“So why not here?” she muttered to herself.
“Are you talking to us?” Nico asked. “I thought you would be asleep.”
“I’m trying to,” she said. “But it makes no sense for anybody in the GA group that I’m involved with to send me to Sydney to get kidnapped. It would be much easier to attack me here.”
At that, he lifted his head, looked at her, and said, “Good point. So did you have any contacts in Sydney? Did you have anybody over there particularly who would be trying to get a hold of you? To get revenge on you or something like that?”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know why. I hardly know anybody in Sydney.” It was hard to keep the bewilderment out of her voice because, damn it, she was surprised and shocked and horrified by all this. It made no sense. “I wonder if laws are more lax over there?” she asked.
“Depends on which ones you’re talking about,” Nico said. “Or was it just a case of it was easier because it wasn’t in the States. Maybe somebody couldn’t get here to get at you.”
“What about the four somebodies?” she asked with a yawn. “When you think about it, two men lost their lives, and one lost his freedom over there, and one’s still alive and all for what?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “That’s what we’re still working on.”
“Back to that whole family thing again,” Keane said. “Are you sure you don’t know anything about your brother?”
“Nothing since grade four,” she said, her eyes falling shut. “But feel free if you get some information to fill me in.”
“Will do,” he said.
She was just about to doze off when her eyes opened wide. “That’s several times you’ve mentioned him. What do you know about my brother?” She sat up, the blanket falling off to the side as she stared at the two men. “Do you have information that I don’t know?”
“Maybe,” Nico said. “But it’s classified.”
She snorted at that. “Classified? Well, isn’t that a typical government response.”
He stared at her. “That’s your prejudice showing.”
“Prejudice?”
“Antigovernment beliefs.”
At that, she stormed to her feet and asked, “Do you have any idea how little they care about the environment? How little they care about the indigenous people?”
“I’m not getting into that,” Nico said. “I’m trying to tell you that you need to be a little bit more open-minded in this case.”
She frowned at that. “Is my brother alive?” she demanded.
The two men exchanged looks.
She walked toward the men in the kitchen and then slammed her hands down on the table and glared at them. “Answer me, damn it.”
Nico seemed to make a decision, then he nodded. “We believe so.”
“Well, that’s good,” she said. “So you know just as much as I do, which means we believe he’s alive, considering he was alive when I saw him in grade four.”
“Yes,” he said, “but I can’t tell you very much.”
“Why not?” she asked suspiciously.
“Because I don’t know very much,” he said.
“Well, I want somebody here who does know something,” she snapped. “This is just too ridiculous.”
Nico agreed with her. The fact of the matter was, there was no reason that she shouldn’t have access to her brother. Sure, her brother might be in some top secret world, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t at least communicate and let his sister know he was alive. Nico had mentioned this once more in his chat window, and it came back with a question mark. Time to remind them again. Is it wrong for a phone call at least or have him just show up at her door?
We’ll see.
“Even if he is alive,” she said, turning to face him, “that wouldn’t have anything to do with this nightmare.” At the odd silence again, she frowned and said, “I feel like we have a great big chasm between us, and all the information I need is floating down at the bottom.”
Nico looked at her unhelpfully. “Our hands are tied too,” he said.
She groaned. “You’re accusing a group that I’ve worked with for years and my own assistant who comes into my house and here you know information about my family that I don’t have any access to,” she said. “And yet you want me to help you.”
“I think you’ve been living out in the cold too long,” he said quietly. “Just because I work for the government doesn’t make me a bad guy. Just because you’re an activist doesn’t make you a bitch.”
She gasped at that. “Is that how the rest of the world sees me?”
“Activists have a role to play in this bigger world,” he said. “But you can’t just pigeonhole everybody as black-and-white in this scenario.”
“I know that,” she said. “The trouble is, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now. You’re tearing apart my world, and I don’t like it.”
“Of course you don’t like it,” he said. “Who would? But the bottom line is, somebody kidnapped you. Do you want help sorting this out or not?”
She sat down beside him. “You’re making me crazy,” she said.
As she reached for his coffee cup, he moved it out of her way. “Go lie down again,” he ordered.
She glared at him and looked at his coffee cup, then back up at him. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” he snapped. “Get up, go over to the couch, and lie down.”
“I’m not a dog,” she said.
He growled, stood, and swept her into his arms, then walked into the living room and gently laid her down. He pulled the blanket back over her and said, “Now sleep.” And he turned and walked away. He knew she wouldn’t likely stay, but it’s what she needed. She was alternating between reasonable and unreasonable, and
