*
“Why was it so important that you got that tigress to feed her cub?” Lassiter suddenly asked as he looked up from the chessboard. “Couldn’t they have bottle-fed him or something?”
“They could have, but it wouldn’t have been as healthy for him. Any more than bottle-feeding is considered as healthy for a human baby.”
His gaze narrowed on her face. “But you were willing to risk your neck to make that difference?”
“It wasn’t only the fact that it was healthier. There were other elements that made it—” She looked up at him. “Why are you so curious about those tigers? That’s the third question you’ve asked about them since we came on deck this morning.”
“I have a curious nature.” He smiled. “And I figure it’s sort of a way to learn about you as well as your striped friends. Cause and effect.” He went back to the question. “Why did you think it was important enough to risk your neck?”
Margaret shrugged. “Tigers generally live between fifteen and twenty-five years, and that cub would have had to spend his life without being a member of a family if Zaran hadn’t accepted him. It’s bad enough having to live in a controlled habitat when they should be in the wild. I didn’t want him to be alone.”
“You don’t approve of the zoo’s arrangements for your friends?”
“It’s as good as it can be. They try to use habitats more than cages. And considering the poachers out there, it may be the only way to save the species. They’re really the savages, not the tigers.” Her lips tightened. “But it doesn’t stop me from being sad and trying to help as much as I can to put their lives right.”
“As you did on Summer Island?”
“That was different.” She smiled. “Everyone there wants to do whatever they can to save and help those dogs. Do you know that they have the ability to heal themselves and others just by touch? We’re trying to find out why it’s so predominate in these particular dogs. They’re kept together because the talent seems to be shared if they touch one another. Isn’t that fantastic? It’s a wonderful place.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“Things happened.” She shrugged. “And it was time I left there anyway. I’d been there too long.”
“Because you were afraid that Nicos would find you?”
“You found me, didn’t you?” She looked up at him. “My turn. I’ve asked you this before. Why do you want me to go back to Nikos? What am I the key to?”
“He has something I want.” He smiled. “And I have something he wants.”
“You don’t have me.” She pursued it. “What does he have that you want? Tell me.”
He slowly shook his head. “It’s not the right time. You’ve left me with fewer weapons than when I started out. I learned when I was just a kid that if I want to manipulate and have my own way, every single part of a scheme has to flow at just the right tempo. Then I go for high impact. Bad timing can screw up everything.”
“You might as well tell me. You’re not going to get your way anyway.”
He laughed. “I’ll never know if I just give in to you, will I?”
She gave it up and went for something he’d said that had caught her attention. “Just a kid? Why would a kid be thinking of manipulations and schemes and bad timing?”
“I’m sure a lot of children are more manipulative than they’re thought to be.”
“Why were you?” She thought of something else. “You said that growing up you were far from law-abiding. What did you do?”
“Why do you want to know?”
She wasn’t sure herself. “You don’t tell me very much. Maybe I’m just curious. It can’t hurt you to tell me, can it? Do you think that I’ll go call your parole officer or something?”
He threw back his head and laughed. “No, I’m not afraid of that, Margaret. You insult me. I was always too good to get arrested.”
“Too good at what?”
“A few things. I grew up on the streets of Atlantic City under the kind guardianship of my uncle Bruce, who was a con man and gambler and several other less-than-legal occupations. Naturally, he thought a fine, upstanding young boy like me would be an asset, so he took me under his wing.”
Her eyes widened. “That was a terrible thing for him to do.”
He nodded. “In retrospect. But at the time, it was interesting and challenging. My uncle presented it as sort of a game and told me not to think of depressing things like morals or right and wrong. I also had a real flair for computers and I learned how to make them do whatever I wanted, whatever dear Uncle Bruce wanted. As a hacker, I was quite extraordinary.” He added sardonically, “He was very proud.” He saw her expression and shook his head. “You’re looking at me as if I were that tiger cub you were so soppy about. I had a much better childhood than you did. No one beat me or sent me to camp out in the woods.”
“Was your uncle kind to you?”
“Kindness didn’t enter into it. It was all teacher and student. I did what was required and I was repaid with food and clothes and a fairly stimulating life.”
“And that was enough?”
“Of course.” He smiled crookedly. “Until I got busted.”
“Busted? You told me you were never arrested.”
“I wasn’t. But I should have been. When I was seventeen, I hacked into the CIA data banks just out of curiosity to see if I could do it. But they didn’t appreciate that I wasn’t trying to do anything particularly criminal.” He shrugged. “Hey, I admit I might have yielded to temptation if I’d seen anything that was irresistible. But I was mainly doing it to see if I could.”
“But they caught you.”
“The firewalls on my computer weren’t nearly as impenetrable as they are now. I’ve never been that cocky again. I could have ended up in a federal jail for a long, long time.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I was paid a visit by a CIA agent, Sean Patrick, who was kinder and more generous than I deserved him to be. They had a complete dossier on me by that time. He told me that he thought that my work in getting into the data banks was brilliant and should be encouraged. Too bad I was going to spend the next twenty years in prison. Then he offered me a deal. I was to spend the next four years in the army and was not to do anything illegal that my uncle Bruce had taught me to do or that I had been innovative enough to think up myself. At the end of that time, I was to be at the service of the CIA for at least another three years.”
“And you took the deal.”