on.
"And that's a shock because.....?" Ashton drawled, snow crunching under our boots and frozen clouds of condensation leaving our noses and lips, dissipating into the night.
"Oh shut up, Naifeh."
"We should burn these shoes when we get to Minsk. We always end up freezing our asses off in the woods when we take these things. I'm starting to think they're bad luck," Ashton grumbled to himself.
"I'd second that but I think we need them when we hike all the way from Tel Aviv to Dimona. It's not exactly an easy or quick trip," I commented, hoping to bring up the whole Tel Aviv situation again. Even in the pitch dark of night, I could see Ashton glance down at me from the corner of his eyes before looking at the woods in front of us again, letting me know that he was swiftly avoiding the topic.
The snow was up to our ankles, just high enough to make walking annoying but not impossible. We could have attempted to cover our tracks, but with the long journey ahead it was best we just forged ahead and lost our tails in civilization. "You know what I want right now?" I thought out loud a few minutes later as we marched side by side through the snow.
"What?"
"A warm peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwich on oatmeal bread. God, I haven't had peanut butter or raspberries in years." Peanut butter had always been my guilty pleasure growing up and it was impossibly hard to find, especially in Monaco.
"That sounds like the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of," Ashton commented with a frown on his lips. "I'm glad they don't have peanut butter in France."
"Have you ever been to America?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"No, I'm the poor Palestinian boy dreaming of America," Ashton drawled sarcastically. "I'm a world-renown assassin. Of course, I've been to backstabbing business hub known as New York." Ashton was definitely world renown, that's for sure. He was so good that I didn't even know his face before I met him. For his name to be as popular as mine but his face to be a mystery was something of legends.
