Ruth’s life path had in many ways been even stranger than her brother’s. After being abducted as a child by Moroccan slave traders and miraculously escaping her captors during a sandstorm, she had lived for a short time with a community of kindly Bedouin people until the appearance of a wealthy Swiss couple, Maximilian and Silvia Steiner. The Steiners had lost their seven-year-old daughter Gudrun in a tragic riding accident some time earlier, and while travelling in North Africa had been astounded to discover this blue-eyed, blond-haired little girl playing with the Bedouin kids. They fell in love with her, pulled strings to get the adoption fast-tracked, and before Ruth had known what was happening to her she’d gone from being a desert urchin to a cosseted rich kid living on a huge gated estate with golf courses and servants. As a young woman she had rebelled violently against her adoptive father Max, but eventually returned to the bosom of the family and gone on to run their multi-billion industry and aerospace empire.

Ruth’s kidnapping had been a defining moment in Ben’s life, torn his family apart, and caused him to spend many years in profound agony over her loss. It pained him that they were so little in contact now, and even more so that it was his fault for neglecting their relationship. He cared for her very deeply.

‘So to what do I owe the pleasure of your call this time, big brother?’ she asked archly. ‘Don’t tell me. You need to borrow another plane? Still haven’t paid me back for the one you ditched in … what was that lake called again?’

‘Lake Toba,’ Ben sighed. ‘In Indonesia.’ Ruth knew perfectly well, but she enjoyed needling him about it. The little things she just wouldn’t let him forget.

What he was about to ask her to do wouldn’t be easily forgiven, either. He said, ‘Where are you living these days? Still on the estate?’

‘No, I bought myself a nice new house in Zermatt and spend most of my time there now, when I’m not travelling around for business. Why do you ask?’

Ben took a mental deep breath and jumped right in. ‘Because I need you to get out, right now, and go where nobody can find you or contact you. Don’t ask me to explain why, but it’s not safe for you there.’

‘Why am I so surprised? This has to do with you, doesn’t it? What have you been up to now?’

‘Please. Action first. Answers later. Okay?’

‘Oh, okay. I’ll just put everything down and take a vacation. Just what I needed, when I’m up to my ears in running a global enterprise.’

‘Do you still have that yacht?’ he asked. Last time they’d spoken, she’d told him about the latest addition to the Steiner fleet.