“You guessed correctly. I was—am—a survivalist. When I got out of high school, I worked my way around the world, doing whatever I needed to get by, and at the end of two years I had learned a lot. I established my company, sold my services to corporations—the kind who send their people into wild, dangerous places of the world. I’d take small groups, two or three people, into the mountains or the jungle or any place where nature was indifferent to suffering and death. I taught them to survive, and I was good at it, too. I was in demand. There was simply no one else who did what I was doing.”

“Find a need and fill it. And, I think, follow your heart?”

“Yes. I... Yes.”

She thought for a moment he was going to tell her why he’d chosen such an unusual, dangerous career. None of the news stories had given a hint of what forces drove Adam Ramsdell.

Instead, he continued the story he had begun. “The first thing I told my students was the secret to survival is preparation. I guided them through the thought processes that illuminated possibilities. Could this happen? Is there a possibility that the consequences could be fatal? If so, what would you need to survive?”

He was in full-lecture mode, and she knew how his students must have felt.

“Together we explored every possibility they could think of, and I pointed out the ones they didn’t. Then we prepared. We had lists. We packed backpacks. Some items were unique to our destination. Housing, clothing, footgear. Some were universal. Weapons, medications.”

“Fascinating,” she murmured. “Did you ever do caving?”

“That was a specialty I did not teach. Why? A memory?”

She nodded, squinting as she looked into her past. “Darkness and...lights shining. Rock walls and paintings, beautiful work. Then—an earthquake! But I wasn’t afraid because—” she realized he was watching her intently “—we were prepared.” She spread her fingers helplessly. “I wish there was more. But I want to hear the rest of your story.”

“Yes. Now that I’ve started, let’s finish.” Looking down at his hands, he deliberately loosened his clenched fists. “I was hired by an international medical corporation to train two of their employees to safely explore the Amazon basin. Baptiste was my age, twenty-four, enjoying the hell out of the adventure that was his life. Nevaeh was the smartest human being I ever met and—” He paused.

“I know. They both died.”