Page 58 of Prisoner of War
She gave another yawn, climbed into the bed and pulled the covers over herself. Let them watch a shapeless mound under the blankets instead.
But beneath the blankets she could smell Duardo. It reminded her of the night of abandoned entertainmentshe had indulged in. It brought images and sense impressions zinging back into her memory.
She shivered and curled into a ball under the blanket and let the mindless peace of sleep take her.
As she slipped into sleep, her mind returned instead to the moment the bowl of spiced coffee slipped from the table. She had made sure the chain did not tangle with the bowls as she’d slipped the cuff highup on her forearm to keep it out of the way. How had it fallen over Soto’s bowl?
Duardo must have slipped it over when the men were all watching what Soto was doing to her. The spilled coffee had given him the excuse to scream at her and throw her back into the bedroom, out of their reach.
He had been protecting her all along.
* * * * *
“God, I can’t stand it!” Nick cried, clutching his handsto his head.
Josh glanced over his shoulder to make sure the office door was firmly shut, then crouched to pick up the spill of folders and paperwork Nick had thrown up into the air to accompany his declaration.
“What makes you so special?” Josh asked carefully. “Plenty of other heads of government put up with it.”
“Christ, they have money for a start.” Nick lifted his head from his hands andshook it. “Everyone has this sublime faith that I can just figure this out, but I can’t fight physics. I can’t fight facts.”
“Don’t, then. Go around them,” Josh said, pretending a blitheness he did not feel. It had taken a while, but Josh only now understood that Nick kept him close was because Josh was one of the few non-Vistarian people Nick trusted enough to disgorge his doubts, fears andhesitancies.
Nick rolled his eyes. “How the hell does one launch a beachhead assault without a beachhead?”
“You’ve got a beachhead—it’s three hundred yards from here.”
“And the equipment?”
“Buy it.”
“Landing craft don’t come cheap.”
“Use credit. Every other freaking country in the world does.”
“They have security.”
“And you’re a bellyaching old woman,” Josh said calmly.
Nick grinned.
Josh cleared his throat. “You’re just letting the scale get to you. Running a country and organizing a counter-revolution is just like running a business and a hostile take-over. Just a whole lot bigger.”
Nick’s smile faded. “It’s not the scale that’s the problem,” he said. “I’ve been thinking on that sort of scale all my life. It’s the impossible-to-solve stuff that’s bothering me.”
“At a highenough level, nothing’s impossible to solve.” It was Calli’s voice that interrupted. She stood at the private door that led to the master bedchamber, which everyone had insisted she and Nick continue to use after their wedding, a DVD disk in her hand. “Basic world economic theory. You should know that as well as me, Nick.”
Nick grimaced.
“She’s the economics professor,” Josh reminded him.
“Almost professor,” she added. She came into the room, kissed Nick’s temple and stepped over to the small TV and DVD player on the sideboard behind his desk and shoved the cassette into the maw of the player and switched the TV on. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d both like to see this. General Blanco brought it to me.”
Nick took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his pockets.“Go.”
She hit play.
It was the breakfast news and business show of one of the Acapulco television networks. Because the majority of the population in Acapulco were tourists and inclined to sleep in late, the news show was a low-ratings one. As a result, it was free to provide hardcore news of interest to real Acapulco residents and the antics of Mexico’s near neighbor formed part of that interest.
