Hanging up the phone, the scientist swiveled around in his chair to face me. “Another visitor? It’s getting pretty crowded around here. Lowell Krawitz, International Astronomical Union.”

“Robert Eisenbraun. Would one of the other visitors happen to be a woman? Dark hair. Athletic. About my age.”

“Last time I saw her, she was working in the aquarium. Follow the main corridor to Phase III.”

“Thanks. So, this asteroid … how close will it pass to Earth?”

“Close is a matter of perspective. She’ll miss us by a scant three hundred thousand miles, give or take. Roughly the distance to the moon. It’s not a threat, but it’s a bigger hunk of rock than we expected, so we’re keeping an eye on it, just to be sure.”

“Have fun.”

I left the chamber and realized I was still lost. Remembering ABE, I had my bio-chip access the schematics to the Crary Center. Within seconds the internal GPS was directing me out of the Phase II maze and back to the main corridor.

Mental masturbation, my ass …

Descending another long ramp, I pushed past a set of air-locked double doors and entered the smallest of the three buildings.

The aquarium was more research facility than exhibit, a two-thousand-square-foot structure containing a touch tank, five large oval holding tanks, walk-in refrigerators and freezers, workstations and several labs.

My heart fluttered. She was standing before a three-thousand-gallon saltwater aquarium with her back to me. The hourglass figure was concealed beneath a gold and navy blue University of Delaware sweatshirt and matching sweatpants. She had rinsed the blue streak from her jet-black hair, which seemed longer than when we had last held one another four weeks earlier.

“Hey, beautiful.”

She turned into my kiss, my tongue probing the inside of her mouth—her smell and my lips alerting me too late that I had just frenched the wrong woman.

She removed any doubt by slapping me hard across the face.

I backed away, my heart racing. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” She was pretty in her own right, a blue-collar version of Andria, a hometown apple pie girl compared to my sultry huntress. “I’m calling Security.”

“Easy now. I’m with the training exercise. One of the backups. Robert Eisenbraun.”

The anger dissipated into a smile. “You’re Ike. You thought I was Andria.”

Relief flooded into my flushed cheeks. “You know her?”

“We’ve only spent the last eight months working together.” She extended her hand. “Lara Saints, marine biologist. Sorry about the slap.”

“Sorry about the kiss.”

“The kiss was fine … maybe a little less tongue next time. I’m guessing Andie doesn’t know you’re coming.”

“It’s sort of a surprise. Do you know where she is?”

“She’s with the others, out at the drop zone. I stayed back to prepare my lovelies for tomorrow’s dive.” She pointed to the aquarium.