“Why did he involve me at all?”
“I don’t know yet, and it bothers me, but part of it has to be because you were safe.” He stopped under a portico beside the house, put the car in park, and turned to face her. “He probably knew they were going to catch up with him—his location was never a secret. A large part of his cover was to look ordinary and harmless, with nothing to hide, and he would have stuck with it. He knew they’d question him, search his house, his office at the university, and find nothing. It must have looked like a dead end until you showed up and they realized there was another place he could have left the information.”
“Except he didn’t,” she said, her voice rising in desperation.
“Trust me, he did. You’re the key, and they know it. So do I.”
Frustration built almost to tears. She didn’t want to be anyone’s key to anything. Didn’t want to be the target of fanatics with knives. Didn’t want to have the fate of some hostage depending on her ability to remember some trivial comment from her father.
Oh God, what hostage? Fear stabbed her chest, as sharp as a blade. “Why was my father’s information so important? What hostages are at stake, and why can’t the people who are holding them just move them to a different location to keep them hidden?”
“We don’t know.” Lines creased his forehead, perhaps some of the same frustration she felt. “Whatever information he had, it was more than just the location of the hostages.”
Hostages who were barely real to her, but who must be living in far more fear than she was. “Who are they?” she asked, dreading the answer because then they would be real. Real people, depending on her for the information that could save their lives.
“You don’t need to worry about that part, Jess.”
“I need to know.”
He studied her several seconds before deciding. “Two members of an archeological team in Luxor. Grad students, a man and a woman.”
She hadn’t known what to expect. Maybe journalists. Or aid workers or missionaries—those people often went wherever they saw a need, regardless of risk. They were do-gooders who went into war-torn areas and hotbeds of extremism if they thought they could help innocent people, and the Middle East had plenty of those at the moment. But archeology students? In Luxor, Egypt, where the ancient tombs of pharaohs drew archeologists from around the world?
“Egypt has a good relationship with foreign universities. They’d never allow terrorists to threaten that.”
“They didn’t allow it, Jess. Terrorists don’t ask permission. I’m sure the Ministry of State for Antiquities is as upset as anyone.”
The chaos of it and the lack of logic added to her distress. “It makes no sense to kidnap students. Universities can’t afford to pay ransom fees.”
His mouth twitched at the corner as if he didn’t like what he was about to say. “No one has asked for a ransom.”
She didn’t have to be told how bad that was, not after her father’s experience. If they didn’t want something in exchange for the hostages, their lives were in extreme danger. Desperate for any other explanation, she asked, “And you’re sure they were kidnapped and didn’t just get lost in the desert or something?”
“Evan does the background checks, and he’s sure. Also, Omega’s help doesn’t come cheap. If they asked for it, believe me, it’s because they have no other recourse. All you need to worry about is what Wally told you.”
She racked her brain for anything her father might have said during their dinner about Luxor or Egypt, and came up blank. There hadn’t even been a reference to Middle Eastern cuisine or hot, arid climates. Just that damn story about animals going to a housewarming party.
“Come on.” He opened his door, letting cold air swirl into the car. The full force of winter hadn’t hit Chicago yet, but the sting of moisture in the air told her snow was coming soon. She stepped out, ducking her head against the wind that blew through the high-roofed portico. Donovan waited for her, more solicitous now, but still impatient. She knew he’d pluck the information straight from her brain if he could, and it was killing him that he had to depend on her memory to get it.
“I’ll introduce you to the team,” he said, guiding her with a light touch on her arm. Kind but purposeful. “Then we’ll go over everything you remember. Everything, Jess. In detail.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes, tonight. Everyone is waiting for you inside. There are two hostages who might not have time to wait while you sleep.”