In a low voice, he said, “There’s a big black Lincoln Continental, I believe, behind us. I recognized one of the men in it. I saw him through the binoculars when I looked down from the cave.”
“How could they have found us?” she said. Her voice was steady but her body was rigid.
“Maybe they didn’t,” he said. “It might be just a coincidence. They may have no idea they’re so close to us. And then, again. . .”
It did not seem at all likely. But how had they caught up with them? Had they been posted along the road and seen them go by in the bus? Or did Orc have such a widespread organization that someone on the bus had reported to him?
He dismissed this last thought as sheer paranoia. Only time would show whether or not it was coincidence.
So far, the men in the car had not seemed interested in the bus. They were having a vigorous dispute. Three of them were dark and between forty and fifty-five years old. The fourth was a young man with blond hair cut in a Julius Caesar style. Kickaha studied them until he had branded their features on his mind. Then he returned to the seat near the front.
After a while, the traffic speeded up. The bus sped by grim industrial sections and the back ends of run-down buildings. The grayish green-tinged smog did not thicken, but its corrosive action became worse. Anana said, “Do your people live in this all the time? They must be very tough!”
“You know as much as I do about it,” he said.
Baum suddenly rose from his seat beside Moo-Moo and said to the driver, “Jim, when you get near Civic Center, pull off and look for a hamburger stand. I’m hungry.”
The others protested. They could eat at the hotel when they got there. It would only take about a half hour more. What was his hurry?
“I’m hungry!” he shouted. He looked wide-eyed at them and stomped his foot hard. “I’m hungry! I don’t want to wait any longer! Besides, if we got to fight our way through the usual mob of teeny-boppers, we may be held up for some time! Let’s eat now!”
The others shrugged. Evidently they had seen him act this way before. He looked as if he were going to scream and stamp through the floor, like in a tantrum, if he did not get his way.
It was not a whim this time, however. Moo-Moo rolled her eyes and then came up to Kickaha and said, “He’s letting you know it’s time to bow out, Red. You better take your worldly goods and kiss your girlfrend goodbye.”
“You’ve been through this before?” Kickaha said, grinning. “What makes you so sure Ann’ll be staying?”
“I’m not so sure about her,” Moo-Moo said. “I sensed something weird about you two, and the feeling hasn’t gone away. In fact, it’s even stronger.”
She surprised Kickaha by saying, “You two are running away, aren’t you? From the fuzz. And from others. More than the fuzz. Somebody close behind you now. I smell danger.”
She squeezed his arm, bent lower, and whispered, “If I can help you, I’ll be at the Beverly Hilton for a week, then we go to San Francisco. You call me. I’ll tell the hotel to let you through. Any time.”
Kickaha felt warmed by her interest and her offer of help. At the same time, he could not keep from considering that she might know more than any would-be friend of his should. Was it possible that she was tied in with Red Orc?
He rejected that. His life had been so full of danger, one perilous situation after another, and he had gotten into the prosurvival habit of always considering the worst and planning possible actions to avoid it. In this case, Moo-Moo could be nothing more than a psychic, or, at least, a very sensitive person.
The bus pulled off the freeway and drove to the Music Center. Kickaha would have liked to study the tall buildings here, which reminded him of those of Manhattan, but he was watching the big black Lincoln and its four occupants. It had turned when the bus turned and was now two cars behind. Kickaha was willing to concede that its getting off the freeway here might be another coincidence. But he doubted it very much.