... and found Susan Bailey Salaam sitting on the bed beside him. She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling, her hair shimmering in the dim light. Patrick immediately sat up. Susan placed a hand on his chest as if to tell him to stay put, but he got up anyway. “Mrs. Salaam, what are you doing here?”

“She’s been here for the last hour and a half, Muck,” David Luger said. He was standing casually in the doorway of their room, but with a look of concern on his face.

“An hour and a half?” Patrick asked incredulously. He could scarcely believe he could sleep that long with everything that was going on. “Everything all right?”

“Mrs. Salaam wants to talk with you,” Luger said. “I’ll be in the command post.” He turned and departed, but not before giving Susan an inquisitive, concerned look.

“Your officers have been standing guard over us the entire time,” Susan said to Patrick. “They are very loyal to you.”

“You should have waited outside.”

“You looked restless. I thought I could help.”

“That was your voice I heard?”

Susan nodded. “Feeling better?”

“Yes.” He sat up and swung his legs around to the floor, expecting her to stand to let him get up. But she didn’t move, and he found himself face-to-face with her. She glanced at his lips invitingly, looked deeply into his eyes, then averted her eyes and let them roam across his broad chest and thick shoulders. The only sport Patrick ever excelled at was weight lifting, a sport that was solitary, much like the man himself. He had been doing it for many years, and it showed. He lingered there for a moment, trying to decide what she was doing, then got up and pulled a clean T-shirt from his duffel bag and pulled it on. “Let’s go outside to the command center where we can talk, Susan.”

“I need to talk with you in private first,” she said. He nodded, deciding to stand right there, but after a short, awkward silence, he returned and sat beside her on the bed. “I spoke with your officers outside while I was waiting. I still don’t know Taurus’s real name; it’s obvious you and Mr. Luger are very close.” Patrick did not respond. “I gave them the very latest information we have on both the Libyan naval vessels that searched the site where your ship was sunk.”

“Thank you. I’m sure it’ll all be very useful.”

“Judging by the information they requested and the information they reviewed after I arrived, I’d guess you were planning a soft probe on either the Tobruk joint operations center or the Damah naval base,” Susan said.

“I must be sure to remind my team members that you used to be an intelligence officer,” Patrick said with a wry smile.

“And you have obviously been trained to not offer any information to anyone, even in casual conversation.”

“We’re eight thousand miles from home, at a strange military base—there’s nothing casual about this situation.”