Page 33 of Trapped

But instead of reading, he pictured the diplomatic mission. The bird flu scare. The mad rush to safety. And his own failure to keep a cool head.

He made a disgusted sound and picked up the book, forcing himself to scan the pages, even when he wasn’t taking in much of the story. Because anything was better than thinking about himself.

The exercise got him through to dinnertime.

Then he sat in the back of the recreation room for a while, watching another shoot ‘em up movie. Again, he wasn’t much interested in the action. But it kept him occupied until ten hundred hours. And when he left, he picked up a uniform cap someone had left lying on a table. He jammed it under his arm as he headed for his room like a good boy. But he wasn’t planning to stay there long. As soon as the place settled down for the night, he was going to see if he could find Sophia. The hell with the cameras. If he kept his head down, maybe they’d think he was supposed to be in the hallway—patrolling. Of course, he’d heard the scream hours ago. If she was hurt or in danger, maybe he was too late. Or maybe not. He hoped not.

But he’d forgotten something important. As he was getting ready to leave the room, a knock on the door startled him. Then Lopez came in.

“Time for your evening medication,” he said.

“Yeah. Right.” The guy gave him a narrow-eyed look, and Cash wondered why. Had the man gotten in trouble for not doing his job?

“I watched you take it last time,” he muttered.

Cash nodded.

Lopez brought the pill and a glass of water from the bathroom and handed them to Cash.

###

“I don’t like it,” Phil muttered.

“You’ve got a better suggestion?” Sophia countered as she tucked her hair under a cap.

“No.”

“I go to his room. And I get him out of here tonight.” She wanted to shout that they should have done it last night. But there was no use getting mad at him. He’d been following the procedure outlined. He’d been instructed to get a report on Cash’s sanity before getting up close and personal.

“I can’t keep the cameras off as long as last night.”

“It will work out fine.” She made herself sound confident when her insides were tied in knots.

This time she was armed—with a gun and the portable GPS. It told her Cash was in his room.

When she got there, would he trust her enough to leave with her?

As she thought of a half dozen nasty possibilities, she couldn’t stop a shiver from racing over her skin.

But there was nothing she could do to change anything that had happened now.

Her lips set in a grim line, she turned the handle and opened the door, half expecting someone to spring at her from inside the storeroom. But as far as she could tell, it was empty.

So far, so good. All she had to do now was contact Cash, tell him they were leaving, and hope to God he would come with her.

##

Conscious that Lopez was watching him like a store security cop tracking a suspected shoplifter, Cash took the pill. Hoping he looked like a man with nothing to hide, he put the pill in his mouth and managed to get it into the space between his gum and his cheek before swallowing the water.

“Okay,” he said, handing back the glass.

But Lopez stayed for more than a minute, watching him. And Cash had to stand there feeling the pill start to fall apart.

When the guy finally left, Cash rushed into the bathroom and dug out as much of the thing as he could. Then he rinsed out his mouth, praying that he hadn’t swallowed any of the damn stuff by accident.

Heart pounding, he sat down on the edge of the bed, trying to figure out if his brain was still functioning okay—or if he was getting that muzzy feeling again.

###

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