Across the River of Yesterday

than we expected.'

'Just how long did it take?' There was the timbre of steel beneath the silkiness of Gideon's tone.

'It doesn't matter.' She hurried across the room to the door. 'It's over now.'

'It matters.'

Serena snatched up the striped purse she had dropped on the floor when she had run into Gideon's arms. 'Gideon, there isn't time for your possessive instincts to come to the fore. I need your help.' She came back toward him.

'Who else was there besides Mendino?'

'A captain and a lieutenant,' she said without thinking, then she saw his expression. 'Gideon!'

'Very well, we'll drop it now. I know who they are.' He smiled with cold ferocity. 'I just didn't want to target the wrong men.' He looked down at the purse in her hands. 'I assume you're not looking for a compact to powder your nose. A weapon?' His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. 'Intriguing. They must have searched your purse. It would be the obvious thing to do.'

'They did.' She pulled the two six-inch bamboo handles off the pouch bag and then tossed the purse aside. 'These are hollow, see?' She showed him the hole through the center of each piece of bamboo. 'It's a blowgun.'

'And just what are we supposed to blow?' Gideon asked.

'Hold them for a minute.' She thrust the blow- guns into his hand and rapidly unfastened her white skirt. She pulled her skirt and the half-slip beneath it down a few inches. 'The appendix scar. It's rather large, but Julio said if anyone questioned it, I was to complain about what a butcher of a surgeon I had.' She inserted her thumbnail beneath the top edge of the five-inch white scar and gently worked the adhesive loose. 'It looks exactly like an old scar, doesn't it? Julio is really very clever.' She had freed enough of the adhesive to gain a hold and with one strong pull she ripped the false scar from her abdomen. Four slender, needle-like darts fell to the carpet.

Gideon laughed helplessly as he bent to pick up the darts. 'Only Julio would think of something like this.'

'Be careful. Each tip is coated with a sedative strong enough to knock out a grizzly bear.' She pulled up her slip and skirt and fastened the button at the waistband. She took one of the blow- guns and two of the darts from him. 'Have you ever used one of these before?'

'No, have you?' His lips twitched. 'It wouldn't surprise me if you had. You seem to take blow- guns, crazy colonels, and revolutions with amazing composure.'

'I've never used one before, but the principle seems simple enough.' Her tone was casual as she put one of the darts into the blowgun. 'I imagine we'll have to be fairly close, though, and perhaps- Why are you laughing?'

'Because you look so damn beautiful, and you're talking like a cross between Sheena of the Jungle and a female James Bond.' His eyes were glowing with warmth. 'And because I'm so damn happy you're mine. I'd sure as hell hate to go up against-' He broke off as there was a sudden shout from the other room. 'Right on time. Julio is to be congratulated.' Then the rat-a-tat of machine-gun fire caused him to go tense. 'I think we'd better get into position. I believe we may have a visitor at any moment.' He crossed to the door and stepped to the side so that he would be behind the door when it swung open. 'Come over here. I don't want you in the line of fire when Mendino barrels into the room.'

'In just a second. I have one more thing to do.' She set the blowgun and darts on the table beside her and ran over to the window. She drew back the curtains and struggled to open the window. It wouldn't budge!

'That's not a way out. It's fifteen stories down to the street and there's no fire escape.'

'But I have to open it. Julio told me to do it.'

'Well, Julio is going to be disappointed.' Gideon put a dart into his blowgun. 'This is a recently built hotel and the windows aren't constructed to open. The curse of an air-conditioned society is that fresh air is considered obsolete.'

'Oh, damn, why didn't one of us think of this.' Serena stopped tugging and looked wildly about the room. The desk chair! She rushed to the Louis XV desk and dragged its bowlegged chair back to the window.

'What are you doing?'

'I told you. Julio said I was to open the window. ' She picked up the chair and swung it with all her strength against the glass. It shattered, spraying shards in a sparkling shower. 'I'm opening the window.'

'I see you are,' he said dryly. 'I wish I could get you to obey my orders with such enthusiasm. Now, will you come back over here behind the door?'

'As soon as I get rid of these pieces of glass.' She was knocking the remaining slivers of glass out of the pane. 'There, that should do it. It wasn't so difficult. I guess-'

A key was turning in the lock!

'Oh, Lord,' she whispered, turning to face the door. 'I guess he heard it.'

'Of course, he heard,' Gideon muttered. 'It was louder than the damn machine-gun fire. Quick- drop to the floor.'

There was no time. Mendino was standing in the doorway, his face flushed and very ugly. There was a pistol in his hand and it was pointed straight at her. The open door made a barrier between Gideon and the colonel. Move forward, she prayed silently to herself. But Mendino simply stood there, aiming at her. Oh dear, she had to do something.

'Don't just stand there,' Serena cried frantically. 'Can't you see? Gideon's going to fall. I tried to stop him, but he said it was our only chance. He was going to crawl along the ledge.'

Mendino's expression was arrested and then confused as his gaze went to the broken window. He took two steps into the room. It wasn't enough, but one more step would do it.

Serena kept her gaze from straying toward Gideon. It wasn't terribly difficult. Mendino's pistol seemed to fill her entire field of vision. 'It's so far down there. I'm afraid he might slip and-'

Mendino took another step forward.

There was a low, whistling noise and Mendino's eyes widened and then glazed over as a tiny silver needle embedded itself in his neck. He fell to the floor, unconscious.

Gideon stepped from behind the door. 'Serena, I think I may break your neck,' he said grimly. 'Why the hell didn't you do what I told you? What if Mendino had remembered that there wasn't a ledge?'

'Isn't there? That was all I could think of on the spur of the moment. And Julio told me to-'

'Serena, this is too much.' Dane stuck his head through the opening she'd provided in the window, his eyes dancing. 'When you ordered me to help Julio, you didn't tell me I'd have to do windows. I don't mind vacuuming or a little dusting, but I never do windows.'

'The hell you don't.' It was Julio's voice from somewhere beyond the window, but he was outside Serena's line of vision. 'Will you stop chatting and get them out here? The diversion Ross and my men are providing can't cover us much longer. We were only able to smuggle four men up on the service elevator. Besides, I'm getting a nosebleed out here.'

Serena took a step closer to the window. A window washer's scaffold was hanging suspended by two slender metal cords like a fragile gondola over the street far below. Dane and Julio stood on the platform gazing at her with remarkably similar expressions-mischief, excitement, and tremendous joie de uivre. 'Now I know why you told me to open the window, but you never mentioned what a challenge it would be.'

Julio grinned sheepishly. 'How was I to know? I'm just a naive plantation owner, a regular old country boy. Where I come from, windows open.'

'This one opened too.' Serena found herself smiling back at him. 'With a little persuasion.' She glanced over her shoulder at Gideon. 'Julio and Dane are going to take us for a little ride.'

Gideon threw down the blowgun and picked up the gun Mendino had dropped. 'Get on the scaffold. I'll be right back.' He turned toward the door. 'I have a little unfinished business.'

'Gideon!' Serena's protest was almost a scream, but he was gone. 'Oh, damn, I'm going after him.'

Julio shook his head. 'You heard him. I told you Gideon could take care of himself, but if he has to worry about watching after you, it may add to the danger.' He held out his hand. 'Step into my parlor, milady.'

'But they're still shooting!' Serena wavered indecisively and then took Julio's hand and let him pull her out onto the scaffold. 'If he's not here in two minutes, I'm going after him.'

'Would you know what was so important that Gideon had to go back?' Julio asked.

'I have an excellent idea,' Serena said with a sigh. 'That lieutenant and the captain… I told Gideon it didn't matter, but I don't think I got through to him. What a time for his protective instincts to surface.'