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AFTER THE LONGEST, hottest shower he’d had in a long time, Cabrillo went to find Linda Ross. She’d write up a full report of her ordeal, but he wanted to get the highlights quickly to help establish their next course of action. He went first to her cabin to discover that Soleil was there and just out of the shower herself. She had one towel wrapped around her and tucked under her arms and another wrapped in a turban, covering her hair.
“Again, you catch me when I am not at my best,” she said with a coy smile.
“Story of my life,” Juan replied. “Good timing with everything but the ladies. Linda didn’t show you to one of the guest cabins?”
“She did, but your selection of feminine toiletries is a little lacking. She was kind enough to let me use hers.”
“I’ll get on the steward,” he promised, and then asked with genuine concern, “How are you?”
A shadow passed behind her Gallic eyes. And, just as quickly, it faded. “I have endured worse.”
“I read up on some of your accomplishments,” Cabrillo said. “And I was very impressed. However, there is nothing quite like being held against your will. That lack of freedom and control can get to anyone. Powerlessness is perhaps the worst feeling in the world.”
She opened her mouth as if to reply, then suddenly plopped herself on Linda’s bed and buried her face in her hands. She sobbed quietly at first, but soon it grew, until her whole body was shaking. Juan wasn’t the type to be put off by a woman crying, at least when she had a reason. Pointless histrionics just irked him, but something like this naked expression of fear was something he understood all too well.
He sat on the bed next to her but kept his hands to himself. If she wanted human contact, it would be up to her to initiate it. His instincts at times like this were spot-on. In seconds, Soleil had pressed her face into his shoulder. He put an arm around her and simply waited for her to get it out of her system. Less than a minute later she straightened and sniffled. Juan plucked a couple of tissues from the box on the nightstand and handed them to her. She dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose.
“Pardonnez-moi. That was not very ladylike.”
“You’ll be all right now,” he predicted. “I can tell you are a strong woman, but you’ve bottled up your emotions for a long time. I suspect you never showed weakness to your jailers.”
“Non. Not once.”
“But that doesn’t mean you don’t have any. So they come out in a rush in the end. Nothing to it.”
“Thank you,” she said softly. Her voice strengthened, and a little smile played at the corners of her mouth. “And
thank you for saving my life. Linda has such faith in you that she never doubted our rescue. I was not so sure. But now?” The smile turned into a grin. “Now I think you can do anything.”
“Just as soon as I get my red cape back from the cleaners.”
The reference confused her for a moment. “Oh, your comicbook Superman.”
“That’s me, but I don’t do tights.” Juan turned serious. “I need to ask you some questions. If it’s too difficult, we can do it another time.”
“Non. I will do my best.”
“Or I can come back when you’re dressed.”
“I have a towel. It is enough,” she said with European pragmatism.
“Did you overhear anything during your captivity? Anything that would give us a clue what this is all about?”
“No. Nothing. They took me from my home in Zurich. Two men broke into my house and attacked me while I was asleep. While one held me down the other gave me a shot. It knocked me out. When I came awake again, I was in that cell where you found me. I did not even know that it was an oil platform until Linda told me. You see, they had drugged her too. But she says she woke in a helicopter on its way out to sea.”
Juan knew that, like himself, Linda would have remained motionless after coming to in order to get a sense of her surroundings. It was a trick he’d taught her.
“Do you have any idea why you were targeted?”
“I assume it has to do with my father,” Soleil replied. “He is a wealthy and powerful man.”
“I met him in Singapore when he hired us to go into Burma to look for you.”
“It is true that I was planning on going to Bangladesh with a friend of mine on an extreme backpacking trip.”
“We know. The man behind your abduction went so far as to update your website to make it look like you’d left for that trip. They covered themselves well. Anything specific about your father? Any recent business deals?”
