She laughed as he’d hoped she would. They walked along a white corridor, passing various labs that he could see inside through tiny cut-out glass windows in the doors. Posters of volcanoes, glaciers, ice formations, and high-tech gadgetry lined the walls.

He recognized Pulau Gunung Rebi, the volcano where he’d first met this woman. How did she feel seeing a picture of that island every day? She passed it by without a glance and he knew she monitored the signal array she’d set up last summer daily as part of the data collection for her thesis. Did it force her to relive the events every day? Or did it help her get past them?

“I thought the researchers here concentrated mainly on Alaskan volcanoes?”

She smiled, comfortable talking about her specialty. “Everyone here does study the Alaskan volcanoes because they are literally on our doorstep.”

The look she gave him told him she understood the subtext of his comment. If they studied volcanoes here, why had she been in Indonesia?

“Even though we are the most seismically active region in the US, we thankfully don’t have many volcanoes that are erupting at any given moment.” She threw another glance over her shoulder. “If we want to increase our knowledge across the board then we have to study different systems that are active at different times. The more information we can gather the more likely we’ll be able to predict potentially harmful eruptions, which is an important safety concern for the people who live in the blast area and for air travel around the globe.”

“Not to mention the potential threat to mankind if one of the supervolcanoes blows.”

Dimples flashed as she grinned at him. “If we get a supereruption at the Yellowstone caldera we’re all pretty much screwed. All the survivalists preparing for the end of the world will be able to say, ‘told you so’—as long as they remembered to pack their can openers.”

“You’re not worried?”

Darby snorted. “I cannot control supervolcanoes. However, the potential disruption of the Gulf Stream due to Climate Change bothers me more because we can influence that.” She blinked rapidly and looked away. “Unfortunately, I have other more pressing things on my mind today.”

Bigger than a global catastrophe. For someone as environmentally aware as Darby, it gave a hint of the worry she was desperately trying to conceal.

Eban grunted. He’d tried to take her mind off events and failed. Finding the dead body of a friend and being framed for his murder probably topped the list of most people’s bad day, except for perhaps being kidnapped in a foreign country and gang raped. His respect and admiration for this woman grew stronger every single moment he spent with her.

Darby reached for a doorknob, but the door swung open. A young woman stood there looking at them with her mouth agape. Her round face was framed by short dark bangs.

“Jacqui.” Darby hesitated, clearly uncertain of her reception. “You’re working late.”