prince of time
by
rebecca york

--Jayne Arm Krentz

--Rave Reviews

"No one sends more chills down your spine than the very creative and
imaginative Ms York!"

--Melinda Heifer, Romantic Times " 's writing is sharp and snappy, a
cut above..."

--The Baltimore Sun "She writes a fast-paced, satisfying thriller."
--UPI " --always tense, always terrific!"  --Arm Wassail, Ann's Worm


DID YOU PURCHASE THIS BOOK WITHOUT A COVER?  I

If you did, you should be aware it is stolen property as it was
reported as unsold and destroyed by a retailer.  Neither the author nor
the publisher has received any payment for this book.

All the characters in this book have no existence outside the
imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone
bearing the same name or names.  They are not even distantly inspired
by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents
are pure invention.

All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in
part in any form.  This edition is published by arrangement with
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thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
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without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.  Silhouette and Colophon are registered trademarks of
Harlequin Books S. A. " used under licence.  First published in Great
Britain 1997 Silhouette Books, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey

TW9 I SR

Ruth Glick and Eileen Buckholtz 1995

ISBN 0 373 22338 2

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham PLC, Chatham

Directory

43 LIGHT STREET

Room

ADVENTURES IN TRAVEL

ABIGAIL FRANKLIN, Ph.  D. Clinical Psychology

THE LIGHT STREET FOUNDATION

KATHRYN MARTIN-McQUADE, M. D. Branch Office, Medizone Labs O'MALLEY &
O'MALLEY Detective Agency

LAURA ROSWELL, LL.  B.

Attorney at Law

SABRINA'S FANCY

Lobby

STRUCTURAL DESIGN GROUP

NOEL ZACHARIAS

Paralegal Service

L. ROSSINI

Superintendent

Lower Level

Chapter One

One moment she was exhilarated, excited, trembling on the brink of
discovery.  In the next, an ominous rumble on the mountain far above
her told Cassandra Devereaux she was going to die.

Glen Fielding, her Alaskan guide, was already running.

Early this morning he'd landed his float plane on a clear blue lake a
hundred miles northwest of Denali National Park.  And Cassie had been
awed by the rugged peaks and endless green of the Douglas firs as she
and Glen paddled his canoe to shem and hiked a couple of miles through
the wilderness to this remote slope.

Glen was twenty feet below her and on the right, but it was already too
late for either of them to escape.

Cassandra screamed as several tons of last winter's snow came rumbling
down the mountain like a glacier broken loose from its moorings.  This
wasn't supposed to happen.  Not in summer.

She gasped Glen's name as he disappeared under a blanket of white.

Lumps of ice pelted her head and shoulders before she ducked under the
shelter of a protective ledge.

The mountain shook like a fortress

under aerial bombardment, and she waited for the tumbling snow and
boulders to sweep her away.

As suddenly as the avalanche had started, it stopped, leaving Cassie
crouched in eerie silence.

Cautiously, she moved her arms and legs.  The worst pain she detected
was in her tight arm, but it was bearable.

"Glen?  Glen?"

He didn't answer.

She tried to struggle forward, tried to get to the spot where he'd
disappeared.  But she was trapped by a solid will of white.

A choking sensation clogged Cassie's throat.  Ig- noting it, she found
her pack under a rock and scrabbled through the contents, cursing when
she remembered that Glen had taken the trench shovel.  Grimly, she set
a flashlight on a pile of snow and started digging.  But after a few
minutes, her fingers stiff from the cold, she could s~e that her
efforts only brought more snow down on her head.

Breathing hard, she snatched up the light and searched the pack again,
looking for the two-way radio.

The ease was broken.  When she twisted the dials, there wasn't even a
crackle of static.

Cassie hugged her shoulders and leaned back against the rock wall of
her prison.  At least she was alive, she told herself.  For now.

But what about Glen, she wondered with a stab of guilt.  She had a
pilot's license.  She could have flown here herself.  But she'd wanted
to look like nothing more than a travel agent, so she'd paid well for
Glen's services.  She hadn't told him she was on a highly clas- sifted
assignment from the government.  Instead she'd used the cover story she
and her sister, Marissa, found so convenient--that they specialized in
scouting out adventure locales.  And she'd been hired by a millionaire
sportsman in the lower forty-eight Who wanted to climb a mountain
nobody else had tackled.

As she and Glen had approached the Alaskan range, her special
instruments had confirmed that there was something strange on the east
slope of one of the "Never taken anyone here before," her guide had
remarked as he set the plane down on the water with a gentle touch.

"That's what my client wants," Cassie had replied cheerfully, trying to
mask the excitement in her voice.

This expedition was important to her, more important than she was
willing to admit.

Now look what she'd gotten herself into, she thought as she fought
panic.  Nobody knew where she was.  No one was going to come rescue her
the way Jed Prentiss had saved her sister a few months ago.  With a
fleeting smile, she thought about Jed and Marci, taking comfort from
the knowledge that her sister was well and happy.  At least one of the
Devereaux sisters had escaped the ravages of their childhood.

But that childhood had also made them both fighters.  And Cassie wasn't
going to give up so easily.

Pulling out her flashlight, she started inching along the ledge,
squeezing around a boulder that had crashed against the rock.  Behind
it was a large indentation and, on the ground, shards of what might
have been basalt.  Only they looked too jagged.

Cassie picked one up, running her thumb cautiously along the edge.  It
felt more like plastic than stone.  Turning, she realized that light
emanated from the hole the boulder had made.  When she shouldered

the cracked surface, it gave with a groaning sound, and she stumbled
through--into some sort of manmade corridor.  The walls were cold
metal, but they radiated a gentle amber glow like an old computer Dear
heaven!  It looked as if the boulder had crashed into an escape hatch
for a secret military post.  The irony made her laugh, the sound
echoing hollowly off the tunnel walls.  So much for the FCC's little
mystery!

They were going to be angry about spending the money to send her up
here.

Cassandra expected to hear alarms ring and see guards with machine
guns.  But there was no intruder alert, only the insistent hum of
equipment deep in the earth.

"Anybody home?"

Only the hollow echo of her own voice answered.  Maybe this was an
automated facility.  Replacing her flashlight in her pack, she crept
forward, aware that the humming was getting louder as she descended
into the mountain.  Several feet ahead of her, the passage was dark.
But as she moved forward, the glow kept pace, imparting an eerie sense
of being ushered onward.

Yet she couldn't detect the video cameras that must be marking her
progress.  And she found herself fighting a growing sense that she'd
stepped into ascience-fiction movie.  The very air smelled as if it had
been scrubbed by special purification equipment and recycled for
centuries.

Shivering, she tried to put aside such fantasies.  This place couldn't
have been here for centuries.  It had almost certainly been built as
part of our Soviet survey lance network.

Her progress stopped abruptly at a flat metal door with no handle.

Now what?  She didn't have a key card.  And there was no way her
retinal patterns or handprints were in the computer.  Trying the old
fashioned method, she banged on the door.  When nothing happened, she
began to look for a control panel.  Maybe she'd find a phone, and she
could call for help.  There had to be something!  She couldn't have
come so far only to be shut out.

Doggedly, she went over every inch of the metal wall pressing and
feeling for invisible seams.  She wasn't sure which random motion had
the desired effect, but a sudden whooshing noise made her look up to
see twin panels glide out of the way like the doors on the starship
Enterprise.

0 Beyond was a yawning, profound blackness, alive with the pulsing
sound she'd been hearing since she'd entered the tunnel.  The unknown
waited for her inside, and she was afraid.  But in the end, there was
really no choice.  Gathering her courage, she crossed the threshold.

As before, the lights came up, and she saw that she was in what looked
like a control room, surrounded by ban ira of futuristic computers and
other equipment she couldn't identify.  In the center of.  the room was
a tall chamber about the size of a telephone booth.  Curiosity--or
perhaps a feeling of compulsion-~ Cassie toward the enclosed space. Its
walls were opaque and shot through with streaks of color like
mother-of-pearl.  Afraid, yet fascinated, Cassie Watched as they began
to glow and change, becoming translucent--the transformation coming
from the top ~lown.

The humming of the equipment increased, rising to a crescendo around
her, but she hardly heard.  All her attention was focused on the
compartment before her.  Someone was inside.  She saw the eyes first.
Was transfixed by the laser intensity that held her captive, compelling
her to take a step forward and then another to meet her destiny.

Blood pounding in her ears, she stood immobile as the walls of the
chamber went through a final metamorphosis.

Before her motionless gaze, they turned transparent as glass.  And she
found herself staring in shock at a naked man.

He didn't respond to her sharp intake of breath, and she realized with
stunned certainty and a degree of r~lief that those probing eyes were
not looking at her.  In fact, although she stood only six feet away, he
didn't seem aware that anyone else was in the room.  Was it possible
that only she could see him through the transparent surface separating
them?  The supposition gave her a measure of reassurance as anger
flashed across his rigid features, anger that rolled from him in an
almost physical wave, penetrating the chamber, crashing against the
walls and ceiling of the small room.

Cassie wanted to turn and run.  Get away from him before he shattered
the walls of the capsule, charged out and blocked her escape.  But some
almost supernatural force kept her from turning away from the threat he
represented.  In that moment she was sure that he had compelled her to
this place.  But her mind couldn't cope with such an oufiandish
assumption, and she dismissed it.

She worried her lip and wiped her damp palms on the legs of her jogging
pants as she stood and watched him.  His face was strong, the features
pleasing and vaguely exotic.

Cassie studied the slight slant of his eyes, the exaggerated thrust of
his chin, the wide mouth, wondering if he came from some tribe of
Native Americans that barely interacted with the outside world.  Was
that it?

Did his people live up here in the Alaskan wilds?  Had they built this
place?  If so, why was he imprisoned?

His posture was erect and still as a statue, and she had an even wilder
thought--that he was a prince from another time and place thrown into a
trance by an evil sorcerer.

He'd been under this mountain for centuries, waiting.  And she was the
woman sent to wake him with a kiss.

The fantasy was getting personal again.  She shook her head to banish
it.  But still, she couldn't tug her gaze from him.  She watched as he
drew in a shuddering breath, filling his lungs greedily and then
exhaling with more control.  Slowly, he raised his hand and flexed the
fingers, looking at them with a slightly he mused expression.  Raising
the hand farther, he flattened the palm again.  ~t his chest, pressing
it over his heart as if needing reassurance that life was surging
through his veins.  He let out a deep sigh.  Then his face changed, the
features taking on a sudden wrenching vulnerability that made her own
heart contract.

Transfixed, she watched as his palm slid across his chest, across skin
that was a light copper and covered with a mat of curly hair that was
almost black.  Before she had time to reflect on the strangeness of the
combination, the hand moved, sweeping lower down.  Her gaze was
compelled to follow as he briefly touched his flat stomach, narrow
waist, strong thighs and finally the male part of him.  With a swallow,
Cassie silently acknowledged that he would have drawn appreciative
stares on a nude beach.

The observation jerked her befuddled brain back to reality.  He wasn't
on some California beach.  This guy was standing buck-naked in the
middle of a secret government facility.  Or was it an asylum for the
criminally insane with him as the star inmate?  She didn't know what
she'd walked into--but she was getting the beck out.

She took a step back.  Before she could turn to run, his eyes caught
the movement, and she knew without doubt that the capsule was as
transparent from inside as well as out.

At first he'd been absorbed with him serf like a sleeper awakening in a
strange place.  Now his gaze locked with hers, and she realized he was
suddenly aware that he wasn't alone in the room.  His lips moved
urgently.  He appeared to be shouting at her, but she could hear
nothing.  At the quick shake of her head, his mouth formed a harsh
line.

Then he closed his e~es as his fingers felt rapidly along the sides of
his prison, doubtless searching for a release latch.  Tbankfuily,
Cassie couldn't see one.  She wanted him safe on the other side of that
transparent barrier.  Her relief was short-lived.  He touched some
hidden mechanism she hadn't spotted, and the front panel of his
isolation booth slid silently open.  She gasped as the invisible wall
disappeared.  She gasped again as he stepped out of the compartment.
There was no hesitation.  She was his quarry.  Freed, he closed the
distance between them with such speed that his movements were almost a
blur.  His hand shot out and circled her wrist, his fingers rigid as a
steel manacle

"Don't hurt me."  Her mouth was so dry she could hardly force the words
out.  Why hadn't.  she gotten out of this place when the getting was
good?

Up close, his eyes were a startling blue.  As he studied her, they
turned the color of frost, making her fear shoot up several degrees. He
answered her plea with a short burst of syllables that would have been
melodious if his voice hadn't sounded like broken glass.  She didn't
know the language--and she'd studied half a dozen in college and
graduate school.  Yet she recognized from the inflection that he was
asking a question.

And that he was angry-- as if she were somehow to blame for imprisoning
him in that strange tube.

She shook her head, all the while struggling to wrench from his grasp.
But it was as futile as trying to fight a force of nature.

She moved as far away as the extension of her arm would allow, her eyes
never leaving his.  She was grateful that he didn't pull her closer.
Speaking slowly and distinctly as though addressing a child, he
repeated the string of syllables.  The speed of the delivery, however,
did nothing for her level of comprehension.  There was absolutely
nothing she recognized.

"I--I'm sorry.  I don't understand."

His eyes narrowed, and she felt the physical force of his pent-up anger
and frustration.  He spoke again, and she could tell that he was
demanding an answer, perhaps even threatening her if she didn't
cooperate.

Yet at the same time she sensed he'd given up hope of commanding her
cooperation.

"I'm sorry.  Please"

"Klat!"  The ugly syllable erupted from him.  She didn't know what it
meant, but she recognized a curse when she heard it.

Cassie sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  Now it was her
turn.

"Who are you?"  she asked, repeating the question as slowly as he had
spoken--in Spanish, German, French, Russian and slightly shaky
Japanese.  Too bad she didn't know Klingon.  Not even a flicker of
recognition crossed his strong features.  His answer was as
unintelligible as his prior attempt at communication.  Still clasping
her wrist, he stepped closer, taking in details the way she had done so
recently.

Only now he wasn't separated from her by a barrier.

He was dynamic--and very naked--and standing so near that she could
smell the masculine scent of his body and take in the fine lines
radiating from the corners of his eyes.  His scrutiny almost shattered
her carefully forged composure.

She swallowed.  At least his closeness meant she didn't have to keep
her gaze from wandering to certain parts of his anatomy.  All she could
see was his naked arms.  His naked chest.  But she remembered the rest.
Very well.

She stood as still as a deer in the forest, telling herself that if
he'd wanted to hurt her, he could have done it when he'd first bounded
out of his prison.  Yet her pulse pounded in her ears, making her
lightheaded.

The man of steel had a surprisingly gentle touch when he wanted it.

Still, she stiffened as he grazed her blond hair with his free hand,
murmuring something unintelligible.

The brush of his fingertips on her neck sent a shiver down her spine.

Or perhaps it was the way his blue eyes skimmed each of her features as
if committing them to memory.

Tension crackled between them.

They might not be able to understand each other's language, but they
were communicating on a level that hardly required words.

His tight focus on her was arresting, almost mesmerizing.  He made
another low comment as his fingers skimmed her cheek, her nose.  When
they reached her lips', she closed her eyes and swayed toward him,
acknowledging some deep, primal level of connection between them.

Then she blinked and pulled back sharply, astonished that she had
permitted that kind of intimacy.

Perhaps he uttered an apology.  She was in no position to know.  She
didn't breathe when his hand dropped to her shoulder and traced the
open front of her bright pink parka, handling the soft fabric with the
same concentration that he'd given her hair.  He asked another one of
his questions--probably whether she'd gotten it at Bloomingdales or
Saks.

"Neither.  It's from Hudson Outfitters," she answered gravely.

He laughed, a rumble from deep in his chest.  Her gaze flew to his.

Had he understood her joke?

Then she realized he was sun ply responding to the terrible absurdity
of the situation.  The laugh transformed his face.  Until now, his
expression had wavered between grim and grave.  Her heart gave a little
lurch as she caught the promise of warmth.  And an undefinable charm
that made her insides melt.  To cover her confusion, she put her hand
to her mouth and gave a little cough.  But she sensed that he wasn't
fooled.

However, the laugh had a more practical effect, as well.  It freccl
her from her trance.  Her brain began to function on a more normal
level, and she decided she was tired of having him control the
situation.  Especially when he could be arrested for indecent
exposure.

"I wish you'd put something on," she said.  She took off her jacket,
disregarding its size, and thrust it toward him.

He looked at the garment, unmoving.  Then, releasing her hand, he
turned and strode toward a row of doors along the wall.  Behind the
first was a room made entirely of some low-luster metal.  But she
couldn't tell its function.

He left the door ajar and tried several others, all of which appeared
to enclose supply cabinets.  From the third, he pulled out a white lab
coat of a slightly odd design, shook it open and slipped his arms
nonchalantly through the sleeves.  Then he closed the opening with what
looked like a Velcro strip.

"Thanks.  I guess you could tell all that tanned skin and rippling
muscles were making me nervous," Casshe quipped in a conversational
tone.  At least there was one advantage to her situation.  She could
make any damn smart comment she wanted.

He answered in the language she didn't understand.  Maybe with his own
sarcastic rejoinder.

She couldn't take more of this.  Seized by an OVerwhelming need to
reach him on some meaningful level, she thumped her chest.

"My name is Cassie.  Cassie Devereaux.

Maybe we can start with that.  "

He raised an eyebrow.

She realized she'd said too much.

"I'm Cassie," she repeated and pointed to herself again.

"Cassie."

"Cassie?"

On his lips, the syllables were warm and richly exotic.

She nodded.

He tried it out again, looking pleased.

"Cassie Devereax."

"Yes.  And you?"  She pointed toward him.  He hesitated for a moment.

"Thorn."

"Thorn what?"

"ThOrn."

"All right," she conceded.

"It's just Thorn."

"At~LmOHT.  It's just Thorn," he parroted back.  He had no
understanding of what he was saying.  Except for his name, he thought
with frustration.  He was a trained linguist, but he didn't know what
tongue she was trying to teach him.  It didn't have any root he could
identify, but at least shades of meaning didn't seem to depend on
guttural clicks.  The stresses were unusual, however, and he was having
trouble wrapping his mouth around the unfamiliar j sounds.  And the
grammar eluded him.

Cassie was waiting.  Watching.  For an unguarded moment, he wanted to
touch her again, feel the incredible softness of her cheek, her lips,
lose himself in the honesty of physical sensations.

As he focused on her face, he had the strong con- vicfion he'd met her
before.  Or had he only dreamed of her?  When he tried to analyze the
thought, it evaporated like mist from the surface of a deep mountain
lake.

He didn't know who she was.  Or where she'd come from.  Or exactly
where they were playing out this drama.  And when.

The last observation sent an icy chill sweeping across his skin.

Panic threatened to engulf him.  Underlying it was a profound sadness.
He stifled both emotions with the force of his will.

The woman's eyes continued to question him.  Before he started shouting
out answers, he turned and strode toward the grooming alcove.  Stepping
across the threshold, he slammed the barrier behind him, hoping the
mores of her culture would respect his privacy.  After using the
facilities, he leaned over the washing basin and splashed cold water on
his face.  His reflection in the three-dimensional mirror mocked him.

He looked sick.

That was the cue for a wave of nausea to rise in his throat.  Swaying
over the basin, he grasped the cold metal and retched up stomach acid.
Grimacing, he opened a compartment and pulled out a tube of mouth
refresher.

The spicy flavor swept away the nasty taste and made him feel a little
better, but he knew the reprieve might be temporary.  He'd been running
on adrenaline, reacting from moment to moment since he stepped out of
the delta cylinder--and his energy reserves were just about drained.

Dizzy, Thorn gripped the edge of the basin and forced himself to tee
all his last memories.  They were from yesterday evening.  Lodar and
Damot arriving at his quarters to continue the argument they'd been
having for weeks.  He remembered the older man coming up behind him and
then a stinging sensation in his shoulder.  The rest was a blur. Except
for the part where Lodar was leaning over him, his face very
close--telling him he was going to get what he de- seNed.

A cold sweat beaded his forehead.

"He risked another look in the mirror and saw his skin was the color of
moldy mush.

It was the symptom his fuzzy brain had been unconsciously searching
for.  His system was going into a toxic reaction to the delta capsule.
He'd seen it happen a couple of times after inadequate preparation.  If
he didn't get some ribenazine in the next few minutes, he was going to
be on the floor, kicking and screaming and wishing he were dead.  He
wouldn't have long to wait.  The next phases were irreversible coma and
death.

As he lurched out of the grooming alcove, the woman looked at him in
alarm and asked an urgent question he couldn't comprehend.

Sparing her a quick arm gesture, he commanded himself to stay conscious
a few minutes longer as he staggered.  across the room to the cabinet
marked with the symbol for healing.  Inside he rummaged through small
vials of liquid until his fingers closed around the one he needed. 
With fingers that felt thick and clumsy, he pulled at the seal.  Too
late. His formidable will lost the battle with his body and he crumpled
to the floor.

Chapter Two

In seconds Cassie was across the room and kneeling beside him.

Thor Ill He didn't answer.

She looked from him to the cupboard.  It was filled with small bottles
and boxes of various sizes, none of which was familiar.

Frantically she knelt beside him and turned him on his back.

He'd looked ill .  Perhaps he'd been after some medication.  But as far
as she could see, he'd passed out before he could take anything.

The greenish cast of his skin was frightening.  When she touched him,
she found his flesh cold and clammy.

The pulse in his neck was thready, his breathing labored.  And a few
minutes ago she'd heard him retching.

He needed a doctor, but she was the only help he was going to get.

She'd seen him grab up a small bottle just before he lost
consciousness.  Lifting his hand, she pried the stiff fingers open and
removed a vial of blue liquid.  Would the contents cure him?  Or kill
him?

She shuddered as another disturbing thought struck her.  Was this a
sudden.  attack of some contagious illness?

Was that why he'd been isolated in this place?  Willing the ungenerous
questions out of her mind, she concentrated on Thorn.  How was she
supposed to know what to do for him?

He'd been lying quietly on the stone floor.  All at once his face
contorted in pain, and he thrashed his arms and legs like a drowning
man.  Cassie grimaced at the agony etched into his features.

He cried out--two distinct words she didn't understand, repeating them
several times.

"Reah.  Januk."

Then the thrashing grew more violent, racking him with frightening
spasms that lool~ed as if they would tear muscles and tendons.

"What should I do?"  she begged.

Agony contorted his features.  The spasms came hard and fast, one
barely ending before the next one began.

His body wrenched, lifting him momentarily off the floor.  He screamed,
and his heels drummed.  It was getting worse.  Cassie sensed that
whatever was wrong was going to kill him in a matter of minutes.

Swiftly making a decision, she pulled the seal off the bottle he'd been
holding.  Prying his jaw open with one hand, she tipped the vial to his
lips with the other.  With agonizing slowness, the liquid dribbled into
his mouth.  He grimaced.

"Swallow it.  Please swallow it."  She waited tensely, all her senses
tuned toward Thorn.  Finally, he did.

"Thank you," she breathed.  Now she could only wait and watch for some
sign that she'd done the right thing.

His body still shook with spasms.  Aching to do something more to help
him--anything--she pressed her torso against his and held his arms at
his sides, trying to make sure that he didn't hurt himself.  Although
he was the patient and she the care giver, the physical contact was
strangely comforting.  Groping for his hands, she laced her fingers
with his, and lay with her eyes closed, willing the viscous liquid to.
do its work.

She didn't know him, nor could she fathom what he was doing in this
strange place.  She couldn't even hold a meaningful conversation with
him, for heaven's sake.  But she felt that some kind of inexplicable
bond had formed between them.  At least that was the only way she could
explain the terror that had overwhelmed her when he'd fallen to the
floor.  By slow degrees she realized that the spasms were quieting, and
the beat of his heart was growing stronger and more regular.  For
several more heartbeats, she kept her cheek pressed against his
powerful chest.  Then she raised her head.  The agony on his face was
only a shadow of remembered pain.

Cassie hovered over him, one of his large hands still clenched in hers.
Finally he sighed and lay quiet like a swimmer who had finally pulled
himself onto shore after a long, exhausting race.

"Thank God," she murmured.

His lids fluttered.  HIS lips moved.  And she sensed that he was making
a t~emendous effort to struggle toward consciousness.  Hardly daring to
breathe, she watched his face.

His lids opened, and those startling blue eyes focused on her.  Almost
immediately, they registered surprise, then the same vulnerability
she'd seen when he first came out of the transparent chamber.

"You're going to be fine," she told him, hoping her voice conveyed her
meaning.

He tried to say something.

"No.  You're too weak Just sleep," she murmured.

"We'll talk later."

Somehow.

His lids drifted closed.  After a few moments, he appeared to sink into
a normal sleep.  She found blankets of some synthetic material in the
supply cabinet and made him a bed.

Then, with an unsettled feeling, she looked down at him.  What was it
about this stranger that brought out such tender feelings.  ~ Usually
she kept men at a distance.  She'd learned not to get involved because
she knew that the minute you let someone get close, you gave them the
power to hurt you.

This was only a response to a fellow human being in need, she told
herself.  But she didn't really believe that.  And the admission was
frightening.  Silently, she backed away from Thorn.  Now that the
emergency was over, she'd better find a way out of this place.  Behind
the capsule where he'd first been standing were the computers she'd
seen when she'd first entered the facility.

She squinted at the equipment.

The design was sleek and streamlined, obviously highly advanced models,
but she'd used a variety of computers--both at the State Depathnent and
at the travel agency.

Perhaps she could boot one of these.  If it was connected to a modem,
escape from this place could be as simple as a phone call.

Sitting down in a gray contour chair, she stared at the machine.

There was a flat, glassy-looking screen

embedded in a raised panel, but no keyboard.  Was the system voice
activated?

"Computer," she called out the way the crew did on the starship
Enterprise.

Nothing.  happened, and she felt ridiculous.  Maybe the keyboard would
light up if she touched the desk.

The moment her hand connected with the machine, a bolt of electricity
shot from the surface.  It crackled over her skin and zinged like a
burst of lightning through her whole body, making her gasp in pain.

Slumping in the chair, she cradled her hand against her chest.  After
several moments, she was left feeling weak and shaky.  Holding out her
hand, she stared from her reddened flesh to the desk and back again.

So much for communicating with the outside world.  She wasn't going to
risk a shock like that again.

The hair on the top of her head prickled as if a secret door had opened
to the underworld, and a cold breeze was blowing toward her.  Until
now, she'd thought of this installation as odd.  Strange.  A mystery as
intriguing as its naked occupant.  But the situation had taken another
twist.  She'd just learned that this hidden place was dangerous as well
as strange.  And perhaps deadly.

HALFWAY Aaround the world, Zeke Chambers leaned back in his rickety
chair and finished the last of the strong, sweet coffee.  His gray eyes
scanned the view of unspoiled mountains against a crystal blue sky. The
peaceful scene was deceiving.  Yesterday at sunset, a small homemade
bomb had ripped through the entrance to the cave his international team
was excavating, turning the orderly dig site into chaos.  Luckily, no
one had died, and the structural damage was minimal.  But two workers
had been sent to the local physician, and the team's schedule was set
back several days until the debris could be cleared.

Like the rest of his colleagues, Zeke had a tent at the site.  But last
night he'd slept in a real--if somewhat lumpy--bed in the village inn
and treated himself to a hot shower.

From his table at an outdoor cafe, he could see men and women making
their way with carts and baskets to the market down the street where
horse drawn wagons full of vegetables and wares competed with small
European cars for the parking spots along the main street.  Had one of
the innocent-looking villagers been responsible for the bombing?  And
why?

Zeke sighed.  When Victor Kirkland at the State D~p.  apartment had
helped him get this "plum assign merit the man had neglected to mention
it might also' be dangerous.

"Zesto card?"  a young waitress interrupted his thoughts:

"No, I'm fine," he answered in her language.  Zeke popped a last bite
of nut-and-cinnamon pastry into his mouth and wiped his sticky fingers
on a cloth napkin before turning back to his laptop computer.

He could afford his own top-of-the-line equipment.  In fact, the trust
fund he'd come into three years ago when he'd turned thirty provided
enough income for him to take any job he wanted--or not work at all if
he chose.  After an extended sabbatical last year, he'd found he was as
happy backpacking through Europe as teaching anthropological
linguistics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

With the hunt-and-peck style he'd developed to accommodate the dozens
of foreign-language keyboards and word-processing programs he had to
use, Zeke keyed in a few more lines to his log entry from the day
before.

"Explosion at cave site under investigation.  Could be local protestors
who think we're going to cart off their national treasures.  Or grave
robbers trying to beat us to the punch.  Should resume work by tomorrow
afternoon."

"Good morning, Professor Chambers.  May I join you?"  a deferential
voice inquired.

Zeke glanced up to see Dr.  Feydor Lenov standing beside the table.

The bearded Russian archeologist, a late addition to the team, had
flown in several days before.

"Have a seat."  Zeke saved his file, then popped the black disk from
the laptop onto the tablecloth.

The Russian heaved his considerable bulk into a chair, and Zeke waited
to see if it Would take his weight.  It did.  He'd heard the man had
been a competitive weight lifter in his youth.

After ordering coffee, Lenov leaned across the table and lowered his
voice.

"Heard anything more about the bombing?"

"Not much, except we can get back to work tomorrow."

"Well, I should hope so.  I didn't come here to twiddle my thumbs.

Montague will be hopping mad about the delay.  "

Zeke raised an eyebrow.

"You've met our sponsor?"

"Once, several years ago at an exhibit in Paris, we exchanged a few
words.  He likes antiquities better than people."  Lenov's accent
sounded midwestern.  Zeke wondered if he'd learned his English in the
States or in a KGB training class.

"Looking for something particular at the site?"

The Russian's answer was drowned out by the sound of an altercation at
a neighboring table.  Scraping his chair on the stone floor, he moved
closer to Zeke and away from the ruckus.

The men who'd been arguing suddenly began trading punches.  A table
overturned, and customers scattered like frightened mice.  Zeke grabbed
his computer and jumped out of the way.  For a large man, Lenov moved
just as fast, dodging as one of the combatants fell across their table.
With an angry look, the fighter pulled himself up.  But his assailant
had hightailed it down the street.  Shouting insults, the injured party
followed.

Zeke shook his head.  His wonder at the volatile local temperament
turned to paranoia as he righted the table and searched the floor.  His
disk had vanished.

As CAssie Cradled her injured hand in her lap, she swiveled her chair
toward the door where she'd entered.

It was still wide open.  For a wild moment she pictured herself dashing
down the tunnel and into the cave of snow.  She wanted to get away from
this place.  More than that, she wanted to get away from the man
sleeping on the floor before he woke up and something else happened.

What?

She'd never felt so off balance.  Or so open to possibilities.  The
combination left her feeling breathless.

Yet escape was not an option.  She'd simply be right back where she'd
started a few hours ago.  Trapped under an avalanche.

So whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to stay here and
cope.  With the mysterious environment.

With its even more mysterious occupant.  Thorn .

Cassie licked her dry lips.  Was he the enemy?  All at once she
remembered a weird situation she'd walked into back in college.  She'd
been in the almost empty library during Christmas vacation because she
was trying to get an extra-credit paper finished.  Two male students
had come up to the soda machine while she was taking a break.  One was
wearing scruffy jeans and a T-shirt with holes.  The other sported an
expensive sweater and stone-washed Calvins.

After they left, a guy who'd been watching from the corner sidled up
and started asking a bunch of questions about which of the previous
pair she thought was more likely to succeed in college.

She'd thought the questions odd and started to leave.  He'd begged her
to help him out because he was doing an experiment for a psychology
class on worn- en's expectations of men based on their clothing.

Cassie had gotten away as quickly as she could.  In a lot of ways, this
setup felt similar.  She could almost imagine a team of scientists
watching the action on television and scoring her responses on a scale
from one to ten.  How would she react to the naked man?  What would she
do when she discovered they couldn't communicate?  What about when it
looked as if he was dying?

Cassie sat up straighter.

"Okay.  I've figured it out.  The experiment's over," she said to
the-room.

"You can let me go home."

No speaker crackled to life.  No doors opened, and her mouth firmed in
disappointment.  It was followed at once by an ironic little laugh. She
hadn't really expected a response, had she?  She hoped she wasn't that
far gone.

This wasn't a case of getting trapped in the college library by a dorky
grad student trawling for victims.

She'd been caught in an avalanche and almost died.  Her guide was
probably under a ton of snow.

And there was one more factor she'd been trying not to think about.

Her own compulsion to come here.

She shivered.  She'd pulled strings to get this assignment-fought for
it in ways that were completely out of character for her.  And ever
since she'd arrived, she'd had a sense she was fulfilling a destiny
written in the stars long ago.

Nonsense, she told herself.

Standing too quickly, she reached to steady herself against the desk.

At the last second she cursed and pulled her hand from harm's way,
taking a step back.  Automatically she glanced at Thorn to see if he'd
heard.  Then she cursed again at the double stupidity.  He was out
cold.  Even if he could hear, he wouldn't understand.

She grimaced.  Every way she twisted and turned in this bizarre place,
she came up against a new problem.

She didn't like having no control.  And she didn't like waiting for
someone to wake up and tell her which machines were safe to touch.
Particularly a man.  Her father had made damn sure of that.

Unable to stand still while her mind spun in circles, Cassie stomped
toward the room where Thorn had closeted himself before rushing to grab
the medicine bottle.  She'd heard water running while he was inside.

Odds were it was a kitchen or a bathroom.  But after crossing the
threshold, she stopped short.

It took a moment to orient herself.  There was a funnel-shaped object
coming out of the floor.  A toilet?

She peered into the hole.  No water.  And no flushing mechanism.

What might be a sink was a shallow trough jutting out of the wall.

Then she caught a glance at her reflection in the mirror above it.
Instead of being flat, the image was three-dimensional.

She stood very still and pressed her fingers against the surface.  It
felt hard and flat Yet the rectangle displayed her head and shoulders
as if she were looking at a brilliantly clear holographic image.  Eyes
wide, she swung from side to side, noting that she could practically
see the back of her head--as well as every imperfection in her skin.

Who would go to the trouble of using advanced holographic technology on
a bathroom mirror, Casshe wondered as she gazed at the startling image.
With a shrug she looked for water taps.  There were none.  But when she
brought her hand over the trough, water sprayed from hidden nozzles in
the wall.  It was warm.  With a little experimentation, she found that
by bringing her hand closer to the wall or moving it farther away, she
could adjust the temperature.  What looked like decorative columns
above the sink turned out to be two stacks of lightweight tumblers
fitted into grooves in the wall.  Cassie filled a glass and took a
cautious sip.  To her pleasure, the water tasted as if it had come from
a crystal-clear mountain stream.  We!  " at least that was something.

"So who designed this place?"  she' asked her unconscious companion as
she emerged again.

"Is the Defense Depa,baient using it to test advanced technologies? Axe
you training for an invasion of Mars?

Or is this like in World War II when they used Native American
languages as a communications code?  Is that your background?  "

She looked inquiringly at the slant of his closed eyes and the copper
color of his skin.

"No answers?  What a surprise."

However, he stirred restlessly in his sleep, his mouth drawn as if in
pain.

Instantly she was contrite.  He wasn't responsible for what had
happened to her.  In fact, he'd seemed as confounded by the situation
as she.

"I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to disturb you."  Kneeling beside him, she
smoothed back the straight black hair that had fallen across h~
forehead.  Not a military haircut, she noted absently as she fingered
the strands.  They were surprisingly silky.

She should stop touching him.  Yet she craved the contact.  It was
because they were trapped here together, she told herself.  Because he
was the only other person in this alien place and they needed each
other to survive.  Yet she knew that didn't fully explain the tightness
in her throat.  The worry.  The fear of loss.

She felt those things for this man called Thorn, whether she admitted
it or not.

Her gaze took in more details.  His lashes were even darker than his
hair.  His features spoke of maturity, yet his skin was almost unlined,
except around his eyes.  Awake, he'd been forceful, antagonistic,
even

harsh.  Sleeping, he looked peaceful.  And defenseless.  She couldn't
stop herself from gently touching his lips.

They moved against her fingers, responding to the intimate contact, and
the movement sent a little shiver up her arm.

Cassie pulled her hand away, yet she didn't want to sever the human
contact.  Flattening her fingers against his chest, she felt his
heartbeat once more.  The rhythm was.  sure and steady.  His breathing
was normal.

Abandoning medical observations, she slipped inside the front closing
of his coat and stroked her fingers through the thick hair of his
chest.

"You're in trouble, aren't you?"  she whispered.

"We're both in trouble.  Are you going to tell me about it?"

Cassie hardly expected an answer.  She certainly didn't expect Thorn's
hand to cover hers.  But it did.

Her gaze shot to his face.  His blue eyes were open, and he was staring
at her with a look of mingled wonder and wariness.

THORN REMEMBERED every detail of the few minutes he'd spent with this
woman--starting with the moment he'd stepped out of the delta capsule.
Things had happened quickly.

Too quickly.  Ending with long, agonizing seconds when he'd known he
was going to die, and he'd called out to the two people who mattered
most to him.  His heart squeezed painfully, and he pushed their images
away.  If he started thinking about what might have happened to Reah
and Ja- nuk, he'd go insane.

So he focused every particle of his attention on the woman who crouched
over him.  She'd saved his life by getting the ribenazine into him.

Why?  Had she been acting under Lodar's instructions to make the
captive drop his defenses by saving his life?  Perhaps he was being too
cynical.  Whatever her goal, he sensed the tension radiating from her
in almost palpable waves.  Of course, she had good reason to be afraid.
Of him.  Of this place.  Either she was playing a very dangerous game
or she'd stumbled into a situation completely beyond her ken.

He sat up and leaned against the supply cabinet, wincing at the stab of
pain that felt like a nail being driven into his forehead.  When he
tried to get to his feet, the woman put a restraining hand on his
shoulder.

"No."

It wasn't difficult to guess the meaning of the short syllable she
uttered.  It was more than a polite suggestion-it was an order.

With an inward sigh, he conceded the point.  Relaxing as best he could,
he looked at her inquiringly.  She met his gaze steadily, a bold move
for a native woman.  If that's what she was.

He studied her face.  She was very beautiful, with gently wavy hair the
color of warm light cast by an oil lamp.  It went well with the
alabaster skin that bloomed with a hint of pink over her high
cheekbones in response to his scrutiny.  His gaze was drown to her
clear emerald eyes that at first glance seemed a little too large. They
were just the opposite of her nose.  It was small and delicate and
entirely feminine.  As feminine as the gentle curve of her mouth.  He'd
never seen anyone like her before.  Anywhere.

He took the hand from his shoulder and looked at the back.  Her fingers
were long, tapered, smooth-and strong, he added, ~emembering her grip
on his jaw

when she'd been trying to get the medicine into him.  Her nails v, ere
rounded and buffed.  No, he amended as he smoothed his thumb across
their surface.  They were coated with a shiny, transparent substance
he'd never seen before.

She shivered under his touch, but didn't draw away or lower her eyes.

"Ah, you are very bold, Cassie," he said in his own tongue, wishing she
could grasp his meaning, wishing he could gauge her reaction.

She responded to her name with a tiny twitch of her lips.  He pushed
her a little further, shifting his grip to find her pulse.  The beats
accelerated.

She remained very still, trying wordlessly to convey the impression
that she wasn't afraid of him.  He knew from her shallow breathing and
her pounding heart that it was a lie.

Yet he kept coming back to the central truth of their short
acquaintance.  She'd saved his life when she could have left him
convulsing on the floor.

He'd give a lot to know her real motives.  Since he could hardly
conduct an interrogation, he cataloged other observations.  He could
tell a lot from her hand, for example.

And from the way she took care of her hair and face.  She looked no
more than twenty.  Yet she was wise beyond those years.  She was from
the ruling class.  Perhaps even royalty, because she'd never done
manual labor.  She was from a land far away from the one where he'd
been assigned, since she hadn't been raised to defer to his people.  In
fact, she seemed to have no idea of his status.

He turned her hand over and saw a red circle on her index finger that
looked like a recent burn.

When he gave it the barest touch, she winced.

"What happened?"  he asked in his own language, accompanying the
question with a raised eyebrow that he hoped would help convey his
meaning.

She caught on immediately.  Scrambling up, she crossed the room and
pointed to one of the data analyzer terminals, waving her arms and
spouting a long string of words that meant nothing.  When he looked
perplexed, she strode into the grooming alcove and emerged with one of
the drinking goblets.

Was she going to pour water on the delicate equipment?  That was all he
needed.

"No," he ordered, using one of the few words he'd learned of her
language.

Ignoring him, she tossed the vessel at the machine and jumped back.

When the missile hit, an electrical discharge sizzled like a bolt of
lightning.

"Klat!"  The curse was wrung from him in anger-and surprise.

"That is how you got burned?"  he asked in his own tongue, frustrated
that he couldn't get an answer.  What he wouldn't give for a language
decoder.

She responded with a sigh and a question of her own, part words, part
pantomime.  She pointed to him, pretended to touch the equipment and
made a sound like an explosion, "Boom!"

It was accompanied by appropriate hand gestures, the performance very
telling.  She was asking if the same thing would happen to him.

He shrugged.

"Ask Lodar."  Even as he made the suggestion, he felt a mixture of
anger and apprehension stir inside him.  Teeth clamped together, be
PUshed himself off the floor and discovered his muscles felt like
pudding.  Before he'd taken two shaky steps, Cas- sic was at his side,
holding him back.  He was chagrined to discover that at the moment she
had more strength than he.

Obviously he was in worse shape than he'd realized.

He saw her eyes were round with worry.  That, as much as her
restraining hands, stopped him from crossing the room.  He wasn't used
to anyone caring so passionately about what happened to him.  Bemused,
he reversed his course.  But before sitting down on the makeshift bed,
he found a packet of regenerating salve in the healing cabinet.

"Come here," he said quietly, accompanying the order with a hand
gesture.

Hesitantly she sat beside him.

"Let me fix your hand."  Although she couldn't understand, it was
strangely calming to simply talk to her.

He opened the packet of salve and rubbed a LITTLE on the back of his
own hand to show her it was all right.

Then he reached for hers.  Careful of the burned flesh, he spread the
ointment on her wound.

He saw her draw in a quick breath.  Saw her let it out in a soft sigh
as the salve began to soothe.

She stared down at her injured skin, watching the red color fade.

Then she raised wide, questioning eyes to his.

He shrugged and squeezed her fingers.  For long moments, she sat with
her hand in his.  They couldn't talk, yet words were hardly necessa~
now.  He was content to be simply with her like this for hours, the
innocent contact like a healing balm.  Languid warmth stole over him.

She started to lean on his shoulder.  Then her head jerked up, and the
rosy flush he liked so much spread across her cheeks.  So she'd felt
the closeness, too.  And it made her skittish.

She blinked, her face changing from guileless to guarded.  Scrambling
up, she darted across the room, picked up a blue carry bag and brought
it over.  When she returned, she sat an arm's length from him and began
to rummage inside.  With a little grin, she pulled out a small
leather-covered book and what looked like a writing instrument.
Fascinated, he waited to find out what she had in mind--besides putting
some distance between them.

She opened the book and passed it to him.  The pages were covered with
unintelligible symbols.  The only things he knew for sure was that her
people had a well-developed written language that used an alphabet
rather than ideograms.  And that her handwriting was precise.

He shrugged.

She found an unused sheet and drew two people.  One had a parody of his
face.  The other had longer hair and two half circles to indicate
breasts.  She~ pointed to the first one.

"Thorn."

He beat her to the punch and pointed to the other.

"Cassie."

She nodded, obviously pleased.  Underneath, she carefully wrote a
string of the symbols he'd seen on the previous pages.

"Cassie," she pronounced as he studied the configuration, noting double
consonant in the middle.

When he pointed to each symbol, she gave him the phonetic sound.

"Kaa-see."  They repeated the process for Thorn.

He sighed.  In a couple of weeks, they might get somewhere with
this.

By that time they might both be dead.

She pointed to him and grimaced, her face showing pain, her shoulders
sagging in weariness.  She used a word he'd heard her sa3/just before
he'd fallen asleep.

"Thorn weak."

"Weak," he repeated in her language, wishing he could pretend he hadn't
comprehended the meaning.

Sick and vulnerable.  Lacking strength.  They were probably all good
approximations.  He scowled at her.

She looked apologetic, as if she knew how much he hated the
observation.  A timid woman would have backed off.  Instead, she
followed with a drawing of the Thorn figure lying on a bed, his eyes
closed.

"Thorn... needs... sleep."

The next picture showed Thorn standing straight and tall.  She drew him
again, sitting at the analyzer and walking through a door.  Pausing,
she took her lip between her teeth.  Then at the top of the page she
drew a circle with wavy lines radiating from the ri meter

He studied the sketch, 'and his chest tightened as he deciphered the
pictogram.  She'd drawn an almost universal symbol--a sun.  He pointed
toward the sky, tipped his face up and closed his eyes, pretending to
bask in pleasant warmth.

She nodded eagerly.

"Sun," she supplied and began speaking rapidly.

He put up a hand to stop her.  He didn't know the meaning of the words
flowing from her, but he understood she thought he'd be smart to get
some sleep before exploring this place.  With a s'~a, he crossed his
legs at the ankles and inclined his head toward the cabinet of healing
supplies.  Inside were several vari eries of cutaneous patches he could
use.  One would put him into a deep, mending sleep for several hours.
The prospect was tempting.  If he'd been alone, he wouldn't have
hesitated to use it.  But he couldn't~ risk being out of commission
while his companion's motives were still in doubt.

Her green eyes regarded him solemnly.  This time he was the one who
broke the contact.  He longed to trust her.  Longed to give in to the
conviction that they were in this together.  But he'd be a fool to act
from such weakness.  He looked toward the cabinet again.  A different
patch would put his system in overdrive.

But he couldn't go that route, either, since the dose had to be
strictly rationed.  If he took a stimulant jolt now, he wouldn't have
the option of using it later when he might need it more.

Thorn sighed.  He'd find out soon enough what nasty surprises Lodar had
left for him.  For all he knew, there might even be an army outside,
waiting patiently for him to stick his head out the door.
Unfortunately, he was in no shape to take them on yet.  Or maybe his
present problems had nothing to do with the man he'd been foolish
enough to provoke.  Maybe the installation where he'd awakened was
simply falling apart.

Because?  An answer popped into his mind.  He felt the walls closing in
on him, and for several heartbeats he fought sheer, blinding terror.
Then he drew on the inner reserves that had gotten him this far.  There
was no use getting worked up about how bad his situation might be.

His thoughts retreated to a safer venue.  He'd take Cassie's
advice--because it was the smartest course.

For tonight the best thing to do was concentrate on getting his
~tmngth back.  And while he was at it, he'd see what he could tease out
of this woman who was so warm and close with him one moment and so
skittish the next.

Chapter Three

Zeke roared down a gravel road on his rented Harley Davidson The
countryside sped by in a blur of dark green trees, pink and yellow
wildflowers and gray rocky hills.  But his mind wasn't on the scenery.
This morning, after the incident with the stolen disk, he'd nosed
around the cafe and the market trying to get a lead on the men who'd
started the fight.  Either they were outsiders, or the locals weren't
talking.

After steering the powerful bike off the road onto a rutted dirt path,
he had to slow his speed to dodge a pothole that would have swallowed a
tank.  Around the next bend, he came to a sun-dappled clearing
dominated by a mammoth granite boulder.  For more than a thousand
years, it had covered the mouth of a limestone cave.  But infrared
satellite analysis had yielded the secret of the interior, and
reclusive billionaire Jacques Montague had quickly put together a team
to explore the site.

A dozen small tents surrounded a large one that served as both dining
hall and artifact repository.  The living conditions in camp were
Spartan, not that much different from a dozen other under funded sites
Zeke had worked.  But Montague had supplied some pretty

sophisticated equipment--everything from heavy construction machinery
to a portable cellular communications system.  There were all sorts of
ramors about the man.  According to one, he had a terminal illness and
was determined to find something as important as the Dead Sea Scrolls
before he died.  Even Victor Kirkland from the State Department had
only sketchy information about their eccentric sponsor.

The dig was usually bustling with activity.  Today, it was quiet since
few of the dig team had gotten back from town.  Marie Pindel, the team
leader, was hurrying toward the cave.

Zeke pulled up beside her and cut the engine.  She gave him a startled
look.  With her cap of dyed copper hair and large eyes, the petite
Frenchwoman looked more like a fashion model in her designer jeans and
knit top than a forty-seven-year-old anthropologist with two
controversial best-sellers and three grandchildren to her credit.

"I didn't expect you back so soon," she said.

"I was just going over to survey the damage.  The local police have
finally packed up their little meters and magnifying glasses and
decided we won't embarrass them by dying of carbon monoxide poisoning."
She shrugged ~xpressively.

"As if we didn't have equipment ten times as sensitive as theirs."

Zeke unsnapped his helmet.

"You're breaking your own role about going in alone?"

"I won't have to, now that you're here.  Let's go take a look," she
called over her shoulder as she took off again.

Grabbing his tool pack from the motorcycle's carry case, Zeke trotted
after her to the cave entrance.  As always, it was a tight squeeze
through the narrow opening for his six-foot-three, one-hundred-ninety
pound frame, and he had to take it sideways all the way to the main
chamber where they'd been working.  While Marie adjusted the battery
lantern and checked the air quality, Zeke trained a high-powered
flashlight on the damage from the homemade bomb.

He grimaced as the beam played over the stone walls in the far corner
of the gallery where only two days before he'd been transcribing
picture script.  Now much of the stone engraving had been obliterated
by the blast.  But that wasn't the worst.  A burial pit, which had
yielded a decorative vase, a curved plow called a crook and and several
smaller tools forged from iron had evidently taken the brant of the
explosive.

It was now black ash and rabble.  Marie's eyes flashed with anger.

"How could anyone do such a thing?"

"Who knows?"  Zeke muttered.

"At least we rescued some of the artifacts before the blast.  And I'll
be able to work with the low light exposures of the wall script and the
notes I've transcribed."  Disgustedly, he stepped closer to the marred
stone.  The light beam caught on a crack that ran from floor to ceding.
Had the explosion caused that, too?

Starting at the bottom and moving upward, he felt along the break.  It
seemed solid.  Relieved, he stepped back and inspected the surface
again.  The beam played down the limestone and up again, illuminating a
strange mark a good foot above his head.  At first, he thought it was
residue from the blast.  On closer inspection, he could almost make out
a faint imprint.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?"  Marie asked.

"I don't know."  Stretching, he pressed his palm against it.  The stone
seemed to warm.  They both

gasped as the hard rock split along a six-foot seam to reveal a small
room no bigger than a walk-in closet.

"My God!"  Zeke exclaimed as the flashlight illuminated the space
inside.  A large, finely engraved bronze box sat on a pottery tile on'
the floor.  Marie was by his side in an instant.

"The explosion must have broken the seal on a hidden tomb."  His pulse
raced with excitement.  Gently, as if working with the most delicate
glass, he felt over the surface of the box until his fingers found a
hidden latch.  Inside were several perfectly preserved panels covered
with writing.

"Well, I'll be dan reed

Marie leaned over his shoulder, shining the light directly on the
script.

"Can you tell what it is?"

Being careful not to touch the material, he studied the characters.

One panel resembled ancient Greek script, yet it appeared to be another
language altogether.  There was a picture, too.  A naked man in a
strange-looking capsule.

Tentatively he touched the surface.

"This doesn't make sense," he told Marie.

"Feel the covering.  It's almost like plastic."

She touched the panel and nodded.

"As far as I know, no one from the ninth century B.c. had anything like
this.  You think it's a fake?"  she asked.

"Do you?"

"I want you to check it out before we tell the others.  We might be
sitting on the most important discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Or..."

"Someone could be playing a very nasty joke," she finished for him.

To HER E~SMEhrr, Cassie's stomach growled.  Thorn said something in his
own language and made eating motions.

She nodded.

"I suppose there's a kitchen somewhere around here," she said in an
artificially chipper tone.

"But it may not have anything I'd recognize as a stove.  And even if
you're willing to do the cooking, the equipment could explode in your
face when you touch the controls.

So why don't I dig into my emergency supplies?  "

Thorn leaned back and watched her, apparently very interested in what
she intended to do.

The scrutiny made her feel self-conscious, and she lowered her eyes.

She was coming to realize that in the confines of this room, the
simplest actions had monumental meaning.

Each thing she and Thorn experienced together was fresh and new.  An
adventure.  A clue to understand each other.  And more.  A strand of
the growing bond tying them to each other.  Part of her was wary.  The
way she'd always been.  Part of her longed to get closer to this man.

Ducking her head, she pulled some packets of dehydrated soup from her
knapsack and handed them to Thorn.  He shook them, listened to the dry
grains rattle inside and shrugged.

"Just add hot water and you've got a meal in a bowl," she announced,
imitating a TV commercial.  It was so much easier to make silly
conversation he couldn't understand than to cope with the confusion she
felt.

In the bathroom, she filled two cups with hot water.  When she brought
them back, she found Thorn had torn open one of the envelopes.

After sniffing the contents, he dipped a finger inside and caatiously
brought a bit of the dry mix to his tongue.

He made a face, then looked on with interest as she added the mix to
the water and stirred with a plastic spoon.

"Chicken soup," she informed him as she looked at her watch.

"Good for what ails you."

He took her wrist and examined the timepiece as if he'd never seen
anything like it.  She pointed to the second hand, made a circle around
the watch face and held up three fingers.

"It'll be done in a jiffy."

Apparently more interested in the instrument than her scintillating
commentary, he slipped the expansion band over her wrist.

After studying the face, he grabbed her pencil and notebook and copied
the numbers from the dial to a clean sheet of paper, writing them in a
line across the pages As he pointed to each, she gave him the name.

"One, two, three, four..."  Up to twelve.

' He held up his fists and began to raise one finger at a time,
reciting, "One, two, three, four, five..."

"Yes!"  she exclaimed.

He went through the ten fingers and examined his hands like a magician
who's just made a coin disappear.

"Eleven?  Twelve?"

"Hmm," she mused.

"I guess I never thought about it.  Our number system is based on ten.
But the day is divided into twenty-four hours."  Taking the peneft she
drew a circle and bisected it.

On the right she drew the sun; on the left, a ere scent moon.  Then she
marked off twelve divisions on each side.

When she looked at Thorn expectantly he nodded and pointed to the
numbers on the watch.

"Right.  Twelve hours in a day."  She tapped the sun.

"And twelve hours in a night."  She tapped the moon.

"Give or take variations for summer and winter, of coUrs~.  His face
was a study in concentration.

"Understand?"  she asked.

"Understand," he repeated, nodding vigorously.

"Good."

Snatching up the notebook, he flipped back several pages to the third
drawing she'd made.  Thorn lying in bed.  Eyes closed.

"Thorn ... sleep... night," he said slowly but distinctly.

A shiver went through her.  He'd put together enough words to make a
sentence in a language he'd never heard before today.  Was he a genius
or a trained linguist?

"My God.  Yes," she whispered.

He looked pleased with himself.  And eager for more.

"Okay.  Try this."  She wrote, "2 + 2 = 4" and handed over the
notebook.

He countered with "2 + 3 = 5."

For the first time s'mee she'd bumbled into never- never land, Cassie
forgot to worry about her predicament.

Instead, she was totally focused on Thorn.  It was as if a door had
opened between them.  She was reaching him on a new level of
understanding, and she wanted to go even further.

Cassie had no idea how long they sat there, close together, going over
more complex concepts.  But she did realize that he hadn't taken his
eyes off her; she felt her cheeks grow warm.  For the last while he was
looking at her differently, and she knew that in some

subtle way his opinion of her had changed.  She picked up her cup and
took a swallow.  Then she gestured toward Thorn's.

"Eat your chicken soup," she urged.

He nodded and sipped cautiously.

"Well?  Good?  Bad?  Okay?"  She accompanied each question with the
appropriate facial expression.

"Chicken soup ... okay."  He took several more swallows.  Then, putting
his cup down, he held out his hands in front of him, about two feet
apart.  Sawing the right one up and down he said, "Good."  For emphasis
he imitated her previous smiling face.  Then he repeated with "Bad."

She took another swallow as he turned the "good" hand up and slanted
her what she'd come to think of as his questioning look.  At the same
time, he moved his fingers in a gesture that appeared to indicate that
he wanted her to give him something.  What did he want?  Then it dawned
on her that in any well developed language, there should be a lot of
words for such important concepts as good and bad.

His eyes seemed to darken as he reached out and took her hand,
squeezing a little as if to encourage her.  "

His fingers were strong and warm.  Her throat was suddenly dry as he
shifted his grip to bring her palm in contact with his.  She fought to
keep from dropping her gaze or pulling away.

"Uh, nice..."  That was much too tepid for what she was feeling.

"Enjoyable ... pleasurable ... wonderful... sexy..."

Cassie flushed scarlet as she realized where the chain of associations
had taken her.  Her embarrassment increased as he solemnly gave her
back the words.  Damn his phenomenal memory.

She could picture him con53

gratulating her with a slap on the back and a hearty, "Sexy job."

More than that, she knew she'd given away too much.  And it didn't help
to tell herself that he hadn't understood the implications.  He'd
figure it out the way he was catching on to everything else~ She was
about to pick up her cup when he slipped his hand under her chin and
tipped her face toward his.

"I" -- She didn't know what she was going to say because he drove the
thought completely out of her mind by stroking her jaw line.  Her
breath caught in her' throat when his finger moved to her lips.
"Thorn..."

"Pleasurable.  wonderful.  sexy," he pronounced, giving the words
deeper meaning.

"Yes."  She sat very still as his fingers drifted to the side of her
neck, feeling her pulse.  It was already beating furiously.  At his
light touch, the tempo speeded up.

He held her gaze.  Held her captive as surely as if he'd slipped a
handcuff over her wrist and clicked the lock home.  She forgot to
breathe as his hand moved lower, brushing aside the front of her coat,
gliding over the knit fabric of her shirt, over the swell of her
breast.  Her nipples tightened.  And she knew he felt it.

By the catch in his throat, by the way his blue eyes He stroked her,
murmuring something she couldn't understand--but his voice sent an
erotic current shooting through her body.  For a yearning moment she
swayed toward him, yielding to the physical contact and something more
elemental.  Deep in her subconscious, she felt as if this kind of
touching, this

 response, had happened between them before.  That they were renewing
a previous and very intimate acquaintance.

Then she caught herself.  What was she doing?  More to the point, what
the hell was he doing?

"No!"  She pulled away from him, her eyes shooting sparks that told him
what she thought of his behavior.

The nerve of the man--taking that kind of liberty.  And where had she
gotten the wacky idea that it was safe to drop her guard?

He said something that might have been an apology.

She glared at him.  Yet deep inside she knew it wasn't all his fault.

She should have stopped him.

But at what point?  When he touched her jaw?  Her lips?  It was obvious
he didn't know the rules of her society.  Or maybe he didn't care.

Unwilling to look at him, she scooted away, putting several feet
between them.  She didn't trust him.

Or herself now.  And she felt so confused, she had to blink back tears.
For thirty years she'd avoided involvements.  A few hours with this man
and she was breaking every rule she'd ever made.  She wanted to get up
and make camp on the other side of the room.  Instead she settled for
turning back to her soup, eating as if her life depended on it, while
she tried to fathom her own out-of-character behavior.

He said nothing.  Instead he ate slowly.  Cassie finished and was
thinking about fixing two more cups when a change in the background hum
of the station made her lift her head and sit very still.  Thorn was
also listening intently.

She saw a puzzled expression flash across his face just before the
lights blinked.  Then they went out, plunging the room into total
blackness.

In the dark, she heard him bite out the word that she understood was a
curse, "Klat.t" "What's happening?"  she asked in a shaky voice.  Thorn
echoed the question in his own language.

Reaching across the empty space separating him from Cassie, he found
her arm and tugged her toward him.

Her body went rigid.  A clattering noise made his body tense for an
attack.  Then he realized her foot had hit an empty soup cup, sending
it skittering across the floor.

He cursed again.  He was jumpy as a bush stalker in heat.  But why not,
when he half expected armed men to come pelting into the room.

When Cassie tried to pull away from him, he gripped her shoulder.  He
understood why she might resist his touch.  He knew full well he'd
overstepped the bounds a few minutes ago when he'd cupped her breast,
stroked her erect nipple.  But when he'd felt her pulse quicken, he'd
known it wasn't out of fear, and some arrogant male impulse had urged
him to find out how far he could go with her--even as he'd told him
serf he was sun ply conducting :i sociology experiment.  How would a
female in her culture respond to advances from a strange male?

She tried again to pull away, but he held her tightly, unwilling to let
her vanish into the darkness.  Was the station under attack from
hostile forces?  Had the life- support system been damaged?  Or was
this sun ply a routine maintenance sequence, scheduled for the middle
of the night?

He listened intently, prepared for any possibility.  Silence reigned
around them.  The only thing his keen senses could pick up was that the
temperature had dropped a couple of degrees.

Cassie kept trying to wiggle out of his grasp, growing increasingly
agitated as she repeated a message he couldn't decipher.

"No!"  he ordered in her language.

She answered with what sounded like a plea.

"Please."  She'd used the word before, he recalled.

When she'd been trying to get the medicine into him.  He'd been near
comatose, but his hearing had still been functioning.  Was her present
purpose equally urgent?  A matter of life and death for both of them?

Or had Lodar told her she'd better be at least ten feet from Thorn when
the lights went out?

He sighed in the darkness, torn between paranoia and anger at himself.
For the past hour he'd been seduced into a feeling of camaraderie with
the very beautiful Cassie Devereaux.  More than camaraderie, he
admitted with a grimace.  He'd been weak enough to fall under her
spell.  But he'd better remember that she could be the agent of his
destruction.  The first order of business was to make sure she didn't
slip away in the darkness, leaving him sitting with his back to the
wall.  He found her right hand and laced the fingers with hers.

"Okay," he muttered in her language, waiting to find out what she
wanted to do.

Tentatively she leaned forward.  He heard her carry sack slide toward
them and wished he could see what she was doing as she fumbled with the
contents.  He was startled when she braced a cold, hard tube against
their locked hands.

A weapon?

He snatched the cylinder out of her grasp.  As his hand slid along the
barrel, a beam of light shot from the end of the tube, slicing a path
through the dark- n~S.

"Flashlight," she informed him.

He was glad she couldn't see his hot face.  The thing was merely a
light source.  But how long would it last?

The room was getting colder.  Cassie pulled her jacket closed.  As if
by mutual agreement, they stood.

Willing himself to steadiness, he led her across the room to the door
where she'd presumably entered.

Playing the light down the dark tunnel, he breathed a little sigh when
it proved to be empty.  At least they weren't being invaded.  Yet. When
he pressed the lock pad, there was no response.

"I need to check the main generator," he told her, wishing she could
follow what he was saying.

Cassie hung back as they approached the data analyzers.  He reassured
her with calm words before shining the light on the partition beyond.
She nodded tightly as they skirted the machines that had given her the
shock.

Although his manner was brisk as he reached for the access panel, she
tensed.

They both let out a little sigh when the door came open without
incident.  Using the light, he examined the station controls and the
specification charts.  He could see from the schematic that there were
three solar-powered units attached to electrical storage grids.  Two
were completely drained from a recent malfunction.

The third was operating a few essential systems-like air
purification--and automatically for an emergency.  the

damage to the power units could even explain the shock she'd gotten.

He pointed to the schematic and indicated the power source.

"Sun."

Cassie nodded vigorously, and he wondered if she really understood
about solar collectors and electrical conversion.

He continued the explanation for himself, since he knew she couldn't
possibly follow.

"The solar collectors are rapid recovery units.  Let's hope power is
restored to something approaching normal when the sun comes out in the
morning."

She seemed reassured by his even tones.  Or maybe she'd simply observed
that he wasn't dashing for an escape hatch.

He struggled to mask his frustration.  It was one thing to play sexy
little games with this woman.  It was quite another to get some real
answers out of her.

"How did you break in here?  What is happening outside?"  he demanded,
wishing she could tell him what he needed to know as he pointed toward
the door.  Yet what did it matter what she said?  He couldn't afford to
trust her.

"I guess were going to have to take a look," he said in clipped tones,
pulling her toward the door.  They both shivered in the icy air wafting
toward them.

"C-o-l-d," Cassie said in her own language, giving the observation
teeth-chattering emphasis he had no trouble comprehending.

He repeated the temperature appraisal.

"Cold."  Next they'd be discussing the barometric pressure and the
projected global weather forecast.

She darted back to the makeshift bed, retrieved a blanket and draped it
over his shoulders.

"Warm."

"Warm."  Two brilliant new concepts, he congratulated himself, feeling
ridiculous huddling under a shawl like an old woman.  But he conceded
the virtue of prudence.  And dignity.  If someone was waiting outside,
he didn't want to greet them looking as if he'd tottered from a
sickbed.  Opening a supply cabinet, he began to search for something
more substantial than a technician's coat.  He was rewarded with a
cache of silver knit pants and shirts--the expedition's standard
issue.

When he threw off the blanket and started to unbutton the thin coat,
she turned quickly away.  He'd forgotten about her ridiculous nudity
taboo.  Stomping into the grooming alcove, he shucked off the coat and
pulled on the pants and shirt.  He followed with a pair of thermal
socks, wishing he could add boots.

When he came out, she nodded her approval.  He didn't want her
approval.  Ignoring her, he marched back to the entrance.  Ice seemed
to seep through the bottoms of his feet as he and Cassie made their way
down the tunnel.  The passage ended at a broken doorway that he could
see had been camouflaged as rock.

When he started to shoulder through, Cassie said something that began
with "Av" -- Ignoring her, he stepped through the ruined barrier.
Almost immediately, he halted in surprise.  He was in a long, narrow
cave--so long that it swallowed up the flashlight beam.  The wall from
which he'd emerged was of dark rock.  The facing one was made of
snow.

So how had Cassie gotten in?  He wasn't about to let her start drawing
pictures again.  He wasn't going to

trust anything besides his own observations.  For a moment he stood,
listening to the utter silence.  Then, doggedly ignoring the cold, he
made his way down the tunnel between the black rock and the white
snow.

Cassie kept pace with him, talking all the while.  When he ignored her,
she grabbed his sleeve and yelled, "Klat.t " The curse got his
attention.  He stopped short and turned.  She gave him an exasperated
look.

After a moment, she repeated a word she'd used before.

"Avalanche."

First she pointed to the snow.

Then rolling her hands in a circle, she swept them in a downward
motion.  Looking behind her, she pretended to run.  Finally she put her
arms over her head and huddled down, protecting herself from the
onslaught.

"Avalanche," she said again.

"Understand?"

"Avalanche," he repeated, finally picturing what had happened.  Snow
had come roaring down the mountain toward her, and she'd taken refuge
against the rock face.

"Understand?"  she asked again.

"Good."

It was their longest conversation.  Too bad he was almost as articulate
as an illiterate camel driver.

However, Cassie looked pleased.  Taking a step back, she raised her
arms and stretched, as if to dissipate some of her tension.  Her hands
slammed into the wall of white that hung over her.

Quickly she pulled them back.  But the damage was already done.

Recently settled snow began to tumble down on top of her so quickly
that Thorn barely had time to gasp out a useless warning.  One minute
she was in front of him gesticulating.  In the next, she had
disappeared, buried under an enormous pile of freezing whiteness.

Chapter Four

A mixture of fear and astonishment wrenched through Thorn as he stared
at the place where Cassie had been standing moments ago.  His first
reckless impulse was to toss the flashlight aside and start digging her
out with both hands.  Instead he clenched the cold metal tube.  The
blasted cave was pitch-dark; he needed to see what he was doing.

Using up a few precious seconds, he scraped together a little pile of
snow and made a stand for the light so that the beam was positioned in
the right direction.

There was no margin for error, he thought with a grimace as he started
to dig with the only tools he had.

Almost at once his fingers grew icy.  He ignored the numbing pain and
scraped away at the snow, alternately cursing himself, calling Cassie's
name and gasping drafts of air into his lungs.

His whole body was shivering w'olently from the cold.  No, mo~ than the
cold.  His head spun.  He knew he was in no shape for the unexpected
exertion.  But somehow he kept digging.  Because he had to get the snow
off of Cassie before she suffocated.  So he continued to toss white
clouds behind him as he work~

in the semidarkness and to pray that he wouldn't be too late.

It seemed to take forever.  It was probably less than a minute when he
felt something harder than the recently settled snow.  Not rock.
Something that yielded to his touch, although with his hands numb from
the cold, he couldn't tell much.

He saw the bright pink outerwear covering Cassie's back and gave
s'fient thanks as he corrected the direction of his search.  Redoubling
his efforts, he scooped like a madman.  His fingers slid off her
shoulder.  He dug lower and hooked his hand around her arms, giving a
mighty tug.

One arm came free.  Immediately she began to dig, too, and he knew what
he'd only sensed before.  She didn't give up easily.

With a sigh of relief, he brushed the snow away from her nose and
mouth.  She shook her head and sucked in a gasp of air that ended with
his name.  Her face was white and etched with terror.  Yet her eyes
were focused squarely on him as if she couldn't believe that he'd
gotten her out.

Remorse was a dagger stabbing into his heart.  He couldn't judge the
coldness of her skin.  His own hands were too numb.  But he kept
working as he told her she was safe.

That she was going to be all right.

That he was sorry.  That he'd been a fool to come out rare where she
could get hurt.  He wished she could understand some of it; he was glad
she couldn't catch thereat.

Finally, she was able to push with her hands.  The mow broke apart, and
she tumbled out, knocking him ~, exclaiming something that was probably
thanks

He repeated the words because he didn't know what else to say.

"Thank God."

For an endless moment they both sprawled unmoving on the freshly
scattered snow, breathing in great gasps of air.  Then his arms came up
to clasp her tightly, his hands shaking with emotion and cold.  He'd
almost gotten her killed--because he'd refused to trust her.  And the
only thing she'd done to provoke his suspicion was to stumble into the
wrong place at the wrong time.  He simply hadn't been willing to
believe she'd been trapped here by accident.  Regret made him as cold
as the snow.

He wouldn't have been surprised if she'd pushed him away.  Instead she
held on to him fiercely, saying his name over and over as her hands
pressed against his back, tunneled through his hair, clasped his upper
atlas.

His head turned.  So did hers.  A jolt of acute awareness shot through
him when he realized his lips had found the softness of hers.  For a
breathless moment he waited to see if she'd pull away.  She gasped with
the contact.  But she didn't withdraw.  Instead she pressed against
him, opening in an invitation that was as old as the heavens.

The kiss lengthened, deepened, seared.  It should have melted the
avalanche.

He hadn't planned the intimate contact.  And he wasn't prepared for the
impact.  For the sheer, raw emotion that welled up inside him and
crackled between them as he clasped her in his arms.  He'd waited
centuries to find her.  In the endless moments when he'd dug
frantically through the snow, he'd thought he'd lost her forever.  The
knowledge had left him cold and empty and shaken to the core.

Now he had a second chance, and he was still shaking.  He'd never been
so needy.  So greedy.  So hungry.

His lips moved over hers with an urgency that took his breath away.

Or perhaps it was the knowledge that she was responding with the same
frantic exigency to be close, to give, to receive.

Lips, tongue, teeth.  Moving, pressing, seeking.  She sighed his name
again, like a warm caress against his mouth.  He was sure he'd never
felt anything so erotic.  But in the next moment, she started shivering
violently.

Still, she held him tightly for another few seconds.

"Cassie... needs... warm."

She nodded, trying to keep her teeth from clattering together.

They were both breathing hard as they stumbled to their feet.  He
snatched up the flashlight from where he'd set it, and they started
back the way they'd come, both staggering.

Inside~ the tunnel, the temperature was a little warmer but not much.

Once inside the station, Cassie's face was grave as he opened drawers
and pulled out as many blankets as he could find, draping them o~r her
shoulders and his.

"Chicken soup," he managed to say.

"Warm."  He was rewarded with a nod of understanding as she grabbed two
more of the packets from her carry sack.  Setting the flashlight where
they'd both get some illmnination, he took them from her.

When she tried to protest, he gestured toward the bed.

"Cassie needs warm!"

She sat down, making a nest among the covers like :a ran all bird
seeking refuge.  When she glanced up at ~, he felt his throat tighten.
He wanted to kneel and

take her in his arms, tumble her to her side and press her body
against his again.  Instead, he stood with his arms folded across his
chest.

Satisfied that she was settled, he took the packets to the grooming
alcove.  It wasn't difficult to make the chicken soup.

As he worked, his thoughts chUrned.  He couldn't fool himself any
longer.  When he'd seen Cassie buried under the snow, his raw motions
had come screaming to the surface.  In the few hours they'd spent
together, she'd become very important to him.  Yet coping with that
admission made him acutely uncomfortable.

He didn't want to feel anything for this woman.  So he tried to fill
his thoughts with logical speculation.

When he'd first awakened, he'd half expected to find armed guards
outside.  The snow blocking the entrance to the installation had put a
different perspective on the situation.

It seemed he and Ca.  ssie Devereaux were on their own.  From the way
she was dressed and the contents of her carry pack--it appeared she'd
been on some kind of outdoor expedition when she'd gotten caught in an
avalanche.  He wasn't going to forget the meaning of that word anytime
soon.

The rock ledge protecting the runnel entrance had saved her life.  But
had she been alone?  And why wasn't anyone looking for her?  Or were
they?  He'd delayed returning as long as he could.  Finally he brought
the chicken soup out to her and sat beside her.

He could see her wariness, see the questions in her posture as she
pretended to concentrate on the simple meal.  Or perhaps she wanted to
tell him he was a damn fool for insisting on going out.  But she only
looked at him silently.

"Thorn... sorry," he said, the admission costing him more than he'd
anticipated.

She went very still, her face shadowed so that he couldn't see her
eyes.  Finally she nodded and said something that he hoped was a
gracious acceptance of the apology.

When she draped one of the spare blankets over his legs, elation filled
his chest.  He wanted to tell her a great deal.  He wanted to ask why
she'd kissed him as if the two of them meant something to each other.
But confessions and questions were both beyond the limited vocabulary
he'd been painfully acquiring.  So he settled for keeping her close to
him, acutely aware of her even though a few inches of space separated
their shoulders.

The warmth of the cup brought a stinging pain to his fingers.  That was
good, he knew.  It meant the nerves were coming back to life.

Cassie glanced at him and then away.  He wanted to know what she was
feeling, instead he took another sip of soup.  He recognized the need
for intimacy was dangerous.  But he was too cold and weary to exercise
much control.

CAssie $ILI~ITLY DRANK her soup, glancing every so often at Thorn from
the corner of her eye, trying to rationalize her extraordinary response
to him, The longer she stayed with him, the less she knew her own mind,
and the more frustrated she felt.  He was a complicated man.

Intelligent.  Strong willed.  Arrogant.

Proud.  Mistrustful.  At'first he'd scared her to death.  Then he'd
made her ache to understand him.

No.  That wasn't true.  Both reactions had been there from the
b~ginning.  Only the balance had shifted.

One thing she was sure of now, he cared what happened to her--even if
he preferred to hide his strong feelings.  The look of anguish on his
features when he'd brushed the snow from her face had made her heart
turn over and her arms go around him.  Then he'd kissed her, and she'd
felt the two of them spinning out of control, seeking to get as close
as a man and a woman could get to each other.  Lord, had she ever felt
that kind of intensity before?

She continued sipping at her soup because it was warm and it gave her
something to do while her thoughts churned.

They kept coming back to a few fundamental questions.  Who was this man
who seemed so lost one moment and so sure of himself the next?  Where
was he from?  What was he doing here?

She felt his frustration that they couldn't talk.  Yet at the same time
she sensed he was relieved that he didn't have to answer a slew of
questions.  She was too weary to come up with any coherent conclusions
about him.  In fact, by the time she finished the last of the broth,
she stifled a yawn.  Since she'd only been outside in the snow for a
little while, it was probably safe to sleep, she decided, if she piled
on the blankets.  As she started to gather up several blankets and move
away, Thorn put his hand over hers.  Not with his commanding grip. This
time his touch was very gentle.  But he held her with the intensity of
his gaze.

"Cassie cold.  Thorn cold," he said very slowly, then cleared his
throat and added, "Thorn ... Cassie sleep warm He ended with a gesture
that included the two of them and the bed.

So, after everything that had happened between them, he was inviting
her to sleep with him.

When she didn't respond, he gave her a wry LITTLE smile.

"Thorn sleep night," he added.

Probably, with his limited vocabulary, it was an assurance that he
wasn't making an indecent proposal.

She pretended to inspect her hands as she watched him lie down.  There
was no reason to trust his word for anything except that he could have
left her in that s~nowbsnk--except that he'd kissed ~her as if she were
the most important thing in his universe.  And she'd kissed him back
with the same yearning need.  The admission frightened her on a very
profound level.  There was a long, pregnant silence as he pulled two
blankets over himself, rolled to his side and lifted the edge of the
covers.

Reason warred with a whole constellation of emotions in Cassie's
breast.  It was freezing in here, and sharing body heat made sense, if
that was all he was offering.  If that was all she wanted.

He watched her face.  Watched her silent debate.

"Sleep.  Okay," he said.

She nodded, wishing things between them weren't so complicated.

Making her decision with a sudden finality, she came down beside him,
her back to his front.  He pulled the covers over her.  When his arm
went around her shoulder, drawing her close, she tensed.  But he did
nothing more threatening.

She switched off the flashlight, and the room was plunged into total
blackness.  The heavy darkness made her feel as if a weight were
pressing against her ~est.  Her fingers closed around the cold banv.  l
of the

flashlight, but she didn't turn it on.  They had to save the
battery.

So she closed her eyes against the night and pressed her back against
Thorn's front, comforted by the hard wall of his chest.

He murmured something low and reassuring.

A few moments later, she knew by the deep, regular sound of his
breathing that he was asleep.  Well, at least he'd given up the notion
that she was going to stab him in the back, she thought with a little
sigh.

She was suddenly acutely aware that she was lying in bed with a man.

Preparing to go to sleep with him-a risk she'd rarely taken.

She tried to put a little distance between herself and Thorn, but his
arm had slipped over her shoulder, and she didn't want to chance waking
him.  So she lay in the dark, willing herself to breathe evenly and
relax as she tried to figure out what made this man different from the
rest.

He was a man in trouble.  Lord, he could be anything from an escaped
criminal to a political prisoner.  None of the scenarios she could
conjure up inspired trust.  She'd always opted for staying safe.
Staying uninvolved.  Yet some deep instinct had led her to lie down
with him when trust was completely out of character.  She kept thinking
about that until her brain was too fatigued to cling to
consciousness.

Za~m CHAMBerS STARED at the screen of his laptop.  The results from his
latest analysis swam in and out of focus.  But that wasn't surprising.
He'd been inside this tent for eight hours straight, trying to
translate the newly found tablets.  The thirst for discovery, two cups
of strong coffee and a couple of granola bars had kept him going. Thank
God Marie had been as anxious as he to keep their find secret. Without
her cooperation, he'd be sharing this stuff with half the team.

He still wasn't sure what he was dealing with--a clever hoax or an
archaeological treasure.

It had taken him several hours to input the symbols via a
graphics-design package into the system.  Then he'd run a pattern match
against a newly compiled data base with more than twenty-thousand
entries of all the dead and living languages that had ever been
discovered.

The screen beeped as the program finished its final analysis.  Zeke
blinked as he took in the results.  There were only two partial
matches--one found in a cave in Corsica and the other in Alaska.

With a fresh burst of energy, he pulled up more details.  The Alaskan
find was in 1955; the Corsican one in 1935.  Neither discovery had ever
been corroborated with additional material, and research money had soon
fizzled.  They'd both been reduced to mere.  footnotes of unexplained
occurrences.  Too bad the data base hadn't been around back then.

Zeke turned back to his original text.  He'd made some progress with a
few words that bore a resemblance to Greek.

I-Ie was logging in his notes when he heard a familiar voice.

"It's Marie."

She ducked inside, a tray in her hands.

"You worlaxl through supper.

You must be famished.  "

; Zeke felt a pang of hunger stab through him as he caught a whiff of
spicy lamb sl~v.

"You guessed right.

c Moving two reference volumes to the floor, he made room on the table
for the tray.

"Have you discovered anything about our little find?"  she asked.

"Take a look at this analysis."  He angled the screen so she could
see.

She leaned over his shoulder.

"Hmm.  Very interesting."

He had trouble focusing on her words.  Her perfume was sweet.  Sickly
sweet.  His lungs burned with the smell.  He tried to get up and out of
the tent into the fresh air.

But his arms and legs wouldn't move.

"I feel sick," Marie choked out.

Her head slumped onto his shoulder.  Then her body toppled to the
floor.  He wanted to catch her.  Instead he tumbled along with her to
the ground.  Through blurry eyes, he saw a man in cove rails and a gas
mask enter the tent.  Zeke watched legs step over his body and hands
reach for the tablets.

"No," Zeke tried to shout, but the word never reached his lips.  In the
next moment his mind lost the fight for consciousness.

IT SH~VmD LU~ only moments later when Cassie's eyes snapped open.  She
knew immediately that she was dreaming.  In her sleep, she had
finally escaped from the underground prison.  With a sense of wonder
and freedom, she looked around.  She was standing in bright sunlight
under an impossibly cloudless violet sky, on a rocky hillside dotted
with strangely shaggy trees.  The setting was so different from the
buried bunker that it took her breath away.

She knew several things immediately.  She had been here before.  And
everything that had happened since she'd started pulling strings to get
the Alaskan assign73

merit had been propelling her to this place.  Or had it started before
that?

Fear shimmered through her.  Fear that she would discover some truth
better left buried in her subconscious.

She tried to wrench herself out of the dream, before it was too late,
but it held her fast like a magician's spell.  She looked around with
new wariness.  The scene appeared peaceful, but she felt danger pulsing
in the air.

"It's just a dream," she murmured.  Yet it was impossible to bring back
the feeling of calm.  Somehow this experience had its own reality, and
it was more than the sum of its parts.

Below her was a small grove of trees that might have been pines, but
their foliage was blue-red.  She couldn't see through the branches, but
she knew she had to go there.  It was her only option.  Her heart
started to pound.  The cautious part of her wanted to run in the other
direction.

The yearning part of her longed to go to the man who was hidden behind
the trees.  Thorn .  He was there.

Somehow she knew he was waiting for her in this place.  Had been
waiting for a long time.

On feet that barely touched the ground, she moved toward the grove.

Looking down at her body, she realized she was wearing delicate leather
sandals and a filmy white tunic that dipped low between her breasts and
hardly covered her thighs.

Thorn's choice.  He wanted to see her that way.  She stepped between
the blue-red trees and into a quiet courtyard that shut out the world.
It was decorated with clay pots that held fragrant herbs and bright
flowers she didn't recognize.  Thorn was standing beside a low couch.

A couch in a garden?  Before she had

time to ponder that, Thorn captured her attention.  He was almost as
naked as the first time she'd seen him, except that a strip of white
cloth circled his waist and hung down in front, covering his sex.
Otherwise, she had a wonderful view of his magnificent body.  Her heart
began to beat faster as she took in his broad shoulders, his flat
stomach, his muscular thighs--all at the peak of health and vitality.

When she saw that he was staring at her with the same appreciation, she
flushed and somehow kept from crossing her arms in front of her
breasts.  He, on the other hand, seemed totally at ease.

She had the strange sense that she had seen him standing like this
before.  Waiting 'for her.

"You brought me here," she whispered.  He looked surprised.

"Did I?"

"Yes," she answered with absolute conviction.  Then as a new
realization struck her, she drew in a little breath.

"Are we speaking English?"

"I do not know," he said, a look of wonder suffusing his features as he
came toward her.

"Is that what you call your language?"

"I can understand you."

"We can talk to each other," she' marveled.

"Finally.  How is that possible?"

"I do not know."  He reached out and touched her arm, her hair, her
mouth.  She moved her lips against his knuckle.

There were so many questions, so many choices.  She forced herself to
pick one.

"Tell me," she demanded fiercely.

"About the place where we're both sleeping now."  She stopped abruptly,
brought up short by the strangeness of the conversation.  You didn't
have dream.  ~ where you discussed your sleeping body.

The question made his eyes narrow dangerously.

"It is a secret installation.  Illegal, I would guess."

She felt goose bumps bloom on her skin.

"Illegal?"

"Can you tell me where it is located?  What part of the world?"

"Alaska.  Near Denali National Park."

"That doesn't mean anything to me."  HIS gaze turned speculative.

"What were you doing there?"  Cassie hesitated for a moment, then
decided to play it perfectly straight.

"I was investigating an anomalous energy source for the Federal
Communications Commission."

"How did you get there?"

"Airplane."

"Uh, a craft that flies through the air.  You've never heard of
them?"

He ignored the question.

"How is it powered?"

"With something called an internal combustion engine.  There are faster
planes with jet engines.  I don't haw the technical education to tell
you how either kind works."

"Were you alone?"

"No.  I came out here with a guide who knows the area.  I think he died
in the avalanche."

Thorn nodded gravely.

She frowned as she realized that he'd taken control of the
conversation, that he'd been asking all the questions.

"How did you arrive?"  she demanded and watched him make a silent
decision.

"I do not know for certain.  Lodar drugged me and stashed me in the
delta capsule."

"Lodar?"

"The expedition leader."

"Put that in terms I can understand," she demanded.

He shook his head.

"I cannot."

"Can't?  Or won't?"

He shrugged.

"How long have you been here?"

"I will not know until I can see the night sky."  His face suffused
with anger.  And a deep fear.  He masked the latter quickly.

"Why did he leave you in the chamber?"

"We were having a political dispute."

"So he?"

"Isolated me from my people."

Her eyes widened.

"Isn't that rather an extreme response?"

He laughed mirthlessly.

"You do not know Lodar

"You took a position he didn't like?  What was it?"  He sighed.

"This conversation is getting danger OTIS " For whom?  "

"For me.  For both of us."  His face was etched with doubt and
sadness.

She might have taken him in her arms.  But she had become too unsure.
Instead she asked the question that had been lurking at the back of her
mind like a wild animal trying to escape from a cage.

"What happens if the solar panels aren't working tomorrow?"  She heard
his breath catch in his throat.

"If the power remains off and we cannot get through that wall of snow,
we will die."

Chapter Five

"NoV' Cassie's hands dug into his shoulders.  He stood rigid, his blue
eyes burning down into hers.

"We will find out in the morning if the power cells have regenerated,"
he said, making no attempt at predictions.

She looked at the trees, the flowers and herbs growing in terra-cotta
pots.  At the gentle glow of the violet sky.  Thorn had created theft
meeting place.  Made it.  as different as he could from the sterile
chamber where they slept.

"Can't we stay here?"

"No.  The dream has its own reality.  But it is not a permanent
refuge."

"Tm frightened," she whispered, a fine tremor go- through her body.

"Of tomorrow?"  '~ "Of what is hal~pening now."

"You mean here?  Within this fantasy?"

He ~ She nodded fractionally, suddenly honing in on a her subconscious
had been playing with the beginning of her strange encounter with The
way to know this man was not to ask him

questions he'd only stonewall.  The way to know him was to dig deep
for answers within her soul.  As soon as she admitted the possibility,
she felt a door open in her mind.

"You've been trying to hide from me all along.  But I know who you
are," she blurted.

"Oh?"  His blue eyes bored into her like diamond drills.

"I mean" -- She groped for the right words and found them where she
least expected.

"I've had dreams like this before."  She looked around again at the
peaceful setting.

"I've been here before.  In this little courtyard.  I recognize this
place."

"Impossible."

She shook her head.  Now that she'd stopped fighting the truth, details
were coming to her with surreal clarity.

"For years I've dreamed of a man who attracts me--powerfully."  The
words were dragged out of her almost against her will.

"Someone I trust because I can't see his face."

"You are not making sense.  What kind of twisted logic is that?"  he
demanded, his features etched with strain, his eyes probing.

She felt her face heat.  Her nerve failed, and she looked away.

He didn't allow her to retreat.  With a hand under her chins he brought
her gaze back to his.

"Look at me.  Tell me exactly what you mean."

She swallowed hard, wanting to run and hide from him, from herself.

Fro TM the truth.  Yet she knew deep inside that if she didn't say what
was in her heart, she would destroy herself.

"I--I never remember ve~] much when I wake up.  But after I've been
with him,

feel as if something very moving has happened be- He continued to stare
at her, his expression a mixture of scorn and defenselessness.

Part of her longed to snatch back the secret.  Part of her rejoiced
that she had finally confided in someone.

For years she'd kept her strange dreams to herself.  She hadn't even
told her sister--the one person who might have understood.  In fact,
she knew that over the past few months the experience had become much
more intemse--because Marissa was paired with Jed.  Cassie had been
overjoyed at her sister's happiness.

But she'd been envious, too.  So she'd found herself coming back more
and more often to her shadowy companion--and letting herself feel
things she'd never allow in real life.

"You are telling me you have bonded with a man you have never met?"

She nodded slightly.

"Why?"

"It was safe.  And... and I know he needs me.  I'm his only link with
the outside world."  She swallowed convulsively.  Yet she knew she had
to finish what she'd started.

"Now I think... he's you.  That's why I've felt connected with you
since the beginning.  Even when we couldn't speak to each other."

His face registered total shock.

"Impossible," he said again.  Yet the look deep in his eyes told her he
might be trembling on the edge of belief.

"In that chamber--that delta chamber--did you call out to anyone?  For
help."

~ He made a strangled sound.

"I do not remember my dreams.  If I had dreams."

"You're having this one," she said with congiction.

"We both are.  You brought me here," she insisted.

"Again."

"What did we do in these dreams of yours?"  he demanded.

Her heart squeezed as she remembered the intimacy.

"Mostly ... we ... were just together.  Warm and close.  The way we're
sleeping now.  Sometimes I think we kissed.

But .  we didn't do anything .  compromising.  It was safe.  "

"Safe," he repeated.

"You like that word."  She shrugged.  She'd taken tremendous risks in
every area of her life--exeept relationships.  But she wasn't going to
explain that to him.

His gaze drilled into her, and she knew he was still trying to reject
her story.

"It sounds as if you are describing a liaison with a man who was
half-dead."

"No," she protested.

"And so were you," he accused.

"You have admitted you lived through your dreams.  With a man who was a
stranger."

"Not live!"  she denied automatically, weighted down by the harsh tone
of his voice.

"I--I have my work.  It's very challenging.  I have a lot of
responsibilities.  And I have friends."

"What are you afraid of in your real life?"  he persisted.

She swallowed around the lump that blocked her windpipe.  She didn't
want to say it.  A force beyond her control compelled her to admit her
failings.

"Loving," she said brokenly.

"Loving."

"Love means domination.  Control of one person by another.  I've known
that since I was a little girl."

"That is no definition of love."

"It was in my family," she retorted, determined to lax-p the rest to
herself.  She wasn't going to talk about her painful childhood.  About
the father who'd demanded total obedience, who'd run his family like a
military unit.  Who'd made her afraid to reveal the tender core of her
being.

"Cassie-?"

"Is this place familiar to you?"  she asked, switching the conversation
away from her crippled emotional development.

"It is in my garden," he said reluctantly.

"At home."  "See..."  She let the sentence trail off as if he'd offered
her proof.

A fierce look captured his features, a look of male dominance that
terrified her.

"So you are saying I brought a beautiful woman here again and again.
But I did not make love to her," he grated.

"Do you expect me to believe that?"

"You were different," she whispered.

"Unde- man cling You needed me to be there--with you.  Because you'd
been alone for so long."

"Is that the kind of relationship you want?"  he challenged.

"Yes," she whispered.

His eyes told her he didn't believe it.  AH at once, there was no place
to hide.  From herself.  From him.

~ "Let us discover the truth," he challenged as he took her by the
forearms.

She tried to back away, but he held her tightly.  There was a charged
moment of anticipation when she knew he would take what he wanted, and
she would

freely give.  Then his mouth descended and moved over hers,
ruthlessly, insistently.

Raw power flowed between them.  Power and an erotic current so strong
that it made her quake.

Everything had changed.  There was no longer safety in this place.

Only the knowledge that he was quaking, too, kept panic from swallowing
her alive.  She knew he was captive to the same elemental force.  And
that she held as much of the power in this encounter ashe.

With a little moan, her mouth opened.  In response, his softened, and
the kiss.  took on a wholly different meaning.  He shifted his head,
capturing her lips from one angle and then another, taking and giving
at the same time with a finesse that made her head spin.  Lord, he knew
how to kiss a woman.  Knew how to arouse with a potency she had never
experienced before.

She took and gave in return, tasting him, feasting from him as her
hands moved restlessly across the wide expanse of his back, glorying in
the touch of his naked skin under her fingertips.

She felt the tension in his body.  Felt his arousal as he lifted her
intimately against him.  When his hand slipped inside the low-cut front
of her tunic and teased her nipple, she sighed her pleasure and arched
into his

The kiss broke, and they both gasped for air as they clung to each
other for stability.  She looked at him and almost drowned in the
wonder that deepened his eyes.  Tenderly, she touched his flushed
cheek, his lips, his thick eyelashes.

He took her lips again in another searing kiss, a kiss that
acknowledged the passion that had smoldered between them for so long.
Only now the rules had changed.  He was no longer content with mere
companionship.

And neither was she.  The power of her response to him left her knees
weak.  When she sagged against him, he scooped her up in his arms and
carried her to the couch.

"I want you naked.  Flesh to flesh," he growled as he set her down.

He knelt to unbuckle the sandals from her feet, and she braced her
hands against his shoulder to keep from swaying.  He turned his face to
her, his hot breath scorching her middle, his lips teasing the apex of
her legs through the thin fabric of her tunic.  She dug her fingers
into his hair, holding him close.

When he stood again, her blood was flowing in her veins like a river of
fire.

"Dubina," he whispered in his own language.

"Dear one."  "My darling," she answered in a breathy sigh.  He knew
where to find the clasp that held her bodice closed.  Swiftly he swept
the garment from her shoulders, stripped it off.  Need exploded in her
center as his hot gaze drifted over her.  He was the only man who could
make her feel this way.  The only man who could satisfy the needs she
hid from the world.  Her hands went to his waist, tugging at the place
where the strip of cloth was fastened.  She pulled it away, and there
were no barriers between them.

He gasped as she caressed him.  Then he carried her down to the
yielding softness of the couch.

He turned her to her side, his hands stroking over her body, starting
with her legs, her stomach.  His ~ worked an erotic path up her neck to
her jaw, then

down again to her breasts, kindling throbbing heat at the center of
her desire.

"Please.  I want you," she whimpered.

"I've waited so long for this."

"So have I," he answered as she arched and twisted against his hands
and mouth.

"Please.  If you don't... I"

Cassie didn't have  a chance to finish the sentence.  There was a rush of
sound.  A jarring flash of light.

And she cried out again.  But this time it was from shock and surprise
at the rapid change of scene.

She was still in Thorn's arms.  That was the only constant in a wildly
shifting universe.  But the courtyard and the couch had vaniahed.  Now
they were lying on the blankets she'd spread on the stone floor of the
installation.  And they were wearing the clothes they had on when they
went to sleep.  Except that her jacket was off, and the front of her
shirt was pulled up around her neck.

She blinked in the harsh lights from above.  The generators were
working again.  The sun had come up, and the solar collectors had
absorbed enough power to reactivate the installation.

Her fingers still dug into Thorn's shoulder.  Caught in the throes of
passion, he tried to pull her body more tightly against his.  She
wrenched out of his grasp and rolled away from him.

"Cassie."

The jarring end to the dream sent her motions reeling.

"No!  It's not teal.  It never was," she said brokenly.  ~

His body went rigid.  His hands clenched at his sides.  She watched him
sucking in great gasps of air as he struggled to get control of his
aroused body.  She pulled down her shirt and closed her eyes, trying to
cope with the warring motions hammering at her heart--and the sexual
need shimmering through her.  She was on fire and at the same time
reduced to ashes.

She lay listening to the harsh sound of her own breathing--and his--and
thinking about the trap she'd fallen into.  She'd told him intimate,
personal things she'd never dared to confide to anyone else.

They bombarded her now, and she struggled to hold back tears.  What had
seemed so right--so possible-in the warm cozy dream was now beyond her
reach.  Yet she felt totally open, totally vulnerable to him .  Unless
everything that had just happened was simply her fantasy.

She sat up and pressed her fingers again at her lips, intent on moving
away to some private place where she could think.  Where she could calm
down and figure out what to do.  As she started to scramble to her
feet, Thorn grabbed her hand.

She wouldn't look at him.

"Do not... run... from me."

Her head jerked toward him.

"Do not hide," he added.

He'd spoken haltingly, but still with vastly more assurance than she'd
ever heard in this room.  She didn't have to ask him how he'd suddenly
gotten so proficient in English.  She knew.  It was from the dream.

While they'd been together in that other place, speaking, the language
barriers had come down.  And as they'd talked to each other, 
he'd picked up a wealth of English vocabulary and syntax.

Cassie sighed.  Any hope she'd entertained that the erotic encounter
had simply been her fantasy evaporated.

He'd been there with her, all right.  And his- computer-sharp brain
would remember every word she'd said.

He sat up and realized his shirt was half-off.  Flushing, he tugged it
down.

That was her only consolation.  Now that the interlude was over, he was
as embarrassed as she by what had happened.

The silence between them stretched.  He looked toward the ceiling and
cleared his throat.

"The sun ... the solar panels must he..."  He paused.

"Operational," she supplied.

"We have to talk about what happened," he said, shattering her false
sense of security.

"I can't."

He took her hand again, his flesh warm and firm as he clasped her
fingers.  She didn't want to feel anything.

But she couldn't suppress the sexual jolt that transmitted itself from
his hand to hers.

"It was only a dream."  She knew her eyes revealed how much she wanted
him to accept her version of the "You believe that?"

"It's my best option."

He sighed.

"You are safe from personal discussions for now.  I must check..."
There was another pause while he searched his vocabulary.  "the
communications."

"That's one of the first things I tried.  It's how I got shocked," she
retorted determined to keep the conversation neutral.

His eyebrow lifted.

"You know how to operate the... analyzers?"

"We call them computers," she said wearily.

"All right, computers.

Did Lodar teach you how to.. She made a gesture of exasperation.

"I haven't met Lodar.  I thought I might be able to figure out the
equipment--given enough time."

"I doubt that."

"You doubt what?  My intentions or my intellect?"  Ignoring the jibe,
he crossed to the terminal where she'd gotten into trouble.

"Watch out," she warned, unable to stop herself from rushing to his
side in case something happened.

"I do not have many choices."  He looked at the desktop.  Then he
quickly lowered his hand, pressing the palm flat against the cold
surface.  Cassie held her breath.  When there was no crackle of
electricity, she let out the breath she was holding.  He began speaking
in a clipped voice--in his own language.  And she acknowledged she'd
have had zero chance Of running the machine.  However, with Thorn in
command, the screen came to life.  No, she corrected herself.  Screens.
In addition to the one at the terminal, there were six others at
various locations around the room.

Two of them were four-feet square.

The others were smaller.  All of them had blended into the walls so
completely that she hadn't known they were there.  Now they buzzed and
crackled with a pat~ of shimmering black dots like a television when
the cable signal is cut off.

Cassie shivered.  What was this place?  Thorn made an adjustment, and
the crackling faded into the background.  He kept speaking to the
machine.

"I cannot raise the base," he finally said.

"Or" -- He stopped abruptly.

"Not even an automatic homing signal.  Everything is gone.  Vanished."
She could see he was struggling with emotions she could only guess.

"Who are you trying to contact?  Maybe the equipment here is broken."

"We will see," he grated.  Grim faced, he sat down in front of the
console and began to speak again.

Cassie took the other chair.

One of the big screens went from fuzzy static to a black-and-white
picture.  Of all things, it showed an old "I Love Lucy" rerun.  The
famous episode where Lucy is in labor and Desi rushes to the hospital
straight from his nightclub--dressed in a witch-doctor costume.

Thorn stared at the picture assessingly.

"You have satellite broadcasts," he mused.

"Transmission of pictures and sound."  "Of course."

"Black-and-white only?"

"It's an old program.  We've had color for forty years."  Cassie
swallowed as she grappled with the unreality of the conversation.

"Thorn, why do you not know any of that?  Where are you from, really? "
"she asked with sudden determination.

"You probably would not believe me."

"Let me decide that."

"Just think of me as part of an experiment--a man who has been isolated
from the world for many years.

My survival depends on learning as much as I can about present
conditions.  "

"Your survival," she echoed, a shiver going over her flesh.

"Yes.  Help me with what I need to know."  He gestured toward the TV
episode--with Lucy's swollen abdomen and Desi's mask and drum.

"Are fertility rites broadcast during important festivals?"

Cassie laughed, dissipating some of the tension.

"No.  You're watching what's called a situation comedy."

She went on to explain the episode.  Thorn nodded, and she wondered how
much he'd understood given the seriousness with which he posed
outrageous questions.

He issued more commands to the computer.  A variety of pictures flashed
onto the wall screens.  A closeup of a flower opening its petals.

"Donahue."  The Big Chill.  A laundry-detergent commercial.

His attention flicked from one to the other.  Every few seconds he
stopped to freeze a frame and query her.

Cassie stood rigid beside him.  She felt as disoriented as if she were
back in the dream.  The implicalions of Thorn's reactions to the
television broadcasts and his questions were so staggering that she
couldn't rope with them.  Her mind refused to function with its normal
efficiency.  All she could do was deal with tiny bits of information
one at a time.

"We clean most clothes in water at home.  Some go to what's called a
dry-cleaning shop where they're processed with chemicals .... A
microwave doesn't utilize a heat source.  It cooks food quickly by
bombarding it with high-frequency radio waves.  Or maybe it's low
frequency .... Popcorn is the exploded kernel of a grain called corn.
We eat it as a snack."

She blushed when she realized a porno flick had caught his
attention.

"They broadcast that?"  he asked, incredulous.  She swallowed hard.

"Some people like to watch."

Thorn issued more commands, focusing on one screen and then another.

"Sesame Street" drew another question.

"That's a show for children," Cassie explained.

"Big Bird's a fantasy animal whose behavior is childlike--so the kids
can identify with him.  There's an actor inside the costume."

After flipping to a couple of commercials he found CNN.  In rapid
succession he watched relief efforts for earthquake victims, a woman
who'd stabbed her abusive husband, a riot at a soccer stadium where
half a dozen fans were trampled to death, and the tearful wife of a
German tourist murdered in Florida.

"So much violence," Thorn whispered.

"News programs focus on it," Cassie told him, knowing the explanation.
was inadequate.  The camera cut away from the anchorman to a globe
spinning against a blue background.  Thorn slowed the speed, then
stopped the frame on the now?  "

"On the other side of the world."

He phyed the saved picture, spinning the sphere to get an overview.

Then he advanced the picture until ~ the appropriate land masses filled
the screen.  She pointed to Alaska.

"We're about four hundred miles inland."

"Miles.  I do not know the unit of measurement."

Cassie searched her memory for a math fact.

"A mile is 5,280 feet.  A foot is twelve inches, about like this."  She
held her hands apart.

He studied the map.

"We are very far north.  Is it the warm time of year in this region?"

"Yes.  Summer."

"The days are abnormally long?"

She nodded.

"And in winter, they are short."

"yes."

His features were thoughtful.

"Then the solar collectors must have a long-term storage capacity. That
is probably lucky."  He turned away from the screens and issued more
instructions to the computers.  A diagram in shades of green appeared
on the glassy monitor mounted in the back of the desk.  He moved his
hand on the horizontal surface, and various parts of the picture
changed colors.

"What are you doing?"  Cassie asked.

"Surveying this station.  It is bigger than I expected.

There is a sleep chamber and a place to prepare nourishment.  "

Working rapidly, he used his hand to change the colors on the monitor.
Each shift was now accompanied by activity around the station.  Purple.
She heard motors turn behind closed doors.  White.  A fan went on and
clicked off again.  Yellow.  Lights ~ckered and came on more brightly.
Blue.  Water ran in the sink.

Several areas changed to orange on the screen.

"Supply depots," he explained.

"I want to see the inventory."

Thorn was focused intently on what looked like a list of items when the
lights in the room dimmed.

"What?"  he muttered, his hand moving rapidly over the star face of
the desk as he spoke to the computer.

"It is not responding.  The controls are fro- " You didn't do that? "

Cassie asked.

Thorn's answer was interrupted by a loud whistling sound that set her
teeth on edge.  Feeling as if her eardrums would burst, she clasped her
hands over her "Please.  Make it stop," she gasped, knowing Thorn
couldn't hear above the high-pitched whistle.  He was out of his seat,
his body rigid, his face contorted as he stared at the large television
screen directly opposite them.

Chapter Six

The whistling faded away.  Thorn gripped the edge of the work surface,
unable to tear his gaze from the viewer.  He stared into what appeared
to be a plushly appointed office with a work surface of polished onyx,
a chair of soft leather and a high-speed miniaturized analyzer for
fieldwork.  But the appointments were of minimal interest.  What
riveted his attention was the man seated behind the desk.

He had copper-colored skin, handsome features and a look of arrogance
in his eyes meant to set him above ordinary mortals.

"Lodar," Thorn gasped, still fighting to understand what was happening.
Againat all odds, was his enemy really here?

Thorn might have rushed across the room toward the newly revealed room,
except that Cassie was holding his arm in a death ~grip.

"That's him?  The man who put you here?"  she asked in a hoarse
voice.

Thorn nodded.

"What's happening?"  she begged.

"I thought" -- He cut her off with a curt "I do not know."  Then he
lifted his head toward the man behind the desk.

"What do you want?"  he challenged, speaking in their mutual
language.

Lodar didn't answer.  Instead he sat with the same arrogant stare and
his hands clasped easily on the black stone in front of him.

Thorn's own fists were clenched.  His pulse pounded in his ears.

"Say something, you klat worm!"  he shouted.

"Good morning, Thorn.  Or is it evening in your little corner of the
world?  I trust you slept well.  If you are viewing this recording,
then you've made it out of the delta cylinder.  And you have the
satisfaction of knowing that your subversive theory was correct.  The
primitives here have advanced considerably in technology since we
impressed them with our 'powers."  For all the good that's going to do
you.  " Lodar laughed, a cruel, grating sound.

"Tell me what he's saying," Cassie whispered urgently.

"It is a three-dimensional recording.  Let me listen!"  Thorn muttered
in English, before turning his full attention to the image of the man
who had sent him into exile.

A recorded message.  Of course.  The illusion had been so perfect--so
startlingly unexpected--that it had fooled him, "Are the natives
outside around their camp fire?  Or are they with you--confounded by
this show of awesome power?  But that's your worry, not mine.  You can
decide what you wish to tell them.  It won't matter to me anymore.  The
rest of us will be long gone by the time you see this message.  Only
the senior officers know that we received a recall order several cycles
ago.  That is why I acted so quickly to neutralize the threat you
represent.  I did not want you coming back to the Central Council,
spouting your outrageous nonsense about respecting conquered peoples.
If they want to worship us like gods, that's their business.
Personally, I think they have learned quite a bit from the association
with us.

Certainly they have improved their gene pool.  " He laughed again.

Cassie tried.  to ask a question.  Thorn waved her to "I will tell you
what has been done," Lodar continued.

"I would have liked to have killed you.  Unfortunately, when it came to
murder, I couldn't override the moral training that was drummed into
us from birth.

However, I think I have worked around the prohibition rather nicely.
I've had an underground facility adapted just for you, with a homing
device that can only be detected by sophisticated instruments.  It's
quite far from our base camp.  In an uninhabited area.  And very well
hidden, I might add.  So it will take considerable technological
advance, meat on the part of the natives to find it.  Probably several
thousand years.  "

Thorn nodded.  That had been his guess.  He'd find out soon enough
exactly how long.

"I am profoundly sorry you won't have a chance to say goodbye to your
children.  I've told Reah and Januk that you met with an unfortunate
accident while on a fact-finding minion for me.  The girl is very
sad.

The boy is trying to be stoic.  "

Thorifs heart gave a lurch inside his chest.  Since he had awakened, he
had deliberately steered his mind away from the subject of his daughter
and son-knowing he couldn't stand the pain of thinking about them.  Now
Lodar was ripping open a raw wound.

"But I think there's an excellent chance they can be adopted into a
good family back home.  A responsible husband and wife who will see
they get a traditional education that will foster the correct
values."

Thorn couldn't stifle a sound that was half gasp, half curse.  Correct
values!  He hated~ he ideology that had bred a worm like Lodar.

"What?"  Cassie whispered.

"My children," he answered brokealy before doggedly forcing his
attention back to the recorded image.

He didn't want to listen to any more of Lodar's gloating.  But he had
to pay attention.

The recorded image continued to speak.

"I should remind you of one last important point.  Remember those
immunizations we all had to take?  I checked the life-support logs. You
were almost due for a booster.

So I would suggest you get back to the base camp as soon as possible
and give yourself an injection.  I have left you some serum in a
protected storage cornpartmeat--along with some other things you're
doubtless going to need.  Let's hope for your sake that the cache
survived the centuries.  And that you have adequate transportation. "

Thorn stood rigid, staring at Lodar, hatred and anguish seething in his
breast.  He would never get home.

And his survival depended on what might be an impossible journey.  But
his own predicament wasn't as important as the suffering of his
children.  Since San- da's death, he had made sure Reah and Januk knew
they we~ safe and loved.  Lodar had yanked him away from the two people
in all the universe who needed him most.

A cry welled in Thorn's throat.

"No!  No," he screamed.  He wanted to spring at Lodar and wrap his
hands around the man's He shy neck.  He wanted to squeeze the life out
of him.  But Lodar was as far beyond reach as Reah and Januk.

As he stared at the recording, flames sprang up around the man behind
the work surface, consuming his~ image and the cozy little office where
he sat.  Thorn -was so deep in shock that it took several seconds for
him to realize that the conflagration wasn't part of the It was real.

The temperature rose.  The control room filled rapidly with smoke.

Beside him, Cassie gasped.  Then she started.  to cough and doubled
over.

Thorn's eyes stung, and his chest heaved.  Crrabbing _t?  a~'s hand, he
pulled her to the floor.

"Stay She crouched, her face contorted as she gasped and stated at the
flames licking at the wall beside the " There should be a .  a"-- He
couldn't find the to the first analyzer table and felt along the
NOthing.  ~ smoke stung his eyes, burned his lungs.  Trying ~i hold his
breath, he debated whether to grab and pull her to the entrance tunnel.
But then what?  might escape the fire, but they couldn't dig through
the wall of snow.

~m his mind scrambled to make life-and-death de- his fingers searched
under the neat worktathey closed around a cold metal object.  In ~lmat
moment, he was cou~hln~ violealtly.

The smoke was so thick he could hardly see to aim the douser.  As he
crawled toward the screen, Cassie grabbed his ankle.

"No."

Thorn wrenched out of her grasp and stood.  Even a few feet from the
floor, the choking fumes were like acid in his lungs.  Working by touch
alone, he depressed the controls and aimed the spout.  A stream of
chemical spray shot from the device, coalescing into droplets as it hit
the flames.  In a matter of seconds, they sputtered, went out.  But he
continued to phy the stream over the ruined mess.

Finally he was satisfied that the fire was out.  But the oxygen level
in the room was still dangerously low.

Thorn sank to a sitting position, trying to take shallow breaths, Wying
to fight the darkness that threatened to swallow him up.

It would be so easy to simply lie on the floor and go to sleep.  After
the message from Lodar, it didn't matter much whether he lived or died.
But if he didn't make it, neither would Cassie.

He turned his head and tried to locate her.  His vision was too blurred
from the fumes.  Cursing, he got to his knees.  Somehow he made it back
to the analyzer.  Somehow he pushed himself high enough to reach the
work surface.  Leaning over the console, he began to issue terse
instructions.  So distoorted was his voice that the machine didn't
respond.  His head spinning, he made an effort to speak slowly and
distinctly.

Predous seconds ticked by.  He cleared his throat and tried again.

When hidden fans began to whir, he knew he'd succeeded in communicatin~
his orders.  A~ the smoke started to clear, he anxiously scanned the
room.  His heart leapt when he spotted the heel of Cassie's boot
several feet in front of the desk.  But the elation was short-lived. 
She lay unmoving with her hands above her head--still as death.

Calling her name brought a spasm of couE2hing that made his chest burn
and tears slide down his cheeks.

She didn't stir.

~"Cassie!"

He still didn't have the strength to walk.  The best he could do was
move toward her on hands and knees, doggedly putting one in front of
the other.  It was like slogging through deep sand across an endless
desert.  Finally he reached her side and paused to catch his breath.
The air was better.  Pressing his hand gently against her chest, he
gave thanks for the shallow rise and fall.

La~er he didn't remember how he got Cassie across the room.  Cemainly
he couldn't have carded her.  But somehow he maneuvered the two of them
to one of the doors that had not yet been opened.

Hoping he remembered the facility's schematic conectly, he palmed the
~elease mechanism and waited

for the barrier to slide into the wall.  His sense of time was ~o
distorted that it seemed to take several centuAf~ dragging Cassie
across the threshold, he worlmd the interior latch mechanism, sealing
off the ~ smoke in the control room.  The lights had come on
automatically as they entered.  For long sec~ all he could do was sit
with his back against the door, drawing in blessed oxygen as he looked
around.

~ ~ .  "l~my ~ in a small but comfortable sleeping chamber with a thick
carpet walls.

His chest didn't feel too bad.  But when he swallowed, he discovered
his throat was row.  For several moments he was too weary to move.  As
he sat with his head flung back, his mind served up questions.  Had
Lodar rigged that little surprise?  Or was the station falling apart
around their ears?

He'd have to do a full diagnostic.  Later.  There was no question of
getting Cassie onto the bed.  So he simply turned her over on the
carpet.  Her eyes were closed and soot streaked her pale skin.

He wished he could get her to a healing station so he could find out
what the smoke had done to her lungs.

That was hardly an option.  Wetting his finger in his mouth, he held it
under her nose.  Her breath was slow and steady.  As he peered
anxiously into her face, he saw some of the color was returning.

He closed his eyes as he flattened his palm again at her che~t, feeling
the reassuring beat of her heart.  He was half-dead.  Still, it was
impossible not to think about the way her breasts had felt in his
hands.  About the way they'd looked in the dream.  Alabaster, with
beautiful coral tips.  He'd never seen such a color combination.  And
he hadn't been prepared for the raw pain he'd felt when she'd awakened
and pushed him away.  He had lost so much.  But he had no right to bind
her to him simply because he needed her.

She stirred slightly~ "Cassie?  Just sleep, dubina."

Incredibly, she spoke his name.

"Thorn."

He sighed out a shuddering breath and g~ntly stroked his fingertips
across her cheek.  Unconscious, she had called to him.

At first he hadn't believed what she had told him in the dream, that
he'd brought her to his garden before.

But how else could he account for the warm, familiar feeling of
closeness that had wrapped itself around them?  Despite his vow only
moments ago, temptation was like a drug, pulling him toward her.

All he had to do was lie down beside her and sleep, and they'd be back
in the dream once again.  Together.  In a place where the problems of
the world didn't exist.  And she would come to him with the familiar
loving warmth he craved.

They would both seem well and healthy.  But he wouldn't know whether
she was really unharmed, and he couldn't take that risk.

Instead he went to the small analyzer in the corner Then he flopped
down beside Cassie for several more, minuteS, covering her hand with
his, watching her sleep.  The increased oxygen helped.  Finally, he
felt ~11 enough to get up.

Cautiously he crossed to the door and pal reed the control panel,
opening the barrier a crack.  The fans he'd turned on had done their
work, and only a trace of smoke remained in the control room.

Cmod.  Because he had work to do.

Irwst he opened the healing cabinet and got out three cutaneous
patches--a bright blue one and a small green one for him and a larger
green one for Cassie.  His footsteps were light.  But when he reentered
the room, she stirred.

As he knelt, her lids fluttered.  Slowly, her eyes opened and focused
on him, and the terrible knot of his chest loosened a little.  "How are
you?"  he whispered.

She seemed to consider the question carefully.  He watched her take a
cautious breath and let it out slowly.

"I passed out," she finally whispered.  He nodded.

She tried to sit up.  He kept a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Lie still.  You need to rest."

Cassie turned her head and looked at the unfamiliar surroundings.

"Is this another dream?"  she whispered, her voice slightly hoarse.

"No.  We are safe.  In a sleeping chamber."  alarm at the door.

"I put the flames out."

Several seconds elapsed before she spoke again.

"You dragged me out of there."

Her eyes were bright and focused on him with a new understanding.

"Thank you."

He wasn't prepared for the way her gaze stripped away his defenses.

"Does it hurt to breathe?"

"No."  Her voice was still gritty.

"Your throat?"

She swallowed, winced and nodded.

"You need to sleep and get your strength back.  Do you want water?"

She nodded.

He brought a cup, lifted her head and helped her drink.  Then he eased
her back to a supine position.

"I am going to give you some medicine--some- thing that is absorbed
through the skin.  When you wake up, you will feel much better."

He stripped the backing from the larger green patch and pressed it to
her neck.

"Wait."  She tried to pull his hand away.  He held the patch in place
until her lids fluttered.  Then he took it off again.

"Sleep, dubina."

In minutes she sank into a deep, healing slumber.  First he gave
himself a smaller dose of the same healing medication.  Then with a
grimace, he pressed the blue patch to the other side of his neck and
waited until the drug hit his system.  It was a powerful stimulant, and
he probably shouldn't be using it in combination with the other
medication.  But he had a great deal of work to do.  He felt an
immediate jolt.  His senses sharpened, and his emotions surged out of
control.  For a second, his logical mind was swamped by the overload. 
If Lodar had been in the room, he would have grabbed the man's neck and
squeezed.

He'd never felt that kind of anger.  It was so ahrming, he dug his fin
gem into the carpet to steady himself.

Eyes closed, he eat led on the techniques he'd learned in training.

With deep breathing he brought himself under control.

Lifting Cassie's hand, he pressed her knuckles against his lips.  Then
he covered her with a light blaulmt and slipped a pillow under her
head.  In the grooming alcove, he filled a cup with water got himself.
It made his throat feel a little better.  The smell of smoke clung to
his clothing and body, and he !  oolmd longingly at the molecular
cleaner.  But he wasn't going to use up his pl~cious time merely
getting comfortable.

Pausing in the entryway to the control room, he slnnmyed the scene of
the fire.  The damage was surf  nisingly minor, considering the amount
of smoke.  the screen Lodar had used was ruined.

The black streaks fanning out along the walls on either side were
worse than they looked.  The stone walls hadn't burned, and none of the
other equipment appeared to be damaged.

Even the smell of soot had been mostly filtered from the air.

After taking a seat at the console, he began to query the analyzer.

The first news was good, be decided with an ironic snort.  The fire was
a deliberate accident arranged by Lodar and not a result of equipment
failure.  At least he knew the station wasn't disintegrating.  The
problem with the solar collectors was also not as bad as he feared.
They appeared to have been damaged by the avalanche that had trapped
Cassie.  The third panel was automatically taking over the work lead of
the other two.

Next he inventoried the supply rooms and cabinets, making note of
particularly useful items.  Yet all the _time he knew in his heart he
was stalling.  He didn't want to confirm the worst, but he had to
know.

The station was equipped with an outdoor camera that periodically
photographed the night sky from a variety of angles.  Thorn brought up
the pictures, made a composite and studied the result.  He could tell
nothing from the casual inspection.  But the analyzer would give him
the information he sought.  For a me meat he hesitated.  Then he
requested a comparison of the present star chart with the first one the
station had made, "How many years separated the two views?"  he The
machine made rapid calculations and answered, "Two thousand, eight
hundred and fifty-five years."

Thorn felt his throat close.  For several seconds it was difficult
drawing a full breath, as if the weight of the mountain above him were
pressing down on his body, crushing him to oblivion.  Carefully he went
through the process again, checking the current sky with the view when
Lodar had sealed him his fate.

When he asked the question again, he got the same answer.  Two
thousand, eight hundred and fifty-five years.

For long moments he sat rigid in the chair, staring at the screen,
trying to make his mind absorb the information.

He'd known he was far from home.  He hadn't dared contemplate the
length of his exile.

Now-A noise made him turn.

Cassie was standing by the door, inspecting the damage to the room.

When she saw he was watching her, she gave him a little smile and
gestured toward the only place where the fire damage was visible.

"I think we lucked out."

"Lucked out.  As in acquired good fortune?"  She nodded and he didn't
argue the point.

"How do you feel?"  he asked.

"Better than you, I think," she said in a quiet voice as she gave his
face the same inspection she'd given the room.

"Have you been busy here all the time I was ~ He nodded, then
stretched, trying to work the kin~ cut of his muscles.

She came closer and peered at the ruined screen.  ~Did you figure out
what started the fire?  "

decision as he'd watched her lying on the rug.  He was never going to
be

anything but honest with her again, no matter what it cost him.

"Lodar coded a malfunction into his tape."

"I couldn't understand what he was saying," Cas- she whispered.

Thorn felt his face harden.

"He was gloating."  Cassie touched his shoulder, then she knelt so that
her face was almost at his eye level.

"You said he was talking about your children.  And... and you looked so
anguished.  Did he do something to them?"  she asked urgently.

"You mean kill them?"  Thorn choked out.

"No."  He closed his eyes and fought to keep from being swallowed alive
by pain so intense it felt as if his insides were torn and bleeding.
After several seconds he was able to continue.

"He pointed out that I will never see them again."

"You love them very much."  It wasn't a question.  Cassie's voice
carried absolute conviction.

He didn't trust himself to speak.  His soul was still too flayed. So he
nodded tightly and didn't bother to correct her verb tense.  Not love. 
Loved.  Refering to the past.  He'd thought he was scientifically
sophisticated.

He was still having trouble grappling with the concept of traveling so
far while standing in one spot.

Mercifully, Cassie seemed to sense that he didn't want to answer any
more questions.  She laid her head on his knees and wrapped her arms
around his waist.  He wanted to ask what she was feeling.  But he'd
vowed to demand nothing from her.  The silence between them stretched.
Finally he cast around for somothln~ to ~ay.

"Your clothes ate smoky.  You need to get cleaned up."

He helped her to her feet.  When she swayed, he steadied her with his
hands under her elbows.  She leaned back against him and sucked in a
long breath.

"Okay?"

"I'm dizzy, but it's going away."

"The medicine sometimes does that.  It should not last too long."

"What did you give me?"

"A drug that induces sleep while it heals the body."

"You were in the fire, too--crawling around while I was unconscious.
You don't need any healing?"

"I took some of the drug, as well.  But I could not sleep.  I had We
much work to do."

He led her back to the sleeping chamber and opened one of the storage
compartments.  As he shifted through the contents, he could see that
they hadn't been prepared specifically with him in mind.  Lodar had
simply shoved in modular units when he'd put the facility together. The
logical conclusion was that he hadn't had much time to plan the
kidnapping--for all the good that did Thorn.

Cassie pulled a lock of hair to her nose.

"It's not just my clothes that smell awful."

"You can clean yourself in the grooming alcove."  He pointed to the
door he'd left open.

"Is there something resembling a shower?"

"Shower?  You clean your bodies in the rain?"

~ gave a spontaneous little laugh that did a lot to convince him she
was recovering.  Then her expres~ changed abruptly to pain.  ~: He
gripped her arm.

"Are you sick?"  This time her laugh was harsh.

"No.  Assaulted by ~ bs.d memory.  I played out in the rain and mud
once.

I was ~embering what happened when my father came home and found I'd
gotten my clothes muddy.  "

"He used laundry detergent to make them whiter than white?"  he quoted
a phrase from television.

"I wish."  She gave him a sad smile.

"He threw them in the garbage and whipped me with a strap."

Thorn stared at her.

"Your father... whipped you.  I Jke a... a farmer would whip his
oxen?"

Her cheeks colored.

"He believed in discipline."

"I do not understand.  You discipline with love, not with physical
punishment."

"When you love your children," she retorted.

"Is whipping offspring usual in your society?"

"That's hard to say.  Most people who beat their kids don't do it in
public."

He couldn't keep the horror out of his voice.

"What kind of world do you come from?"

"One with... problems."

"Tell Her face darkened: " I'm not in any shape to defend society.  "

"I am sorry.  I have no right to interrogate you."  She sighed
wearily.

I'll feel better when I'm cleaned up.  "

"I understand.  So will I."

"You could go first," she offered.

"After you."

She nodded f~ell' nally.

"So tell me what to do.  In our bathrooms, we have a little stall where
you stand under a spray of Water and clean your body.  You lather soap
on your skin and use shampoo on your hair.  Do you have those?"

"Not p~cisely."

He took her into the grooming alcove and pressed on the wall.  A niche
opened.

"When you step inside, there is a mist of cleansing molecules."  She
looked somewhat doubtful.

"I ... I'll take your word for it."

"Watch."  He stock his arm inside.  The air within the chamber glowed a
soft pink.  When she looked closely, she saw tiny points of light dance
over Thorn's hand and up his sleeve.

"You will find it refreshing."

"All right."

"I do not like leaving you alone so soon after you have wakened from
the healing drug.  But I respect your nudity taboo."

"It's not a taboo."

"What is it?"

"I will give you privacy.  But I will be outside if you ~eed me."

Cassie clutched the fresh clothing Thorn had given her as she watched
him turn resolutely away from the bathroom door.  Almost at once, he
vanished from her line of vision.

When he didn't reappear, she knew.  he must be guarding the entrance
like a sent~.  She al most shouted for him to go away and lie down, but
she ~ it wouldn't do any good.  Sighing, she shoved the clothes he'd
given her onto a little she fl The effort left her breathless and
light-headed.  With a curse, she fiatl~ a steadying hand against the
~dl and sucked in several lungfuls of air.

"Are you all right?"  Thorn called.

'~ "Yes.  You don't need to stand right outside."  .  "

"I will stay."

~' ~ nodded silently.  One thing she'd learned, there was no use
arguing with Thorn when he had

made up his mind about something.  Leaning against the edge o~ the
sink, she struggled to breathe normally as she tried to cope with her
swirling emotions as well as her weakened condition.

Lord, in the past twenty-four hours she felt as if she'd been swept
away by a cyclone.  Yet there was always one overwhelming constant at
the center.  Thorn.  Her eyes squeezed shut as her mind flashed back
over every moment that had passed between them.  Including the dream.

When she'd awakened, she'd been frightened of the intimacy that had
built between them.  Not just the physical closeness.  The sense of
openness--of caring.  She'd never dared let herself feel that way about
anyone except her sister.  And with Mariaaa it was different because it
lacked the sexual component of a man and a woman powerfully attracted
to each other.

Cassie tugged her shirt over her head and let it drop from her hand.

On a deep, unconscious level, she'd longed for someone who could love
her and accept her love in return.

Yet even in her dreams, she'd been cautious.  She'd opened up because
she could pretend she was only playing with a fantasy.  It had been a
shock to discover that Thorn was as genuine as the avalanche that had
trapped her here.  The sudden realization had made her feel dangerously
vulnerable.  Uncertain.  Terrified.

She glanced quickly toward the door, then away, haft-afraid that he
could read her thoughts.  When he didn't come charging into the room,
she breathed out a little sigh.

Still, she knew he was out there.  Becaus~ he was worried about her.
Because he want~xt to pro It was hard to believe in those sentiments.
Yet she would do~ the same thing if the situation were reversed.

"Do you need my help?"  Thorn called out.  Cassie gulped, realizing
that he was listening in~eatly to her every move.  But she hadn't been
moving; she'd been standing and musing.

"I'll be finished in a minute."

"How do you feel?"

"Better," she answered, realizing it was true.  The medicine had
improved her physical condition immeasurably.

But her emotions were still in turmoil.  After a quick glance toward
the place where she knew Thorn was standing, she unhooked her bra and
skinned off her panties.

Washing the "shower" stall had a door, she stepped imide.

Immediately, the air changed.  Pinpoints of light clustered over her
skin, and she felt a strange tin~oling take possession of her body.
Unprepared for the sensation, she couldn't hold back a startled gasp. A
milli.  ~xond later, Thorn charged into the room, his face tense with
alarm.  As he crossed to her, she automatically shrank back against the
wall and raised o~ arm in front of her breasts.  His hands were allmdy
on her shoulders.

"Cassie, are you hurt?"

"I--I wasn't expecting..."  She gulped and started a~ain: "The
molecules s-startled me," she stammered.

The color of his cheeks deepened and he swore under his breath.

"I am sorry.  I was worried."

She gave him a tiny nod.

"I know."

They stood looking into each other's eyes, sharing a wealth of
emotions.  He loosened his hold.  But in112 Prince of iUtme stead of
letting go, his hands slid down her arms.  The combination of his
fingers touching her and the tingling sensation of the molecules made
her shiver.  She knew from the way the blue of his eyes deepened that
he felt it, too.

"I should get out of here and give you ~four privacy," he said in a
rough voice.

But he didn't.

Chapter Seven

Perhaps she held him with her heated gaze, because he didn't move.

Time seemed to stand still.  And the world shifted below her.

"Thorn."  As if they had a will of their own, her arms slid around his
neck.  She had never felt more defenseless.  Or more bold.

Trembling, she lowered her head to his shoulder.  A deep sigh shuddered
out of him.  Gently his fingers siffted through her hair, down he~
back, and across her hips.

Everywhere he touched, the chamher's molecules shimmered on her skin,
intensifying the tactile sensations, making her want to know what it'
w0.  uld feel like with her.  fingers again~ ds skin.  Blindly, her
hands found the hem of his shirt and tugged it up as she slid her
fingers over his ribs.

"Cassie, do not."

Her heart wrenched, then began to pound franti- ~ in her chest.  The
dream they'd shared could be too ugh courage.

"Do you want me ~ He made a low sound that might have been part .
~lit~', part prayer.  Stepping away, he pulled the shirt his head and
tossed it with her clothes on the

floor.  Then his hands went to the waistband of his pants.  In one
smooth motion, he skimmed them over his hips and down his legs.

She stood without moving, her eyes taking in his superb male body, hard
muscles, copper skin.  It was as if a Crreek god had come to life in
this little room-- and come to claim her as his own.

The first time she'd seen him like this--it seemed centuries ago--she'd
been quaking inside.  And she was still quaking.  But not for the same
reasons.  Back then the two of them had been wary strangers.  Now-Now
he was magnificently aroused.  Yet he didn't cross the space between
them.

"Thorn?"  she asked in a shaky voice.

"When we woke up after the dream, you did not want to finish what we
had started."

"I was afraid."

"Of me?"

Her fists clenched and unclenched at her sides as she thought of what
was at stake.

"Of taking risks.  Of trusting my feelings."

"And now?"

Now she was lost.  Lost without him.  Trapped in a world between
fantasy and reality.  Yet he could be hers.  if she dared.

She held out her hand to him.

He came to her, stepping under the pink light, the molecule~ dancing
over his skin like a tiny meteor shower.

She said his name again.  This time with more confidence.

He reached to touch her, sliding his fingers over her ribs the way
she'd done to him, making her exh~le a long sigh of pleasure.

"You do not know me."  His voice was low and full of pain.

"I have no right to touch you intimately.  No right to drag you into my
problems.  I should tell you things" -- She stopped him by pressing her
fingers to his lips.

"Later.  For now I know everything that's important."

His eyes held a challenge and a question.

"Lift your hands over your head."

Did he know that was a gesture of surrender?  She did as he asked, and
he followed the length of her arms with his fingertips, reaching up to
her wrists, where he pressed his fingers against the pounding pulse
points.

She dragged in a shuddering breath, but she made no move to pull
away.

"Ah, you do trust me," he murmured.

"Even after everything that has happened."

She heard the deep feeling in his voice.

"Heart and soul."

He held her gaze as he reached back to a panel be- ~ide the door.  The
pink light faded.  The molecules no longer danced and swirled around
them.  Now the tiny chamber was a dimly lit, intimate place.

"I do not want you to feel any sensation against your body but my
touch," he growled as his fingertips played over the soft skin of her
inner arms, ~ paused to caress the sensitive hollows at their base. She
hadn't known they were erogenous zone~.  But she felt "Only you," she
breathed, bracing her palms ~8Ain~t the walls.

"That's all I want."  118 ~ back a little, his hands go' rag to her
hair, ill firing it out around her head.

"A golden d Ud," he murmured, combing through the soft strands.

"So beautiful.  I wish I had more words in your language to tell you
how deeply you affect me."

"You don't need words," she whispered.  His eyes deepened to midnight
blue as he cupped her breasts in his hands.

"You are magnificent.  L'fl~e no other woman."

His words brought a rush of pleasure.  He smiled and, with teasing
little strokes, began to caress her so that her nipples hardened to
tight, exquisitely sensitive buds.  Then he began to draw circles that
came closer and closer to those points of sensation without touching
them.

"Please," she begged.

"Please."

"Oh, yes."

"And this?"  He scoured her with his roughened fingertips, making her
insides liquefy.

"Oh!"

Head back, breath coming in LITTLE gasps, she stood before him as his
fingers moved over her body in tiny sensual pat term she'd never
dreamed of, and his lips played with her neck, the edge of her jaw and
finally the coral buds he had brought to throbbing peaks of pleasure.
She had only limited experience with men.

But she sensed that this one was an extraordinary lover.  He seemed to
know every erotic secret of a woman's body.

His face was intense, his navy eyes catching every nuance of her
response and heightening her delight a thousand fold

"This is better than any dream," she gasped out.

"Oh, yes."

When she reached for him, he stopped 'her hands.

"Let me touch you," she begged.

"I want to give you the same pleasure you're giving me."  He shook his
head.

"I have been alone for a long time.  Do you understand?"

But it was impossible for her to remain entirely sub mi  ~I've.  When
his lips nibbled at hers, she cried his name and angled her head to
deepen the kiss.  When his hands stroked down her belly and through the
tri~ of hair at its base, she whimpered and moved against }tim.

His fingers drifted lower, finding her liquid cure, stroking with a
knowing finesse that made her gasp as little shock waves coursed
through her.  And all the time he spoke to her, low intimate words,
sometimes in English, sometimes in his own language.

"Thorn.  Please.  I need ... you," she gasped.

"Put your hands on my shoulders, dubina."  She did, and he lifted her
up.  She hadn't known three was a little shelf in the wall behind her
until he s~t her onto it.

Heat curled in her stomach as he moved between her ~ knees.  She
instinctively braced her feet again.  ~t the curved walls.  She was
utterly open to him, utterly ~ vulnerable, and she looked up boldly
into his blue ~y~s.

: They held her, burning into her soul.  Yet she saw the same
defenselessness she felt.  Then he thrust for~ name as he filled her.

~ lastinctively she began to rock again.  ~t him, but he urgent hands
on her hips, his chest and falling in ragged gasps.

"No.  Be still, sweet.  Be very still."  Every fiber of her being bade
her to drive for completion.

But she did as he asked.  For long moments he stood with his eyes
closed, breathing deeply, his face tight as he fought for control Then
be brushed his lips back and forth against hers while he cupped her
breasts once more, running his thumbs over the centers, caressing her
in wonderfully erotic ways that brought Waves of shuddering sensation
sweeping over her body.

Her inner muscles contracted around him, making them both gasp.  '~ She
couldn't hold b~ack a whimper as one of his hands moved to the place
where their bodies were joined, stroking a rhythm that built her
tension to a peak almost beyond endurance.

"Let me.  Thorn, let me," she pleaded.

Her hips moved in frantic spasms.

"Thorn!"  She cried his name again as she toppled over the edge, her
fingers digging into his shoulde~ as shock after shock of pure pleasure
took her.  He drove into her, finally, with powerful strokes that
pushed her against the wall.  And then he threw his head back in a
hoarse shout that echoed in the tiny chamber.

Cassie slumped against him, sated.  Thorn kissed the damp hair that
clung to her cheek.

She raised her hands enough to languidly stroke the slick muscles of
his back.

He turned slightly, reaching behind him, and she felt the refreshing
tingle of the molecules against her skin again.

She rested her head against his shoulder and for long moments they
drifted in the contented afterglow, his arms strong and secure around
her.

"We cannot stay here forever," he finally said.

She sighed and nodded, slipping off the shelf and bracing her hands on
his shoulders as she stood.

He turned off the chamber and led her out.  Instead of the shirt and
pants he'd selected earlier, he brought her a sleep raiment and helped
her into the sleeves.

"Now you are all covered up.  Modest."

She blushed and he stroked her cheek.

"$o lovely."

His face held a mixture of warmth and something she was afraid to
examine too closely.  She sensed there wca'e things he wanted to say,
perhaps things she didn't want to hear.

But she needed to cling to the wonderful feeling of "Sleep with me,"
she murmured.

"There is much I need to tell you."

She watched his internal debate.  When he turned and picked up the
smoke-drenched clothes from the floor and shoved them into a hidden
wall slot, she felt a knot of uncertainty grow in her stomach.

When he finished, she took his hand.

"Are you going to tell me you regret making love to me?"  she

"Then whatever you want to say can wait until the morning."

She held her breath during his thirty-second pause.  ~"All right."

~-~Cassie felt as if she'd won a monumental victory.  she led him back
to the bedroom.  He unfastened the top of the covers from the
headboard, and she slipped onto the wide bunk.  He came down beside
her, and she snuggled into his warmth.  Moments later, the lights
dimmed to a gentle glow near the door of the grooming alcove.

She turned and held him to her, and his arms went around her.  His lips
nibbled along her hairline, found her ear and did things that sent an
erotic shiver sizzling through her body.

She let the sensations carry her along.  There was so much she wanted
to say, reassuring things.  But she wasn't going to risk starting a
discussion that she didn't know if she could finish.  And she knew he
must feel the same way.  Tears misted her eyes, but she blinked them
back.

Thoughts of the future were dangerous.

It was safer to dedicate hem elf simply to enjoying the night they had
together.

CASSm DIDN'T KNOW when Thorn awoke.  When her eyes blinked open, she
found him standing by the bed and ga~ing down at her with a tender
expression.

"How do you feel?"

She stretched luxuriously.

"Wonderful."

"I should have let you get more sleep."

"It's quality, not quantity, that counts."  His face turned serious.

"Are we talking about sleeping or making love?"  r She felt her cheeks
grow rosy.

"I meant sleeping."

"And the other?

Did I make too many demands last night?  "

"Never."  She'd never dreamed of such sensuality or such rapture.  Nor
was she accustomed to talking about ~her feelings.  But she struggled
to come up with words that would capture the night.

"Loving you was the most breathtaking thing that ever happened to me.
You made me feel exhilarated and cherished."

"Yes.  That is a good description of how it was for me."

They smiled into each other's eyes.  When she held out her hand, he
settled on the edge of the bed.  Then she noticed he was holding two
cups from which a licious smell wafted.

She drew in the heady scent.

"What is it?"

"We call it ambrosia."

"Food for the gods."

"What?"

"That's what the ancient Greeks said their gods ate."

He looked momentarily startled.

"I hope it lives up to the advance notices."

Cassie started to sit up, remembered she'd cast off her sleep raiment
soon after getting into bed and dragged the covers up around her
breasts.

"Modest, as always," Thorn teased.

She ignored him and took a small sip.  The beverage was delectable.

like fruit and wine but with tastes she couldn't identify.

"Do you like it?"

"You had this, and you let me fix ale hydrated chic!~en soup?"

"I did not know what things I would find here, du- " What does that
word mean?  "

"It is a very small, very beautiful white bird.  Rare ~nd precious.  So
it translates into 'dear one."

" He pro meal for several heartbeats.

"On my ... in my land."  ~:, She felt the room had suddenly become rife
with ~on.  And she admitted what she had been fighting

to deny during their glorious night of lovemaking.  She'd gathered all
her courage and made a decision last night, and a door to untold riches
had opened he- fore her.  Yet it could slam shut again, unless Thorn
trusted her.

Fear shimmered through her like an icy rain penetrating her to the
marrow of her bones.  Struggling to appear calm, she found his hand and
folded it into hers.

"You want to tell me where you come from?"

"A long way from here."

"Well the cold war's over, so I guess you're nota Russian spy," she
quip peri "Unless they groomed you for a special mission and forgot
about you.  Is that your secret?"  "What is a Russian spy?"

She laughed.

"I think we're in serious trouble.  You and I."

His face was tx~'efful.  Sad.

"We should have talked before I let myself get carried away."

Cassie fought to keep her voice steady.

"You said you have children.

What about your wife?  " she managed to ask.

"Is she the problem between us?"  He gave a LITTLE shake of his head.

"It was over between me and Sanda a long time ago."  Cassie let out the
breath she was holding.

For several moments Thorn seemed lost in memo- des--good and bad.

Then he began to speak.

"She and I met when we were young and both working on field projects.

After the twins were born, she was restie~ living in the city and
wanted to go back to our old life.  I argued that we needed to give
Reah and Januk more stability.  " He sighed.

"She tried to give the three of us what we needed, I think.  But I knew
she was unhappy, and our relationship was falling apart.

Finally I told her to go ahead and take a short assign- meat away from
home.  I was hoping we could work a compromise where she would be with
us part of the time.  "

He paused, and Cassie saw the anguish etched into.  his features.

"She was coming home on leave.  But there was a flier crash," he said
in a gritty voice.

"Everybody on board was killed."

"I'm sorry," Cassie whispered, finding his hand and gripping it
tightly.

"I should have" -- "Don't beat yourself up about her decisions."  Thorn
nodded, although she suspected he was never going to stop blaming
himself.

"And now Reah and Januk have ended up completely alone," he grated.

"In the care of strangers."

"Perhaps with loving strangers," Cassie murmured.

"A couple who wanted children and couldn't have any of their own.
People who wlXl take good care of the girl and boy fate gave them.  But
even so, Reah and Januk never will forget their father."  He was
hanging on her words, she saw, trying to make himself believe they were
true, and she struggled to give him as much comfort as she could.

"Thorn, I know you were a good parent," she said.

"If I'd had even a little time with someone like you, I would have
been" She swallowed, wishing she hadn't started down this avenue.

"Been what?"

"Happier," she said in a low voice.

"Better adjusted, as the psychologists say."

"Cassie."  He took he ring his arms, and they held ~ other, rocking
slightly, giving and taking comfort

Finally, he drew away, putting several inches of space between them.

"I think I am only going to add to your problems."

She shook her head violently.

"You may not ~ the rest of what I am going to ~ you."

She held his hand tightly, unwilling to relinquish the contact of his
flesh against hers.

"You may think I am lying," he continued.

"Or suffering from... delusions."

"You're wrong.  I've told you already, I know the important things
about you."

"You know very little."

"I know you're an honorable man.  You're strong willed."  She gave a
little laugh.

"Arrogant.  And stubborn.  But you're good.  On a very fundamental
level.  I know you have deep convictions that frightened a man named
Lodar, so he exiled you to this ~- cret place."  She swallowed.

"I've been trying to figure out where you come from.  There are a
couple of possibilities."

He waited, watching her with unnerving attention.  She continued in a
matter-of-fact voice that she hoped hid the tension twisting inside
her.

"I suppose it's conceivable that there's an advanced civilization
somewhere on earth that we don't know about.  Under the ocean--the lost
city of Ariantis--or deep undergroUnd.

But I think it's more likely that you're from the future.  And Lodar
shoved you into a time machine and sent you back to our era.  "

"A time machine," Thorn echoed.

"You have come up with a logical explanation for my presence here.  In
a way, you are right.  Yet not precisely accurate."

Cassie felt a shiver run over her skin.

"What, then?"

"Lodar stuffed me into a sleeping Chamber.  Well, not exactly sleep in
the normal sense of the word.

Something deeper.  Where the body's processes are slowed--virtually
stopped.  My people use it for long journeys.  "

"I don't understand."

"I think your entering the station activated an automatic process that
woke me up.  Until then, I was in suspended animation.  I did the
calculations while you were recovering from the fire.  I had been
sleeping for..."  He stopped and swallowed, then continued in a flat
voice.

"Two thousand, eight hUndred and fifty five years."

Cassie gasped.

"That... that's impossible."  His mouth twisted.

"I

would have agreed.  To my kn~owledge, nobody has ever survived that
long a time span in a delta cylinder.  " He held out his hands, turning
them palms up.

"But it appears to be true."

"But that means... Are you telling me there was a highly advanced
civilization on earth thousands of years ago?  Why haven't
archaeologists discovered some evidence?"

"Cassie," he said very gravely.

"Are there stories in your mythology about men coming from the sky in
strange ships?  Men from another world?"  A~ he spoke, the blood
drained from her face.  ~ "That frightens you," he said in a flat
voice.  She clung to his hand again, feeling the solid bones beneath
his warm flesh.  Scooting closer, she pressed ~ his shoulder.

"Do you believe me?"  he asked sharply.

"That I am not from your world.  That my people visited hem long
ago?"

"Some people tell stories about being abducted by aliens now," she
whispered.

"There are books about it.  Movies.  Television programs.  But the
aliens don't look like you.

They're supposed to be small and pale with big eyes.  "

"Ah, how the mighty have fallen!"

Cassie laughed.  Then her expression sobered again.

"Thorn, I've had clues all along that you were traordinary.  Still it's
hard to believe that a man from another..."

"Galaxy," he supplied.

"Another galaxy could look so much like us."  She gazed into his
crystal blue eyes as she stroked her fingers over his cheek, brushing
back and forth against the scratchy surface of his beard.  He sat very
still, watching her gravely.  Only his lips moved again.  ~t her
fingertips as she softly touched them.

She tunneled her hand through the thick hair of his chest and couldn't
stop herself from brushing across his nipples.  His little indrawn
breath brought a knowing thrill.

Whatever else might be true, he was a man, a man who responded to her
on a very basic level.  She found his hand again and meshed the fingers
with his, holding them up for him to see.

"You and I fit together as if it were meant to be," she murmured.

Passion flared in his eyes, and she knew he had understood her me~run~
perfec~dy.

"You may have come from far away," she added, "but the things you want
from life, the things you feel, are like ours."

They remained silent for several moments.

"My people thought it strange, too, that your race was so similar to
ours.  We had traveled so far to get here, and we were prepared for
anything."  He laughed.

"Before our first expedition left, our most advanced scientists wrote
scholarly articles about how we might meet with intelligent insects or
reptiles or beings with cry~mlline rock structure.  So it was a shock
to meet the dominant life-forms here.  We did genetic studies and
discovered that your people and ours must have common roots.  That
somehow, in a time long ago, the universe was seeded with the ancestors
of humankind."

Co~_~e nodded.  It was difficult to take in the scope of what he was
saying, but his calm, rational voice helped keep her anchored.

"But when we arrived, your civilization was in a very primitive stage
of development.  People like Lodar were delighted with the disparity.
He enjoyed showing off the wonders of our technology."  Thorn's voice
turned hard.

"He especially enjoyed frightening the natives and taking advantage of
their superstitieos.

That is how I got into trouble.  I was sent here to other information
for the High Council on what he w~ doing.  I should have kept my mouth
shut until I got back home.  But I could not watch his antics.  "

"You brought your children with you?"

"It was the only way to keep our family together.  coming from my world
to yours took thirty years, ~ the crew and passengers in suspended
snima- ~ If I'had left Reah and Januk at home, they would ~ been old by
the time I returned."

She nodded slowly.

"It's a lot to deal with.  I'm trouble absorbing it all."

know how I felt when I woke I

time or that he was still here--and using you to get evidence to
convict me of some crime.  "

The mixture of emotions on his face made her hear~ squeeze.

"No wonder you were afraid to trust me."

Blindly she reached for him, clasping him to her breast.  His arms came
up to circle her shoulders.  Their strength was reassuring.  Turning
her head, she pressed her face again.  ~t his neck, feeling the strong,
steady pulse.  He was flesh and blood, a man.  A man who was both
commanding and vulnerable, powerful and wounded.  And he had traveled
unimaginably far in time and space.  That single fact should change
everything, yet it did not.  Perhaps it was the very reason she'd been
drawn to him.

She could feel his tension as he waited for her to say something more.
Lifting her head, she met his troubled gaze.

"Where you come from doesn't alter anything between us."

"It has to."

"No.  Because I already know you very well," she murmured.

"Know you and trust you."

He gazed at her in wonder as he combed his fingers through her hair.

"Of all the people on your planet, I still cznnot believe you were the
one who found me."

"You called me here.  In your dream" she murmured.

"Dreams can he a powerful form of communication for my people.  Usually
it happens when a man and a woman" -- He stopped abruptly.

"When a man and a woman what?"

"Are very close."

A tiny exchmztion escaped from her throat, and her hands tightened
convulsively on his shoulders.

"But I never heard of it happening like this," he said emphatically.

"Physical joining comes first.  Then ghsred drezm.~. Not the other way
around.  And it dots not __n,-,vssarfiy happen--even with couples who
have been mated for years."

She nodded gravely, swamped by the implications.  She and Thorn had
reached a level of intimacy that few could achieve.  He was still
speaking.

"I do not know how I reached a woman I had never even touched.  Maybe
that is why there was such an unreal quality to those earlier dream
meetings~ Because we had never seen each other in actual life.  Never
met.  But I had no right to drag you into my problems," he added with
sudden conviction.

"You didn't drag me into anything."

"Then what?"  he challenged.

"You were the one man in all the world I trusted."  He shook his head
in dlshelieL "Do you know how I ended up coming here?  I was at the
State Department -- "The what?"

"A government agency that deals with foreign countrkz.  I take special
assignments for them, and my bo~, Victor Kirkland, wanl~d to offer me
an easy two weeks in Europe, as a reward for past performance.

But all the time we were sitting in his office t~iidng about exalt log
locales in France and Italy, my eyes kept flicking to a folder on his
desk.  I wanted to pick it up ~o badly that my fingers were actually
tingling.  "

' She lowered her gaze momentarily.

"When V'wtor was called out of the room, I did somethiog I've never my
life.  Ever.  I violated his profess/onai pfi- opened the folder.

"It was a report by another government agency--' the Federal
Communications Commission--about a strange energy source emanating from
the Ahskan wilderness.  The reason Victor had the information was that
our satellites had discovered a similar energy signature at an
archeological site in eastern Europe.  The FCC was planning to
investigate the domestic location.  They wanted Victor to get someone
on the team, excavating the foreign locale."

Thorn's attention was five ted to her.

"Where?"  he demanded.

"I do not know the name."

"It's in the part of the world you were looking at-- on the globe from
the television broadcast."

"How far away is it?"

"A long way.  Maybe seven thousand miles."  His eyes narrowed.

"Maybe that is too far."

She wasn't following his logic.  But she wanted to finish the story, so
he'd understand her motives.

"I

put the folder down before Victor caught me.  I told him I'd think
about the job offer he'd made.  But when I left igs office, I went
straight to a telephone and called a high-level contact I have at the
FCC.  She owed me a favor, so I gave her a story about needing to
combine my travel agency with my government jobs and asked her to
recommend me for the Alaska assignment.

"But I didn't stop there.  I felt strongly about coming here.  And I
kept doing things that were completely out of characler.  I also called
Xr~ctor and i -~iiinded him that my sister, Marissa, was arrested while
she was working for him.  And I'd been the one who organized her
rescue.  I told him I'd heard he was working with the FCC, and he could
settle the score with us by getting me the Alaskan job.  ve never made
that kind of demand before.  I've never felt a compul- ~on to travel to
a particular location.  I think if Victor hadn't helped, I would have
come up here by myself.  Because I knew something important was waiting
for me.  Now I know it was you."

They stared at each other for an endless space of time.

"Cassie," he w .  h~vered.

"It would be better for you if you had not come to this place."

She raised her head so that she could meet his eyes.

"It was my choice."

"Not when I compelled your presence."  Frustration clogged her
throat.

"Haven't you lislened to a thing I've said?  It was something I wanted.
I wanted to know you in real life--not just in dreams."

"I am a man without a past.  Without a means of making a living.  And I
have knowledge that could be dangerot~.  to the stability of your
world."  She wouldn't let him continue that argument.

"I

know what's happened to you seems overwhelming.  But I have a whole
group of friends who can help us.

Like Jason Zacharias and my brother-in-law, Jed Prentiss.  They have
all kinds of contacts in the intelligence community--people who can
manufacture an identity for you--so you won't have to reveal who you am
unless you want to.  They can get you a birth certificate, a driver's
license, a social security card and all t!  ~ other credentials that
will make it look like you ~ born in the Black Hi!  n of South Dakota,
if that's~ we pick.  "

H~ mind raced, and ideas tumbled from her lips.  Smith Dakota's
probably a good choice, because you

look like a Native American.  I know our culture's complicated.  But
you're a quick study.  It won't take long for me to teach you"-- He cut
her off with a gruff exclamation in his own language.

She took him roughly by the shoulders.

"Thorn, I know you're staggered by what Lodar did to you.

Anyone would have trouble coping with a society where everything is new
and strange.  But don't you see?  You have to make the best of it.  You
have to fit yourself into my world--make a contribution.  It's the only
way to cheat Lodar of his victory.  "

"I may not get the chance."

The tone of his voice sent a cold chill sweeping across her skin.

"What do you mean?  You can make a future for yourself.  You know so
much.  You'll have so much to contribute" -- "You do not understand!"
His tone was harsh, his eyes flinty.  They stopped her words and sent
prickles across her flesh.

"Cassie, my future may be limited."  She struggled to keep her voice
steady.

"How limited?"

"A few days."

Chapter Eight

Cassie's fingers locked on Thorn's naked shoulders.  They were strong
and reassuringly solid.

"What ... what do you mean?"  she managed to ask.

"I may not have much time.  It depends on how fast w~ can get to the
place you call Greece."  "Why?  "

"Lodar left me a vaccine I must take.  But I do not know whether it was
safeguarded as securely as the

Cassi~ stared at him, trying to take it all in.

"You're going too fast for me.  What vaccine?"

"There were _several expeditious from my planet that landed here--over
a period of fifty of your years.

When the first team came, some of them became sc- rim rely ill and
died.  Our healers discovered that we had i!  0 immunity to certain
bacteria in your soil.  So they drained a vaccine.  I had one dose.  It
takes two injections for full immunity.  I was due for a second when
LOdar kidnapped me.  "

_C~io nodded, denying her panic.

"The hiding ~ i, probably as well protected as you were."

~ ~ I~mok his head.

"Ido to a human life.

So it appears that even a man as dishonorable as Lodar could aot
simply kill me to rid himself of a nagging problem.  That was why he
left me here.  Probably he was hoping things would go wrong.

"Like the fire.  It was not exactly planned.  But I did some
investigating while you were asleep.  He made a mistake in the computer
instructions that caused the projector to dangerously overheat.  He
could have done the same thing with the vaccine storage system-without
admitting to himself what he was thinking.  Or that archaeological team
in Greece could have broken into the storage site."

"No!"  Cassie refused to imagine the problem couldn't he solved.

"Even if we don't find the vaccine, we have other options.  I know you
think of my people as primitive, but medical science has made amazing
progress in the past few years.  Another one' of my friends, Katie
Martin, is a doctor who specializea in developing new drugs.  She and
her husband, Mac McQuade, travel all over the world, finding medicinal
plants and turning them into useful medicines.  Maybe they can
synthesize a vaccine from your own blood.  Or use some kind of genetic
engineering technique to manufacture more."

"Mayhe."  Thorn sounded doubtful.

She plowed on as a new idea struck her.

"And if it's going to take some time to refine the process, we could
pat you back to sleep in the delta cylinder."  He shook his head.

"That is not an option.  I also did a diagnostic on the cylinder. After
so many years of continuous operation, its functions were starting to
degrade.  At first it kept me deeply asleep.  But finally the mechanism
allowed me to rise to a higher level of consciousness." '

"And you could dream?"  Cassie asked.

"That's how you were able to call me?"

"So that was an advantage!"

"In one way.  But the cylinder would not have kept working much
longer."

Co~me felt a tremor go through her.  Slipping her arms around Thorn's
back, she pulled him close and held on tight.  Her face pressed into
the thick hair of his chest, and her lips moved against his skin.

"I'm glad I got here in time."

'_"Perhaps you did," he whispered, almost as if he were speaking
against his will.

She knew that after everything he'd been through, he couldn't.  dare
trust in a happy ending.  But she wasn't going to let him give up
hope.

"We'll go right to Crreece," she promised.

"As soon as we break out of here.  You said you took an inventory of
the station's supplies.

Did you find any digging imple "Not precisely.  But there is portable
heating equip- merit that I think we can use to melt a passage
through

She sprang off the bed.

"Then let's do it.  I'm not cleared for instrument flying, so I'd like
to make it back to Anchorage before it gets dark."  Thorn retrieved her
clothing from the slot in the _~mmfing alcove.  Every il~n was spotless
and smelled as if it had been hanging on a clothesline in the crisp she
dressed, Thorn searched through the and found himself silver boots that
were a fit.  He also came up with a silver-colored

Cassie eyed him doubtfully.

"I wish we had more conventional clothes for you," she mused.

"I will stand out in a crowd?"

"Not for long.  We'll go straight from the airport to a clothing
store."

"I have been thinking about what you said.  This scheme of yours is not
going to be as easy as you assume," Thorn muttered.

"What scheme?"

"Passing me off as one of your people."

"We'll manage."

"I assume the airplane belongs to your guide.  When .  you come home
without him, you are going to have to make some explanation to the
authorities."

"I'll tell the truth.  What happened to Glen isn't my fault."

"Yes, but will they want to investigate?  What is going to happen when
they find this installation that you thought was so strange?  Your
military will be all over the place, taking samples and conducting
tests.

They will question you about exactly what you did here.  And they will
ask about me.  "

Cassie nodded gravely.  As soon as the Defense Department got wind of a
hidden base under an Alaskan mountain, they'd want to know how it got
there.

"You're right, but we can be in hiding by then," she argued.

"I told you, my friends will help us."  Thorn sighed.

"Two thousand years ago, your people marveled at our technology.  They
thought we we~ gods and began making up stories about our awesome
deeds."

"We're hardly at the same level."

"I know that.  But the dangers are greater.  I watched your
television.

You look like us, but some of your

'traits are different.  On my planet, there was only one government.

You have many nations.  -- some warring with one another.  We ended war
long ago.  We do not kill each other.

You live in a violent world where your entertainment media celebrate
murder, where governments and individuals seek ways to gain power over
one another.  What if someone sees me as a threat?  Suppose they decide
I have come here to take over the world?  Then it would be dangerous
for you to associale with me.  "

"Television gives a distorted picture.  We're not all bad," Cassie
retorted.  Yet he'd started her thinking about movies like The Day the
Earth Stood Still and Star Man where the authorities welcomed a visitor
from another planet with machine guns.  Thorn touched her cheek with
his knuckle and stroked across her lips.

"Some of you are very warm and generous.

Very loving," he said quietly.

"Some of you would come to the aid of a stranger."  She swallowed
hard.

"I am sorry to make you worry about things I may not fully
understand."

'~' "No.  There are plenty of people who would he Illraid of you.  Or
they might think they could use your ~Thorn looked thoughtful.

"Then I must hide this .i~ There am explosive charges included with the
~ ~~alim'.  We could set blasts that would bury the en'~ to the
installation under rock.  Then when your ~tie~ come looking for
evidence, they will find I co, lid explain your coming back with me by
out here camping," Cassie finished.

"And your camping equipment was buried under the avalanche that
trapped me."

"That might work," Thorn mused.

Cassie wasn't sure whether he believed the statement or whether he was
simply trying to be reassuring.

But she was determined to pull off the plan.

"Or maybe we'd-better fly to a small airport near the city-where they
don't even know Glen.  That way we'll get a head start."

"There are a few things I should take with me.  Some of the healing
patches.  Equipment to detect the cache in Greece.  Other supplies that
might be use- " I'll help you pack.  "

As Thorn checked the provisions, made selections and filled carry
packs, they talked quietly.  By mutual agreement, they stayed away from
heavy topics.  Mostly Cassie tried to prepare him for what he would see
when they reached Anchorage.

"It's the biggest city in Alaska.  But small by most standards."

"How many people live there?"

"About two hundnxt and twenty-five thousand.  But in s~mnmer there are
lots of tourists--people who come here because the state is so wild and
beautiful.  The city's very clean and neat.  There are flower baskets
hanging from the light poles in the shopping area.  And spectacular
flower displays in the parks.  The plants.

grow huge ill Sllmmer because there's so much daylight.  "

She couldn't believe she was babbling on about flowers.  But she kept
talking, relating the tour guide information that popped into her head,
knowing it was a way of trying to cope with her building tension.

Now that Thorn had raised so many questions, she knew she wasn't going
to feel secure until the two of them were back in Baltimore where they
could call on her friends for help.  She didn't know she and Thorn were
already being _s~_ !  ked.

~ MOMENT the helicopter landed on the private island near Sicily,
Feydor Lenov was ushered into a limousine and rushed to his employer's
heavily guarded estate.  He knew the V. I. P reception wasn't for him,
but for what he carried in his protective cases.  His eyes swept
nervously around the leather interior of the car, stopping at the fully
stocked bar.  He could use ~ glass of vodka before he met Montague. How
would the man react' when he found out that some of the merchandise was
in less than perfect condition?

~lacques Montague had gotten permission for the dig from the C. n~k
government with the understanding that any artifacts would remain
within the country.  But he'd had no intention of honoring the
agreement.

Iliaread, he'd ordered Feydor to bring anything of ~ignificance
directly to him.  The man who'd stolen the tablets from Zeke Chambers
fingered the handle of a Sl~l case.

Perhaps he was overreacting.

the billionaire saw the tablets, he'd re, ward the messenger with a
generous bonus.

;:~;]la~le Montague's mansion, Feydor had a quick of Italian marble
floors, a glittering chan'of a czar's palace and framed Cezannes on ere
am-colored walls.  A servant led a hall.  into the library.  In the
center was a displaying a gold-trimmed hand-scribed

copy of the Koran.  The Russian stepped toward it, but a cough from
behind made him freeze and then turn.

A short man with dark hair and a mustache stood framed in the doorway.
It was Montague.  Despite his slender build, he radiated energy and
authority.  Although Lenov had been "acquiring" priceless artifacts for
the billionaire for more than ten years, he'd only met Jacques Montague
once.  Their business was usually conducted on the phone, via fax, or
through intermediaries.

But he'd never forgotten the man's cold black eyes.  Those same eyes
focused on him like a coroner performing an autopsy.

"You've brought the merchandise?"  Montague's voice was sharp and
authoritative as ever.

"Yes.  Everytbi~g's in those cases," Lenov replied, pointing to the
heavy steel lockers two servants were carrying in.  When they had left
the room, Feydor bent down and opened the lock.

"This is what Zeke Chambers and Marie Pindel found in the cave."
Reverently Montague lifted the protective covering from a tablet.

"Oui, I was right," he said almost to himself

"You brought everything'?."

The Russian nodded.  Carefully he unwrapt~ the vases and pitchers that
were found at the site and placed them on the desk.

Lenov held his breath as Montague inspected the treasure.  He paused
over a small bottle.

"This one's ruined.  How did this happen?"

"I don't know.  Perhaps the Panerican did it," the Russian offered,
trying to k~p the tremors out of his voice.  He'd heard rumors of how
Montague dealt with "That doesn't sound like Chambers.  He's very
careful.  That's why I agreed to having him on the dig:'

Lenov waited for what seemed like centuries, while Montague examined
the bottle.

"Perhaps the explosion we used to uncover the in- her chamber damaged
it."

"Yes," Lenov agreed eagerly.

"Too bad.  But we won't let this set us back.  Chambers is on to
something important with the tablets.  I can feel it.  He's gone back
to Washington to question Kirkland.  I want you to follow Chambers and
bring me back Whatever he discovers.  My private plane and pilot are at
your disposal.  Charge anything you need to my aCCount.  But don't
disappoint me."  With those orders, he turned and marched out.

lagnov sighed.  Instead of a reward for work well done, he'd drawn
another assignment.  Getting the 'jump on Zeke Chambers a second time
was going to be extremely difficult.  He just hoped it wasn't impos ~
THORN HAD CHECKED the supplies, he and ~ returned to the analyzer
console where he is- IRled ~,-ver al commands.

Then he turned to her.

"I must shut down all functions ~ of the station so that the power will
not be de~ from outside.  Ate you ready?"

~ ~e nodded tightly and moved to stand with her ~ With a few additional
instructions to the analyzer, tin-red off every system--including life
support, amlUsht.

i: C ~. l~!  ~aedial~ly, the room was plunged into imp erie- quickly,"
he told her as he switched of two large torches that were much like

high-powered flashlights, only the beams were considerably wider.

"Because the ventilators are no longer recycling the air."

"I... know..."

He heard the quaver in her voice, knew the blackness made her nervous
as a tree cat in sunlight.  He hadn't told her it was going to be risky
melting their way through the snow.  In fact, he was determined not to
let his own tension show.  He knit his fingers with hers and squeezed
tightly.

"Okay?"

"Yes," she told him, obviously fighting to make her voice sound steady.
At the end of the tunnel, they stepped out into the snow cave.  Cassie
held one of the lights while he played a scanner over the' barrier

At first, he felt his own alarm grow.  The wall was thick, thicker than
he'd expected.  He moved down the enclosure.  Finally, the readings
changed.  Better.  But not optimal.

However, it was the best he could do.

"It is thinner here."  He pointed to an area that looked exactly like
the rest.

"How do you know?"

"This instrument can perform the measurement.  with low-levci broadcast
waves."  He pocketed the meter, bent over one of the portable heaters
and attached a nozzle to the outlet.  Then he snapped a power pack into
place.  In the confines of the cave, the noise of the blower was like
being inside the drive room of an ancient watercraft.

"Sorry," he shouted, making an adjustment that built the roar even
louder.  Then he wished himself good fortune and pointed the nozzle at
the spot where he'd determined the distance to the outside was
shortest.

Immediately, a hole opened in the suow~

He let out the breath he'd been holding.  So far, so good.  Moving
forward, he kept the nozzle aimed at the cavity.  Water dropped from
the ceiling and sides, mme.  of it turning to steam, and he was forced
to pause every few minutes to see what was happening.  On the third
break, he cut off the machine and wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Do you want me to take a turn?"  Cassie asked.

"No."  He wasn't going to tell her it was too dangerOus.  Cassie moved
forward and shone the light along the ~ of the opening.  It glistened
on a crust of ice.

Cmod.  It would stabilize the surface.  The ice extended down a rounded
tunnel about four ~mt wide and about ten feet long.  But it still ended
in ~. ~olid wall of white.  :is'If it's thin here, I hate to think
about the thick part," she murmured.

"A relative term."  Avoiding her eyes, Thorn and started to move
forward into the pastry he'd grabbed his shoulder.

"How do you know

"I do not.  But there is no choice.  The heater is ineffective beyond
this range."

she could muster an objection, he started (the tunnel.  In a moment he
sensed her coming him.

tunnel collapses, you will have to use the get me out.  "

He saw the fear in her eyes.  She masked it with a sharp retort.

"Then you'd better show me how it works."

"All right."  He stopped his forward progress long enough to
demonstrate which settings to press.

She nodded tensely.

He gave her arm a quick squeeze before inching forward again, aiming
the nozzle straight ahead.  The machine roared.  This time, in addition
to dripping water, small piles of snow began coming down from the
ceiling.  The first time, he jumped back expecting the ceiling to give
way.  When nothing bigger fell, he kept moving.

Despite his warning, Cassie came farther into the tunnel than he'd
like, training the beam on the end of the nozzle.  She was like no
other woman he'd met.  On his own world or on hers.  She'd been
terrified when she was buried under the snow, yet she was taking that
risk again, to help him see what he was doing.

He hated putting her in danger.  But he silently admitted he needed all
the help he could get.  Gritting his teeth, he pushed forward, trying
not to doubt his initial scanner readings.

He longed to stop and wipe away the water on his face.  But he kept
going, because the longer the weight of the snow pre~xl down on the
tunnel, the more dangerous it would become.  He was about twelve feet
up the tunnel when he paused again and gave a little shout of victory.
Cassie scooted up behind him as he shut off the blower.  Taking her
arm, he ushered her into what seemed like deafening silence.

The sunlight was momentarily blinding.  Covering his eyes, he d~w in
several deep breaths of fresh air.

F~e.  He was free.

Taming, he stared at the enormous cascade of snow from-which they'd
emerged.  It started far up the mountain and covered several hundred
feet of rock to their left and right.  For the first time he understood
the extent of Cassie's peril.  What must it have been like to be
standing out here when the snow came roaring down the mountain?
Shuddering, he clasped her "Glen couldn't get away," she whispered.  "I
am glad you found the rock ledge."

~ "I'm glad I found you."

I~ nodded, trying to rein in his emotions as he Immthed unfiltered air
for the first time in centuries.  Ho wanted to throw back his head and
shout.  He started to perform an ancient dance of thanksgiving.

11ut he was a man who never indulged in such displays So he contented
himself with closing his eyes 'mul lifting his face to the sun.

The wind ruffled his hair as he gazed at the expanse its stands of
slender fir trees craggy mountain ranges that stretched one be- the
distance.  To the right and left, plummeted hundreds of feet down the
old nearby cliffs.

much of your planet.  But I could never a place like this.  The land is
very wild ~ beautiful," he said, his voice full" took in the wilderness
panorama.  in winter.  When the temperature is forty for weeks' on end.
"

Cassie stood s'fienfly for several minutes, the clean, cool air.

"I see why Lodar picked this location above others," he finally
said.

"It is isolated.  Remote.  We might be the only two people in the
world."  Civilization is as close as a two-hour flight.  "

Several large brown shapes drifted across a nearby slope.

"What are those?"  he asked.

"Caribou, I think.  Or maybe moose."  She laughed~ "I can't tell them
apart for sure at this distance."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Not the caribou.  A male moose might get aggressive and charge you in
mating season."

"Which is?"

"Now."

"Then we will make sure not to disturb them.  Are there other animals?"
"Ground squirrels.  Dall sheep.  Mountain goats.  The wolves are
hunters, but they mostly stay away from people.  The bears are the
biggest threat."

"They are meat eaters?"

"They eat everything from berries to fishermen.  I hope you brought a
gun in case we need it."

"Lodar left me no weapons.  Did you come here... unarmed."

"Glen--my guide--had two rifles."  she sighed.

"He left one with the boat we used to get to shore.  I guess we
shouldn't hang around.  Let's bring the supplies outside."

He turned and peered down the tunnel.

"When everything is out, I can set the charges."

"I wish you didn't have to use explosives."

"I will be careful."

"They were silent as they retraced their path down the pzzsa~ay.

Above them, the snow groaned and shifted.

"This place isn't safe," she muttered.  He didn't voice his agreement,
but he speeded up his

When they'd ferried his small ~tock of necessities outside, he asked to
borrow Cassie s watch.

"I will set ~ charges with a fifteen-minute delay.  That should ~ve us
plenty of time to get away."

BefOre 'going back in, he gave Cassie a reassuring that was meant to be
quick.  Instead, he held on to 'for several long moments.  Now that he
was out- ill de it was almost impossible to make himself return it he
cold, dark place where he'd been trapped for three thousand years.  But
the existence of the had to be hidden.

C~she stood in the sunshine, listening to Thorn's When he disappeared
from view, her constricl~el.  After a moment, she turned and I at the
slowly drifting clouds.  Time inched past.

she felt as if he'd been in there for more she thought she heard the
snow shift she called down the passage.  "I'm finished with the charge.
"

God.  " The crunch of gravel made her Shading her eyes, she spotted a
small blond anup the slope toward her.  For a mo- figure out what it
could be, since the for a Dall sheep.  Then she sucked in as she
realized it was a grizzly cub with of the region.

The youngster itself was more curious than dangerous.

But Cassie knew that a bear cub was never far from its mother.

"Thorn!"  she called urgently down the tunnel.

"What is wrong?"  he answered, his voice reflecting the alarm in
hers.

"I'm afraid we have company.  Bears."

Before she could elaborate, the mother lumbered over the ere st of the
hill.  Cassie's mouth went dry.  The grizzly stared at her in surprise.
Then the animal growled and reared onto its hind legs, its full
nine-foot height and eight hundred' pounds towering over Cas she like
an avenging fury.

Chapter Nine

For a split second, Cassie considered ducking into the tunnel to escape
from the angry bear.  But that was a dangerous option.  She and Thorn
would both be trapped in the cave--with live explosives that were set
to detonate in less than fifteen minutes.

"Cassie?  What's wrong?"

Thorn shouted, his footsteps hammering toward her.

"Can you defuse the charges?"  she called.

"No.,~ " Damn.  Stay back," she warned as the cub loped toward the
tunnel entrance and stuck its head inside.

Lord, what she wouldn't give for a rifle in her hand.

"Hey.  Get away from there.  Scat."  Cassie waved her arms and bellowed
to distract the nosy animal.  Turning, the cub veered away from the
passageway.

But ~ youngster was the least of her problems.  Bent on protecting her
offspring, the mother charged forward, her gait deceptively clump.
Teeth bared in an angry snarl, she hurtled directly at Cassie, There
was no time to think~ only to act inst inc- lively.  As the animal
reared and lunged, Cassie danced out of the way.  But not quite fast
enough.  Razor-sharp

claws dug into the sleeve of her jacket, shredding the nylon fabric
like tissue paper.

With a sob of terror, Cassie tried to duck away.  But the animal stayed
on the attack.  This time Cassie wasn't so lucky.  A set of needlelike
scratches raked down the side of her cheek and tore into her left
-shoulder.  Her scream of pain split the clear mountain air.

Behind her, the snow over the tunnel rumbled ominously.  But she hardly
heard.  All her attention was focused on the bear as it wheeled and
started for her once more, smelling her blood, coming in for the
kill.

Her shoulder throbbed.  She could feel herself slowing down, knew that
it was only a matter of time before the angry animal finished her
off.

A horrified shout caught the grizzly off guard.

"Klat.t" Both Cassie and the mother bear swung toward the new sound. In
the next moment, Thorn bane led into the sunlight, blinking in the
sudden brightness.  The whole equation shifted.  The cub growled and
retreated.  The mother grizzly switched directions and made for the new
threat.

"Get back!  She can kill you with one swipe," Cas- sic screamed,
swaying on her feet.  With a burst of energy, she picked up a chunk of
ice and hurled it at the animal's back.  The effort sent her reeling,
and she toppled heavily onto the ground.

The grizzly yelped and stopped in its tracks, leaning this way and
that, as if it debated whether to go after the man who had just
appeared or the woman who had hurled the ice ball.

"Cassie!"  Thorn called, his voice hoarse with dread as he stared
across the fifteen feet that separated them.

He wouldn't get far with an eight-hundred-pound bear looming in his
path.

"I'm all right," Cassie 'called out with as much- conviction as she
could muster.

Thorn's face was a mixture of anguish and frustration.

"Your arm."

She turned her head and saw torn flesh and a bright splotch of her own
blood.  The red transformed itself into tiny spots dancing before her
eyes.  She knew she was going to faint, but somehow she held on to
consciousness.

The bear started toward Thorn.

"The heater," she gasped.

"Blast it with the heater."

This time the gri:,~-ly swung toward the sound of her voice.  She tried
to push herself up and get out of the way.  But she couldn't move more
than a few inches.  She could hear Thorn cursing as he made for the
equipment he'd dumped by the entrance to the cave.  Rolling to her.

side, she tried to follow him with her eyes.  Then the bear blocked her
line of sight.  Cassie lay on the ground panting, watching the animal
advance on her, eyes bright, teeth bared.  Mustering one last surge of
energy, Cassie braced against the ground.  As the bear lunged, she
raised her foot and kicked the animal's muz:de as hard as she could
with the heel of her boot.  Then she flopped back into the snow, her
blood spreading in a wide patch around her.

The gri~y's howl of rage was accompanied by another sound--a roar that
Cassie's fuzzy brain couldn't immediately identify.  Then, with a jolt
of recognition, she realized it was the heater.  Louder than before.

The bear swung away from her.  Then she saw Thorn, charging at the
animal, the heater aimed in front of him like a machine gun.  He'd
turned up the power so high that the nozzle glowed red.  A blast of
super hot air hit the bear, and it howled and jumped back.  Thorn kept
advancing, his face savage, his eyes flashing fire.

The animal's fur began to singe.  With a yelp of pain, the grizzly
turned on its heels and galloped down the hill, the cub lure bering
along behind.  Cassie fell back against the snow, hanging on to
consciousness by sheer willpower.  Thorn was at her side, leaning over
her, examining her wounds, cursing.

She tried to reassure him with a squeeze of her fingers against his.

It was too much effort, and she realized with the part of her mind that
was still working that she must he in shock.

"The explosives... Got to ... get you away from here.  Quick."

He lifted her by the shoulders.  She cried out in agony as he jostled
her torn flesh.

"Sorry."  He half lifted, half dragged her down the hill, away from the
mound of snow that covered the installation.

The two packs of supplies he'd slung over his shoulder bounced against
his body, partially blocking her view of the tunnel.  But when she
heard the massive pile shift, she raised her head.  Over Thorn's
shoulder she saw the entrance to the passageway cave in on itself.  He
spared a quick backward glance.

"Was that it?"  she whispered.

"No.  The tunnel gave out."  Checking her watch, he picked up speed.

The rapid movement hurt terribly.  Cassie pressed her face into Thorn's
body and clung to him with her good arm.  Waves of pain radiated from
her shoulder.  Gritting her teeth, she kept herself from crying out.

They were several hundred yards from the ruined entrance when she heard
a rumble deep inside the snowbank.  A split second later, the earth
shook, and clumps of ice sprayed into the air like corn out of a giant
popper.

Thorn eased her to the ground and crouched over her.  Cassie sheltered
her face against his chest.  But he'd dragged her far enough away so
that only a few of the frozen missiles landed around them.

Thorn waited until the ice storm ended.  Then he switched his full
attention to Cassie.

"I am sorry," he repeated.

"Not your fault," she managed to say with the last of her strength.

Taking off his jacket, he spread it on the ground and laid her on the
silver fabric.  When he gently examined her shoulder, she clamped her
teeth together and closed her eyes.

Hot pain radiated down her arm to her hand, and she clenched the
fingers.  She supposed being able to move them was a good sign, since
she'd heard of people who'd had an arm ripped completely off by a
bear.

"It hurts.  I know it hurts, dubina," Thorn muttered, anguish making
his voice rough.

Cassie lay very still.  If she didn't move, the torn flesh didn't throb
so badly.  Part of her tried to float above the pain, yet she couldn't
stop her thoughts from spinning on.

They couldn't go back into the installation, and there was no way she
could fly a plane

in this condition.

"Lord, what a mess," she whispered aloud.

Thorn bent over her, his face tense with strain.

"Do not talk.  I have something that will heal you."

Yanking the knapsacks off his shoulder, he fumbled inside and brought
out several flat packets.  Pulling off the outer layer, he pressed one
to Cassie's shoulder and the other to her cheek.

She braced for a medicinal sting.  Instead, a wonderful, soothing
warmth seeped from the packet and into her body.  The sensation was
more apparent at the point of contact, but she felt it radiating
outward, too, spreading through her system.  ~ "Better?"  he asked.

She sighed and nodded.  Turning her head, she tried to look at her
shoulder again.

"Be still.  Let the compresses do their work."  He found her hand and
covered it with his.

For long moments, Cassie drifted, aware of little besides the clouds
floating in the blue sky above her and 'the contact of Thorn's strong
hand with hers.  Sometime later, he lifted the compress from her cheek
and gently touched the skin.

"It was not too deep.  It is almost healed," he told her.

Her eyes flew open.

"It can't he."  Tentatively, she touched her face.

To her amazement, when she patted the skin, she felt smooth tissue
instead of deep claw marks.

"What did you put on me?"

"A compound that re generales damaged cells.  Libel when you were
burned.  Only thia medication has strength for injuries below the
skin."

She flexed her arm.  The shoulder still burned deep inside, but she
could tell that the wound was mend hag

"Does it prevent infection, too?"

She gave him a little smile.

"Well, I think we've just ~ the.  problem of how you're going to make a
living in the brave new world."

"I am no healer."

"You don't have to be.  My friends Katie and Mac ~ credentials to
market this compound.  If you go into business manufacturing it, you'll
make a

"A lot of money?"

~Is that.  ethical?  " not?"

"Idid not... develop it."  you didn't steal it, either.  And it will be
benefit to humankind.  "

~took in the serious expression on his face as the pros and cons of the
suggestion.  He a man who compromised his morality.  But that was how
he'd gotten into trouble in the first "There's nothing wrong with
making a profit" she said.

talk more about it later.  " Cassie looked place where the avalanche
had tumbled " We can't stay here," she said.

But you lost some blood.  And your has suffered a massive shock.  You
must rest.  "

a little while," she conceded snuggling from her face and to feel the

reassurance of his supple body pressed against the length of hers.

"Lie down with me," she whispered.

"I must sit up and keep watch.  The bears could come back."

"Not those two," she argued.  But she knew he Was right.  It would be
foolish for both of them to let down their guard at the same time.

"Give me half an hour."

"More, I think."

She closed her eyes and let the healing compress continue to do its
work.  The feeling it gave off was less intense now, but still very
pleasant--like a heating pad easing a stiff muscle.

Sometime later she felt Thorn shift.  Her eyes blinked open.  With a
LITTLE start, she realized she'd been sleeping deeply.  Raising her
head, she looked toward the sun and saw it had made considerable
progress across the sky.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Two of your hours."

"You should have wakened me sooner."  His hand lightly touched her
cheek.  She covered his fingers with hers.  "" You needed to mend.  "

He looked regretful.

"Consorting with me is hazardous to your health."

"Consorting!  Wtxre did you get that word?"

"Is it wrong?"

"Unusual, but I'm not going to let you me.  You didn't bring the bears.
It was just bad they vnm~ in the area.  If you hadn't driven ttsm~
away, I'd he dead."

"Perhaps I am a magnet for bad luck."

"I predict your luck is going to change," then laughed.

"I

What?  "

"I just made one of those strange connections in my head.  Do you know
my name Cassie is short for Cas " And?  "

"Cassandra was important in Greek mythology.  She was the daughter of
the king of Troy, and she had the gift of knowing the future.  But
nobody ever believed uh, that led to disaster for her people."

_"So I should trust in your judgment--and we will the ancient curse?"

Thorn gave her a little smile.

"Perhaps you are a i charm."

"I hope so."  She sat up and inspected her shoul- There were only faint
x~!  marks where the flesh torn.  Gingerly she touched the skin. 
Mirac- . it was smooth and whole.

"I think I'm ready

'~Daylight won't last forever.  Even this far north.  start for the
plane.  "

her stand, watch Her first steps were wobbly.  Still, she awed at the
speed of her recover, considering that had been ripped open only hours
before.  ,?  " he asked.

in the 'direction of the lake, and they very easy pace.

far?  " he asked after about twenty minutes.

narrowed with concentration.

"I wish you

In fact, she moved very slowly and had to stop a~d rest several times
along the way.  And she couldn't prevent herself from anxiously
scanning the landscape for bears.  None appeared.

Finally they made it to the shore.  Cassie sat down on a flat rock,
staring at the plane with relief as she caught her breath.  It was
large for a private aircraft, with a twelve-foot cargo area that could
be converted for extra passengers.  After a few minutes, she dragged
herself to the overturned boat Glen had hidden behind some rocks.
Inside was the extra rifle he'd decided to stash instead of carry.

"Now we're armed," she informed Thorn as she opened the barrel and
checked the shells.

"The weapon fires deadly projectiles?  Like on " Bonanza'?  "

"You're going to have to stop watching so many reftlBS ."  While he
examined the weapon, she surreptitiously wiped her sleeve across her
brow.  She felt a lot safer, but she wasn't so happy about how much
energy their slow walk had used up.

"After the fire, you took a stimulant.  Do you have any more?"  she
asked Thorn.

"I cannot take more.  It would be dangerous."

"I meant for me."

He shook his head.

"The best thing is for your body to finish healing naturally."

"Thorn, I know you're a quick study.  But I ~ I'm the one who's going
to have to fly the And that takes more energy than I have right now."
His answer was a low curse.

"As soon as we're safe, I'll go to bed for four hours.  Or two days.

Whatever you like.  "

him a wicked grin.

"You can hold me captive : ~ He fought to keep from returning the
smile.

"We about rest.  Healing."

'"Mmm."

~. "He rolled his eyes.

"Cassie, if I give you the stimu- must promise to be cautious."

~;.  ~"How?"

"The drug is powerful.  You may not be prepared ~r the way you will
react.  You will feel confident.

, strong.  It could affect your judgment.  "

"Forewarned is forearmed."

Still, he hesitated, and he continued to look reluc- as he got out one
of the blue patches and pressed her neck.

;Cimaie felt an immediate surge of energy flowing body.  It was like
the warmth of the healing a thousand times.  She smiled.  with the rush
of well-being came a conviction do anything she wanted.

"Wow!  That's stuff, all right."  She flexed her arm and to reach for
the boat to drag it down to the instantly.

"Do not."  do it.  "

But you should not.  " He looked worried.  was a bad idea."

lips as she fought to rein in the sense her feel as if she could leap
into and fly above the trees.

"You're right.  I'd kill myself.  You get the boat into the water."

was Sliding the craft to the shore when a them both look toward the was
visible.

"A plane," Cassie informed Thorn.

"The sheriff?"  he asked.

"It could be.  Or simply someone on a fishing trip."  Her gaze flitted
to Glen's craft as she calculated the chances of executing a quick
getaway before their unwanted company arrived.

"We might be able to make a nm for it."

"No.  If that is the authorities, they are going to be suspicious about
why we are fleeing."

Cassie nodded reluctantly.

"They could radio for reinforcements.  Or have a reception committee
waiting in Anchorage.  Damn, I didn't picture it coming down this
way."

Cassie's mind raced.  Blood pumped through her veins.  She knew it was
the fight or flight response to danger, and she was as inclined to
fight as anything else.  When she caught the look on Thorn's face, she
commanded herself to take a deep breath.

"We'd better find out who it is."  Snatching up the rifle, she grabbed
Thorn's hand and tugged him toward the shelter of the pines.

"Hurry.  We don't want them to spot us," she commanded when he didn't
move fast enough to suit her.

He looked uncertain, yet she was the one who knew the rules of her
society, and he had no option except to follow her lead.

When they were safely hidden from view, she turned and looked into the
sky, shading her eyes.  A small plane circled the lake, then came in
for a landing near her guide's plane.

Cassie watched tensely, feeling her heartbeat accelerate as the smaller
craft taxied toward shore.

All her attention focused on the man who emerged.  He was tall with
broad shoulders.  HIS hair was dark and a bit shaggy.  He wasn't anyone
she'd seen in town, nor was he wearing any kind of uniform.  When he
leapt from a convenient rock to shore, she saw that his expression was
intense, as if he were expecting trouble.

He stopped to inspect their boat.  Then he pulled his pack off his
shoulder and reached for something inside.

Cassie stifled a low exclamation when she saw what he drew out.  He was
holding the same kind of energy meter she'd used.

A surge of-adrenaline flooded through her body, and she felt as if she
were plugged into an electric socket, sucking up an extra charge.  She
sensed danger, yet she was determined to control the situation.

"He knows something," she whispered.

"How can you tell?"

"That meter he's holding.  It's like the one Victor supplied me with
for the assignment."

"Be calm.  He will not" -- She cut Thorn off with an angry
interjection.  The sound must have carried, because the man's head
swiveled in their direction.  With a frown, he reached for the pack
again.

Cassie wasn't about to let him get the drop on them.  Thorn made a grab
for her arm, but in her present state, she was much too quick.  Bolting
from the pro- teetion of the pines, she charged down the slight incline
toward the intruder, the rifle in front of her as if she were a
commando ranking an assault on an enemy position.

She had the advantage of surprise.

"Hold it right there," she said in clipped tones as she cocked the

weapon.  She had the satisfaction of seeing the stunned expression on
his face.

"Are you Cassie Devereaux?"  he asked.  She leveled the rifle toward
his chest.

"Who wants to know?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, appraising her.

"Hands up," she ordered.

Reluctantly he obeyed.

She jerked the gun at him.

"Who are you?  What are you doing here?"

"I'm on a fishing trip."

"The water's back the other way."

He shrugged.

"Toss me your wallet," she ordered.  When he looked reluctant, she
moved the gun again.

He kept his eyes on her as he reached into his back pocket, pulled out
a billfold and lobbed it onto the ground several feet from where he was
standing.  Cassie knelt to scoop it up.  In the moment when she took
her eyes off him, he lunged.  She gasped and went over backward as
strong hands jerked away the rifle.

"All right" -- He didn't get a chance to finish.  Thorn, who must have
circled around, leapt from the underbrush in back of the man.  Head
lowered, he tackled him around the waist and dragged him to the
ground.

The gun went flying.  Cassie scrambled for the weapon as the two men
rolled across the pine needles, going at each other with desperate
energy.

"Stop," she shouted.

But she might as well have saved her breath.  They both ignored her and
kept fighting.  She raised the He, but there was no way she could get a
clear shot without endangering Thorn.

The newcomer was bigger.  But Thorn was as strong, and his technique
was unorthodox.  Neither one had the advantage.

Then Thorn was on top.  When he reared up to land a solid blow, the
intruder looked stunned.

"You... you're the man from the picture," he gasped.

Chapter Ten

Thorn pulled the punch before landing the blow on his opponent's jaw.

"Who are you?"  Cassie growled at the man with his shoulders on the
ground.

"Zeke Chambers."

Cassie shrugged.

"Yeah?"

Thorn lifted himself off Zeke and moved protectively to Cassie's side,
his body tense, his eyes wary.

Zeke got up, his gaze shifting from Thorn to Cassie and back again.

"How are you mixed up in this?"  he asked Thorn.  Cassie didn't let him
answer.

"None of your business," she said gruffly.

Thorn sighed.

"I think you had better give me the gun, Cassandra, before you invoke
disaster."

His reference to the ancient prophetess brought her up short.  She
flushed as she silently acknowledged that she was out of control. Every
emotion that seized her was magnified a thousand fold so that she
couldn't trust her responses to anything.  Worse than that, she had
done exactly what Thorn had warned against.

She'd rushed Zeke Chambers like a one, woman assault team.

"Thanks, buddy," Zeke muttered to Thorn when the weapon was out of her
hands.

She gave them both an angry glare.

Thorn put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"This is not Cassie's normal behavior.  She was mauled by a bear.  I
gave her medication.  It seems she is having an extreme reaction."

"Mauled?"  Zeke looked at the shredded sleeve of her jacket.

"I'm fine," Cassie snapped.

"And that's not relevant ," she added, wishing she could stop her lips
from flapping before her brain caught up with her mouth.

"So you are Cassie Devereaux?  Sent here by Victor Kirkland?  I know
from him you were supposed to investigate an anomalous energy source
here."

Cassie eyed him appraisingly.  Was he a State De.  part merit
operative?

With the FCC?  What?

"You work for Victor?"

"Not directly.  I'm an anthropological linguist from Johns Hopkins.

Victor pulled some strings to get me attached to the international team
excavating an ancient site in Greece.  "

Startled by this new revelation, Cassie looked at Thorn.  His
expression was grim.

"I'm willing to exchange information," Zeke said.  She sighed.

"Okay, I am Cassie Devereaux."

"So you're here on official bus' mess Zeke turned from her to the saner
of the two people he'd just encountered.

"How did your picture get into a cave that's been sealed up s'nice the
archaic period?"

"What picture?"  Cassie demanded.

"Look, I'm tired of being jerked around--by you and Victor."

Cassie took a deep breath, telling herself firmly that her belligerent
behavior wasn't doing Thorn any good.

"I'm sorry.  I got trapped in this situation, too.  In fact, we all
did.  So I'm trying to adjust my thinking."

"Yeah.  It looks like Victor didn't want us to get together and
exchange information," Zeke said.

"Let me show you some very interesting photographs I took at our work
site.  I'm not going for a gun," he added as a precaution when he
reached inside his jacket and brought out an envelope.

"We were excavating a cavern that had been sealed by an enormous rock.
On first inspection, the site looked like a nobleman's tomb.  But I
think that was only a ruse, to hide the inner chamber."

Thorn took the envelope from the newcomer.  With great control, he
succeeded in keeping his hand from trembling as he slid out the flat
rectangles.  The pictures-photographs Zeke had called them--were two
dimensional and in black-and-white.  Yet even with the crude medium,
Thorn felt a fris son go down his spine.

The first two photographs showed the excavation site.  Next was a
picture of an inlaid box, followed by a vase and several pitchers--all
products of the native culture he'd known.

Like his body, they showed very lit He sign of their antiquity.

"The household objects came from the tomb," Zeke's measured tones broke
into his speculations.

"The box with the tablets and the stone carvings were hidden behind a
curtain wall at the back."

Thorn passed the photographs to Cassie.

"Have you seen anything like these?"  he asked, his voice gritty.

"In a museum.  They've got some pieces in the Walters Art Gallery in
Baltimore, but not in such excellent shape."

He nodded and went on to the next photograph.  When he realized it
showed a page of writing in his own language, the breath froze in his
lungs.  The letters were tiny, but he could make out the text.  It
appeared to be a doctunent addressed to future generations, explaining
that his people had come from another star system to visit this
planet.

"You read this?"  he asked the linguist.

"The writing is similar to ancient Greek, but not identical," Zeke
said.

"It was during the archaic period that the Greeks switched from picture
writing to an alphabet--which led to a tremendous stride forward for
their civilization."  He tapped one of the pictures.

"I haven't had much time to study the inscriptions.  But I've made some
assumptions."  Thorn nodded, interested in the man's analysis.  But
safety demanded keeping his own council.  When he thumbed to the next
picture, his heart lurched.

The photograph showed an inscription chiseled into stone.  Beside it
was an illustration--of a naked man imprisoned in a transparent
cylinder.  What reason could Lodar have for doing this?

"Now you see why I was so startled when I saw your face," Zeke
commented.

"The guy looks a lot like you."

Thorn felt his skin prickle.  The carving was crude.  Still the man
looked startlingly like the representation Cassie had drawn of him,
with the same slanting eyes and wide mouth.

It was enough to convey the impression of his face.

He was almost too stunned to read the text.  Somehow he pulled his gaze
away from the incriminating picture and read the carved lines.  The
message wasn't from Lodar, he realized with a jolt.  It was from
Darnot--the other member of the expedition who'd come to his room that
night and kidnapped him.

A harsh laugh escaped Thorn's lips.  Darnot's gesture hadn't done the
captive much good.  It looked as if it was only going to complicate his
situation.  Was the cave where this information had been hidden the
same place where Lodar had left the vaccine he needed to take?  Was the
vaccine still there?  Or was it among the st len artifacts?

"So how do you figure into this?"  Zeke interrupted his churning
thoughts.

"Are you the umptyumpgreatgreat-grandson of the guy who's men- rioned
in the text?  Are you guarding some ancient treasure?"

Thorn was still too stunned to answer.

"That's a good enough explanation," Cassie retorted.

She raised her eyes to Zeke.

"Did Victor send you here to check up on me?"

"No.  I came back to Washington to demand some answers, and he warned
me not to interfere."

"But you came, anyway!"  she retorted.

"Try to see this from my point of view.  First our work site was
bombed.  Then someone stole the origi.  hal tablets.  All I have left
is the pictures."

"Klat.t" Thorn spat out.

Cassie's gaze shot to him.

"Someone else might be working on the same translations," he
suggested.

"Did you find us here by following the coordinates?"

"What coordinates?"

At least the man hadn't been able to read the numbers.  "But given
time... " Klat, "Zeke said experimentally, rolling the harsh syllable
around on his tongue.

"That's obviously a rather strong expletive.  What language is it?"

Olympian.  "

Cassie glared at him.  Then her expression softened.

"The stolen artifacts are extremely valuable.

That could be the motive for the threat--not translating the writing.
"

"Maybe," he conceded.

"But we'd better not count

On it.  " Turning, he trotted back to the trees where he and Cassie had
left the supplies.  For a wild moment he pictured himself simply taking
off into the vast wildarness.

Instead he stopped and began looking for aomething in his pack.

Cassie came after him.

"Are you all right?"

He didn't answer.

"Tell me what you're thinking," she persisted.

"This man, Zeke Chambers, cannot read the tablets.

But I can.  "

"" They're in your language?  "

"Yes.  The text is a communication left by Lodar's

___a~omplice.  It seems he was sorry about the kidnapping.

Unfortunately, the text explains exactly where to had me.  So if
whoever stole the original tablets is in~ in information rather than
selling stolen an 'he on his way here.  "

sucked in a sharp breath.  Involuntarily, she

~arming the sky.

~Thorn stifled the, same impulse.  Instead, he pulled device out of the
pack and began issuing calling for a long-and short-range

"What am you doing?"

"Setting ap an alarm, so we will not be surprised by any more
unexpected visitors."

Zeke came over, watching him with interest.

"What kind of equipment is that?"

"Classified," Cassie retorted.

"Look, I've been pretty forthcoming with you.  Stop turning every
question I ask into a dead end," he snapped.

She raised her head and gave him a direct look.

"I'm sorry.  I know the medication I took is making me act like a
Valkyrie on speed.  But there's a lot at stake."  "I may be able to
help."

"If you're telling the truth."

Zeke's exasperated oath was punctuated by a heep from the sensing
device.

Even though Thorn had taken the precaution of' getting out the warning
mechanism, he was startled by its rapid shift to operational status.

"What was that?"  Cassie asked.

"The long-range sensor."  Thorn opened a com- pathnent and detached the
earpiece.  Placing it in his right ear, he listened intently while he
manipulated several controls.

"We are being scanned for communications on all bands.  Since we are
not broadcasting, they have not found anything.  But they are coming
closer.  In another airplane, I surmise."  Cassie whirled toward the
lake.

"We've got to leave."

"Who's coming?"  Zeke demanded.

She glared at him.

"You probably have a better idea than we do," she said.

"One of your esteemed colleagues is leaking information to a third
party.  Or they pulled off the robbery themselves.  Either you
innocently led them here, or you're in on the deal."

Zeke cursed.

"I'm not feeding you a line.  And if someone followed me, I'm sorry."

Thorn nodded tightly.

"We do not have much time."

Cassie looked toward Zeke.

"Well, you've got a chance to prove you're on the level."

"How?"

"Suppose we take off in separate planes so they ~ won't know which of
us to follow.  If you can lead ~ them away from me and Thorn, we've got
a better " So you can fly off into the sunset, and I never find you
again.  "

"I guess you have to trust us," Cassie said.

"You say you're at Hopkins.  We'll get back to you when it's safe."

"Sure."

Thorn watched the two of them.  Neither was comfortable with taking all
the risk.  But there wasn't much :~ time to negotiate.

"Suppose you could be in on breaking a very important anthropological
discovery?"  Thorn asked.

"Like what?"  Zeke countered.

"Like the answers to some perplexing questions about the ancient
Greeks.  And the key to deciphering thz Writing in those photographs."
The linguist couldn't keep the excitement out of his gave Thorn a quick
look.  When he nodded she-reinforced the offer.

"Thorn's got the to give you some answers.  And he's not pleased with
Victor's meddling in this business, which is why we're being so
careful.  However, he's agreed to cooperate with a group of my
colleagues in Baltimore."

Zeke sighed.

"I know you're not giving me the whole story.  And I'm probably a fool
to trust you.  But I owe you one."

"Then let us make haste," Thorn suggested.  He and Cassie picked up
their equipment, and they all returned to the lake.  As they paddled
out to the planes, Thorn kept glancing at the sensor, gauging the range
of the other approaching craft.  When they drew alongside Cassie's
plane, she reached for a dangling rope and maneuvered beside the
pontoon.

Scrambling out, she opened the door.

From his van tag6 point, the flying machine seemed flimsy and
primitive, with what looked like rounded pins holding the metal skin
together.  Inside, Thorn had to duck low to avoid hitting his head.
There were two seats in the front and a long empty area in the rear.
Cassie secured the portable boat.  When they climbed into what she
called the cockpit, he looked at the controls in disbelief.

"Are they coming?"  she asked in response to his indrawn breath.

"Not yet."

Keeping her attention on the instruments, she began to check various
systems.

"I'd like to have more time for this."

The engines star led and the throb vibrated through the whole
machine.

Then two mechanisms on the wings--propellers, she informed him--began
to spin.  He stared at the whirling blades, feeling cold all over.

Cassie spared him a quick glance.

"You look white as a flounder fillet.  Are you feeling okay?"

"You fly this machine manually?  Continually making decisions about
altitude and direction while you are in the air?"

"What did you expect?"

"Analyzer control.  Or analyzer assistance, at the very least."

"Yeah, well, there are a few commercial aircraft that fly by wire--as
it's called.  They don't have such a hot crash record."

"And these?"

"It's safer than driving in a car."

"Why do I not find that comforting?"  He gestured toward the banks of
dials and gauges.

"One person can monitor all that?"

"Yes," she snapped.

Since he'd given her the stimulant, he'd come to mistrust her forceful
tone.  She was naturally more aggressive than the women of his culture.
Half a dose of the medication would have been plenty.

"Are you feeling more in control of your reactions?"

"Stop worrying."

He ~pressed a snappy rejoinder.  Probably, he wouldn't get the idiom
correct, anyway.  Besides, at the moment, he was more worried about
their tramportation than about Cassie.

Zeke's plane--which had only one engine, he nol~xl--was already
skimming along the surface of the lake.  As he sat rigid, watching, it
rose, gliding into the air like a waterfowl taking flight.  After
clearing the trees near shore, it banked in a circle around them.

"Fasten your seatbelt," Cassie told Thorn.  When he fumbled for the
unfamiliar device, she showed him

the shoulder strap.

"The cabin staff will be coming around with a complimenta~ beverage of
your choice as soon as we reach our cruising altitude," she finished
with a smirk in her voice.

"What?"

"Never mind.  " She laughed--but her glee was cut short by the
sensor.

It was emitting a loud beep.

"What was that?"  she asked.

"They will have us in visual range soon," Thorn said evenly.

"Not if I can help it."  Cassie revved the engines and gripped the
steering apparatus.  The plane began to move, and he superstitiously
clamped his fingers over the edge of the seat.  They skimmed along the
surface of the lake, picked up speed and took flight with surprising
ease.

Thorn didn't expel the breath he was holding until the little plane
cleared a line of slender pines at the water's edge.  Seconds later, a
steep hillside covered with green foliage loomed in front of them.
Cassie turned in a tight half circle, avoiding the immediate obstacle
and aiming for the gap between two mounT horn felt his ears pop as they
climbed.  A strong air current made the craft bounce, and he was glad
he hadn't eaten recently.  Thin ribbons of cloud kept obscuring his
vision.  Every time they came out of one, he expected to see a cliff
straight ahead.

"Can you not gain more altitude?"  he shouted above the roar of the
engine as the plane continued weaving around and through the
ever-changing contours of the mountains and valleys.

"For our purposes, this is safer."

He muttered a low reply.

The sensor perched on his knees jiggled and swayed, but the vibrations
didn't interfere with its operation.

The beeps were getting closer together--almost continuous.

Glancing over his shoulder, he could see another craft.

"Behind us."

"Yeah.  I.~t's hope they decide to follow Z~kc."  Cassie aimed the
plane for the gap between two tall, spiky crags.  They plowed through a
ribbon of cloud and came out dangerously close to a vertical wall of
gray rock.

Cassie made a sharp turn.  To Thorn it looked as if she'd narrowly
avoided breaking off the left wing.  He murmured a low prayer, wishing
he had the skills to take control of the craft.

"" Not to worry.  "

"If you say so."  He looked behind them and cursed as he saw the other
pilot had made his choice.

"I am afraid they are not following Zeke Chambers."

"Damn."

Cassie dipped lower to the ground and wove around a cliff.  Then she
had to pull the nose up sharply again as the terrain rose in front of
them.  Below he could see the shadow of the aircraft moving across the
ground and several white animal shapes boning for safety.  However,
none of Cassie's heart-stopping maneuvers had the desired effect.  The
pursuers gained on them, coming up dangerously behind their craft.  In
the next second, he heard a clattering sound above the engine noise.

Then a ping against the metal skin of the plane.

"Oh, Lord," Cassie gasped.

"They're shooting at US!"

Chapter Eleven

"That was a warning."  Outside the plane a harsh male voice boomed over
a loudspeaker.

"We can easily shoot you down.  Land your craft on the nearest lake and
surrender.

You will not be harmed.  "

"Like hell."  In the small cabin, Cassie's rejoinder was almost as loud
as the order from outside.  Teeth clenched, she steered the plane into
a steep curve that sent them careering through a narrow, twisting
valley.

Trees sped by so close on either side that Thorn could see the nests of
large birds.

Relentlessly, the other plane kept pace.

"The pilot's good," Cassie muttered.

Ahead another band of clouds loomed.  Cassie plunged in, broke through,
then climbed for more altitude, leaving the valley behind.  But not the
other pursuing craft.

"They want me, not you," Thorn said.

"There is a lake to our right.

If you land the craft, I will insist they let you go.  "

She risked a quick glance in his direction.

"You'd be a fool to trust someone who took a shot at you," she
countered, her eyes fierce.

He set his teeth, wishing he'd never been persuaded to give her the
stimulant.

As they sped onward, she tried various maneuvers with the plane.  None
of them had any effect.  But he knew she was going to keep this up
until she shook off their followers or crashed into a mountain.

"There is more mist over there."  He pointed toward a large cloud
formation off to their right.

"Perhaps you could lose them if we stay inside."

"Too dangerous.  I don't have radar.  So I'm flying blind when I can't
see the ground.

Thorn felt his skin crawl.

"If you cannot see where you are going, why did you fly into it?"

"It's a calculated risk.  Based on my memory of the terrain.  I only do
it with small clouds."

He swore under his breath.

"Do the people with the machine gun have this radar?"

"Probably not."

"Then I have an idea."  He began rapidly changing the setting on the
sensor.

"I've recalibrated the machine to tell what obstructions are ahead."
Cassie nodded tightly, never taking her concentration from the task of
flying the small craft through the mountain valleys.

Thorn stared at the sensor screen, trying to orient himself to the
display, wishing fervently that he had more time to practice the
required technique.  But time was in short supply.  Behind them,
another clatter sound erupted.  It was followed by a ping as a small
hole opened in the floor of the plane near his left boot.

Thorn's foot danced away, and Cassie looked down.

"Damn.  That's too close for comfort."

"Land or be shot down," the voice on the speaker boomed.  This time
the sound was so loud it rattled his eardrums.

Cassie spat out an answering expletive as she dipped the wing and
plunged the plane to the right.  A tall spike of gray rock whizzed past
a few feet from his window.

Ahead was the white bank of cloud.

"Can you guide me in and out?"  she asked urgently.

Eyes narrowed, he stared at the screen, making sure he understood the
readings for distances and the speed of the plane.

"Yes."

Cassie steered toward the obscuring white.  Seconds later the cloud
pressed in around them, wiping everything from view.  Mountains,
valleys, rock and sky disappeared as if they'd never existed.

Thorn swallowed hard.  Eyes narrowed, he stared at the instrumentation.
Navigating through this was harder than he'd thought.  The readings
changed abruptly.

"Dead ahead.

Climb," he ordered.

Cassie obeyed instantly.  They shot out of the mist and over the top of
a peak.  Seconds later, a bone jarring explosion sounded behind them,
and their fragile plane shook from the impact of the shock waves.

He shuddered.

"They hit the mountain."

"I think they got what they deserved."  Cassie circled back.  Looking
down, Thorn saw the crumpled aircraft.  Seconds later, it burst into
flames.  Cassie grimaced and reached for a piece of equipment Thorn
hadn't seen her use before.  When she began to speak, he realized it
was a communications unit.

"This is TX278JP calling Anchorage.  I want to report a downed plane."
When she finished the conversation, she looked at the hole by his
foot.

"Let's hope the excitement helps take their attention away from us.  If
we're lucky, nobody will notice the bullet holes in this baby until
we're back on the east coast.  Or maybe they'll assume it's from an old
scrape Glen got himself into."

"What's wrong?  You see something in the woods?"  Cassie had felt more
comfortable since they'd arrived back in Maryland, but she wasn't about
to let her guard down.  Her foot bounced from the accelerator to the
brake of the rented Blazer she was steering up the long driveway of
Katie and Mac McQuade's Howard County home.  Leaning toward the
windshield, she peered at the sun-dappled shade under the tall oaks and
maples.

"Sorry.  I want to talk to you before we confront the others," Thorn
said.  The narrow road had no shoulder.  So she pulled to the side of
the blacktop and shifted into park.  Hopingshe was masking her inner
tension, she gave Thorn a reassuring smile.

"Everything's going to be all right."

"I doubt it."

She found his hand and stroked her fingers over his, the Physical
contact comforting as always.

"We're safe here.  I don't mean just at Mac and Katie's.  I mean, this
is my home territory.  You can trust my friends.

We've been through a lot together.  These people organized my sister
Marissa's escape from San Marcos.

They have connections and talents that can help you.  "

"You are putting yourself in too much trouble for me," he said in a
grating voice.

"I do not like it."

"Thorn, I know the way the world works."  He sighed.

"Yes, I have had ample demonstrations of your skills at manipulating
people and making illegal arrangements over the past few days.  Without
you, I would probably be in a jail cell in Anchorage or detained by the
military."

She didn't bother to deny the observation.  When they'd landed at a
town called Wasila, she'd done a verbal tap dance for the airport
authorities.  Then, instead of checking into a hotel, she'd paid cash
on the rental of a fishing shack while she arranged private
transportation to Baltimore.

Thorn sighed.

"I understand why you hired a bush pilot to fly us to Vancouver.  I
understand why we have sta~ed in two different hotels instead of your
house.  I know why you have been making phone calls since we arrived in
Baltimore.  But I do not understand why you are endangering a whole
gathering of people because of me."

"My friends are a very supportive group.  We all rally around when one
of us is in trouble."

"You are not in trouble.  I am."

Her grip tightened on his hand, and the words she'd been longing to say
tumbled from her lips.

"Thorn, I love you.  That makes your problems mine."  He cursed softly
under his breath.

"I was afraid you would say something like that."

She gave a strained laugh around the lump that threatened to block her
windpipe.

"Well, now I know where I stand."

"I do not think so."  He pulled her across the seat.  Drawing her
against his chest, he wrapped his arms around her so tightly that she
gasped for breath.  After several heartbeats, he began to speak in a
gritty voice.

"Cassie, I could have said those words to you the first night we made
love.  I did not want to burden you with entanglements.  I did not want
you feeling obligated to me.  I still do not."

Her eyes misted as she raised her head and looked into his face.

"You felt that way, too?"  she breathed.

"Yes.  But the knowledge can only be a hardship for you ."  "No" "My
future is uncertain.  And being close to me could be deadly."

"I'm willing to take the risk.  That's my decision."

"Do you think the incident with the airplane and the assault weapon was
a random act of violence?"

"Congratulations, you get an ,4 for twentieth century philosophy.  But
I don't agree with your conclusions.  They may have been shooting at
us, but I don't believe they wanted to kill you.  They wanted us to set
down so they could capture you."

"To dissect me?  Or pump me for the secrets of the universe, do you
think?"

Cassie shuddered as goose bumps swept across her skin.  Since they'd
left the bunker under the mountain, she'd become more and more aware
that they were playing a game with sky-high stakes.  Her only salvation
was to believe she and Thorn were going to win.

"Whatever they want, I'm going to make sure they don't get their hands
on you.  So I'm afraid you're stuck with me--at least until we figure
out who sent the plane, and why."

"Stuck is hardly the term I would use."

"What, then?"

He lowered his head and took her mouth in a kiss that started out
almost savagely and banked to something approaching raging passion. Her
hands ranged oyer his shoulders and threaded through his hair.  His
hands moved to cup her breasts, kneading and stroking, and finding the
hardened tips with his thumbs, making her moan into his mouth.

When he finally lifted his lips from hers, they both drew shuddering
breaths.  She pressed her forehead against his shoulder, trying to
convince herself that making love in a ear in her friends' driveway
would be risky.  She looked at Thorn apologetically.

"We'd better not."

"I will defer to your judgement again," he said in a rough voice.

"Sometimes I hate being right."

The honk of a car horn made them both jump and swivel around.

Marissa and Jed had drifted up behind them in the driveway and were
grinning like Cheshire cats.

Cassie slammed the Blazer into gear, and the car groaned forward.

Then she remembered to release the emergency brake.

When they reached the parking area, Marissa hopped out of her own car,
trotted over and folded her into a close hug.

"I let you out of my sight for a couple of days, and you get yourself
into deep kimchi," she whispered.

"I'm afraid so."

They both turned to see Marissa's husband, Jed Prentiss, and Thorn
shaking hands.  Cassie repressed a little smile.  Thorn had learned the
greeting from watching television.  To look at him, you wouldn't know
it had been totally unfamiliar a few days ago.

In fact, to look at him, you wouldn't know he was an astronaut who had
stepped from a delta cylinder less than a week ago.  Granted, his
coloring was a little unusual.  Yet dressed in jeans and a button-down
shirt, he could have fit in with the crowd at Owings Mills Mall food
court just fine.  Cassie had longed to show him some of the fun aspects
of modern civilization.  But she hadn't been willing to take a chance
on the mall or a movie theater or a gourmet restaurant, in case whoever
had sent the plane to Alaska was looking for her.  So she and Thorn had
been hiding out in Towson and had taken only one quick shopping trip.

Marissa drew her sister aside.

"I guess I'm not the only Devereaux sister who's found her soul mate,"
she whispered.

"He's gorgeous.  And since you've given your heart to him, I know he's
got all those qualities we were looking for but thought we could never
find."  She shot her husband a quick glance, then turned back to
Cassie.

Cassie gave her a tremulous smile.

"Yes, he's wonderful.  And we can live a long happy life together-after
we work out a few major problems."  Marissa squeezed her shoulder.

"You can count on us to help."

"I know.  But things are kind of complicated."

"They were when Jed came down to San Marcos to rescue me," Marissa
reminded her.  "when you hear about Thorn, you'll know we've got some
special problems," Cassie whispered.

The private conversation was cut off as they reached the porch of the
McQuades' redwood-and-stone rancher.

Katie came out and gave Cassie a hug.  Inside, the rest of the invited
guests were trying not to stare at the new arrivals.

Taking a deep breath, Cassie stepped across the threshold.  She trusted
these people with her life.  And she'd made the same commitment for
Thorn.  Now she couldn't suppress a little twinge of doubt.  If someone
made even the smallest slip, it would mean disaster.  Inside, Katie and
some of the other women had set up a lunch buffet purchased from a
gourmet shop in Columbia.  Anybody who stumbled in might think they
were having a Saturday afternoon party, Cassie mused.  Except that all
conversation had suddenly stopped.

Cassie plastered a smile onto her face.

"Hi.  I'd like you all to meet Thorn," she said, with a little nod to
Zeke Chambers, who had already had the pleasure.  Zeke was standing to
one side, trying to look calm as he glanced from her to Thorn.

Zeke was with Elizabeth Egan, one of his graduate students who also
worked part-time for Erin Stone.

She did highly confidential work helping adoptees locate their birth
parents, and Erin had vouched for her.

In turn, Elizabeth had reassured Cassie about Zeke's integrity.  But
there had really been no question about leaving him out of the meeting.
He already knew too much.  And if he were left to his own devices, he
could be dangerous.  Better to include him in her circle of
confidants.

Zeke and Thorn were staring at each other as if a silent message were
passing between them.

"You never did tell me your profession," Zeke said.

"I am an exolinguist."

"Ah.  Then I guess we have a lot to talk about."

"Yes.  I am sorry I was not very forthcoming ear lief Thorn
apologized.

"I can understand why."

Cassie saw Katie listening, which precluded any possibility of drawing
Thorn aside and asking about the undercurrent running below the
conversation with Zeke.

But the odd exchange increased her feeling of disquiet as she went
through the motions of making introductions.

Erin and Travis Stone, Abby Franklin and Steve Claiborne, Sabrina
Barkley and Clan Cassidy.  Katie and Mac McQuade, and Cam Randolph and
Jason Zacharias, there without their wives.

There was considerable interest in Thorn--generated by the few guarded
things she'd said.  They knew he was in hiding, that he hadn't done
anything illegal and that he had information that could be important.

She could feel questions simmering below the calm surface of the
introductions.  But she also knew her friends would let her do things
her way.  Cassie felt a nervous smile on her face as everyone found
chairs.  She was usually pretty articulate, but when she'd been trying
to think of what to say, the words kept turning to mush in her head.
She'd learned the startling truth of Thorn's unique circumstances in
slow steps.  The Light Street Irregulars, as they'd begun to call
themselves, were about to hear ascience-fiction story in compressed
form, and she couldn't be sure how they would react.

They were all waiting.  She cleared her throat.

"When Marci was in trouble in San Marcos," she began, "you heard a
pretty incredible tale from Jed about how she'd been kidnapped and was
being held incommunicado."

There were murmurs and nods around the room.

"Well, something similar happened to Thorn.  Only it's a lot worse, if
you can believe that."  She shot her sister an apologetic look.

"Marci was scooped up by General Sanchez because she was caught raiding
his secret files.  Thorn's only crime was speaking up for the, uh,
native people he met when he came here.  He was kidnapped and...
imprisoned for a long time, and he can't be rescued by his own people.
And he has to stay in hiding, because someone's trying to capture him."
She gulped.

"Maybe kill him."

The faces around the room were sympathetic.  Yet she hadn't gotten to
the hard part.

When she started to take up the narrative, Thorn clamped his fingers
over hers.

"Let me speak for my serf I do not like coming to these people as a
supplicant ."  She wanted to argue that she was better prepared, yet
she had to respect his wishes.

"I told Cassie that when she heard my story, she might think I was
lying.  Or suffering from delusions.

So I have been thinking of how I might make myself credible to a group
of strangers.  " He reached into the carry pack he'd brought and took
out a little box, which he held in his lap.  The sense of anticipation
in the room was palpable.

"Do you still have those photographs from the archaeological dig?"  he
asked Zeke.

The linguist handed them over.

Thorn thumbed through the black-and-white photos, selected several,
including the vase and the box, and passed them around the circle.

"These are pictures of artifacts discovered at a site in Greece that
was sealed for almost three thousand years.  The objects were stolen,
but I believe I can show you more lifelike representations, as (veil as
some other images that will be of interest."

Cassie felt a little shiver go up her spine as she waited to see what
Thorn was going to do.  From the expression on his face, she knew that
he was getting a certain amount of satisfaction out of creating susWhen
Katie handed the photos back to him, he opened the side of the box,
inserted the pictures and snapped the door shut.  Then he began to work
some controls.

There was a collective gasp as a picture of the vase appeared in the
center of the room.  No.  Not a picture, exactly.  A three-dimensional
color image that looked as solid as the real thing.  Only it was
hanging in midair three feet from the floor.  Thorn touched a control,
slowly rotating the object.  Another adjustment enlarged the size by
about one-third.  Zeke sprang from his seat and bent toward the
artifact.

"That's the vase I took out of the cave, all right.  The one that was
stolen, along with the rest of the valuables."  Cautiously he reached
to touch it.  His hand passed through the image, and his fingers closed
around empty air.

"How did you do that?"  Cam Randolph asked.

"A sophisticated projection system."

Zeke clasped his hands behind his back as he examined the detailed
scenes on the sides of the vase.

"It

shows men and women coming to a temple to worship a god.  " He flicked
a quick gaze at Thorn and then back at the vase.

"Not a god," Thorn said in a gritty voice.

"A man named Lodar who enjoyed wielding power.  A man who pretended to
work miracles--by us' rag equipment that people did not understand.
Like this device."

He gestured toward the box resting on his knees.  An excited buzz of
conversation broke out around the room.

Thorn cut off the chatter by making the vase disappear.  Almost
immediately, he replaced it with one of the stone tablets.  The one
showing the man imprisoned in the glass cylinder.

Cassie saw everyone looking from the projection to Thorn.  They saw the
resemblance, all right.

Thorn addressed Zeke.

"I inferred from our conversation a few minutes ago that you have made
some progress with this text."  He pointed toward the lines of
symbols.

"As a matter of fact, I did.  Do you want me to keep it between us?"

"No.  I think it is best for the group to hear what you discovered."

Cassie felt as if a bolt of electricity had shot through her body.

All at once, she realized how cleverly Thorn was handling this.  He
wasn't going to try to prove he was from another planet and that he'd
been in suso pended animation for almost three thousand years.  By
itself, the information was the stuff of science fiction.

It would go down a lot more smoothly if it came from Zeke Chambers's
observations.

She tuned in on Zeke's voice as he said, "There are some differences in
the consonants between Olympian and Greek.  But once you know what to
look for, you can make some pretty good guesses based on ancient Greek
vocabulary."  He nodded toward Thorn.

"I'm sure you can help me with the words that are giving me
problems."

"Certainly.  But I am interested in what you Kave discovered on your
own."

Zeke gave him a little smile.

"Why do you call it Olympian?"  Elizabeth Egan questioned.

"After the point of origin."

"You mean Mount Olympus?  The mythical place Where the Greek gods were
supposed to dwell?"  Abby clarified.

"No.  Another planet in a solar system about thirty light-years from
here," Zeke told her.

"What?"  Elizabeth's exclamation was echoed around the room.

"The text I've translated is about a group of extraterrestrial
astronauts who visited ancient Greece."

"You're joking, aren't you?"  Travis Stone asked.  He shot a glance at
Cassie.

"We're not here to investigate an ancient astronauts hoax, are we?"

"No," she snapped.

"Let's look at the fraud theory," Zeke suggested.

"Any deception would have to be of ancient origin because the text has
been sealed up for almost three thousand years."

"You're sure of that?"  Steve Claiborne probed.

"An archaeological team moved a boulder at the entrance to the site two
months ago.  Last week, an explosion cleared away the barrier to the
inner room where the artifacts and tablets were found.  If I still had
them, I could prove their age by carbon dating."

Steve nodded.

"Last night I was finally able to decipher some numbers included with
the text and the picture of the man in the cylinder," Zeke continued.

"They turned out to be geographic coordinates pinpointing the Alaskan
location where Cassie was sent by the FCC to investigate anomalous
energy readings."

"The cave in Greece is connected with the site in Alaska?"  Elizabeth
clarified.

Zeke nodded.

"They both have the same energy signature.  That's how I found Cassie
and Thorn."

Cassie felt light-headed.  She could sense everyone waiting to see
exactly how all this was related to Thorn.  And she wanted to shout out
the truth.  But that would undermine the credibility of Zeke's logical
explanation.  So she damped her lips together and forced herself to
stay silent.

"Now that I can read the coordinates on the tablets, I know they
indicate where the space expedition's exolinguist" -- he paused and
glanced at Thorn "--was left in suspended animation after he had a
policy dispute with the expedition leader."

"Are you sure you've translated correctly?"  Steve demanded.

"Yes.  I've been working on this thing twenty hours a day since I got
back from Alaska."

The room erupted in a spontaneous, excited buzz.

"Okay, I want to make sure I'm following this right," Clan Cassidy
persisted, his gaze swinging from Zeke to Thorn and back again.

"It sounds like you're asking us to swallow the story that our
mysterious visitor was a member of that extraterrestrial expedition.

That he's the man who was put in suspended animation.  "

Debate swirled around her, until Cassie couldn't take it anymore.

Rising to her feet, she looked around at her friends.  When she spoke,
her voice cut through the hum of voices like a knife slicing through
flesh.

"If you argue about it long enough, he'll be dead."

Chapter Twelve

Thorn reached for Cassie's hand and tugged.  The starch went out of her
legs, and she sank heavily into her seat.

"What do you mean--he'll be dead?"  Clan demanded.

Cassie swallowed around the lump blocking her windpipe.  She hadn't
intended to blurt anything about Thorn's health.  She'd simply been too
strong out to keep herself under control.

Katie came over and knelt beside her.

"Is Thorn sick?"  she asked gently.

"Something contagious?"

"Not to you," C. assie retorted.

"The members of our first expedition reacted unfavorably to some of the
bacteria on your planet," Thorn elaborated.

"Our healers produced a vaccine.  I was due for a booster.  The team
leader left some of it for me.  I presume it would be in the cave
Zeke's team discovered."

Zeke made a low sound that sent a shiver down Cassie's spine.

"If it was in the cave, it's not there now," he said tightly.

"Everything was stolen."

"You found concealed storage chambers?"  Thorn asked urgently.

"Yes.  That's how we got the box and the tablets."

Cassie's vision blurred.  She struggled to stay on top of her emotions,
but it took a monumental effort.

She'd been afraid of this.

"We should test your immune system as soon as possible,~" Katie said to
Thorn, then glanced at her husband, Mac.

"We can go from here to the lab," he agreed.

"Thank you," Cassie whispered, afraid that if she raised her voice
she'd start to cry.  Then she reached for anger to push away her dread.
Turning to Clan, she demanded, "Is that all right?  Or should we turn
Thorn in to the Maryland State Board of Health as a public safety
hazard?  Or what about the Pentagon?  They'd love to have him."

Thorn grabbed her hand again.

"Cassie, you and Zeke are familiar with my very strange history.
Everybody else is hearing it for the first time.  Perhaps-- what do you
call it?

DNA testing would prove that I am the genuine article.  "

"We'd have to wait several weeks for the results," Katie told him, but
she looked excited at the prospect of doing the procedure.

Trying to keep her voice steady, Cassie addressed the group.

"Let me give you a little more background."  In staccato bursts she
told them about the avalanche.  About her reaction to the strange
underground station and the naked man she'd found in the delta
cylinder.  She related most of the saga--up to and through the attack
by the other plane and her return to Balti- more.  She left out only a
few very personal details.  But she suspect~ that her women friends and
her sister were reading between the lines, that they knew very well why
she was so committed to Thorn.  When she finished, Marissa swiped the
back of her hand at the corners of her eyes.

"I'd like to get a look at this installation," Jason said.

"Opening it up is too dangerous for Thorn right now," Cassie
responded.

"We don't know who's after him and why... Whether they want to use him
or eliminate him."  She shivered.

Jed Slung his arm over Marissa's shoulder.

"A couple of months ago, I thought I'd found out how much trouble one
of the Devereaux sisters could get herself into.  Cassie, you top my
wife."

"Are you saying you believe me and Thorn?"  Cas- sic asked.

He laughed.

"Your story is so crazy, it has to be true."

Cassie let out a long sigh.

"Thank you."  One by one, the rest of the group joined in the
endorsement.

Cassic slid a sidewise glance at Thorn.  He looked a bit dazed, as if
he couldn't believe the vote of confidence.  Silently she leaned her
back against his chest and he put his arm around her.

"If you can't keep Thorn's secret absolutely confidential, he's in
grave danger," she warned.  When everyone agreed, she felt her anxiety
creep down another notch.

"Well, I think I know who was behind the aircraft attack," Zeke said.

"I've been doing some research, and I'm putting my money on Jacques
Montague, the man who financed the Greek dig."

"Doesn't he live on an island fortress in the Mediterranean?"  Jason
asked.

"Not far from Sicily."

Zeke looked surprised.

"You've heard of him?

"I make a hobby of keeping tabs on power-mad nuts.  He's a very
unconventional character--from what I've learned.

Rich enough to have his own island and almost anything else money can
buy.  "

"Yeah," Zeke broke in.

"He inherited family wealth and parlayed that into billions.  He's had
a team of linguists working for the past ten years, trying to translate
Linear A."

"what's that?"  Jason asked.

Elizabeth answered.

"A very early Greek written language.  Nobody's been able to crack
it."

"But Montague's apparently determined," Zeke added.

"Why?"  Cassie asked.

"He's interested in antiquities and ancient burial sites.  And the
mythology of various cultures," Zeke answered.

"If 'he stole the tablets, then his team could have been ahead of you
on the translations," Cassie said to Zeke.  When she glanced at Thorn,
she realized he must have been thinking the same thing.

"Maybe he think.q Thorn's technology can expand his power base," Jason
suggested.

"He's rich enough and arrogant enough to try it," Zeke agreed.

"I am not interested in helping him," Thorn remarked.

"Montague doesn't know that yet," Jason said.

"And he's accustomed to forcing solutions out of people."

"Well, we have the resources to discover his points of vulnerability
and go on the offensive," Jason said.

"If we have to, we can work up something like the witness protection
program for Thorn.  A new identity so he won't have to keep looking
over his shoulCassie felt a little dazed by the outpouring of goodwill
and concrete suggestions.

"How else can we help you?"  Abby Franklin asked.

"We need a place to hide out until the Montague threat is
neutralized," Cassie said.

"When we know Thorn is safe, we can make plans for the future."

"How about our vacation house on the Choptank River?"  Travis Stone
asked.

"I'll beef up the security system," Cam Randolph added.

"Thank you," Cassie breathed.

Still looking a. bit overwhelmed, Thorn added his thanks.

"So now that we know we've got a real live spaceman right here in the
McQuade living room, we're itching to ask you some questions," Cam
said.

"Of course," Thorn agreed.

"How does our technology compare to yours?"

"We are more advanced in many ways.  But you have a number of things
that I find very pleasing.  Like chocolate.

It's wonderful.  "

"But he's not so sure about our small airplanes," Cassie volunteered.

"He couldn't believe something so clunky could fly!"

Thorn flushed slightly.

"Let me tell you what I do like.  Your world has incredible variety.
Take your ran sic Jazz.  Rock.  Classical.  Rap."

"You like that?"  Erin asked.

"The rhythms are interesting.  Your entertainment media have programs I
could never have imagined.

Like animated cartoons.  My favorite is the "Simp- sons' because of the
comments it makes about your society."  He laughed.

"On a slightly more elevated note, I long to see your great museums.
The Louvre.

The Prado.  The Smithsonian.  "

"I hope we have a lot to offer you," Abby said.

"I have Cassie to help me.  And the rest of you."

Cassie felt her heart expand as she looked at the circle of eager faces
around them.  Her friends really were extraordinary.

"If I must stay hidden, I would like to keep busy writing down
technological information from my civilization that you might find
useful," Thorn continued.

"I'll lend you a laptop computer," Cam offered.

"And anything else you need."

"Can you go back home again?"  Erin asked wistfully.

Thorn's expression became grave.

"You have no ship that could make the journey to my sun.  Even if I
were able to return, everything familiar to me would be long gone.  I
do not know how far my people have advanced.  Or even whether my
civilization still ex " That must be hard for you," Abby said in a
gentle voice.

"I have come to terms with it."

Still, his words sobered the assembly.  Questions were more subdued,
and the meeting ended soon after.

When Cassie came back from saying goodbye to her friends, she found
Thorn sitting with a preoccupied expression.

"So?"  she asked softly.

~ He raised his eyes to her, and she saw a look of wonder.

"You said your friends would help me.  I hardly dared hope for such
a... vote of confidenee.  Would all of your people demonstrate such
vision-such faith in a stranger from another galaxy?"  She didn't need
to think about his question.

"No.

The Light Street Irregulars are special.  "

Zh-x~ CHAMBERS STARED wearily at the screen of the high-performance
workstation Cam Randolph had installed in the apartment he was
temporarily ranting.  Since he was still officially on leave from
Hopkins, he'd elected to stay out of circulation until things could be
resolved with Thorn.

When he'd gone chasing off to Alaska, he hadn't realized he was taking
on an enormous responsibility.

But in the meeting, he'd come to understand that Thorn's freedom--and
probably his life--depended on keeping his secret.

For the past week he'd been working eighteen hours a day writing a
trumped-up explanation of why the Olympian tablets had to be an
extremely clever fake.  But he wasn't going to publish the article
unless someone came forward with the real material.  The phone buzzed
on the desk next to the computer.

He glanced at the dock.  Half past midnight.  Was there trouble out at
the Stones' vacation home where Thorn and Cassie were staying?

But it wasn't one of the Light Street group calling.  The voice on the
other end of the line was Made Pindel, the team leader from the Greek
site.

"Zeke, finally."

He thought about the dozens of messages she'd left on his machine at
home.  At the dig site, he'd trusted Marie.  But someone had betrayed
them, and she was the only other person who knew about the secret
find.

"How did you get through?"  he finally answered.

"I have my sources.

Axe you all right?  "

"Yeah.  Any news on the stolen artifacts?"  he asked.

"So far2 nothing And the authorities have fewer leads than on the
explosion at the cave.  But they don't think the tWo crimes are
connected."

Zeke made a noncommittal reply.

"You've made some progress with the pictures you took?"  There was an
odd inflection in her voice, curiosity and something more.  It was as
if she already knew the answer and were waiting to hear what he'd
say.

"I've found conclusive evidence that the tablets were a very clever
hoax.  I can send you my report next week."

Marie sighed.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Then I guess whoever stole the material is going to be very
disappointed."

"By the way, Made, did you mention our discow cry to anyone at the site
on the day of the robbery?"

"No, of course not."  She sounded indignant at the possible
accusation.

"To anyone else, then?"

"Only Montague.  But he was our sponsor."  Montague.  t How convenient
that she'd passed on ~that information to the man who was after
Thorn.

"It's late.  I've got to go.  I'll send you copies of the material
soon."  He hung up the phone and immediately dialed Cam Randolph.

CASSIE LAY on her stomach somewhere betWeen bliss and nirvana.  A
Mozart symphony played softly in the background.  The quilt-covered
exercise mat under her was firm but silky.  And Thorn's strong fingers,
lightly coated with scented oil, were finding and massaging pressure
points on her shoulders she hadn't known existed.

Taking his time, he moved down her back, along her spine, to her
buttocks.

"Ahh."  A long satisfied sigh escaped from her lips.

"Let's work on the front."

A tingle of anticipation went through her.  She'd learned a lot about
Thorn in the past ten days while they'd been hiding out at the Stones'
Eastern Shore estate.  He had the broadest range of abilities she'd
ever seen in one person.  He sucked up information like a computer, and
he knew how to give pleasure she'd never dreamed possible.

However, as she rolled to her back, the phone on the secure line
rang.

"Damn."

He gave her a wry smile and pressed the speaker button.  It was Jo O'
Malley, Cam's wife.  A private detective, she was acting as liaison for
the intelligence team.

"How are you doing?"  she asked.

Cassie giggled.

"Lucky this isn't a picture phone."  Jo laughed.

"I

hate to interrupt anything important.

But I have some information for you.  " Cassie's mood instantly sobered
as she grabbed a robe from the chair.  Thorn didn't bother to get
dressed.  By now, she was used to his casual nudity.

"Jason stopped by with a report on Montague's stronghold," Jo said.

Cassie waited nervously.  They'd been trying for days to figure out how
to get a man on the island.  So far, it was no go.

"Anything we can use?"  Thorn asked.

Jo made a clucking sound.

"Well, the guys have given up on the sub He approach.  Unfortunately, I
don't think we're going to assault his island anytime soon.  Jason's
sources have found out he's got a two hundred-man private army.  And
the grounds are sprinkled with computer-controlled explosive charges.

If you step on the wrong patch of ground at the wrong time, you've had
it.  The full report will come to you by fax this afternoon.  "

Cassie swallowed hard.  Computer-controlled land mines and a private
army.  But then, the more she learned about Montague, the more repelled
she was by the man.

"Listen, I'm sorry I interrupted," Jo said.

"Go back to whatever you were doing."

But the mood had been broken.  It was hard to think about making love
when images of exploding land mines kept flashing in her mind.

"Want to have lunch?"  Cassie asked Thorn.

"The caterer brought down some more of that cherry cheesecake you
like."

"Mmm-hmm," he said with studied casualness.  She turned away, found her
shorts and T-shirt and bustled down the hall to the kitchen.  In some
ways, this enforced vacation at the shore was like an idyllic
honeymoon.  However, when she least expected it, the shadows swept down
like vultures.

This time, a simple discussion about lunch had made her stomach knot.

She'd been working overtime to tempt Thorn with high-calorie
dishes--and they both knew why.  His metaboli.  ~n was striving hard to
fight off the illness--and using up huge quantities of energy in the
process.

As she walked into the kitchen, Cassie superstitiously rapped on the
nearest cabinet.  So far, Thorn was healthy.  In fact, he had more
energy and more drive than any other two men.

While Katie and Mac tried to find a cure for his illness, they were
using an interim teclmique that had been developed from AIDS research.
Because they'd caught Thorn before he went into a critical phase,
they'd been able to use the antibodies present in his

own blood to boost his immune system.  Still, it wasn't a permanent
solution.  And she couldn't repress a stab of dread.  In the past few
days she'd been forced to acknowledge another worry--something she
should discuss with Katie.  Instead she told herself that it could
always wait a little longer.  Because if she confirreed her suspicions,
then she'd have someone else to be frightened for besides Thorn.

"Want to try something unique this afternoon?"

She arranged her features into a look of anticipation before turning
toward the door.

Thorn, who had finally dressed, was grinning.

"It was not an indecent proposal."

"A girl can hope."

"I was writing up a report for Cam last night, and it gave me an idea.
My people colonized our oceans before we went out into space.  So we
developed devices for undersea exploration."

"Interesting."  She took a carton of Thai cream curry from the
refrigerator, transferred it to a serving dish and set it in the
microwave.

Thorn held up what looked like a pair of elongated beads.

"These duplicate the functions of a fish's gills and allow a human
being to extract oxygen from water."

"That sounds impossible."  ;

"It is a simple principle, really.  When I was trying to decide what we
might need after we escaped from the cave, I packed two sets.  In case
we had to sub; merge before getting to your airplane."

"The water temperature in Alaska would have killed us in a few
minutes."

"I know that now.  But it is much warmer here."  He gestured toward the
river.

"After lunch we can try it out, if you want.  "

"We

"You.  One of us should stand guard."  She nodded tightly.  Another
casual conversation that had turned into a reminder of their peril.

"Want to eat on the deck?"  she asked quickly.

Thorn nodded.  Since his confinement, he'd craved being in the fresh
air--which made the Stones's house perfect.  They could stroll in the
gardens or along the sandy beach.

Thorn helped her carry out the meal.  The Thai curry and the cheesecake
were both a success.

"Eating like this is going to make me fat," Cassie said with a sigh.

"You need a nice brisk swim)' " Give me a few minutes.  "

After relaxing in the sun for a while, Cassie changed into a modest
two-piece bathing suit.

When she reappeared on the deck, Thorn stood and gave her a Wolf
whistle, a skill he'd been practicing for the past few days.

Her cheeks heated.

"I thought this was a subdued suit."

"I like the way it shows off your breasts."

"Are Olympian men always so direct?"

"When they have not had sex for three thousand years."

She laughed.

"You've had plenty in the past couple of weeks.  Are all Olympian men
so, uh, verily?"

"Am I unusual--for your species?"

"Well, I haven't made a very extensive personal study, you understand.
But I suspect from the articles in the women's magazines that you're
remarkable."

His eyes twinkled.

"Perhaps we could work up an infomercial.  Sex Secrets of the Ancient
Gods Revealed.

Techniques that will keep you going longer than the Energizer bunny.

For only nineteen ninety five plus ten dollars shipping and handling.
"

"Throw in a video on your massage techniques, and you can charge an
extra fifteen dollars."

"We will run it right after " Quantum Leap" on the sci-fi channel."

Cassie smiled.

"You like that show."

"I pick up pointers from Sam.  He has to cope with a new identity every
time he leaps."

"Well, you're stuck with me for good."  He started to answer.  She cut
off the words with a kiss.  For long moments they feasted on each
other, and she felt the erotic energy building between them.

The color of his eyes had deepened.

"I love the look on your face when you are aroused," he said huskily.

"Yours, too."

"Honey, if you want those breathing lessons anytime before dinner, we
had better get going."

He held her gaze for several more seconds before handing Cassie the
beads.

She jiggled the small plugs in her hand.

"That's really all I need?"

"They have special filters that remove the oxygen from the water.

Once they are in the nose, you simply breath normally.  "

"This I've got to see."

"Try them now, and get used to the sensation."  Serf-consciously, she
inserted the cylinders.  It felt as if she had wads of cotton in her
nose.  But when she pressed her mouth shut and sucked in a draft of
air, it came through with no trouble.

"So far so good."

They strolled down to the edge of the property where Cassie
disconnected the sensors that ringed the grounds.

Thorn sighed as they stepped onto the dock.

"This is a beautiful place.  And I love being alone with you.

But there is so much I want to see and do.  "

"I know.  It's hard being forced to stay in one spot.

As soon as this is over, I'm going to take you on the best damn tour of
this planet any travel agent ever arranged.

I'll show you Paris, London, Rome.  We'll go to an Orioles game.  A
live volcano.  The Met.  Stonehenge.  Anywhere you want.  "

"If we have time."

She felt a stab of fear.

"We will."

He gave her a rueful little smile.

"I am sorry.  I am not following the rules."

"They're your rules."  She gave him a critical in- speetion.

"Is something wrong?  Are you feeling sick?

Is that it?  "

"No," he said, much too quickly.

"Thorn?"

"I should learn to live for the moment."

"For the future."

"All right," he agreed, but Cassie knew he was sorry he'd started the
discussion.

She wanted to take him by the shoulders, shake him hard and insist that
he wasn't going to leave her.  Not when they gave each other so much.
Instead she turned toward the water while she got control of her
features.

"There is a navigation channel cut in the river bottom, so it's pretty
deep at the end of the pier," she said in an almost normal voice.

"Is it all right to dive with these things in my nose?"

"It is better to submerge more gently--so you do not dislodge the
plugs," Thorn answered, striving for the same neutral tone.

They were halfway down the thirty-foot dock when a noise from behind
made them both pivot.

Two muscular men had come out from under the pier and were standing on
the beach, their lower pant legs and sneakers soaking.  Lord, they must
have been waiting for her and Thorn to leave the protected compound,
she realized with a sick feeling.  She'd thought Thorn was safe in this
quiet corner of the world; it was only an illusion.

"Run," she shouted.

But there was nowhere to escape.  The intruders stood solidly blocking
their exit.  One had a chest and arms like a boxer.  The other had the
long legs of a cross-country runner.  But the important point was that
they were both holding machine guns.

"Hands up," one of the men ordered, point' rag the gun toward the
center of her chest.  The other covered Thorn as he bent toward a
portable communications unit from his collar and spoke in a low voice.
Pure, stark terror shot through Cassie as she looked wildly from theft
captors toward the sparkling water.  A motorboat that had been bobbing
picturesquely in the sun was now heading at top speed toward the dock.
Seconds later, the man at the wheel cut gine, and two more
tough-looking thugs jumped to join the impromptu party.  Only it wasn't
impromptu, Cassie realized.  Someone had carefully.

"Let's go," one of the newcomers ordered.

"Wait," Thorn protested.

The captor gave him a shove, and he to keep from falling.

Cassie was instantly at his side.

"Leave him alone."

"Shut up and get moving."

~"You only want me.  Let her go, and I will cooper- Thorn argued.

"Oh, you'll definitely cooperate," the speaker re- his voice icy.

"One way or the other."

Cassie's heart was pounding so fast that she could breathe.  She had
seconds to make a decision.

She had to stay with him.  But then no one know what had happened.  If
she escaped, she : didn't have to pretend terror as she let herself he
the boat.  It was now or never.  At the last instead of stepping into
the craft, she over the end of the dock and dove into the her she heard
a curse.  It was followed by a and the angry clattering of the, machine
gun.

sprayed into the water as she frantically dove for the river bottom.

Chapter Thirteen

Panic fueled Cassie as she clawed her way down into the dark water.

Something hot shot past her thigh.  A bullet!  Too close for comfort.

She pressed her lips together and kept moving, trying to put as much
distance as she could between herself and the surface where the machine
guns still clattered.

To her intense relief, the noise faded as she lengthened the distance
between herself and the pier.  But she couldn't stay underwater
forever.

Above her, she heard a splash.  Lord, had they come in after her?

Surely not with a gun, her rational mind chided.

Yet her skin crawled as she anticipated the feel of hard fingers
closing around her ankle.

No one caught up with her.  Perhaps they couldn't see her in the murky
water at the bottom.  But she'd have to come up for air.  Soon.  And
the intruders would be waiting to pick her off.

Then, with a little shock, her numbed brain recalled why she and Thorn
had come to the dock.  To test the underwater breathing device.  Had
her dive dislodged them?

Lifting a shaky finger toward her face, she felt her nose.  One plug
had survived the dive.  Still, the idea of drawing in water was
terrifying.

Finally she had no choice.  The filter was either going to work, or she
would drown, because she'd never make it to the surface in time.
Pressing the other side of her nose closed, she dragged in water
through the remaining filter.

To her everlasting astonishment she got only air.  Marveling, she
exhaled and pulled in another breath.

For a grateful moment, she let her body drift in the water.  But she
was afraid to linger.  What if the intruders saw the telltale bubbles
rising to the surface?  With a grimace, she struck out again, hoping
she was heading along the shore and not out toward the middle of the
river.  She wasn't a marathon swimmer.

In fact, she was already way past her fatigue level.  When she finally
kicked upward and cautiously raised her eyes above the surface, the
boat was about a hundred and fifty yards away, cruising in a slow
circle.

One*of her attackers stood and pointed his gun toward the water, the
other bobbed up beside the boat.

With a gasp, Cassie quickly submerged.  When she chanced another look,
she saw Thorn in custody, sitting between the other two men.

There was nothing Cassie could do but dive again and strike out for
shore.  Moments later, she heard the engine rev.  Then she was alone in
the cool water.  When the boat was out of sight, she headed for the
beach.  Reaching the Stones's estate, she stopped and set the sen son
locking the barn door, she thought with an angry pang as she took the
path to the house.  A minute later she was talking to Jason on the
phone, trying to stay calm enough to explain what had happened.

"We'll be down there in a helicopter as fast as we can," he told
her.

"Don't come here.  Try to stop the boat with " Okay," he promised.

"But Cam and Jed are on their way to you.  Meanwhile get a gun and lock
yourself in that room Tray uses for a gym."

"All right."  Cassie ran her hand through her hair, mildly surprised
that it was wet.  With a little sob, she looked down at the bathing
suit Thorn had admired.  The feel of the damp fabric against her skin
was suddenly intolerable.  Grimacing, she found her T-shirt and shorts
a~nd changed quickly.  Then she grabbed one of the pistols Jason had
left with them.  But the simple tasks had sapped her energy.  She felt
drained, empty.  Forty-five minutes later when Cam and Jed called her
name and knocked on the gym door, they found her lying on her side on
the quilt- covered exercise mat with her knees drown up to her chest.

The looks on their faces con timed the fears she'd been trying to hold
at bay.  Yet she still had to ask the question.

"Thorn's gone?"

Jed shook his head.

"We searched the immediate area.  Jason's in another copter over the
bay."

She still clutched doggedly to a shred of hope, until Jason arrived and
confirmed that the boat with Thorn and the kidnappers had vanished.

"They must have been picked up by another craft.  Or a seaplane," Jed
muttered.

Cassie longed to pull the quilt over herself and close her eyes.  She
rubbed her face against the silky fabric that still smelled like the
oil Thorn had been using to massage her.

If she wrapped herself in the quilt, she could pretend he had stepped
out of the room, and he'd be right back to hold her and tell her
everything was fine.  She ached to lose herself in that fantasy.
Instead, she let Jed lead her to the living room where she huddled on
the sofa and stared out at the water.  Incredibly, the sun was still
shining--sparkling invitingly on the waves.

"I knew we were in danger.  I should have kept Thorn inside the house,"
she berated herself.

"Or maybe we should have moved to another location after the first
week."

"It's not your fault.  We all thought he was safe.  Tell me what
happened."

It helped to talk.  She didn't start to cry until Katie and Jo arrived
by car.  The sight of Jo's pregnant shape finally did her in.  Weeping,
she collapsed into her friend's arms.

"It's all right," Jo soothed.

"We'll get him back."

"Oh, God, I'm so afraid."  Cassie sobbed, unable to contain the anguish
churning inside her.

"For Thorn.  And for the baby."

Katie and Jo stared at her.

"What did you say?"  they both asked.

She struggled to marshal a coherent answer.

"I-- I'm almost positive I'm pregnant."

Katie knelt beside her.

"You missed your period?"

"Yes.  And... and there are other signs.  You know the way you feel
bloated and your breasts hurt right before you get it?  That hasn't
gone away."

Katie nodded.

"You should have told me, honey."  Cassie raised her reddened eyes.

"I know.  But what do you do when your most cherished hope and your
worst nightmare are twisl~l together?  I've been scared to think about
it.  Or talk about it.  Because ... the baby could have the same
sickness as Thorn," she choked

out.

"And I could lose them both .... " The end of the sentence dissolved in
a storm of anguished sobs.

Jo rocked her.  Her tears flowed freely.  Finally she was too worn out
to keep crying.  Katie patted her shoulder and handed her a tissue. She
blew her nose and wiped her eyes.  Drawing up her knees, she sat with
them pressed protectively against her body, a mother sheltering her
child from harm.

"There's a good chance the baby will he fine," Katie said.

"How?"

"Half his genes come from you.  And you've obviously got immunity."

Cassie hung on to that like a drowning swimmer clutching a life
preserver.

"We'll do some blood work as soon as we get back to Baltimore."

"I ... I guess there's no use staying here," Cassie whispered, looking
around the rustic living room.

Even with danger always hovering in the shadows, she and Thorn had
spent their happiest time here.  Made love.  Argued politics and
religion.  Discussed everything from philosophy to Batman and voodoo
economics.

Lord, what if it was the only time they were going to have?  She
clamped her teeth together, unwilling to admit that possibility.

Jed moved from the doorway into the room.

"You'll stay with us," he informed her.

"I--I don't know," Cassie said in a small voice.  Jed looked at her
questioningly.

"You and Marci are so lucky to have each other.  I know it sounds
awful, but I don't know if I can stand to be with you," she admitted
and swiped her hand across her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Jed muttered.

"It's not your fault."

He began pacing back and forth across the carpet.

"Damn.  We should have put some kind of transmitter on Thorn."

"Don't blame yourself," Cassie told him, glad that she could comfort
someone else.

"We all made mistakes.

I--I should have told him about the baby.  Now I may never"-- She
stopped short and lowered her eyes.

"We'll get him back," Jo murmured.

"How?"  Cassie demanded.

Jed stepped forward.

"First we'd better establish that Montague's got him."

Tim ISLANO was beautifully landscaped with plants that must have been
imported from around the world.

The house was a gleaming white villa with a red tile roof.  And the
property was patrolled by armed Thorn gave a little sigh as he looked
down at the crisp oxford shirt and pressed slacks his host had laid out
for his arrival.  Both were the perfect size.  He'd changed without
comment, knowing the expensive attire created a more polished image
than the rum- pied T-shirt and shorts he'd been wearing on his
arrival.

He didn't have much practice playing roles.  In fact, if he'd been
better at hiding his feelings, he wouldn't have gotten in trouble with
Lodar in the first place.  But he'd had centuries to contemplate his
past errors.

He knew that three things were imperative in the present situation.

To appear that he had the upper hand.  To find out what Montague
wanted.  And to conceal any hint that his physical condition was
deteriorating.  He'd hid it from Cassie, and surely he could do the
same with Montague.

Secretly he'd had some talks with Jed Prentiss about what to expect if
he was captured.  After assuring him it wasn't going to happen, Jed had
been forthcoming about what it was like to be the reluctant guest of a
~ man with absolute power.  Now Thorn was very glad he'd listened
attentively.  He hoped he looked relaxed as he sat in an easy chair in
Montague's study, sampling a tasty assortment of delicacies brought by
a uniformed butler.  He wasn't going to tell his host why it was
imperative that he eat enormous quantities of rich food.

Crossing his right leg over his left, he made a point of not looking
for the video cameras that were doubtless observing him.  For good
measure, he washed down some caviar with several sips of mineral
water.

He was sitting in a creamy white chair next to a colorless tile
table.

Even the rug was off white.  Apparently Montague was very fond of the
color.  Even the flowers in the garden had been white.

Thorn looked up inquiringly as he heard the turn of a doorknob.  A
short man dressed in a silk shirt and slim trousers came forward.  He
was small and precise looking with neatly combed dark hair and a pencil
slim mustache.  He appeared much younger than Thorn had expected.

Perhaps in his early forties.

"At last," Montague said, his voice tinged with a mixture of awe and
triumph.

"A very great pleasure to meet you, monsieur.  How do you like our
world?"

"I find it violent."

"Oui.  I'm sorry."

"Like your methods in getting me here," Thorn parried.

"I ~ipologize for the show.  of force."

"Why did you not simply ask?"

The Frenchman gave him a small smile.

"I was afraid you might not accept my humble invitation."

Thorn studied Montague's confident carriage, his arrogant face.  Zeke
had speculated that he wanted to use Thorn's supposed power to control
the world.

"You could have gotten me killed."

"N~er."

"Who was shooting at our plane?"  Montague's face darkened.

"Lenov, the imbecile."

"Well, you're spared' the task of disciplining him."

"Oui."  Montague changed the subject.

"You've surrounded yourself with a group of protectors.  Including the
woman travel agent.  Miss Devereaux."

Thorn's stomach knotted.  At all cost, he must keep Cassie out of this~
Keep her safe.  Taking a small sip of mineral water, he tried to find
out exactly how much Montague knew.

"As you might imagine, her friends have been very useful to me while I
picked up as much information as I could."

"But they are naive when it comes to profiting from my unique
experiences.  Did you bring me here to discuss some sort of business
proposition?"

"You're very direct."

"I have little time to waste," Thorn murmured.

"How did you find me?

Did one of the group betray my location?  "

Thorn's mouth went dry.

"Which one?"

"Zeke Chambers."

Thorn couldn't mask his disappointment.  He had trusted the man.

"I had the project chief call him to find out why he dropped out of
circulation.  I listened in on the conversation.  Chambers's answers
were evasive.  So I knew he was up to something.  Then all I had to do
was keep tabs on his contacts.  "

So Zeke hadn't been at fault.  Thorn took a bit of comfort from that.

Montague seated himself in the chair across the table.

"There are so many things I've~ been longing to discuss with you."

"Hmm."

"You were asleep almost three thousand years.  You may not be aware of
all the important developments that have transpired in the meantime.
But the pyramid at Giza with its uncanny forecast of world history and
ultimate destruction was already built before your people arrived on
earth."

Thorn gave a guarded nod.  "Interesting how many religious traditions
and seers predict the end of the world, isn't it?"  Montague went on
with controlled excitement.

"The Norse concept of Raguarok, the Hopi Indian belief that when the
gourd of ashes drops, the end of the world is near."  Thorn steepled
his fingers.  Since Zeke had told him Montague was interested in
religion and mythology, he'd b~n reading voh~minously in the field.
Ragnaok was the ~e.  at final battle.  But it was followed by
rebirth.

"Or take the great seers Nostradamus and the American Edgar Cayce,"
Montague continued.

"Nostradamus predicted the appearance of Napoleon and Hitler on the
world stage.  They were to be followed by another with even greater
destructive force."

He bit back a remark that Nostradamus's cryptic predictions Were open
to interpretation.

"And now you're here to fulfill the prophecies."

Thorn hoped his expression didn't reflect the horror that dawned on
him.  It sounded as if Montague thought he'd been awakened so he could
destroy the world.

"I've been looking for you ever since I found the tablets on the island
of Corsica ten years ago."

"You are talking about specific references to me?"

"Yes.  Written in Olympian.  No one else was equipped to make the
translations.  But I had linguists spending years on the project.  It
was all set down in the Temple of Lodar."

"The temple of what?"

"I've reestablished the ancient rites," Montague murmured.

"Here on this island stronghold, I have gathered a small group of
followers."  Thorn stared at him.

"Men and women devoted to the ancient ways--the ways of your people."

Not my people, Thorn wanted to scream.  Only a few who craved power.

"Do you know the original mission of the sect?"  Montague asked.

"No."

"They were charged with the duty of keeping alive the secret knowledge
of your return--passing it on from one generation to the next.
Unfortunately for Lodar, the temple was destroyed by a tidal wave.  It
seems the very earth and seas conspired to hide your presence.  But not
from me.  My hard work and diligence has paid off."  Montague opened a
drawer in the table between them, removed a remote control and pushed a
button.  A section of the wall slid aside, and Thorn caught his breath
as several lighted cases were revealed.  One displayed the missing
artifacts that Zeke had photographed.  The other held equally ancient

tablets.  But they were cracked and broken, missing pieces.

Thorn crossed the room and read the mangled text.  It was a frightening
interpretation of his role in future history.

"He names you as the agent of man's destruction," Montague murmured.

"And seers down through the ages have confirmed your role."  Thorn
swallowed.  Seers down through the ages?

What nonsense!  Yet Montague had fitted it all into his warped
hypothesis.

Thorn stared at the warning Lodar had left.  The only saving grace was
that the tablets were shattered so badly that the notations about his
location were obliterated.  So Cassie had gotten to him first.  Not
Montague.

When he turned back, the Frenchman's eyes were bright.

"Lodar wanted to deny you power," he said.

"But you will wreak destruction on this wicked planet."

Thorn gave the madman what he hoped was a complacent smile.

"Yes.

You've done an excellent job of interpreting the ancient texts--and the
historical prophecies.  "

Montague shrugged modestly.

"If you will permit a question, I want to ask you about one of the
artifacts Lenov brought.  Something that Zeke Chambers didn't find
because it had slipped into a crack in the floor."  "Of course."

The Frenchman opened a wall safe and returned holding a glass vial.

The stopper was missing, and the contents were dried onto the inside
surface.

"Do you know what this is?"  Montague asked.

Thorn straggled to retain his calm veneer, to hide his horror.

"A

very powerful poison," he answered with a swift lie.

The megalomaniac's eyes danced with excitement.  Thorn turned away,
afraid the horror would show on his face.  HIS blood had run cold when
he'd recognized the healing symbol etched into the glass.  It was the
vaccine that would have saved his life.  Only it was completely useless
now.

CAssm Twismm H~R HANDS in her lap as she sat in the lounge at Medizone,
the laboratory Katie and her husband.  Mac MeQuade, owned.

They'd been here for hours, running medical tests.  So far, the only
thing she knew for sure was that her pregnancy was confirmed.  Still,
she felt like a parachutist in free-fall--and the ground was looming
closer and closer.

"How much longer?"  she asked, remembering that it had been several
days before the tests on Thorn's blood had been completed.

"With Thorn, we had to determine which protein the antibody bonds to,"
Katie replied.

"But since we already have that information, we'll have some answers
about the baby pretty soon."

Cassie nodded tightly.

The rninut~ ticked by.

The phone rang and Jed confirmed that a man fitting Thorn's description
had been transported from BWI to Montague's island.

Jo sat on another couch pretending to read a magazine.  Jed started
pacing back and forth.

Cassie pressed her knuckles against her lips.  She couldn't take her
feeling of helplessness waiting a see,220

and longer.  She had to do something.  But not here.  She needed to be
alone.

Abruptly she stood.  All eyes turned to her.

"Excuse me for a few minutes," she murmured.

There was a small enclosed courtyard in the center of the building.

Not Thorn's courtyard, she thought with a little pang as she stepped
into the twilight.  But she could smell the scent of flowers, even if
the tears in her eyes blurred their colors.

Sinking to a wooden bench, she bowed her head and Clasped her hands.

It had been a long time since she'd prayed.  Years ago, she'd given up
asking for divine intervention in her life.  But this was different.

"Please, God.  Can you hear me?"  she asked through her tight throat.

It felt strange to be doing this.  Yet somehow right.

"Thorn has come so far.  He's been through so terribly much.  He's lost
his children.  Everything he loves."  She gulped and struggled to keep
from breaking down.

"Now I'm carrying his child--and he can have a second chance.  Please,
he's such a good man.  That's what got him in trouble in the first
place.  But hasn't he survived for a purpose?

Isn't he here to do something important for mankind?  " she asked in a
small voice.

"If you bring him back, i'll make up for all the things he's lost. I'll
be at his side, doing everything I can to help him fulfill his
destiny."

Her throat felt as raw as when she'd been in the fire.  She tightened
her fingers until they ached.

"So is it asking too much for you to save him and the baby?  Even if my
reasons are terribly selfish," she added in a whi~.

Her tears flowed then, but she kept speaking, because she had to be
honest.  You couldn't lie to' God and eapect him to grant your
prayers.

"I waited all my life to find Thorn.  I love him so much.  I need him.
Please."

Finally there was nothing to do but sit in silence.  A little while
later, the door opened and Cassie felt her whole body tense.

Katie came swiftly toward her.

"I've been looking all over for you."

"And?"  she managed to ask.

"You're producing antibodies that will protect the baby," she
announced.

"Thank you, God," Cassie breathed.  It was as if one of her prayers had
been answered on the spot.

But along with the flood of gratitude came a terrible guilt.

"If my antibodies will keep Thorn's child from getting sick, could they
cure Thorn, too?"  she choked out.

"I hope so," Katie said in a quiet voice.  Cassie caught the immediate
import of the words.

"Then he should have already gotten them.  I was so stupid!"  She
raged.

"I should have let somebody know--instead of worrying in silence."

"We can still do it," Katie said.

"If we can rescue Thorn in time" -- It was impossible to go on.

Katie patted her shoulder.

"We'll make it.  Meanwhile, the delay will give us time to strengthen
the concentration."  With a comforting arm around Cas- she , she led
her back to the lounge.

The moment she spotted Jed, she ran to him.

"Can you make a raid on the island?  Scoop up Thorn the way Montague
did?"

"Lord, I wish we could.  But it would be a suicide mission--unless we
can figure out some way to get a message to Thorn.  If he could
neutralize those land mines, it would make all the difference."

CaSSie grabbed his arm.

"There may be a way I can contact him."

"How?"  She looked down at her hands.

"There's something else I haven't talked about, because I knew it would
sound strange."  She swallowed.

"Thorn and I have been sharing our dreams."

"Shared dreams?"  Katie asked, her face skeptical.

"Sleeping, we have experiences together--that we both remember
afterward."

"But it happens when you're in the same room, doesn't it?"  Jo asked.

"That's true now."  Cassie took a little breath.

"But the reason I ended up in Alaska was that Thorn was communicating
with me before we met.  I had a kind of compulsion to find him,
although I didn't understand it at the time."

Jo nodded.  The others didn't look quite so con- vi need

"I could try reaching out to him," Cassie continKatie still looked a
bit uncertain.

"It's worth a try," Jo argued.

"Can you give me something to help me sleep?"  Cassie asked.

"Something that's safe during pregnan6'y."

"Yes.  But let's not jump into anything without thinking it through."

Cassie's eyes were bright.

"I'm going to try it whether you help me or not.  I want to know he's
all right.  And... and I want to tell him about the baby," she said
fiercely.

Jo nodded her agreement.

"I know.  But this is so important that we have to use it to our best
advantage.

If you can reach Thorn, we can find out vital in223

formation from him.  Like the layout of Montague's fortress, for
example.  And the man's vulnerabilities.

Then we can give him instructions that could make a crucial difference
when we storm the place.  "

Cassie hugged her arms around her shoulders.  Oh, Lord.  Saving Thorn's
life might depend on her be' rag able to dream with him again.  What if
she couldn't do it?

Chapter Fourteen

Despite the sleep medication, Cassie's heart was thumping like a
drum.

"How do you feel?"  Marissa whispered.  She was sitting in a chair
pulled close to the bed.

"Scared," she answered brokenly.

"I love Thorn so much .... " I know, honey.  " They shared a long,
poignant look.

"You've got so much to deal with," her sister murmured.

"I waited so long to find a man I could trust.  You and I both did."

Marissa nodded tightly.

"But before that, we both did whatever it took to survive.  We're
strong."

"I used to be," Cassie whispered.

"But what if I never see Thorn again?  What if I never get to tell him
about the baby?"  she ended with a little sob.  Marissa squeezed her
hand.

"We've put a lot of pressure on you.  But really, we've got a good shot
at rescuing him even if" -- Cassie cut her off with a hollow laugh.

"Don't.  I know I'm playing a crucial role in this."  She moved
restlessly on the bed.

"But I'm not sure I can even fall asleep."

"You can do it," Marissa said with conviction.

"Do you remember those self-hypnosis techniques Sabrina taught us a few
years ago when we were both worried about getting the travel agency
started~" "You mean when business was the most important thing in our
lives?"

Cassie asked.

Her sister smiled sadly.

"Yeah.  But you can still use the hypnosis drill--to help yourself
sleep.  Reinforce the idea of communication with Thorn."  Cassie
nodded.

"Thanks."

Marissa hugged her.  Then' she exited the room and quietly closed the
door.  The moment her sister left, Cassie was alone again with her
terrible fears.

THORN WAS BONE WEARY.  Exhausted from the long trip, exhausted from the
endless conversation with Montague.  It took a lot of energy pretending
to be an invincible alien god.

Still, he'd worn Montague out.  The man was sleeping.  He'd gone to bed
thinking he and the space traveler were deeply committed to the same
goals.  So he'd given Thorn access to the computer.

Now he sat hunched over Montague's processor-- raiding every
restricted-access file he could find.  But fatigue threatened to blind
him, causing the screen to blur and the images to jumble.  Maybe he
could just close his eyes for a moment .  But sleep proved too
enticing.  a seductress.

CASsm LOOKED at the lighted dial of her watch.  It was still an hour
before midnight in Maryland, but it would be very early in the morning
in Europe.  Thorn should be sleeping soundly, she told herself.

As Sabrina Barkley had taught her several years ago, Cassie tried- to
clear her mind of all the things that

worried her.  She couldn't totally banish her fears, but she went
ahead with the process, anyway, raising her eyes to the line where the
wall met the ceiling.  It was the best place to focus When going into a
self-hypnotic state.

"Relax now," she whispered to herself.

"Relax now."  The phrase was the trigger Sabrina had suggested.  Almost
at once, she felt the familiar tingling sensation in her face and hands
that signaled she was changing to an altered state of consciousness.

So far, so good.  At least she hadn't lost the knack.  Feeling more
confident, she deepened the trance, pretending she was slowly walking
down a flight of stairs to the ground floor of a house.

When she reached the lower level, she gave herself a direct ire

"You're going to fall into a wonderfully refreshing sleep," she told
herself.

"When you do, you will send your consciousness from this room.  Across
the ocean.  To Thorn.  To the man you love."

THORN SAT IX) ZING in front of the terminal, dreaming of
Cassie--reaching out toward her.  For a few joyful seconds it seemed as
if she were standing be, side his chair.

She was here!  He could hold her in his arms one last time.  Then, with
a start, he jerked awake.

Confused, he stared at the computer screen through a hazy blur.  It was
all he could do to read the little clock in the upper right hand
corner.  He'd been asleep for fifteen minute8.

His vision.  was still cloudy.  Raising his hand, he rubbed his burning
eyes.  The symptom meant the illness was progressing.

He'd hoped he and Cassie might have a few more weeks together.  But he
was never gong to see her again.  The terrible realization sliced
though him like a jagged blade mangling vital organs.  He loved her so
much.  He took cold comfort knowing she was probably better off without
him.

Letting go of her gave him a strange sense of freedom.  There was no
reason to fight for his own life.

And that meant he was at liberty to use any means possible to stop
Montague.

But he had to drag himself through the next few days--and keep the
Frenchman from knowing anything was wrong with him.  Leaning back in
the chair he took several slow, deep breaths.  He wished he had access
to the healing supplies he'd brought from the facility in Alaska.  Or
even the pills Katie had given him.

Almost certainly there was a medical facility in this fortress.  But he
couldn't admit he needed anything.

With a sigh, he reached for a slice of the cherry cheesecake he'd
requested from the kitchen--as if he'd simply been indulging a whim
rather than fighting to keep his strength up.

Actually, it wasn't so bad for a last meal.

CASSIE FOUND HERSEL~ standing in a long corridor with very white walls.
She knew she was dreaming.

For a moment she'd caught a glimpse of a room.  An office with a desk
and a computer and ThOrn sitting in a chair.  Sleeping.  Eagerly, she'd
reached toward him.  But he'd vanished, leaving her alone in this place
she'd never seen before.  Lord, she hoped she'd made it to Montague's
fortress.

"Thorn?"  she called in a quavery voice.

He didn't respond, and she felt goose bumps rise on her skin.  This
wasn't like stepping out into the sunlight and looking down on Thorn's
garden, knowing he was waiting for her even though she couldn't see
him.

She had no idea where to find the office with the' desk and the
computer.  If that was where he really was.

"Thorn?"  she called again, his name ending in a little choking
sound.

What if someone else stepped out of the shadows?

But no one replied.  A chill breeze stirred the hair on the top of her
head.  Was she really close to Thorn--or was this a place of her own
making?  Feeling lost and alone, she began to tiptoe down the hall.

THORN'S FORK CLattered onto the plate.  Every cell of his body screamed
for sleep.  The urge to relinquish his hold on consciousness was almost
irresistible--as if an outside force were pulling at him--tugging at
his mind, compelling him to obey.

Doggedly, he commanded his weary brain back to the material on the
computer screen.  Yet as he SCanned the text, his skin began to
prickle.

A new symptom?

As if from far away, he heard a noise like a shout.  His body went very
still as he listened intently.

Nothing moved.  No one spoke.  His imagination was working overtime, he
told himself.

He fought to stay alert.  But his lids were much too heavy.  HIS eyes
drifted closed.  From one beat of his heart to the next, he was asleep.
Dreaming.  Suddenly there was no doubt about what he'd heard.  A
strangled voice was calling his name.

Cassie.  That was Cassie.  In the hall.

He knew it was impossible for her to be in this place.  Yet fear for
her burned through him with white-hot intensity.  He was out of the
chair and across the room in two quick strides.

He burst through the door and.  found her standing in the hall.

"Thorn.  Thank God.  I thought you might not be here--that I'd made
this place up."

Cassie, here!  He looked at her in wonder.  And he saw the same dreamy
expression on her face.  Capturing her in his arms, he gathered her to
him.  They held each other tightly, swaying back and forth, until he
claimed her lips in a kiss that rocked him to his soul.

"I love you," they both gasped as they drew back to breathe.

She was crying.  His hands shook as he brushed away her tears.

"Don't, dubina.  It is all right.  It is all right ."

"I prayed I'd hold you like this again," she whis Her hands moved over
his body.  He couldn't stop touching her everywhere he could reach.
This was a gift.  A last gift he Would cherish until the end.  He was
nothing more than a man holding the woman he loved.  A woman he had
crossed centuries and light- years to find.

He whispered the words that had been locked in his heart.

"I never thought it was possible to love so Joy leapt on her face.  Joy
that made his heart melt.  Yet he must not surrender the miracle of
being with her.

"It is dangerous for you to be here.  Even in a dream."

She held his gaze with her.

"I had to come.  I had to be with you, my love.  Jason and our friends
need to know about this place, so they can rescue you."

"I cannot leave," he said in a quiet voice.

"Thorn, please."

"Cassie, I wish things had turned out differently.  The man who chased
our plane brought Montague the container with the vaccine.  But the
flask is broken.  The contents are useless.  I am going to die.  But I
am going to stop Montague first."

She gripped him convulsively.

"You can, t die!  Not after you've been through so much."

He shook his head sadly.

"Hear me out.  I must make my last days count.  Montague has spent his
whole life reading tea leaves and brewing disaster for mankind."

Thorn snorted.

"He has been looking for all sorts of outrageous signs that the world
is coming to an end.  In case I did not appear to fulfill the supposed
prophecies, he has been supplying third-world countries with materials
to make nuclear missiles.

They do not know he can hunch them and destroy key cities around the
globe.  Radiation would take care of the rest of the people--except for
the followers he has gathered on this island.  "

The horror of it made Cassie go cold all over.

"The radiation will come here, too.  It will kill everybody."

"He has used Olympian technology to build a... a force field."

Thorn's eyes turned flinty.

"But I have convinced him that I have a more elegant way to end the
world.  By bringing up a system to expand the molten core of the earth
and create volcanic eruptions all over the globe.  Except here, of
course.  That way, there would not be any radiation contamination."  He
laughed harshly.

"He has given me complete access to his computer system.  One of the
things I have really done is give myself a quick course in force-field
physics.  It is not my area of eXpertise, but I have got a good enough
technical education to understand the basics.  I am going to get him to
demonstrate the system for me in case we need it to block out volcanic
ash.  Then I think I can shrink the area down in size--so that only
Montague is trapped inside.  When he is safely snared, your friends can
come in and scoop him up."

"What about you?"  Cassie asked.

"I do not know."

"Don't make plans that put you in danger.  We have a way to save you
without the vaccine."

He shook his head.

"I am sorry.  Katie's methods have only been temporary."

"Thorn."  She compelled him to look at her.

"My body is making antibodies that will cure you.  If I hadn't been
afraid to confide in Katie, we could have already given you an
injection."

"Your body?  I do not understand.  How" -- In the neXt moment, she saw
the eXpression on his face change from perplexity to wonder.

"You are with child."  His voice shook.

She gave him a cocky little smile just before he swept her into his
trembling embrace again.

"I suspected.  But I was so frightened that the baby might have the
illness that I couldn't deal with it."

"I understand," he said, gently stroking his knuckles against her
cheek, her lips.

"But he is fine.  Katie tested my blood and found the antibodies."

His hand swept down her body to press against her still-flat
abdomen.

"You know it will be a boy?"

"No.  I was using a convenient pronoun."

"Twins run in my family," he said in a husky voice.

"I'd like that.  Or a boy now and a girl later.  Or the other way
around.  or any combination you like."  She nestled against him.  All
she wanted to do was curl up with him in some quiet room and forget
about the danger.  But they had urgent work to do.

"Jason and Jed are moving into place with an invasion force.  We have
to know where to find Montague--and where you'll be.  Also, they want
you to disarm the mine field, if that's possible."

"Different sections are activated at different hours of the day.  But I
think I can neutralize them."

"Good.  Does the computer also have a layout of the fortress?"

"Yes.  But how will you remember so much information?"

"When I get back, Sabrina is going to put me into a deep hypnotic
trance.  I'll have total recall," she told him, hoping that it would
work as well as her friend had claimed.

Thorn led her to the Office.  For the next hour, they worked
steadily.

First Thorn took her on a virtual reality tour of Montague's fortress
and showed her his working files.

Then they explored the communications system and designated a frequency
they could use for radio contact.

"Jason told me they'd be ready for an assault as soon as it gets dark
this evening," Cassie said.

"I cannot be sure that I will be ready," Thorn "Can't we help you?  At
least create a diversion?"

"No.  If Montague thinks he is under attack, he could.  fall back on
his original plan and launch the missiles," Thorn warned.

"I must neutralize him first.  Then I will give you a signal."

Cassie didn't like it, but she saw no option.  Thorn covered her hand
with his.

"Dubina, never doubt that I want with all my heart to live a long,
happy life with you and our child.  But if I believe Montague is going
to launch the missiles, I must stop him.  Any way I can."

A chill went through her.  There was no mistaking what he was saying.

To save earth from destruction, he was prepared to sacrifice him roll

"If you're in trouble, let us know," she pleaded.  Before Thorn could
answer, his image blurred and wavered like a film projected onto an
undulating screen.  At the same time, the feel of his hand against her
flesh became insubstantial--as light as the touch of a specter.

Fear hit her lite a lightning bolt.

"What's happening?"  she gasped.

Chapter Fifteen

"Montague is here," Thorn said in a hoarse whisper.  Cassie looked
around and saw nothing.

"How?"

"It is morning.  He has come in and found me slumped in the chair.

Sleeping.  I must wake.  Imm~ diately.  "

"Wait."

For an instant, Thorn's hand pressed tightly over hers as if he could
somehow keep the two of them together forever.  Then he vanished, and
she was propelled into a dark, frightening void.  She tried to scream,
but the sound didn't reach her lips.  Her eyes blinked open;

her face contorted, and she reached for Thorn.  He wasn't there, and
she sank back against the pillows of Katie's guest bed.

Sabrina, who had been sitting across the room, came swiftly to her
side.

"What's wrong?"

The sense of loss was so terrible she felt as if her heart Would burst
from the pain.  It took several moments he fore she could control her
voice enough to speak.

"Montague woke Thorn out of our dream.  I didn't get to find out what
happened next."

"But you talked with Thorn.  He was all right when you left," Sabrina
said.

"Did you got the information we need?"

Cassie tried to hold back her tears, but they trickled down her face.

She wiped them away with the backs of her hands.

"He's going to sacrifice himself to save the world.  We've got to get
him out of there."

FIGHTING A SENSE of disorientation, Thorn straightened in the chair.

"You fell asleep while you were working," Montague said in an accusing
tone.

"I thought Olympians required only a few hours rest."

Thorn raised his head and gave the man a narrow look.

"To untrained eyes, what you saw may have appeared to be ordinary
sleep.  Actually, it was a trancelike state to assist in assimilating
information."

"Ah.  Can you teach me this technique?"

"I am afraid not.  It is a skill my people acquired over thousands of
years.  But it uses up great quantities of energy.  Tell your kitchen
staff I must have food at once," he added in a tone he hoped was
suitably imperious.

"I was about to invite you to breakfast."

"Good."  Thorn rose and stretched, using all his concentration to keep
from swaying on his feet.  He was a lot weaker than when Cassie had
arrived.  If he couldn't wrap this thing up quickly, he might not make
it.

When he caught Montague giving him a critical inspection, he forced a
genial smile.

"While we eat, I will tell you about the progress I have made on the
volcanic core program."

The man's doubts appeared to vanish.

"Excellent ."  Still, Thorn didn't like the expression he'd seen in the
Frenchman's eyes.  Montague was a dangerous

man.  Anyone who planned to trick him had better be on his guam.  4.

"THEY'RE TESTing the force field, all right," Jason announced.

Cassie felt a mixture of elation and alarm.  Was Thorn closer to
putting his plan into operation?  Or was Montague getting ready to
launch the nuclear missiles?

"How do you know?"  she asked.

Jason favored her with an evil grin, and she saw the rest of the men in
the room struggle to keep their expressions neutral.

"I had a low-flying aircraft arrange to have an accident," he said.

"A crash?"  she gasped.

"No.  An unfortunate mishap with its chemical toilet.  The waste should
have landed in the middle of Montague's garden.  It was deflected by an
invisible dome."

The room erupted in wicked laughter.

"I'm glad you can still be amused," she said.  Jed gave her an
apologetic look.

"We've got to have our little victories--or go nuts."

"I understand.  I'm not criticizing," she answered.  They were at a
farmhouse Jason was using as a base in the Sicilian countryside.  The
team had been waiting for thirty-six hours for Thorn's signal.  For
Cassic, every second was agony.  Thorn's time was ticking away.

Her fingers gripped the edge of her rush-seated chair, and the coarse
fibers dug into her skin.  The pain helped anchor her to the rooTM
where she sat.  She wanl~xl to sleep, wanted to go to Thorn again.

But she hadn't been able to reach him since she'd awakened in Katie's
bedroom.  Either he wasn't sleeping, or She didn't let herself go
farther down that path.  With a conscious effort, she straightened her
back and tried to pay attention to what Jason was saying.  She wasn't
going to let the men see her anguish.  She had to convince them she had
her act together or they'd never take her on their raid.  And she had
to be there.

She had to.

"FORGIVE ME, mon ami.  I must get some rest," Montague said in a low
voice.

Thorn ignored the satisfaction that leapt in his breast.  Since his
captor had surprised him sleeping in the chair, he'd been subtly
driving the man, while getting him to reveal the extent of his
knowledge and the details of his defensive and offensive systems.

"I understand human limitations.  Why don't you take a short nap?"  he
suggested sympathetically.

"I hate to waste such valuable time.  Conversation with you is so
stimulating."

Thorn smiled warmly.  Of course the conversation is stimulating, he
thought with an inward sneer.  I've been encouraging you to brag about
your achievements nonstop.

"It is all right to lie down for a little while.  I can use the time to
check out the satellite broadcasts," he said Montague stood and walked
heavily toward a small room off the office.

"I'll catch a little shut-eye on the couch.  Wake me in forty-five
minutes.  No longer."  Thorn murmured his assent and turned toward the
bank of television screens along one wall of the of- rice.  As soon as
the other man closed the door, he relaxed the iron grip he'd been
exercising over his body.  Immediately, a terrible feeling of weakness
descended over him like a damp, heavy blanket.  His arms felt

glued to the chair.  Drawing in a full breath made his lungs ache.

With an effort of will, he reached for the computer keyboard.  Yet his
hand wavered as he began to call up the force-field program.  A mistake
would be fatal.  Not only for him.

For the world.

THE COMMUNICATIONS CONSOLE crackled to life.

"Delta Leader calling Sigma Unit.  Delta Leader calling Sigma Unit."

"It's Thorn," Cassie breathed.

Jason bent to the controls.

"Sigma Unit here."

"The containment field is in place: How soon can you be on site?"

"Half an hour tops," Jason answered.

"Have you neutralized the mine field?"

"I have deactivated the master controls.  And I have locked the doors
to the barracks with the mercenary force.  The building is heavily
reinforced.  But the troops may be able to shoot their way out."

"We'll be on the alert."

Cassie snatched the microphone from Jason.

"Where are you?"

"In Montague's control center.  The assault team knows the location?"

"Do not come with them."  His voice was sharp, urgent.

"That is an order."

"You've been keeping me out of there.  But you can't give me orders."

"We do not have time for an argument," Thorn grated.

"Correct."  She broke the connection and turned to Jason.

"Let's go."

"He's right.  You stay here.  Someone else can give him the vaccine."

"No.  You all have other jobs to do'on the island.  Let's go before
it's too late."

THORN WAS ME'II-tODICALLY dismantling the island's defense syslems when
he heard a loud crash from the next room.  It was followed by a richly
descriptive curse in French.

"What have you done?"

Thorn looked toward the closed door.

"You have been contained by the force field," he answered and turned
his attention back to the computer.

"You're testing me?"  his captor asked.

Thorn made a quick decision as he continued to pound on the ridiculous
keyboard.

"Yes," he answered.

He'd hoped the Frenchman would give him the opportunity to work
uninterrupted.  Now he needed to buy some time.

"Let me out of here," Montague commanded.  Thorn continued playing the
part of the haughty alien.

"You dare to question my decisions?"

"I thought we were working together, mon ami."

From the strain in Montague's voice, Thorn knew he was struggling to
sound calm.  Thorn reached to turn on the camera in the next room.  An
image of the captive leapt on to a nearby monitor.  He looked furious,
his hand raised to pound on the door.  But the force field kept him
from touching the wood.

"I ~do not appreciate the way you are using my power.  How do I know
that you will share the fruits of my labor?"  Thorn challenged as he
surveyed the coastline defenses.

Apparently he'd used terms the Frenchman could understand.

"I

appreciate your concern.  But I would never try to double-cross an
Olympian.  "

"Convince me," Thorn insisted as he gingerly defused the mines at the
perimeter of the island.  Cold sweat beaded his forehead, and he had to
squint to see the screen.

"Not now," he whispered.

"Give me a little more time."

Montague's voice came to him--earnest, urgent, conciliatory.  He barely
listened.

However, when he glanced up, he saw that the man was also working while
he talked.  He had opened a panel beside the couch and pulled out a
small computer terminal.

Quickly, Thorn tried to extend the force field.  But it was too late.
Montague pulled the movable desk in front of himself and activated the
terminal;

A camera swung toward Thorn.  Montague had him on visual now.  At the
same time, Thorn's screen went blank.

"KIat!"  he spat out as he reached to restore his control.

"I'll kill you," Montague snarled.

"Even if I have to blow this place up.  I was beginning to suspect I
never should have trusted you.  Lodar was right.  You are unworthy."

Thorn didn't bother with a response.  He was typing the sequence that
would neutraliTe the missile control program.

Montague cursed richly in French and moved to rescind the command.

Thorn overrode him, realizing somewhere in the back of his mind that he
and the Frenchman were playing a computer game like the ones Cam had
shown him.  Only this was for real.

JASON POINTED OUT the window of the helicopter to a section of the
beach where explosive charges sent water and sand shooting into the
air.

"Something's gone wrong."

He aborted the landing and moved higher.  Still, sand pelted the bottom
of the copter.

"Delta Leader," he called into the radio.

"Do you read me, Delta Leader?"

"Stay away from the coastline."  Thorn's voice came over the earphones
they were all wearing.

Jason's voice remained cool.

"We already know about the beach.  You have problems?"

"Montague has an auxiliary control console.  I am trying to neutralize
him."

Cassie's heart leapt into her throat.

"Can you make the force field smaller?  Squeeze him?"  she gasped
out.

"It is at minimum extension," Thorn answered.  Then, "I have the copter
on visual.  Montague probably has the same picture."

"Should we back off?"  Jason asked.  Thorn sounded resigned.

"No.  Now that he knows that he is under attack, you had better come
in.  Cut off the power at the main generator and satellite
communications."

"Will do," Jed acknowledged.

"Montague may" -- Thorn's communication was cut off.

"Delta Leader.  Come in, Delta Leader," Jason tried again.

There was no answer.

Cassie looked down as the ground loomed toward the helicopter.  They
were almost over the garden.  Had Montague gotten the mine field back
online?

Jason must be wondering the same thing, because he hovered inches
above the garden.  But there was no real option.  They had to go in.

Cassie's heart was in her throat as she watched Jed jump to the ground.
The rest of his men followed.

Then they dashed across the garden.  To Cassie's everlasting relief, no
explosions went off.

But a burst of automatic weapon fire erupted from a structure at the
edge of the compound.  Jason spoke into the microphone.  A second
helicopter swooped in low over the building and dropped a bomb.

Cassie cringed away from the explosion.

"Satellites are going to pick that up.  You have a cover story ready?"
she asked Jason in a strangled whisper.

"We've been sent by one international crime lord to neutralize
another," he responded.

"Convenient."

Another copter swooped in, and a second assault team hit the ground,
guns at the ready.

Cassie waited for her chance with her heart pounding against her
ribs.

There were still no explosive charges near the house.  Thorn had come
through for While Jason was looking the other way, she slipped out the
door of the helicopter and started for the control center at a running
crouch.

"No," Jason shouted.

"Come back.  You'll get yourself killed."

She ignored him.

THOr,~ BENT OVER the keyboard, his mind functioning on a cool, detached
level.  He was in a place partway between dream and reality, where
nothing existed but the job he needed to do.

Montague had a better command of the syslem.  But Thorn had one
advantage.  He was faster than any earth man.  All he had to do was
stay conscious long enough to see this through.

Glancing at the TV monitor, he saw Montague working feverishly.  The
other man glanced up at his own monitor--then returned to the keyboard.
Since Montague had activated the auxiliary controls, each man had
managed to counter the other's moves.  Barely.  But Thorn was
determined to come out the winaer.  He must!

The door from the hall burst open.

"Klat!"  Thorn spun in the chair, expecting to find that one of
Montague's guards had escaped from the barracks.

Incredibly, it was Cassie, dressed in combat faC tigues.  Not Cassie.

Not here.  He'd tried so hard to keep her out of danger.

"Go away," he grated.

"No."  She hurtled across the room, just as the computer screen went
blank again.

"Thorn, I have" -- "Later," he shouted, all his attention on the
machine.

"I must do this!"

His throat burning with fear, he kept trying keys.  None of them
worked--until he remembered the cancel command to an emergency shutoff
sequence.  He typed the complicated series of letters and numbers, and
the screen sprang to life again.  But his fingertips were tingling and
he was having trouble feeling the keys.

"Please let me" -- "Cassie, I must ... concentrate" -- He saw that
Montague was attempting to launch the missiles.  With a grimace, Thorn
countermanded the sequence.

When the immediate crisis was over, he sighed deeply.

Cassie looked at the television monitor.

"He knows I'm here."

"That will not make any difference."

"Can you cut off his oxygen?"

Cassie asked.

"Inside the force field."

Thorn was thunderstruck.

"Why did I not think of that?"

"You're not thinking like an evil alien."  He began to press keys, made
a mistake and had to erase the line, cursing under his breath.  In the
middle of the correction, he realized he could do better than simply
deprive the Frenchman of oxygen.

"I can pump carbon monoxide from the exhaust system into the room," be
muttered.

"Do it."

Thorn pushed himself as hard as he could, reversing the airflow in the
other room and enlarging the force field to include the vent.  Endless
seconds passed.  The Frenchman made another attempt to get to the mir,
siles.  Thorn blocked the ploy, praying that the odorless gas would
have an effect.

After what seemed like an eternity, the man's movements slowed.  Then
he slumped over the keyboard.

Thorn was about to thank Cassie when the screen and the monitors went
dead.  Blood froze in his veins.

Had Montague found a way to cut off this terminal-- and initiate the
destruct sequence--before he passed out?

Cassie's radio crackled.

"We've shut off the power," Jed's voice came over the line.

"Thank you," Cassie breathed.

Thorn felt his heart rate slow a little.

"Montague's in the next room," he told Jason.

"You had better come and get him."

He wanted to say more, but the tremendous effort of the computer battle
had taken its toll.  He slumped back in his chair, looking at Cassie as
if they were separated by layers of fog.

At least he had saved her and the people of this planet.  He'd made up
for the interference of the Olympians three thousand years ago.  At
least he had that satisfaction.  He tried to pull himself erect, but he
couldn't muster the energy.

"Oh God," Cassie cried out, fighting the panic that threatened to
paralyze her.

"Thorn, hang on.  Please hang on.  You can't die now.  I won't let
you!"  Her face contorted with anguish, she clutched the medical kit
slung across her chest.

As she bent over Thorn, she felt the breath freeze in her chest.  His
skin was pasty--and covered with beads of persp'.  tration.  His breath
was shallow and ragged.  Then, his face contorted with a spasm of pain
that wrenched at her heart.  He'd fought so long and hard.  It couldn't
end like this!

"God, let him hold on," she prayed.

"You can't give up on him now."

Thorn's eyes were closed.  They opened slowly, and he squinted toward
her as if he could fit see properly.

Slowly, his hand reached for her, then fell back.

"Cassie.  Dubina, never forget that I love you."

"You'd better stay around to remind me!"  Blinking back the tears that
blurred her vision, she fumbled in a small case slung over her
shoulder.  She was frightened, frantic.

Yet some corner of her mind stayed very calm, like the eye of a
hurricane.

"Take it slow and easy.  Do it right," she intoned under her breath as
she grabbed Thorn's arm, pushed up his sleeve and swabbed his skin with
alcohol the way Katie had shown her.  Then she pulled out a hypodermic,
filled it from a small bottle and discharged a few drops from the
tip.

"Hang on.  Just hang on.  This is what you need," she whispered as she
plunged the needle into Thorn's arm.  It didn't appear that he was
listening.  But she needed to keep talking, to stay connected every way
she could.

"It's going to take a little while for the antibodies to work.  So you
save your strength, do you understand?"

His lips twitched, and he made a small sound in his throat.

"I've also brought you some of the medicine Katie says will help.  In
liquid form so you'll absorb it faster."

She uncorked a small bottle.

When Thorn didn't move, she lifted the vial to his lips the way she'd
done when they'd first met at the station.

"Drink," she ordered.

Obediently, he swallowed, then grimaced.

"Tastes awful," he muttered.

She considered the complaint a good sign.  Her hand softly brushed back
the damp hair from his forehead.

Her lips moved against his cheek.

Then all at once, she was too weary to stand.  Her legs buckled, and
she grabbed the chair to keep from falling.  Kneeling beside Thorn, she
pressed her face against his knee~ and clung to him as best she
could.

"You came all this way to find me.  You'd better not leave me now," she
ordered.

His hand moved to her shoulder, slowly inched toward her cheek, then
went still.

She turned so she could move her lips against his fingers.  It would be
hours before she knew if she'd gotten here in time.

"I need you.  And the baby needs you.  He needs a father.  And he needs
to know his heritage."

She was willing to say anything, do anything, if it would only make a
difference.

"Please, don't let Lodar win.  Show him you're stronger than he is."
Tears leaked from her eyes, but she couldn't stop.

She had done everything in her power to save his life.  Now all she
could do was wait and pray.

OUTSIDE, THE BRIGHT Sicilian sunshine bathed the hills in blinding
light.  Inside the farmhouse bedroom, the shades were drawn.

Cassie rested beside Thorn in the old-fashioned rope-spring bed,
listening to his breathing.  It was peaceful now.  An hour ago, it had
been ragged.  And when she'd tried to go to him in his dreams, she'd
felt as if he'd erected a barrier again.  To her.  Because he was too
sick?

That had made her chest tighten with fear and a deep, aching pain.

She needed to talk to him.  Love him.  But the best she could do was
lie beside him under the light covers.

Katie had said that if he made it through the first twenty-four hours,
he would be all right.  It was almost to that deadline and she could
hardly stand the tension.

He shifted, and she was instantly alert.  Then his fingers touched her
face.

"Cassie."

She turned her head and gazed anxiously into his blue eyes.  They were
the clear, startling blue that she remembered so well.  And they were
guarded.

She felt light-headed.  She wanted to pull him into her arms axJd hold
tight--never let him go.

Instead she remained very still.

"How long was I asleep?"  he asked.

"Almost a whole day.  How do you feel?"

He stretched, his expression indrawn, considering.

"Better than I have in a long time," he finally answered.

She let out the breath she'd been holding.

"Thank you, God.  Oh, thank you," she whispered.  Then to Thorn.

"You're going to be all right.  You got the antibodies in time."

He looked relieved, but not entirely at ease.

"What's wrong?"  she whispered.

"What happened to Montague?"

"He's dead.  He tried to escape after we left and the attack force shot
him."

"Good.  He reminded me of Lodar.  He was a man mad for power."

She looked at him with sudden insight.

"Was that why you shut me out of your dreams last night?"  she asked in
a quiet voice.

"Were you afraid he'd come after us again?"

"That is part of it.  It is still a risk to be close to someone as
unique as me."

She gave a little laugh.

"I guess I can't accuse you of an inflated notion of your importance.
Not when you saved the world from destruction."  His expression
~eaiained sober.

"What if someone else learns of the alien spaceman who was frozen in
the arctic for three thousand years?"

"You weren't frozen.  You weren't in the arctic."

"That is how the story will be distorted.  Or worse.

What if another megalomaniac wants to use the spaceman's power?  And if
he will not cooperate, they threaten to do experiments on his wife and
child?  "

"His wife?"  Cassie breathed.

"You are not listening."

"Yes, I am."  She rolled to her stomach and moved over Thorn, holding
him tightly, her face pressed against his shoulder, the backs of her
feet covering his ankles.

She was gratified by his intake of breath and the way his body
responded to hers.  His hands slid up her legs under the light gown,
across her back and buttocks.

"You're definitely feeling better," she murmured.

"My feelings have not changed.  I love you.  More than my life.  But I
have no right to ask you to risk everything for me."

"I told you.  We can build you an identity no one will question.  We
can live very quietly--anywhere you like.  You can study our culture,
our languages.  Maybe you can write some bitingly insightful books
about society, or you can come up with ways to solve our problems.  And
you can consult with Cam and Katie on bringing Olympian technology to
market.  No one has to know where it comes from.  You can let people
assume it was developed by Randolph Electronics and Medizone."

As she spoke, she raised up enough to pull up her nightgown, rocking
from side to side as she stripped it off.

Thorn said something partway between a curse and a prayer as she
settled back against him, her naked body draped over his.

She moved her hips provocatively and raised her head so that her mouth
could ravage him.

"I'm not playing fair," she murmured between kisses that became
steadily more passionate.

"No, you are not."  He reversed their positions, his hands cupping and
kneading her breasts, his mouth and fingers teasing and provoking as
only he could do until she gasped out her need for him.  Yet when he
tried to end the sweet torture for both of them, she stopped him with
her hands again.  ~t his shoulders.

His eyes questioned hers.

She kept her gaze even as she gasped in steadying drafts of air.

"Thorn, I've never felt this way with any other man.  I've never felt
safe enough to reach this level of physical need.  I never knew that
loving could be so powerful."

His expression became tender.

"And I have never known how deeply I could care about a woman."

"Do you want to throw that away?"

"No.  But I would never forgive myself if I brought harm to you--or our
child."

She knew why he felt so strongly.  He had suffered the loss of one
family already and thought it was his fault.  But she wouldn't let an
ancient tragedy rule their lives.

"And I'd never forgive you if you disappeared because you thought I
wasn't smart enough to make my own derisions."

"I was strong enough to fight Montague.  I am not strong enough to
fight you."

"I don't want to fight."  The hands that gripped his shoulders pulled
him to her.

He both surrendered and took command," kissing her, stroking her,
driving her to jagged heights of passion that made her beg for mercy.

His eyes locked with hers--fierce and tender.  Then he was inside her,
driving her higher until she was consumed by the shattering joy of
fulfillment that radiated through her body and her soul.

Afterward, she snuggled against him.

"In your society, it is better for the child if the mother and father
are mar fled is it no?"

"Is that another roundabout attempt at proposing?"

He laughed.

"Do earth women always push the issue?  " When they're desperate.  "

"Ah, well, I am working up my nerve to do this properly."  He drew a
breath.

"Cassie, I love you.  I traveled billions of miles and thousands of
years to find one unique woman--you.  Will you marry me?"

"Yes," she answered.

"I need you.  Wanting to hold you again kept me alive.  You are my
anchor to this world.  My guide."

"And the woman who loves you," she added, smiling down into the radiant
blue of his eyes.