The Darwin Elevator

Chapter Forty-two

Anchor Station

14.FEB.2283

At the stroke of midnight, Tania’s terminal rebooted. The screen flickered through the start-up procedure, casting her small cabin in a sudden blue-green glow.

She’d been awake for hours, staring at the ceiling, thinking. In the sudden illumination, she sat up and swung her legs off the bed.

Russell Blackfield had placed her under house arrest shortly after arriving. Whatever plan he’d had to interrogate her abruptly changed after the first question he’d asked.

“Tell me about the research you’ve been doing for Neil Platz,” he’d said.

“No,” she’d replied.

Then Natalie had chimed in. Her voice so calm and collected that Tania had gone numb. “I’ll tell you,” Natalie had said. “I’ve been doing most of the work anyway.”

A huge grin had spread across Russell’s face. He’d instructed a pair of guards to lock Tania in her quarters until further notice. She’d been too shocked to fight them, or say anything. She could only stare at Natalie, baffled, trying to find some glimmer of explanation for her betrayal. But Natalie, her assistant and friend, would not meet her gaze. Instead she focused completely on Russell Blackfield, looking every bit the eager helper.

Tania had not been allowed to see anyone. She’d tried her computer the moment they’d closed her door, only to find it locked in station-wide “maintenance mode.” The distinct beep of the reboot marked the first change in her monotonous imprisonment.

Then she heard another sound. One that made her jump.

The door unlocked.

She stared at the handle, waiting for someone to enter, wondering if she should turn off the computer or pretend to be asleep. The door remained closed.

Confused, she went to it and opened it a crack. Outside, the hallway was dark and quiet. She left the door open slightly, worried that the lock would reengage if she closed it, and went to her terminal.

Instead of the usual passphrase prompt it displayed her messages. One was new, from Neil Platz, sent eighteen hours ago.

With a rush of hope she opened it and read, “I’m dead or captured—here’s what you must do …”

That hope gave way to agony at Neil’s stark, abrupt words in the second half of the message.

Neil had triggered a fail-safe program, inserted into the stations’ systems months ago. The door locks had been disabled, the security systems reverted to month-old backups.

She wanted to mourn, wanted to beat her fists against the wall at the madness of all this. She knew Neil would never let himself be captured. He had too much pride. He was gone and she couldn’t even be there at his side. Just like when her father passed.

But Neil’s amazing knack for thinking ahead gave her a sudden glimmer of confidence. The words that followed replaced her agony with an anxiety like none she’d ever known. Neil’s plan, as crazy and bold as the man himself, left her breathless.

Tania read it twice, fighting tears all the while. For a moment she sat in plain awe of Neil’s ability for forethought. The few simple sentences implied months, even years, of devious planning.

She memorized the instructions. Then she deleted the message and reset the terminal.

In the hall outside, people were emerging from their rooms. She took a moment to calm herself, put on a face she hoped showed courage, and walked out into the hallway.

“What’s going on?” a neighbor asked. “Why did the doors unlock?”

“I’m not sure,” Tania replied. “Stay in your room. I’m going to check.”

She moved at a brisk pace to Natalie’s cabin and found it empty.

Flashes of her imprisonment in Nightcliff forced their way into her mind. She shuddered to think what might be happening to Nat. The poor girl had no idea what Blackfield and his thugs were capable of, regardless of her offer to help them. Yet Neil’s message held a deeper grip on Tania’s mind. Natalie would have to wait.

Tania headed for the observation lounge.

At one point she heard approaching soldiers, sprinting along the main hallway. She ducked into the closest cabin, pushed the door shut, and waited.

In the cramped room, a man and a woman were embraced, partially undressed, and looking at her with wide eyes. Tania recognized one of them as a low-level researcher.

“The doors opened,” he said, mumbling in fear. “We hadn’t seen each other—”

“Quiet,” Tania said, too tersely. The man swallowed back the rest of his explanation. Tania faced the door and leaned against it. She pressed her ear to the surface and listened as the soldiers ran by. When their footsteps receded, she nodded to the amorous couple and stepped back into the hall.

The guards were headed for her room, she had no doubt of that. No time to waste, then. Tania sprinted the rest of the way.

Starlight spilling in from the giant windows provided the only light in the observation lounge. Despite everything happening around her, the view of the shell ship, and Earth beyond, still took Tania’s breath away.

She shook off the feeling and went to the bench. Memories of a hundred idle conversations with the old man fought for her attention. “Your parents would be so proud of you,” he had said so often, the only praise she’d ever received that mattered.

Kneeling by the bench, she looked underneath the plush cushion. In the dark she saw nothing but shadow. She reached her hand below and ran it across the cool plastic support surface. Her fingers brushed something. Paper. An envelope, glued to prevent it from falling. Try as she might, should could not pull it away, but then her fingers found a flap along one edge. She pried it open and used her nails to pinch the bundle of papers inside. They were tightly packed, but after a struggle they came free.

The overhead lights came back on. All along the curved hallway she heard the snap snap of doors locking. She felt glad she’d left her own door ajar. If it remained that way, she could sneak back in.

Tania stuffed the folded papers under her shirt and walked briskly to a nearby restroom. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she tried the door and found it open. It was bright in the white-tiled room, enough to make her squint. Tania moved to the stall at the very end of the row, closed the door behind her, and sat on the water tank above the toilet, using the seat as a footrest.

Only then did she remove the papers and read them.

The information there was at once terrifying and exhilarating.



In the morning, three guards entered Tania’s room without a knock. She sat bolt upright, pulling the blanket up to cover herself.

“Get dressed,” the largest one said. “Blackfield wants to see you.” They stood in place, waiting for an answer.

“Where’s my assistant? Natalie Amm—”

“Get dressed, now.”

She gripped the blanket until her knuckles turned white. “Mind waiting outside?”

The words lingered as the man in the center merely grinned. “He said not to lay a finger on you, but didn’t say nothing about watching.” One of his friends kicked the door closed and the three stood and waited.

She let the blanket fall as she stood up, determined not to let them see weakness in her. The soldiers were openly disappointed to see she was wearing a tank top and running shorts, but still their eyes stayed glued to her as she stepped into a jumpsuit.

“They don’t make ’em like you down in Darwin,” one of the guards said. Another laughed. She did her best to ignore them, cursing her hands for shaking.

He said not to lay a finger on you. Tania considered the deeper implications. Blackfield wanted her for himself. Or he still needed something from her. In the back of her mind, a tiny voice wondered if she could use her body as a weapon. She hated herself for even thinking it.

She’d rather die.

Tania wiggled into the garment and zipped it up. “Let’s go.”

The tall one led the way, striding along the corridor like he owned the place, near enough to the truth. They passed only a few other researchers, each under guarded escort. Tania did everything she could to mask the embarrassment she felt. She’d become something of a leader after the mutiny, and had been wholly unprepared for the counterattack. She had let them down, and she doubted the guards had orders not to lay hands on anyone else.

She’d heard nothing from her fellow mutineers since Blackfield and his troops had arrived. They’d either fought back and failed, or melted away.

“In there,” the thug in the lead said.

Tania had been lost in thought. They stood in front of the conference room on Black Level. The three guards took positions on both sides of the door, leaving Tania to open it for herself. She turned the handle and stepped inside.

“Tania!”

She felt an enormous relief to see Natalie, and ran to her. They embraced.

“No kissing now,” Russell Blackfield said. “This is a family-friendly environment.”

The sound of his voice made Tania’s heart sink. “I was so worried,” Tania whispered, holding her assistant as tightly as she could. “Why did you offer to—”

“Later,” Natalie whispered.

“Enough,” Russell said. “You’ll make me all weepy.”

“Did he hurt you?” Tania asked.

Russell threw his arms up. “I’m standing right here, dammit. Hello?”

Tania released her friend, and realized she was crying. They both were. She wiped the years away on her sleeve and turned to Russell. “If you’ve hurt her …”

“She’s fine. You’re fine. Right?”

Natalie had kept hold of Tania’s hand, and squeezed it. She nodded.

“There, see? Everyone’s fine.”

Tania stood her ground. “What do you want?”

“A thank-you would be nice.”

“Thank you?”

He gestured toward Natalie. “Not me, her. Your lover here has earned your freedom. Strings attached, of course.”

Tania glanced briefly at Natalie, who wore a sad smile and kept her eyes aimed at the table. Lover? She must have concocted a story in a hurry. She fixed her gaze on Russell again. “What strings?”

“I thought that would be obvious,” he replied. “Your research. I want it finished, now, and I want the results.”

Before Tania could craft a response, Russell pulled a sinister-looking pistol from a holster inside his jacket.

The room went deathly quiet as he pointed the business end at Natalie.

“You two lovebirds have twenty-four hours,” he said, “to tell me where the Builder ship is going to park.”

Tania’s eyes grew wide at the revelation. She really told him. At least she had not divulged the crucial piece of information. If she’d told him that, everything would be over.

“Yes, that’s right. Your girl here sang like a bird, when her mouth wasn’t otherwise occupied. What a tireless little champ! Very convincing.”

“You said you wouldn’t tell her, you son of a bitch,” Natalie said, her words startlingly loud in the closed room.

Russell kept his attention on Tania. “No more delays, no more excuses. In twenty-four hours I want the location where my new Builder ship has arrived, or your friend here dies.”

Tania swallowed, and deep down cursed herself for doing so. “Kill me instead.”

“No such luck, I’m afraid. No, if you don’t give me what I want, you will spend the rest of your life servicing my soldiers. And that will only be the beginning of your misery,” Russell said.

“And if we cooperate?”

He smiled. “Then you can continue here, doing whatever the hell it is you do. There’s no reason that has to change in the new world order. Stay here, work, and enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company.”

His constant allusions to their supposed romance had a twinge of sarcasm. Tania wondered if he really believed it, or if he just found it humorous. She looked at Natalie. Their eyes met and held for a long, tense moment. Her friend then nodded to her, a nearly imperceptible motion that Tania returned.

“Fine,” she said to Russell Blackfield. “Just, please, leave the rest of the crew alone.”

“Agreed, for twenty-four hours. Starting now.”



They walked in silence, under escort, to the computer laboratory on Green Level.

In the front room of the lab, with the guards keeping close by, Tania removed a number of bound folders from a shelf before continuing to the back room.

Two of the guards stayed with them, taking seats on each side of the door.

“It’s really not necessary,” Tania said. “There’s nowhere to go.”

“Orders,” came the snapped response.

She shrugged and took a seat at the console, activating the three large monitors that spanned the back wall. A number of smaller monitors on the desk also flickered to life.

Tania turned to Natalie before she could sit. “Would you dim the lights, please?”

“I got it,” the guard said. He was seated next to the switch, and ratcheted it down to quarter strength.

Natalie took the seat next to Tania, spreading out the folders Tania gave her. “Where’d you leave off?” she asked. The first words she’d spoken since they’d left Russell’s presence. A genuine apology came through in the tone, unspoken but nonetheless welcome.

Tania’s fingers danced across the keyboard, filling the screens with a myriad of images and data structures. She flipped the pages in one of the folders until it was open to the middle. “Here’s the latest. Last week I thought it might glance off the atmosphere, aerobraking, and perhaps settle into position on its next pass, in a year or so. But look here …”

A quick glance at the guards proved they were not paying close attention. She picked up a pencil and circled a section of the report, and wrote next to it:

Did you tell him?

“It’s braking at an incredible rate,” she continued. “I didn’t think it would be possible.”

Natalie was nodding, slowly, and took the pencil. “I see what you mean.” She added below Tania’s words:

We saw the image, he knows it’s a new elevator. I could convince him it’s months away.

As she wrote, she said, “Have you calculated the arrival time?”

Her voice sounded false to Tania, like an amateur actress in a bad play. Tania took the pencil back and erased the words they’d written, then flipped to another page.

“Take a look at these numbers,” she said, pointing out a random bit of useless info.

She wrote:

Can’t let the station suffer that long. Have a plan. We need to talk alone.

She underlined the last word and said, “The deceleration rate negated all our predictions.”

Natalie picked up the pencil and added:

I have an idea.

She erased the writing and turned to a random page in the folder. “How long will it take to recalculate?”

Tania had no idea what Natalie was thinking, but caught her wink and went along with it. “Eight hours, roughly.”

“Let’s get started, then.”



Four hours later Tania paced her room, waiting anxiously for Natalie to arrive.

They had pretended to work at the data analysis for thirty minutes, to give an appearance of effort, before telling the guards that they needed to give the computer time to run simulations. The guards were willing to wait it out, but Natalie said she’d rather be returned to her quarters to rest.

When the guards pushed Tania into her own room and locked the door, she expected to hear them continue down the hall with Natalie to do the same. Instead they had gone in the other direction.

Her imagination ran wild. Had Natalie been taken to be interrogated? Could she handle something like that? Tania knew the answer was no. Natalie probably knew her limits, too, which explained why she’d decided to play the willing informant.

Her mind returned to the instructions Neil Platz had left in the envelope. A chill ran down her spine. An astonishing plan, far bolder than she could ever concoct on her own.

Footsteps outside the door. Heavy.

They were early.

Tania realized she was still fully dressed, and as the door was unlocked she abruptly flipped her light off and sat on the edge of her bed, running her hands through her hair to appear as if she’d been napping.

The door opened to the silhouette of a soldier.

“It hasn’t been eight hours, has it?” Tania asked, forcing her voice to sound groggy.

“Blackfield said you can use the showers if you want,” he said. Then he sniffed the stale air of the room. “’Bout damn time, too.”

“Remind you of Darwin?”

The guard actually smiled, if only for a second, and moved aside to allow her to exit the room.

She pulled a towel from her closet and stepped into the hall. The showers on this level were connected to the restrooms, and the guard followed her in.

Tania whirled on him. “You’ll wait outside, or take me back to—”

“Relax,” he said, walking past her, down the aisle of lockers to the large open shower. The tiled space was square in shape, with six showerheads poking out of three walls. “Just doing my job,” he said, checking two corners that were hidden from view of the door.

Satisfied, he came back to the door and pushed it open. “You’ve got twenty minutes,” he said, grinning slightly.

Something in that grin worried her. For a moment she stood in place, unsure what to do.

Before she could decide, the door opened again, and Natalie entered, carrying a towel of her own.

Tania whispered, “What’s going on?”

Natalie stepped in close and gave her a quick embrace. “When the water’s on,” she said, so quietly that Tania barely caught it.

With that Natalie set her towel on the metal bench in front of the lockers and began to undress. Tania stood in place.

“Come on, hon,” Natalie said. She smiled in an odd way as she padded down to the shower and turned on a faucet.

When the water’s on. Tania kept her head still and looked about the shower room. They were listening. Or worse, watching.

Natalie drenched herself under a fountain of steaming water, running her hands through her hair as if nothing was wrong.

Stomach aching from nervous dread, Tania shrugged off her jumpsuit. She stood naked with her arms tight across her chest, and took a quick glance back at the door. It remained closed. Finally she walked to the shower.

Steam from the hot water already obscured Natalie’s body.

Tania turned on the showerhead next to Natalie’s and set it as hot as she thought she could take it. Her friend reached a hand out to her. Tania took it, expecting a friendly squeeze, but Natalie pulled her until their bodies were touching, warm water spilling over both their shoulders. Natalie’s arm slipped around her waist, pressing them together.

“What are you—” Tania started to ask, before their lips met. Natalie kissed her urgently, with passion, not like a friend. Nothing like a friend.

Tania could do nothing but stand there, frozen in place, lips closed tight.

“Relax,” Natalie whispered. “Russell is only allowing this because he’s hoping for a good show. The mist should leave most of it to their imagination.”

Tania understood, then. Natalie had been playing to Russell’s perversion the moment he’d found them in the computer lab.

Her night spent in the bowels of Nightcliff filled her mind. She’d somehow convinced herself that the wall-sized mirror was just that, and that no one sat on the other side of it. A lie she had needed to make it through that night, and the weeks since. But in her heart she knew Russell had been watching.

Tania squeezed her eyes closed and forced the memory away, for Natalie’s sake. To expose her ruse now would have terrible consequences for both of them.

She became aware that her arms were held out as if a Jacobite preacher groped her. Shaking with stage fright, she returned Natalie’s embrace as best she could. Under the torrent of scalding hot water, she managed to relax her shoulders a bit.

Natalie pulled Tania’s head to her shoulder with one hand while caressing the length of her back with the other. Then she whispered in her ear, “Russell is recording this, so speak quietly.”

With nervous uncertainty Tania tried to find a place for her hands on Natalie’s back. Somewhere that implied familiar affection, she hoped. “He trusts you enough to let us alone? Natalie, my God, how did you convince him? What did you have to do?”

“Shhh,” Natalie whispered. She held on even tighter than before, as if Tania might slip and fall. “It’s not what you think. He’s just saying things to rile you.”

“If they’ve hurt you … abused you—”

Natalie gripped the back of her head. “He just wants you to think that. No easy way around this, so here it is. I’ve been working for Alex Warthen for almost six months now.”

Tania tried to pull away, to fight, at the confession. But Natalie held her too tightly.

“Please listen. Alex blackmailed me. He wanted to know about the research going on here, and in exchange lifted me out of a terrible life in Darwin. It seemed harmless enough, until I mentioned that Neil met with you in private, and he wanted me to find out why. I refused, and his offer of help turned to threats. Please believe me.”

For a long time Tania stood in shocked disbelief. A well of conflicting emotions churned in her mind, but the longer she stood there under the warm water, in Natalie’s arms, the further they receded, until one was left.

“I forgive you,” Tania said. “I forgive you …”

Natalie broke into racking sobs, going to her weakened knees, pulling Tania down with her in the process. It was Tania’s turn to lead the embrace. She eased her friend to the floor, sat facing her, and offered a shoulder.

Natalie buried her head there, sobbing.

Tania let her cry, and shed a few tears of her own. Neil dead or captured, and now her closest friend had admitted betrayal. Her home for so many years had become a prison, run by the man she hated most in the world. A man who, if he had his way, would soon control the new ship sent by the Builders.

Sitting there on the wet floor, wrapped tightly in her best friend’s embrace, Tania had never felt more alone. She felt as if the station around them had disappeared, revealing the cold emptiness of space.

Tania had to finish Neil’s plan. And, no matter what, she knew she could no longer trust Natalie. It drove a knife in her gut to admit that to herself.

Resolve building, she put her lips against Natalie’s ear and whispered. “What now? Are you going to tell Russell—”

“Of course not,” Natalie said. “He’s a monster. I told him you were keeping me in the dark, but perhaps if I could sleep with you … again …”

“I’d give up the secret in the heat of passion?”

Natalie began to shake. “He’s promised me to his guards, if I don’t tell him.”

Tania tensed, overwhelmed by rage. She began to stand.

“No,” Natalie said, gripping her arms, “No!” She managed to bring Tania back to her sitting position. “He’s watching, remember that. If he thinks we’re just in here plotting …”

“I … I’ll kill him. Alex, too.”

“You won’t, Tania. I’m sorry, but we’re not fighters.”

“We are when we’re cornered …” The image of Skyler, shooting the face off a subhuman, burst into her mind. Decisive, instinctual. No second guesses. “Listen, you have to give him a false location for the Elevator.”

Natalie sat very still. “He’d find out, and then kill us.”

“He won’t have the chance,” Tania said. She wanted nothing more than to share the information Neil had provided her, but Natalie had been lying to her for months. Tania realized she forgave her, yes, but her trust was shaken. “I … have a plan. It’s a good one, but we have to convince Blackfield to go to the wrong place.”

“He’ll find out! He’ll get there and find no Elevator.”

“Don’t worry about that. It’s part of the plan.”

Natalie nodded, wiping her nose. She even smiled, if only slightly.

Tania remained there with her, on the cold tile floor, letting the warm water rush over her. It wasn’t long before a guard entered.

“Time’s up,” he said.

To Tania’s amazement, he waited outside while they dressed.



Precisely eight hours after the simulation had started, Tania was escorted from her room.

Anchor Station had never been quieter. Even the Nightcliff regulars were mercifully devoid of lewd comments.

Their pace remained brisk, however, and Tania could feel the emptiness in her gut grow as they drew close to the computer lab.

The stop was brief, but long enough for Tania to review the “results.” She made a quick show of it, and then declared herself ready to speak with Russell.

They left the lab and the guards led her to White Level, to the station’s lone luxury cabin. A room normally reserved for Neil Platz. From what Tania had overheard from the guards, Russell spent most of his time in there, using the computer terminal to scan the stations various security cameras. For his own amusement, Tania thought, not anyone’s security.

When the guards knocked on the opulent double door, Tania willed herself to be calm.

“Enter,” said Russell from inside.

The two guards each opened a door, leaving Tania between them to make a strangely grand entrance.

“Join us,” Russell said. He sat at a small table, adjacent to a window that dominated the rear wall of the room. A half-eaten breakfast sprawled before him. Outside, the shell ship floated in partial illumination, the rest obscured in ever-moving shadows from Anchor Station’s rings.

Natalie sat with him, her food untouched, looking disheveled, like she hadn’t slept. She kept her eyes locked on the alien fuselage outside.

Tania approached the one remaining chair slowly. “I prefer to stand,” she said.

“Nonsense, eat something.”

Tania glanced at the chair. Every instinct told her to resist, to show him she could be strong, that he couldn’t win everything.

Russell smashed his fork against the table. The flash of anger made Tania jump. “Sit. Now.”

She slowly lowered herself into the chair, watching Natalie. Her friend hadn’t even blinked at the noise. She still stared out at the alien relic.

They had made a deal, hours earlier in the shower, that Natalie would avert her eyes when they next saw each other if the deception had held.

“Nat, give your woman a kiss good morning,” Russell said through a mouthful of artificial egg.

Natalie turned at this, smiling sadly at Tania and giving her hand a squeeze.

Russell burped and said, “That’s no kiss.”

Natalie seemed to wake up, or drop out of some state of hypnosis. “Haven’t you seen enough already?”

“What, the shower? That was highly disappointing.” He cut off Natalie’s retort before it could come. “So tell me, Tania, when will my new Elevator make landfall?”

“Don’t you mean the council’s new Elevator?”

He chewed a bite of food with his mouth open. “Tell me before I get angry, please.”

Tania let go of Natalie and put her hands in her lap, stared down at them. “It’s here already.”

The room became quiet, save for the hum of the air conditioner.

“If it spins its thread at its current pace,” she said in a quiet, even tone, “it should touch ground tomorrow.”

Russell set his fork down gently now. His eyes were firmly locked on Tania. “Where?”

“I …”

“Where?”

Tania had never lied well. She practiced this one for hours, into her pillow.

Russell produced a small pistol from below the table and pointed it at Natalie. “Say it or she dies.”

“Kiribati.”

“Huh?”

Tania swallowed hard, still looking at her hands, which she wrung together in her lap. “Kiribati Island. About three thousand kilometers east of Darwin.”

“Big place?”

“No, it’s quite small.”

Russell put the gun back into the holster on his hip, and Tania felt some of the tension in her dissipate. He pushed back his chair and stood, looking out the window at the first alien craft. “Guards,” he called out. Within seconds the door opened and the two soldiers who had escorted Tania strode in.

Despite the hatred she kept bottled inside, Tania couldn’t help but think how much Russell resembled Neil Platz just now. Confident, bordering on arrogant.

The guards stood at attention behind Tania.

“Natalie, dear,” Russell said after a long time. “Is she lying?”

“Yes.”

Tania turned to face her. “What are you—”

Natalie ignored her and spoke calmly to Russell. “I’m not going to tell you unless you promise to let her live.”

He laughed. “I promise to let her live.”

“Unless you promise not to hurt her,” Natalie corrected.

“I promise to let her live.”

Natalie glared at him.

“I’m joking, for f*ck’s sake. You have my word.”

“It’s worth so much.”

“The best I can offer just now. Where?”

Natalie searched his eyes, her jaw clenched, fists balled.

“Tell me where and she won’t be harmed. Tell me nothing, and I’ll have the guards beat her until you do.”

“Africa.”

“No!” Tania rasped. The guards grabbed both her arms, this time with painful force.

Russell never took his eyes from Natalie. “Now, Africa is a big place.”

“The Congo, near a city called Gemena. We have exact coordinates.”

Tania jerked violently against the guards, a futile effort. “How could you?”

“Better,” Russell said, grinning. “When does it arrive?”

“That part was the truth,” Natalie said. “It’s already descending and should attach in a few days.”

“No!” Tania shrieked so loud that Natalie visibly flinched.

“Take her away,” Russell said, calmly. “Lock her in her room until we’ve secured the site.”

Without care for her well-being, the guards hauled Tania from the floor and dragged her from the room. For the entire way she hissed profanities at Natalie, at Russell. At everyone.

When the door slammed shut she shouted even louder. She surprised herself with the profanities that spewed forth.

All the while she kept thinking the same thing.

Well done, Nat. Well done.



Russell returned to his seat at the table, another forkful of egg in his mouth before he’d even settled. “Never seen her so feisty,” he said.

“I could try to make peace,” Natalie said softly. “Soothe her. You could watch, if you want.”

“Enough of that. You two are about as erotic as a pair of mating sea bass,” Russell said. “No, you’re coming with me.”

Natalie’s eyes grew wide. “Where?”

“Africa, of course. To find out which of you lied.”