The men were not going to leave, not today.  Angie was certain of it now.  The sun would be going down soon.  If they were going to leave, they’d have done it well before now.

Angie felt numb inside.  She knew what this meant for Rollie.  This was Rollie’s fourth day out there.  How could anyone survive in that hell without water for that long?  Nobody could survive for five.  Yet, her mind refused to believe it, refused to accept that there was no hope for him.  Somehow, he had to survive.

The other women had been watching her constantly all afternoon.  They knew what was at stake.  Many of them had sadness in their eyes.  They looked at her sympathetically, consolingly.  They had already given up on her husband.  Angie wanted to scream at them, tell them that he wasn’t dead.

The only ones who had not completely given up hope for him were Fatima and Maria, and even the Saudi woman’s hope was very dim.  Angie could see that in her eyes.

With a sigh, Angie left the place where she sat listening at the door, letting another woman take over.  She was crossing the room to where Fatima and Maria sat when it hit her.  As if from an immense distance, she heard Rollie’s voice talking to her, telling her that he was sorry.  She saw a faint image of his face, his eyes filled with infinite sadness.  Then . . . he was gone.

“Rollie!  Noooo!” Angie cried in anguish.  Then she began to scream.  She doubled up as if in terrible pain and sank to her knees.  The other women came running toward her, but Angie didn’t even see them.  “Rollie!  Don’t leave me!  Please don’t go!  Don’t go.”  Deep, racking sobs shook her body as she began to rock back and forth, her arms wrapped tightly about herself.  Then other arms came around her.  She heard Fatima’s voice trying to soothe her.  But there was no soothing this pain.  It was ripping her soul into tiny pieces, killing her as surely as a knife plunged into her heart.

“He’s gone, Fatima.  Rollie’s gone.”

The Saudi woman was crying.  “Oh, Angie.  I am so sorry.”  She pulled Angie to her, laying the blonde’s head in her lap, and tried to give what small comfort she could.  Maria laid her head on Angie’s shoulder, her tears wetting the material of Angie’s dress.

Sallah received an urgent call from the man watching the camera feeds of the women.  Something was wrong.  He quickly went over to the monitoring building.  The monitors showed all of the women gathered in one place.  They appeared to be looking down at something.

“The American woman suddenly started screaming,” the other man said.  “Then she fell to the floor as if she were in pain.  She was babbling something, but I could not understand her.  She has been crying continually since then.”

Sallah could hear the sound of a woman crying uncontrollably rising above the murmuring of the other women.  With irritation growing in him, he ordered the men who were guarding the building to see what was going on.  He then leaned closer to the monitor, watching closely.  As the door opened, every one of the standing women spun around to face the guard, and, even on the monitor, Sallah could see something dangerous arise in them.  A communal hatred flared up into their faces with frightening ferocity.  The guard must have seen it as well, for he took a hasty step backwards.  Sallah grabbed his radio.

“Get out of there, now!”  The guard quickly complied.

This was not good.  Things had suddenly become very unstable.  The slightest mistake on his part could be disastrous.  He went back to his office and quickly began making calls.  Three clients had been scheduled to come out this afternoon, including the man who was going to take the Tyler woman.  Sallah knew that would not be wise now.   It could cause the women to go out of control.  He could lose a lot of money that way.  The purchases and pickups would have to be delayed.

The Saudi made excuses to the three men, telling them that there was a sandstorm approaching.  He assured them that he would contact them as soon as the storm was over.  As he hung up the satellite phone, he began to curse.

“I should have just killed her,” he growled.

Hashim’s eyes scanned the desert below, looking for some small sign, some clue to where Rollie and Angie were.  So far, there had been nothing, even though they had been searching for hours.  At least they weren’t searching alone.  Every available military search aircraft was scouring Rub’ al Khali for the missing newlyweds.  It had taken only one phone call from Chuck to get the massive rescue force.  David had seen to that.

The sheik looked over at his mother.  She had insisted on coming along, and nothing he said could dissuade her.  He knew that she was as worried as he was.  Would they find them in time?  Would they even find them at all?  The odds were not good.  They all knew it, but refused to talk about it.

Hashim returned his attention to the sand below.  He had lived near it all of his life, but this was the first time that he had looked at it this way, as a soulless, unforgiving killer waiting for those who were foolish or unlucky enough to get lost in it.  Only the Bedouins truly understood and respected it, and only they had the tenacity and will to actually live there.

“We will have to be going back for refueling soon,” Jamaal commented.

“All right.  Just a few more minutes, then,” Hashim replied.

At that moment, Kamilah abruptly stiffened.  Her hand flew out and grabbed Hashim’s.  There was fear and anguish in her eyes.  “He is dying, Hashim.  He is slipping away.  I. . . .”  The grip on his hand tightened as the fear in her eyes grew.  “I cannot feel him anymore.”  She turned away, but not before he saw the tears.

“No,” the sheik whispered.  It could not end this way.  Fate could not be so cruel as to have these people go through so much and save the lives of so many only to lose their own in the end.  In anguish, he turned his eyes back to the desert.  That’s when he saw it, a trail of footsteps in the sand.  “There!  Look!  Footsteps!” he shouted.

Everyone in the helicopter looked where he was pointing.

“That must be Rollie,” Chuck said.  “It has to be.”

Jamaal immediately swung the helicopter around to follow the trail.

“We are going to find him, Mother,” Hashim said excitedly.  “There may still be a chance.”

The helicopter’s speed increased.  They could all feel the need to hurry.  The minutes dragged by as the level of tension in the cockpit rose.  They were passing over a large dune when Chuck let out a shout.

“There he is!”

Hashim and Kamilah both leaned forward to see a lone figure lying on the sand.  He was not moving.

“Hurry!  Land!  Land now!” Kamilah cried.

Jamaal set the helicopter down a few yards from Rollie.  The instant it had touched ground, Chuck, Hashim, Kamilah, and Doctor Habib were out of the cockpit and running toward the Aussie.  The lieutenant was the first to reach him.  He fell to his knees beside Rollie and gently turned him over.  The Aussie’s face and neck were badly sunburned, his lips cracked and bleeding.  Beneath the sunburn, they could see that his skin was extremely flushed.  Doctor Habib knelt beside Rollie.  He reached out and touched his face, hissing at the heat that was radiating off the Aussie.  He felt for a pulse.

“He’s alive.  We must get him to the hospital immediately.”

Hashim and Chuck gently picked Rollie up and carried him to the helicopter.  He was laid out on the floor behind the back seat.  The sheik pulled out the cooler they had brought.  It was full of ice packs.  As Jamaal lifted the chopper off the ground and aimed it toward Riyadh, Hashim and Kamilah began covering the Aussie’s body with the ice as the doctor started an IV.  It did not take a doctor to see that Rollie was suffering from extreme heat stroke and dehydration.  If they did not get his body cooled down and fluids into him, he would be dead within minutes.

Doctor Habib took Rollie’s temperature, cursing when the thermometer reached one hundred seven point eight.  Another point two degrees and brain damage would be inevitable.  As it was, there was a strong chance that the Aussie had suffered damage to his brain from the high fever.

There were medical personnel waiting for them on the roof of the hospital when they landed.  Rollie was quickly placed on a gurney and taken inside.  The doctors and nurses were well experienced in treating patients in the Aussie’s condition, as would be expected in such a climate.

Hashim, Kamilah, and Chuck sat in the waiting room and did the only thing that they could do: they waited.  They had a long wait before Doctor Habib came out.

“His temperature is coming down slowly, but it is still very high.  He is still comatose.  We are doing all that we can for the dehydration.”

“How long before we know if he’ll be okay?” Chuck asked.

“It is going to be a while yet before we know if he will survive, I fear. After that, we will not know for sure about possible brain damage until he wakes up.”  Though he didn’t say it, everyone could hear an “if he wakes up” in the doctor’s tone.

Promising to keep them updated, Doctor Habib left to go back to Rollie.

“Are they still out searching for Angela?” Kamilah asked Chuck after a few minutes.

“Yes, though they’ll have to break off for the night soon.  If this white slavery ring has a base set up out in that desert, it should be easy to spot.  We just haven’t found it yet.  We will, though.”  The lieutenant paused.  “What do you think the chances are that Angie hasn’t already been . . . sold?”

Hashim felt bile rise in his throat.  The thought of Angela being in the hands of the kind of man who would buy a woman, then take her against her will was enough to make him want to commit murder.  “I do not know.  I guess it depends on if they already have someone who wants a woman like her.  W can only pray that she has not been taken yet.  If she has. . . .”  The sheik voice trailed off.  ‘If she has, then Ahmed Sallah will pay for it with his life,’ he vowed silently.

Angie had been crying for hours.  She had cried until there were no tears left.  She now lay curled up into a tight ball in the corner.  She felt dead inside, hollow, as if someone had torn out all her vital organs and left an empty husk.  Rollie was dead.  She would never see him again.  She would never feel his arms around her, never see his smile or his beautiful eyes ever again.  He was gone, and she was alone.  Alone.  There was nothing left for her now--nothing except revenge.

“I’m going to kill him,” she quietly said.

Fatima and Maria turned to her.  The words were the first ones the blonde had spoken in a long time.  Maria did not understand what Angie had said, but was alarmed by the way her voice had sounded and by the look in her eyes.

“I’m going to kill Sallah,” Angie repeated.  “But I am not going to do it fast.  I’m going to make him beg for his life, then I’m going to make him scream in agony until he begs me to kill him.”

Fatima stared in horror at Angie, not just for the words that were being spoken, but for the tone that they were spoken in.  Angie’s voice was cold and lifeless, yet rang with absolute certainty and determination.  The Saudi woman didn’t know what to say.  What could she say?  She understood Angie’s hatred and had to admit that, if she had the opportunity, she would kill Sallah, too.

There was a commotion outside.  Fatima heard shouting and people running.  She went to the door and listened.

“Get those solar panels covered, now!” she heard Sallah shout.  “And get those jeeps under the tent.  Hassan!  Get those camels over where they should be!”  The Saudi let loose a string of curses.

A moment later, Fatima heard the sound of an airplane.  It grew steadily closer until it sounded as if it was flying directly overhead.  Then the noise slowly faded away.

“That was a U.S. military aircraft,” a man commented.

“Yes, I know,” Sallah replied.  “They are probably on maneuvers or heading out of the country.”

“But why were they flying so low?”

“Why do you ask me questions that you know I cannot answer?” Sallah snapped.  “Get back to your post.”

Fatima returned to Angie and Maria.  “A U.S. military airplane flew overhead.  I do not know why.  It is gone now.”

Angie seemed not to have heard or, if she did, she did not react to it.  She was still lying on the floor hugging herself, her knees pulled up nearly to her chin.  The Saudi woman was worried sick about her.  Angie had withdrawn into an impenetrable shell of grief, and Fatima did not know how to break through.  She had tried everything she could think of: holding her, talking about their plans of escape, talking about her own life.  She had even tried using all the platitudes that people mouth when speaking to someone who has lost a loved one.  Nothing had worked.  It was time to try something else.  The Saudi woman just hoped that she wasn’t making a mistake.

“Tell me about Rollie, Angie,” she murmured.

Fatima saw a reaction.  Pain flared up in Angie’s eyes, and she contracted into an even tighter ball.

“Tell me about him,” the Saudi woman persisted.  “Tell me all the little things.  Please, Angie.  I want to know about Rollie.”

There was a long silence, and Fatima was just beginning to think that she had failed, when Angie started to speak, her voice hardly more than a whisper.

“He was only nineteen when we met.  I was eleven.  I fell head over heels for him.  He was so beautiful, and sweet, and smart.  He was brilliant, a genius.  Put something electronic or mechanical in his hands, and he could create anything.  Within just a few months of being taught, he could build complex explosive and incendiary devices.  My father couldn’t keep up with him.  And, though he never went to college, he had an amazing knowledge of chemistry and certain areas of physics.  He taught himself almost everything he knew.  And he had no idea how truly brilliant he was.  I never once saw conceit or self-importance in him.  So many times, when someone complimented him, he got this adorable, shy little smile on his face, and his eyes would drop to the ground for a moment, as if he was embarrassed.”

Angie sat up, her back against the wall.  Some life had come back into her eyes, though they were still dulled with grief.  “He was so brave.  He risked his life for other people more times than I can count.  And there was nothing that he wouldn’t do for a friend.  His friends were his mates.  He would walk through hell for them.  He walked through hell for me.”  At those words, tears filled her eyes.  But she did not stop.  She kept talking about the man she loved as the tears slid silently down her cheeks.

The hours passed and, still, Angie talked.  The other women, those who could understand English, had gathered around to listen raptly.  Though she seemed not to be aware of anyone else’s presence, Angie still stopped frequently to repeat her words in Spanish for Maria.  It had become a habit.  Eventually, her tears dried up and the grief in her eyes lessened.

She told them everything about Rollie, every moment of his life that she could remember.  And what she could remember was amazing.  It was as if each moment she had spent with him had been permanently engraved upon her mind.

When she told them about Victor Loubar and what he had done, all of the women grew still and silent with hatred.  When she told them about her and Rollie discovering their true feelings for each other, they smiled with delight.

Throughout the night, Angie talked.  Many of the women left to go to sleep, but others remained, their hearts having been captured by a man whom, sadly, they would never have the chance to meet.  It was well into the small hours of the morning when Angie finally stopped, her throat aching and her voice rough from talking too long.  As the other women drifted away to their beds, Fatima and Maria encouraged Angie to get some sleep.  At last succeeding, they lay down nearby, ready to go to her if they were needed.

Angie floated in a cold, gray fog.  There was blackness beyond the fog, the kind of blackness that swallows up light without a trace.  She was utterly alone.  The grief was back, a crushing, killing grief that destroyed the will to live.

“You left me, Rollie.  You promised that you wouldn’t leave, but you did.  You left me alone.  I’m all alone now.  I don’t want to live without you.  I promised you that I would go on, but I don’t know if I can.  I’ll never want anyone else but you.”  A sob caught in her throat.  “Why did you have to leave me, Rollie?  Why?”

“Angie.”

The voice seemed to come from far away, the tiniest whisper of sound.  The fog around her appeared to lighten slightly.  Angie grew still, listening for the voice to come again.

“Angie,” it repeated, stronger this time, and she knew for a certainty who it was.

“Rollie?”

The fog continued to lighten and the blackness beyond it began fading away.

“I haven’t left you, Angel.  I’m right here.  I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re dead, Rollie.  I felt you die.  I felt you go away.”

A beam of sunlight speared through the fog, burning away the grayness.  Something made Angie turn around.  Rollie was walking toward her, a smile on his face.  He looked wonderfully, vibrantly alive.

“No, Ange.  I’m here.  I’m not dead.  Feel me, Angie.  I’m coming back to you.”

That’s when Angie realized that she could feel him.  He wasn’t dead.  He was alive!

With a cry of joy, she ran to him, leaping into his arms and clinging to him with all her strength.  The fog and the darkness were gone, and she saw Australia all around them.

“We’ll be together soon, Angel,” Rollie whispered.

Angie awoke with a start.  She sat up quickly.  The movement woke both Fatima and Maria.  The blonde gazed at them, her face radiant with happiness.

“He’s alive!  Rollie’s alive!” Angie said, laughing as tears of joy ran down her cheeks.

Concern flared up in Fatima.  Angie was slipping into delusion.  Her grief had pushed her into denial.  Something had to be done.  “Angie, I . . . I know that you want him to be alive, but--”

“No!  He is alive.  I saw him.  He spoke to me.  He brought me back into the Dreamtime.  I was wrong.  He didn’t die.  He’s going to be all right.  He is!  You have to believe me.”

The Saudi woman looked at the bright, burning light in Angie’s eyes.  Could it really be?  Could Rollie actually still be alive?  It seemed impossible, but Angie was so certain.  Fatima decided that, even if Angie was wrong, she did not have the heart or the right to take away her happiness.

“I believe you, Angie.  I believe,” she said.

Hashim and Kamilah sat in Rollie’s room.  The Aussie’s temperature was finally back to normal.  He was still dehydrated, though, and he was extremely weak.  Now that the flush of his skin was gone, he looked pale beneath the sunburn.  Dark circles lay under his eyes.  He had not moved in all the time that they had been there.

Kamilah sat in the chair beside Rollie, her hand holding his.  She had removed her veil, but that fact had hardly registered on Hashim.  What difference did it make anyway?  It was just her face.  Why should it be hidden?  Certainly not from this man who lay on the bed, a man whom the sheik was finally beginning to realize had become as dear to his mother as a son.

How strange it was that some people could be in your life for such a short time, yet become so important to you.  He did not know what it was like to have a brother, but if he could choose one, it would be Rollie Tyler.

A sound from the bed roused the sheik from his thoughts.  The Aussie had stirred.  Hashim heard him mutter something.  It had sounded like his wife’s name.  His hand clutched at the sheet, then relaxed again.  He once more grew quiet, but the brief activity had strengthened Hashim’s hope that Rollie was going to be all right.  But what about Angie?

Angie awoke feeling strong and confident.  Rollie was alive.  She knew it as certainly as if he had come walking into the room and taken her into his arms.  She didn’t stop to consider how this could be.  He must have been found by somebody, perhaps by the same airplane that had flown over the camp yesterday.

Though she now knew that Rollie was safe, she was aware that her own time was running out.  She was surprised that the buyer had not come to claim her yesterday.  She didn’t think that she would have another day.

The men who had arrived the day before yesterday were still there.  She hoped fervently that they would be leaving soon.  If they didn’t and the buyer came, she would have to make a decision on what she was going to do.

It was shortly after breakfast when Angie was approached by a group of women.  Fatima and Maria were among them.

“Angie, we have all been talking, and we have decided that we are not going to let them take you,” the Saudi woman announced.

“You have no choice, Fatima.  If the buyer comes while those other men are still here, there won’t be anything that you or I can do about it.  It’s too many men for us to handle.”

“I do not know yet what we will do, but we are not going to let you be taken away,” Fatima said firmly.  “Our decision is final.”

Angie looked from woman to woman, seeing stubborn resolution there.  Tears came to her eyes, and she hugged each of the women.  “I wish that I could talk you out of it, but thank you, all of you.  You’re the best.”  A smile graced her face.  “So, shall we see what plan we can come up with to deal with the extra men?”

Rollie rose quietly and gently out of the darkness.  The first thing he became aware of was the sound of a heart monitor.  Then came the feeling of an IV in his arm, a feeling he was all too familiar with.  ‘I’m in a hospital again.  This is definitely a habit that I’m going to have to break.’

The Aussie opened his eyes and looked around.  He was surprised to see Kamilah asleep in a chair beside his bed and Hashim dozing in another one across the room.  Where was Angie?  Just then, everything flooded back to him.  Angie was still out there!

“Angie,” he croaked.

The two Saudis were immediately awake.

“Angie,” Rollie repeated, staring at Hashim and his mother as they gazed down at him.

“We are looking for her, Rollie,” the sheik said soothingly.  “There are search planes out scouring the desert for the white slavers’ camp.”

“You know about the white slavery?”

“Yes, we figured it out, all from that tooth you were kind enough to leave for us.”

“Huh?”

The sheik laughed.  “It is, as you say, a long story, one that I will be happy to tell you later, but right now, you need to rest.  You came very close to dying, and you are still very weak.”

“Hashim, if you knew how many times I’ve come close to dying, you’d be horrified.  I can’t stay here.  We have to find Angie.”

“The search for your wife will have to be conducted without you, I am afraid,” said a voice from the doorway.  Doctor Habib came into the room.  “You will be staying right here in this room for the next several days.  Being out in Rub’ al Khali without water for a couple of days is not exactly good for your health.”

“Four days,” Rollie said quietly.

“What?”

“I was out there for four days . . . and three nights.  They dumped me the day that they kidnapped us.”

The three Saudis stared at him in disbelief.  “Are you certain, Rollie?” the sheik asked.

“Hashim, if there is anything that I’m certain of it’s how long I was out there.”

Doctor Habib shook his head in amazement. “I did not think that it was possible for anyone to survive that long.”

“Yeah, it was a bit hot,” the Aussie said mildly.

“A bit hot?!” exclaimed a new voice.  Rollie turned to see Chuck enter the room.  “It was pushing a hundred thirty degrees out there when we found you, Rollie.  And you tell me that I have a gift for understatement.”

Rollie grabbed the bed railing and pulled himself up to a semi-sitting position, ignoring the dizziness that assailed him and the sound of disapproval that the doctor made.  “Did you find her?” he asked anxiously.

“No, Rollie.  I’m sorry.  Not yet.  All the searchers saw yesterday were a couple of Bedouin camps.  They went out again at the crack of dawn.  As soon as they find something, they’ll contact me.”

The Aussie was shaking his head.  “No.  There may not be enough time.  She’s still here now, but the man who is going to buy her could come at any time.”

“Rollie, we can’t speed up the search,” the lieutenant said.  “They’re covering the area as fast as they can.  There’s nothing more that we can do.”

“Yes, there is,” Rollie insisted.  “I can find her.  I can feel her.  It will lead me right to her.  I was heading toward her when I was in the desert, but it was too far.  I couldn’t make it.”  He turned to Kamilah.  “You know that I’m telling the truth.”

Hashim’s mother nodded.  “Yes, I know.”

“Rollie, you are simply too weak to be going anywhere,” the doctor stated emphatically.

“Damn it!  If I have to bloody crawl on my hands and knees, I am going to go find her!” the Aussie yelled, his eyes blazing.

They stared at him.  It was clear to all of them that there was not going to be any chance of talking him out of this, so, unless they were willing to tie him to the bed, they might as well help him, otherwise, he’d kill himself trying to do it on his own.

Doctor Habib sighed.  “All right, but please, at least give yourself another couple of hours of rest.”  The Aussie looked ready to refuse.  “Two hours.  That is all I am asking.  Besides, that will give me an opportunity to make arrangements for someone to take over my duties here.”

Rollie’s eyebrows rose questioningly.

“If you are going to be leaving this hospital and going back out into that desert against medical advice and common sense, I am going to go with you,” the doctor stated.  The corners of his mouth turned up.  “At least then, when you fall on your face I can make sure that you do not aspirate any sand.”

A smile spread across the Aussie’s face.  It only lasted a moment before it was gone.

“I’ll also need the time to gather some assault teams, Rollie,” Chuck told him.  “You can bet that we’ll have a fight on our hands when we storm the camp.”

Rollie nodded.  “Okay, it’s a deal,” he said, hoping that he hadn’t just made a huge mistake.

Everyone cleared out of the room, leaving Rollie alone.  He sighed and closed his eyes.  ‘We’re coming, Angie.  We’ll be there soon.’
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN -- FURY

Rollie could not believe how weak he felt.  Just the act of getting dressed had tired him.  He was now in a wheelchair being taken up to the roof where a helicopter waited.  With him were Hashim, Chuck, Doctor Habib, and the sheik’s personal bodyguard, Kareem, whom the Aussie still had a tendency to think of as Mister Tank.  Kamilah had been taken back home.  She had known that she would not be able to help them in what they were going to do. Chuck had tried to convince Hashim to remain home as well, but he had flatly refused.

The helicopter waiting for them was not the one belonging to the sheik.  It was a large military chopper.  Four of the members from the team Chuck had assembled for the encounter with the extremists sat in the back.  Rollie nodded silently at Patrick, who nodded back, his face grave.  The Aussie was helped into the front seat of the chopper, then everyone else got in.  The helicopter lifted off and headed toward Rub’ al Khali.

Rollie’s gaze remained straight ahead as they flew, impatient for them to get to the desert.  After what seemed like a very long time, they finally arrived.  The pilot came to a stop and looked at Rollie.  The Aussie’s eyes scanned the horizon, seeking the place where Angie’s songline originated from.

“That way,” he said, pointing to the Southeast.  Without a word, the pilot took off in that direction.  He flipped a switch, and the loud whir of the rotors quieted to a thumping whoosh.  This would allow them to approach the camp without being heard.

They flew low over the desert, skimming just above the sand, slipping between the dunes whenever possible.  A second helicopter had taken up position behind them.  It was carrying the remaining two members of Chuck’s team, as well as four other men, not counting the pilot.

Someone tapped on Rollie’s shoulder.  He looked around to meet Chuck’s gaze.  The lieutenant was holding a gun out to him.

“Take this,” Chuck said.

The Aussie stared at the weapon.

“Take it, Rollie.  You may need it.”

Rollie reluctantly accepted the pistol.  He stared down at it.  Not counting the one he’d used to knock out Amini, the last time he held a gun, he had killed with it.  The Aussie didn’t want that to happen again, but if he had to, he would.  He stuck the gun in his belt.

As the miles slid by, Rollie’s tension mounted.  He could feel that they were getting closer.  He could also sense that something was about to happen and that they needed to hurry.

‘Just a few more miles, Angie,’ he said silently.

The air was heavy with tension.  Conversations between the women were brief and distracted.  It would be soon now.  Unfortunately, they had not come up with a way to get around the extra men.  At least they knew that they were there.

Angie knew that the success of their plan depended upon the element of surprise.  Everything had been set up to look accidental, to make the slavers think that this was not an escape attempt.  If the men were not led into believing that there was no danger from the women, then this escape could end before it had begun.

Fatima came up to her.  “When are we going to go?” she asked in a whisper.

“During lunch.  That will be the time when they’d least expect something.  It will seem more like an accident then.”

The Saudi woman nodded, then left to pass along the information to the other women.  Angie watched her, slightly puzzled.  Something was bothering the Saudi woman.  She seemed upset.  The blonde could have sworn that she had even seen tears in her eyes once.

As Angie looked at her and the other women, she began wondering if she was making a terrible mistake.  The increase in the number of Sallah’s men drastically reduced their chances of success, but she had learned a short time ago that they had no choice but to deal with them.  One of the women had overheard a couple of the men saying that the new men would be staying there for two more days.  A lot of things could happen in two days--like the arrival of Angie’s buyer.

A few minutes later, Fatima sat beside her.  A small sigh escaped her lips.

“Is something wrong, Fatima?” Angie asked.  “There’s something that’s upsetting you.”

The woman glanced at her, then looked away.  “I am all right,” she murmured.

The blonde took her hand.  “No, you’re not.  What is it?”

Fatima looked at her again.  This time, the tears in her eyes were unmistakable.  “I did not want to talk about this.  I never told the other women.  It was . . . a private pain, and I also did not want to upset them even more than they were.”

“What is it?” Angie asked.  A chill ran through her.  “They didn’t. . . .  My God, did they hurt you?  Did they rape you?”

Fatima shook her head.  “No.  They would not damage their merchandise like that.  They did not hurt me.”

“But they hurt someone else?”

A tear spilled over and ran down Fatima’s cheek.  “My brother.  They apparently did not know that he was home, too.  When they grabbed me, he tried to stop them.  They . . . killed him.”

“Oh no,” Angie whispered.  “Fatima, I am so sorry.  Why didn’t you tell me?”

“When you came, you were in such grief and worry over Rollie.  I did not wish to burden you with mine.  Rafi and I were not very close.  He believed in the old ways, as my father and other brother do, and did not like my Western opinions on how women should be treated.  But he was my family, and he tried to protect me.  I was doing all right, but then, when you realized that Rollie was still alive, you were so happy.  I. . . .”

“You started wishing that it was the same for your brother,” Angie finished.

The Saudi woman nodded.  “Please forgive me, Angie.  It sounds so selfish.  I truly am happy that Rollie is alive.”

“Stop it, Fatima.  You were not being selfish.  It’s perfectly natural for you to think that way.”  Angie squeezed Fatima’s hands.  “We are going to stop them.  We’re going to make sure that they don’t do this to any more families.”

The morning passed without incident.  But then, about fifteen minutes to twelve, they all heard a helicopter approaching.  For a moment, hope that it was Rollie leapt into Angie, but then she heard the aircraft land just outside the camp.  The woman who was listening at the door pressed herself closer to it.  After a moment, she got up and headed toward Angie, a worried expression on her face.

“They’re buyers, Angie, and I think that one of them is the man who’s going to take you.”

The blonde stood.  “That’s it, then.  We move now.”  She immediately headed into the bathroom.  On the floor sat the clock from the wall, which she had removed earlier while some of the other women caused a distraction.  The glass on the face had been removed.  Wrapped around each of the hands were the exposed wires of the electrical cord from a hair dryer.  The cord had been cut in half and the wires bared using a piece of the mirror, which Angie had smashed earlier, muffling the sound with towels.  Heaped up around and almost completely covering the clock was toilet paper, pieces of cloth, and towels.

Angie grabbed up the spray bottles and hair spray cans that were sitting on the vanity.  The spray bottles had been filled with the most caustic liquids she could find in the bathroom.  One by one, she slipped the bottles and cans out the door, handing them to Fatima, who then passed them to another woman, who, in turn, passed them on to others.  Then came the broken pieces of the mirror.  Soon, all of the women were armed in one way or another.  They hid their weapons in the folds of their dresses.

Angie set the arms of the clock five minutes apart.  She then doused the toilet paper, material, towels, and the nearby wall with a flammable liquid from the bathroom supplies.  The blonde then plugged the dryer into the wall socket and turned it on.  It didn’t work, of course, since the cord was cut.  Taking a last look around to make sure she didn’t forget anything, Angie plugged in the clock.  The arms immediately started inching toward each other.  In five minutes, all hell would break loose.

“I have had a meal prepared for us.  Let us eat lunch, then you can take a look at the women,” Sallah said to the three men.

“I would prefer to see her now,” said a heavy man with a square, rough-featured face.

Sallah nodded.  “Of course.”  He looked at the other men, who both said that they would wait until after lunch.

The Saudi led the man to the building with the monitoring station.  Sallah glanced around the room shown on the screens, but could not see the person he was looking for.  A frown puckered his brow, then he saw her coming out of the bathroom.  “There she is,” he said pointing to her.  He told the man sitting at the monitors to zoom one of the cameras in on her.

The buyer leaned closer to the monitor and watched the woman.  She moved with the grace and bearing of an athlete.  Her face was strong, yet possessed a natural beauty.  The woman’s blonde hair was cut short in a simple style.

“Yes,” the man murmured.  “Is she spirited?”

“Very much so,” Sallah replied.  “See these scratches?”  The Saudi pointed to his cheek.  “She is the one who gave them to me.  She is what the Americans would call a wildcat when she is aroused.”

The buyer smiled approvingly.

“As you requested, she is not a virgin.  She was married, in fact.  I have to say that this was an unusual request.  Most of my clients prefer it the other way.”

“I prefer a woman with experience.  She will know how to pleasure me.”

“Would you like me to bring her out so that you can examine her more closely?”

“No, that will not be necessary.”  The man straightened.  “She is perfect.  I will take her after lunch.  We can discuss the price over the meal.”

“Very good,” Sallah said with a smile.  He would soon be rid of the troublesome Tyler woman.

Angie kept glancing at her watch.  The minutes seemed to be dragging by with glacial slowness.  She expected the door to be opened at any second by a guard coming to take her.  That would be a catastrophe, especially if it happened at the same time that the surprise in the bathroom was sprung.

Angie ran her fingers across the jagged piece of glass hidden in her dress.  A thick layer of cloth had been wrapped around one end of it so that the person holding it would not cut their hand.  Angie had no qualms about using the weapon if she had to.  In fact, there was one particular person on whom she would have no hesitation at all in using it.  If she had not known that Rollie was alive, she would have used the weapon on that man quite happily.

Angie looked at her watch again and stiffened.  One more minute.  As her pulse rate increased, she looked over at Fatima and Maria.  They returned her gaze meaningfully.

The time counted down to zero.

Inside the bathroom, the two hands of the clock came together and the bare wires made contact.  Sparks flew out in all directions to land in the tissue paper and material.  With a little whooshing sound, flames burst forth, quickly spreading across the pile.  The fire made its way up the wall, rapidly growing in size.

Outside the bathroom, one of the women screamed, “Fire!”  All of the other women promptly scrambled to their feet.  Angie made a show of trying to get into the bathroom to put the fire out while another woman started banging on the outside door, screaming at the top of her lungs.  Smoke from the flames was quickly filling the room.  Coughing, Angie ran to the door, as did all of the other women, very convincingly acting like a bunch of panic-stricken females.  The door suddenly flew open and the two guards stationed outside came rushing in.  Five more men were outside, yelling at the women to come out.  The women quickly obeyed.  They huddled outside, coughing, pretending to have no interest in anything but being away from the fire.

Angie glanced about.  Two men inside, five more here.  She then saw another six running toward them.  That was just about all of them.

The men trained their weapons steadily on the women, prepared for a sudden move.  But then, after a few seconds, they began to see nothing more than weak, trembling, wide-eyed females.  They relaxed and leaned the guns casually against their shoulders.

It was time to act.

“Now!” Angie yelled.

Instantly, all of the women yanked out their weapons and attacked the men.  Taken completely by surprise, the slavers suddenly found themselves faced with a screaming hoard of rampaging, hate-filled females.

As her fellow women attacked, Maria dove forward and slammed the door of the women’s quarters shut, locking the two men inside.  She then turned and, with a scream of her own, pounced on one of the men, who already had a woman clinging to his back, slashing him with her broken piece of mirror.  He went down beneath them before he had a chance to get off a shot.

Weapon in hand, Angie launched herself at one of the slavers, her mind blazing with hatred over what these people had done to other women and to Rollie.  The man swung his rifle around toward her, but a kick to the knee and a punch to his throat loosed his grip, and the rifle fell.  He grabbed Angie’s arm and raised his fist to strike.  Out of nowhere, Fatima was on him, stabbing at him with her mirror.  He reached around and grasped her by the hair, pulling her forward.  Angie swung with both fists and connected with his face, the mirror still in her hand, but with the sharp point turned downward. At the same time, Fatima kicked him in the same knee that Angie had before.  The man staggered and went to his knees.  The blonde’s foot flew out and smashed into his jaw.  His eyes rolled back into his head, and he keeled over.  Angie scooped up the rifle and focused her attention on another man, who was battling with a lone woman.  With a shout, the blonde went at him, the rifle raised like a club.

Sallah stared in horror at the sight before him.  The women were everywhere.  Their eyes wild with hatred, they sprang at the men in pairs.  He saw men scream, covering their eyes after having been sprayed in the face by some kind of liquid.  They were then brought to the ground by the kicking, clawing, and punching women.  Other men were covered in blood from multiple slash and stab wounds.  Four men already lay on the ground.  Two women were on the ground as well.  Whether they were alive or dead, he did not know.  A few of the men managed to get off shots, but their aim went wild, hitting nothing.  Sallah looked at the man who stood a few feet away, staring at the battle.

“Start shooting!” he yelled at him.  “Bring down four or five of them, and the rest will surrender.”

“But I might hit our men!” the man replied.

“Shoot now or there won’t be any men to hit!”

The guard raised his rifle to his shoulder and took aim at one of the women.  Just as he squeezed the trigger, a man leapt at the woman.  The bullet hit him in the back, and he fell.

“You idiot!” screeched Sallah.  “You blind, useless idiot!”

Cringing, the man lifted the rifle again and took aim, this time at a teenaged girl with the look of a Spaniard.  His finger tightened on the trigger.

“Slow down.  We’re almost there,” Rollie told the pilot.  The helicopter reduced its speed in half.  A couple more minutes passed, then, “She’s on the other side of that dune up ahead.”

The pilots landed the helicopters behind the dune, and everyone got out.  Rollie swayed on his feet, his knees almost buckling.  The doctor grabbed his arm.

“You should stay in the helicopter.  You are too weak to attempt to walk.”

The Aussie shook his head.  “I’ll make it.  Just give me a second.”

Doctor Habib removed his hand, and Rollie cautiously released his grip on the helicopter.  He took a step forward, then another one, ignoring the rubbery feeling in his legs.

The doctor shook his head.  “You are the most extraordinarily stubborn man I have ever met.”

“You’re not the first person who has said that,” Rollie remarked.  He headed off unsteadily toward the sand dune.

Doctor Habib shook his head again, then a faint smile touched his lips.  There was something about this bull-headed Australian that you just had to like.  Then he got to thinking about it.  It was probably that very stubbornness and refusal to quit that allowed Rollie to survive that long in the desert.  Then again, perhaps it was something else.

The men made their way up the dune.  By the time they’d gone halfway, Rollie was sweating and breathing heavily, but he refused the helping hand that both the doctor and Hashim offered.  If he didn’t have the strength to make it there on his own, he would be of no use to Angie.

They were almost to the top, when they all heard some kind of commotion break loose in the camp.  There was the sound of women screaming in anger and men yelling and screaming.  Moments later, they heard gunfire.  Everybody rushed to the top of the dune and stared at the pandemonium below.  Women were everywhere, attacking the men like lionesses.  Though the men were armed with rifles and pistols, they had apparently been taken by surprise and were slowly being overwhelmed by the women’s superior numbers.  Rollie saw Angie bring one man down with the help of a second woman, then turn her attention to another unfortunate male.

“She really is Batwoman,” he murmured.

“Vasquez!  Carter!  Start taking ‘em out!” Chuck yelled.

Patrick and Juan pulled the rifles off their shoulders and aimed through the scopes, picking their targets carefully, fervently hoping that they didn’t accidentally hit one of the women.  Their targets chosen, they squeezed the triggers.

Shots rang out.  The man whom Sallah had ordered to shoot fell, blood spreading across his chest.  At almost the same time, a second man fell from a bullet in his head.  Sallah turned and saw over a dozen men at the top of the sand dune directly behind the camp.  Most of them appeared to be wearing military fatigues.  Letting out a stream of expletives that would have gotten him arrested for blasphemy, the Saudi spun around and dashed back inside.

Rollie started running down the dune, followed by Hashim, Kareem, Chuck, and the rest of the soldiers.  Patrick and Juan remained with the doctor at the top, waiting for opportunities to take out more of the slavers.

Rollie reached the camp just in time to see one man pick Angie up from behind and grab her round the throat.  With a roar, the Aussie ran at him.

Angie felt the man’s hand constrict around her throat painfully.  She lifted her leg up and smashed it back downward into his knee, then she reached back and sliced the side of his face open with her mirror.  The man yelled and dropped her.  She hit the ground and fell forward onto her stomach.  She was flipping over, ready to deliver a kick, when somebody slammed into the slaver.  Both men went flying to land hard on the ground a few yards away.  Angie stared at the struggling men, unable to see who had attacked the slaver.  Then she saw him, and her heart leapt into her throat.  Rollie!  Joy flooded into her.  But the joy was short-lived when she saw that her husband was in no shape to be fighting and couldn’t possibly win.  Even as she realized this, the slaver found a piece of mirror on the ground and raised it to plunge into the Aussie.

“No!” Angie screamed.

Suddenly, the slaver was lifted bodily off the ground by his upraised arm.  Shrieking in pain, he was lifted high into the air, then tossed about ten feet.  He landed with a heavy thud and lay still.  Mister Tank glared at the man, exchanged looks with Rollie, then turned his attention to another slaver.

The newlywed’s eyes met, and, all at once, the fight no longer seemed important.  With a cry, Angie ran to him.  As he got up onto his knees, she threw herself into his arms.  They clung to each other tightly.

“I thought you were dead.  I thought I’d lost you,” Angie said, her face buried against his neck.

“I know, Angel.  It’s all right,” Rollie whispered, shaking from the force of his emotions.  Angie was alive, safe, and here in his arms.

Within minutes of the rescuers’ arrival, it was all over.  In truth, there hadn’t been a lot for them to do.  Many of the slavers had already been brought down by the women.

Rollie looked around at what the women had done.  “I guess you didn’t need my help after all,” he commented.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.  Besides, it was nice of you to drop by,” Angie said with a grin.  She studied his face.  “Though it looks as if you should have stayed put in the hospital.  Why do you insist on being so stubborn?”

“Hey, when I said ‘till death do us part’, I meant it,” the Aussie said with a grin.

“You never said ‘till death do us part’, remember?  We wrote our own vows.”  Angie’s eyes were twinkling.

“You mean to tell me that I went through all this, and I wouldn’t have had to?” Rollie asked in mock outrage.  “Well, in that case, I’m outta here.”  He tried to get to his feet.

Angie grabbed him and held him down.  “Try it, buster, and you’ll be hurting even more than you are now.”

Rollie grinned hugely.  “Whatever you say, Batwoman.”  He put an arm around her.  That’s when he felt the wetness on her back.  “Angie, you’re bleeding!” he cried.

“Yeah, the stitches must have pulled free even more.  It hurts like hell, even with that last shot of morphine that Fatima gave me.”

His face filled with anguish, Rollie pulled the collar of the dress off her shoulder to reveal the now blood-soaked bandages covering the stab wound.  “We need to get you to a hospital.  This has to be treated right away.”  He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, pressing it against the wound, feeling Angie wince at the touch.  Tears pricked his eyes.  “I’m so sorry, Angie.  This is all my fault.”

“Where did you get a stupid idea like that?” Angie said, looking over her shoulder at him.

“If I’d been able to figure out the Dreaming of the cobra, then I could have prevented you from being taken.”

“That isn’t your fault, Rol.  I couldn’t figure it out either, if you’ll recall.  I doubt that anyone could have.”  She gazed at her husband, who still wore an expression of guilt.  “Rollie, there’s something Hashim said that has been running through my mind.  Maybe . . . maybe we were meant to fight the extremists.  Maybe we were meant to come up against Sallah.  If Sallah hadn’t taken me, then he wouldn’t have been brought down.  He would have kept right on selling women, destroying lives.  This whole thing turned out to be a good thing.”

“I don’t believe in fate, Ange.”

“I’m not really talking about fate.  I’m talking about . . .” she paused, remembering the dream she’d had of Rollie’s mother, “maybe a little divine intervention.”

The Aussie’s eyebrows lifted.  “Divine intervention?  Since when did you become so religious?”

Angie shrugged, immediately regretting it when a lance of pain shot through her shoulder.  Shoving the pain aside, she looked into her husband’s eyes.  “I don’t know.  I’m just beginning to believe that perhaps you’re destined to always be some kind of savior or something.  It sure does seem like that sometimes.”

Rollie choked down a laugh.  “I think you must be a little delirious with fever, Love.”

“Ha ha,” Angie said sarcastically.  Then she smiled.  The smile was returned by Rollie.  Their smiles soon faded, though, as they looked about.  The slavers littered the ground, most of them unmoving.  Two of the buyers had been unwise enough to get into the fight, and were also now on the ground.  Someone had remembered about the men locked in the women’s quarters.  The two guards had been let out and were now propped up against the building, looking none too healthy from all the smoke they inhaled.  Angie was worried to see that there were six women lying on the ground and five more with lesser injuries.  The doctor was passing among them.  She prayed that none of the women died.

Her eyes went back to the slavers.  That’s when she realized that someone was missing.  “Where’s Sallah?”

Ahmed Sallah slunk toward the tent with the vehicles.  He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get away now, but he figured that he could hide in the large truck until dark, then sneak away.  He carried a satchel stuffed with enough food and water to last a week, as well as the money he had gotten for the sale of the woman two days ago.  The thought of a trek on foot across that accursed desert annoyed him to no end, but he had no choice now.  How did everything fall apart so quickly?  Life had been good for three years.  Now, he would be fortunate if he managed to salvage anything.  He clutched the bag more tightly.  Inside it was the disk containing all of the information on his operation.  If he moved quickly, he could set up business somewhere else, start anew.  Sallah glanced over at the women and soldiers and smiled.  They were all too busy to notice him.

He was wrong.

One of the women let out a shout and pointed in his direction.  As if they were a single entity, all of the other women who were still on their feet turned toward him.  The look that came into their eyes chilled the Saudi right down to the marrow of his bones.  With a scream that would have sent the bravest of men shrieking away in terror, the women launched themselves toward him.  Sallah dropped the satchel and ran like a rabbit.  He didn’t stand a chance.  The women were on him before he’d made it fifty feet.  Letting out a bloodcurdling scream, he went down beneath them.

Rollie, Angie, Hashim, and Chuck watched as the women pummeled, kicked, and scratched the helpless man.  Bits of clothing went flying here and there.

“Do you think we should stop them?” Chuck asked mildly.

“Do we have to?” Rollie responded.

They watched for a few seconds more, then Chuck sighed.  “I guess we should.”  He instructed a couple of men to shoot into the air.  At the sound, the women stopped and looked at them.  “Ladies, ladies.  As much as I’d like to let you finish what you were doing, I really should take him in alive, if at all possible,” the lieutenant said.

Two of the soldiers ran over to Sallah and picked him up off the ground.  The Saudi’s face was swollen and purpling from repeated blows.  His robes hung in tatters and were red with blood in numerous places.  The soldiers half-dragged him back to where Rollie, Angie, Hashim, and Chuck stood.  Sallah’s head lifted, and he met the Aussie’s gaze.  The man’s eyes widened.

“You!  You are dead!”

“You know, people keep telling me that, and I just don’t know why,” Rollie replied.  He turned to Angie.  “Tell me.  Do I look dead to you?”

“No, not particularly, though you have looked better, Rol.”

Sallah glared at him.  “You did this.  You brought these soldiers.  We would have beaten these females if it had not been for you.”

“I think you’re wrong there, Mate.  I don’t think they really needed us to whip your butts.”

“I should have put a bullet in your brain when I had the chance,” the Saudi growled.  “Then I should have done the same to your wife.  If I ever get the chance, that is what I will do.”

Rollie strode toward him, his fists clenched.  He glared at the Saudi, wanting to break the man’s jaw.   But he didn’t.  Instead, he did something that he’d never done before, something that was completely against his usual nature.  He spat right in Sallah’s face, then turned his back on him and walked away.

It took a lot to make Ahmed Sallah really angry, and it took a lot more to make him lose control.  That did.  With a growl coming from deep in his throat, he reached into the hidden pocket in his robes and pulled out the gun that no one had known was there.

Angie saw a gun suddenly appear in Sallah’s hand and point at her husband’s back.  “Rollie, look out!” she screamed and dove toward him.  She hit him just as the gun went off.  They both fell to the ground.  Then there was the sound of a second gunshot.

Rollie lay on the ground.  Angie was draped over him, unmoving.  Terror leapt into him.  “Angie?  Oh, God!  Angie, say something!”

His wife lifted her head and looked at him.  “What would you like me to say?”

Rollie crushed her to him, then held her head between his hands.  “You scared me half to death!  Whatever possessed you to do something like that?”

“Just returning the favor, Rol,” she said meaningfully.

The Aussie stared at her, then planted a hard kiss on her lips, thankful that this time hadn’t turned out like that time seven months ago.

They both sat up and turned to Sallah.  The man lay dead on the ground, a bullet in his chest.  Angie looked over her shoulder and saw Fatima with a gun in her hand, staring at the dead Saudi.

“That was for Rafi,” she whispered.  The gun fell from her grasp and clattered on the ground.  She looked at Angie, then her gaze rose to meet Hashim’s.  The sheik was staring at her, a dazed look on his face.  Their eyes locked for a long moment, then Fatima’s gaze dropped to the ground.

“Forgive me.  I do not have a veil,” she said.  “I am sorry.”

“I am not sorry,” the sheik replied softly.

Fatima’s eyes returned to his, searching deeply.

Angie was grinning from ear to ear when she happened to catch sight of someone.  Her eyes narrowing, she quickly stood.

“Ivette!” she yelled.

The woman spun around, paling.  Angie strode toward her, her hands curling into fists.  Ivette started backing up.

“Now, Angela, dear.  You wouldn’t want to do anything rash, would you?” she said nervously.

“Wanna bet?!” Angie cried.  Her fist lashed out and smashed into Ivette’s jaw.  The woman went down.  The blonde stared down at the unconscious woman and snorted disgustedly.  “One punch?  Well, you sure are a wimp, aren’t you.  I was hoping for more of a fight.”

Angie returned to Rollie.  The Aussie was shaking with suppressed laughter.  “You done beating up on people, Angie Schwarzenegger?”

“For now,” she replied with a grin.

None of the women had been badly injured.  Their wounds were treated by the doctor, then they were loaded into one of the helicopters for a trip to the hospital.  Another two helicopters were coming out to pick up everyone else, and the Saudi police were on their way to arrest the surviving slavers.  Rollie had tried to get Angie to go with the other injured women, but she refused.  Instead, Doctor Habib stitched the wound back up and put fresh bandages on.  He did not give her an injection of painkillers because of the morphine already in her system, but the local anesthetic that he had given her before putting in the stitches had temporarily relieved the pain.

Rollie noticed that a lot of the remaining women kept looking at him, murmuring to each other.  An occasional giggle arose.  Puzzled, he walked over to Angie, who was with a young Spanish-speaking girl and the woman who had shot Sallah.

“Ange, what’s up with these. . . .”  His voice faded away as he noticed that the teenager was staring at him unblinkingly, an almost awed expression on her face.

Angie looked at him.  “Rol, you should be resting.  You look dreadful.”

“I’ll have plenty of time to rest later,” the Aussie replied, though he felt very much like a noodle that had been soaking in water for two days.  His wife frowned and shook her head disapprovingly.

“What did you just tell him, Angie?” Maria asked in Spanish.

“I told him that he should be resting and that he looks dreadful,” Angie replied.

The Spanish girl’s eyes went to Rollie’s face.  “I think he’s beautiful,” she murmured.

Rollie could tell that they were talking about him.  “What did she say?” he asked his wife.

Trying to keep the smile off her face, she replied, “She said that she thinks you’re beautiful.”

Rollie’s cheeks turned even redder than the sunburn already made them, and his eyes dropped to the ground.

Fatima watched him with delight.  He was exactly as Angie had described him.  She was so very happy that things had turned out the way they did.  She could actually feel the love between this man and Angie.  It was extraordinary.  Any woman would consider herself to be blessed to have a love like that.

The Saudi woman’s eyes sought out the young, handsome man who had talked to her earlier.  She had learned from Angie that his name was Hashim Alafa and that he was a sheik.  She saw him standing a few yards away looking at her.  Their eyes met for a moment, then they both looked away.

“Oh!” Angie suddenly said.  “I almost forgot.”

“What?” Rollie asked.

“Sallah has all of his business records on a computer.  There are records of everything, including all the sales that he made.”

They headed toward Sallah’s office.  When they got there, Angie discovered that the hard drive had been wiped clean.

The blonde’s shoulders slumped.  “They’re gone, Rol.  With those records we could have tracked all the sales and rescued the women he sold.”

Rollie looked at the computer thoughtfully.  “Why would he do that, Ange?  Why take the time?  Unless he planned on keeping his business going, setting it up somewhere else.”

“But, if that was the case, he would need the files.”

“Exactly.  Sallah was carrying a bag when he tried to escape.”

The bag was fetched and brought to the office.  Angie frowned when she saw the money inside.  That would have been for the sale of Theresa.  Then she saw the disk.  “Yes!  This is it!  We have them, Rollie.  We can bring Sallah’s whole operation down now and return all those poor women to their families.”

With disk in hand, Angie, Rollie, and the others left the office.  A portly man was being led past, his arm in the firm grasp of one of Chuck’s men.  He stopped when he saw Angie.

“You are magnificent!” the man said to her.  “It is a shame that I will not be taking you back with me.  I would have enjoyed taming you.”

Angie glared at him.  “You’re the guy who was going to buy me?”

“Yes.  And you would have been worth whatever I paid for you.”

Slowly, almost casually, Angie strolled up to him.  She stared into his eyes for about three seconds--then brought her knee up into his groin with every ounce of strength she possessed.  The man squeaked, his eyes went cross-eyed, and he sank to the ground.

“I’m not for sale,” Angie stated calmly.  She turned on her heels and went back to the only man that she would ever belong to.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT -- GOODBYES

Angie had been waiting on Rollie hand and foot ever since they got back to the estate.  At first, he had objected, complaining that he was not an invalid and that Angie should be taking it easy herself, but then he’d started enjoying it, especially since every time she got something he wanted or she thought he needed, she would kiss or hug him when she brought it to him.  Rollie Tyler was one very happy man.

The doctor had wanted him to go back to the hospital, but the Aussie flatly refused.  There was no way that he was going to spend another day in the hospital.  At the moment, he was stretched out on the couch in Hashim’s office while Angie accessed Sallah’s business files using the sheik’s computer--one-handed since her other arm was in a sling, something that Rollie had been adamant about her wearing.  Hashim stood beside Angie, watching her work.  Kamilah sat in a chair a few feet away from Rollie, watching everyone.

They had not told the police about the disk yet, wanting to take a look at it themselves first.  Also, Angie had figured that the files would be password protected, and she didn’t want to take the chance that someone might mess up while trying to get past it.

“There it is,” Angie said.  “That’s the list of all the women Sallah kidnapped and sold.  Rollie, there are hundreds of them.  All those poor women.”  She started scanning down the listed with Hashim looking over her shoulder.  Abruptly, he gasped and stiffened.  Angie looked at him.  His face was bone white.

“Hashim, what’s wrong?”

The sheik blurted something in Arabic.  “Mother, Lisha is on this list,” he then said.

Kamilah quickly stood and went to the computer. She looked at the name that Hashim pointed out and began to cry.

“Who’s Lisha?” Rollie asked.

“My cousin,” Hashim said.  “The daughter of my mother’s brother.  She disappeared over seven months ago.  She was only sixteen when she was taken.  We believed her to be dead.”

The Aussie suddenly remembered the conversation about children that they’d had at dinner that one day and the way the two Saudis had reacted.  He now understood what had caused that reaction.

“If Sallah was not already dead, I would kill him for this,” Hashim said, his voice low with hatred.  Then he stared at the name of the man who had purchased his cousin, and the Aussie saw something dark and dangerous come into the Saudi’s eyes.

“She’ll be found, Hashim,” Angie said.  “Chuck has already talked to some people who’ve dealt with this kind of thing before, and they are going to get to work right away on finding and rescuing all of the women.  I’ll be sending them a copy of this list.  This disk is then going to be handed over to the authorities so that they can round up all of Sallah’s men.  They are all going to pay for what they did, big time.”

There was a knock on the door, and a servant came in.  “There is a young lady here to see Mister and Mrs. Tyler.”

Rollie and Angie went out to find Maria waiting for them.  She ran into Angie’s arms.  As they separated, she gazed up into Rollie’s eyes, smiling shyly.

“I wanted to say goodbye before I leave,” the Spanish girl said to Angie.  “My parents are arriving tonight to take me home.  Oh, I cannot believe that!  I’m going home.  My mama cried when I talked to her on the phone.”

Angie smiled at her.  “I’m going to miss you, Maria.  I’ll give you our address, so that you can write to us, okay?”

“Oh, but I don’t have to write you letters.  I have a computer.  I can e-mail you!”

Angie’s smile grew to a wide grin.  “That’s even better.  I’ll give you my e-mail address.  You said that your parents are arriving tonight?  Why don’t you stay and visit for a while, then?”

The girl glanced at Hashim and Kamilah.  “Would it be all right?  I didn’t want to ask.”

“Sure it will be all right, but I’ll ask Hashim, anyway.”  Angie asked the sheik, and he said that it was fine, just as she had known he would.  Maria was ecstatic.

“I’ll just go on up to our room while you chat, Ange,” Rollie said.

“Not a chance, Rol.  I’ve spent too much time away from you already,” Angie said, taking his hand.  “Unless you were going to take a nap, that is.  You really should, you know.”

“No, I was just going to read or something.”

“Then it’s settled.  You’re going to join us.”

“Angie, all I could do is just sit there.  I wouldn’t understand anything you said.”

“I’ll translate.”

Seeing that he was not going to win this argument, Rollie gave in.

Hashim and Kamilah excused themselves to go call Lisha’s parents as the newlyweds and Maria went into the sitting room.  Rollie and Angie sat together on a couch, and the Spanish girl took a nearby chair.

Angie and Maria started chatting away with Angie occasionally translating their words into English.  Rollie suspected that there were some things being said that his wife wasn’t including in the translation, things about him.  Maria still looked at him from time to time in a way that made him feel extremely self-conscious.  He had a sneaking suspicion that his wife had talked about him while she was a captive, and whatever it was had made an impression on the teenaged girl, though he had no idea what his wife could have said that would create this kind of reaction.  He decided that, as soon as he got the chance, he would ask.

Rollie occasionally commented to something that Maria had said, Angie translating for him.  The Aussie liked the girl.  She was bright and full of enthusiasm.  He found himself looking at her from the perspective of a potential father, something he’d never done before.  He tried to imagine himself the father of a teenaged girl and, surprisingly, found it not that hard to do.  He actually could picture himself watching his children grow up into young adults.  He liked the image.  He liked it a lot.  That, of course, was a long way down the road.  They had to have the kids first.

After a while, Rollie’s eyelids started growing heavy.  It had been a very long five days.  He leaned his head against the back of the couch, closing his eyes.  He was asleep instantly.

Angie looked over and saw that Rollie had fallen asleep.  With a gentle smile, she pulled him toward her until his head was in her lap.  He sighed softly and wrapped an arm around her legs.  Angie began to stroke his hair.  She looked up to see Maria watching them.

“He really is wonderful, Angie.  You are so lucky.  But he looks so tired.  Is he going to be all right?”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine.  It was a really close call, though.  I found that out from Hashim.  Rollie just made light of it, like he usually does.  If they hadn’t found him when they did, he would have been dead within a few minutes.”

“Do you think that I will ever find someone whom I’ll love as much as you and Rollie love each other?” Maria asked.

“I don’t see why not, although it can never be exactly the same.  No two relationships are.  Some are better than others, but that doesn’t mean that the ones that are not quiet as good aren’t right for you.  There’s good stuff and bad stuff in all relationships.”

“How will I know when I meet the right man?”

“Well, I could tell you that you’ll know when you see him, but that isn’t always true.  It took me a very long time to realize that the guy I’d been looking for my entire life was right there with me the whole time.  Love can be blind in more ways than one.”  The blonde shrugged.  “All I can say is listen to what both your heart and your head tell you, and get to know what kind of person he is and what he likes and doesn’t like.  If he’s the right guy for you, you’ll know in time.”

They talked a while longer, then Maria reluctantly decided that it was time to leave.  She and Angie said their goodbyes, hugging each other over the sleeping Aussie.  After she’d left, Angie continued sitting on the couch, watching Rollie sleep.  Ever since they were reunited, she’d had a hard time keeping her eyes off him.  She was also having a tough time keeping her hands off him.  Every opportunity she got, she was touching, or kissing, or holding him.  She wanted to soak the sight, and feel, and smell of him right into her soul.  It was a miracle that he was there with them.  Rollie Tyler had come up against Death yet again and, once again, he had beaten it.

Angie got to thinking about the emotions she had felt and what she had done over the last few days.  She had seen a side of herself that had been revealed only once before, a side that could hate another human being so much that she wanted the person to suffer in agony.  Before, it had been aimed at Loubar.  She had wanted him to pay for what he’d done to her and to Rollie.  But . . . would she have killed him?  Would she have deliberately taken his life if it had been unnecessary?  No, she wouldn’t.  She would have made him hurt, but she would have drawn the line at killing him.  But Sallah. . . .  When Angie thought that Rollie was dead, she had wanted to kill the Saudi with her own hands, and she had wanted it with a ferocity that shocked her.  Angie was ashamed at the darkness she had discovered within herself, and she hoped that she never saw it again.

The door opened, and Kamilah looked in.  She saw the sleeping man and smiled.  “I see that he finally gave into it.”

“I don’t think it gave him a choice.  Come on in, you won’t disturb him.”

Kamilah took the seat where Maria had been and removed her veil.  “I understand that there was a young Saudi woman with you at the slavers’ camp,” she asked hesitantly.  “Hashim mentioned her briefly.  The fact that he mentioned her by name leads me to believe. . . .”

“That he likes her?” Angie finished.  She grinned.  “From what I saw, I’d say so.  And I’d say that the feeling was mutual.  I think that you would really like Fatima.  You should invite her over and get to know her, both you and Hashim.”

“In this country, it is not quite that simple.  There are certain . . . protocols.”  Kamilah smiled.  “However, there are ways around protocol.”

Rollie woke up shortly after Kamilah left.  Angie tried to get him to go upstairs and get some more sleep, but he refused, saying that he was fine.  Angie knew that he wasn’t, but trying to change her husband’s mind when he’d made it up was about as easy as trying to change what direction the wind blew.  You just had to wait for it to change on its own.

“What were you and Maria saying about me, Ange?” Rollie asked his wife.

“What makes you think that we were talking about you?” Angie replied.

The Aussie just stared at her, waiting.

Angie sighed, then smiled.  “If I told you, Rol, you’d just get a swelled head.”

Her husband blinked in surprise.  “Um . . . okay.  Angie, I get the feeling that you were talking about me while you were in that place.  What did you tell those women?”

Angie grinned wickedly.  “Everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yep.  Your whole life from the day I met you and before.”

“Angie!  Why in the world did you do that?”  The Aussie was feeling more than a little embarrassed.

The smile disappeared.  “Because I thought you were dead.”

“Oh.”  Rollie wrapped his arms around her.

“That was the worse day of my life,” she said quietly.

“It’s over now, Ange.  No more extremists, no more white slavers, no more battling bad guys or fighting for our lives.”  There was a long pause.

“At least until the next time,” they both said at the same time, then burst out laughing.

As Angie sent the list of women Sallah sold to the people whom Chuck had contacted, Rollie called the airline and made reservations for their much delayed flight to Australia.  They would be leaving in three days.  Hashim’s doctor had been adamant that Rollie was to stay at the estate and rest for at least two full days.  Even that had been a compromise.

The Aussie sighed silently.  He wished that he could push a button somewhere and rewind the last two weeks of their honeymoon, make it so that he and Angie could have had a real honeymoon during that time.  Yet, though their honeymoon had not been what they’d planned, they had done a lot of good, helped a lot of people.  He admitted that half of their honeymoon time was a small price to pay.  It still saddened him, though, that they now had so little time left.  By the time they got to Australia, they would only have a week of their vacation remaining.  If there had been some way to stay longer, they would, but they would be needed back in New York for Star Fury.  As it was, Rollie had gotten the director to rearrange the shooting schedule so that he and Angie could have a month for their honeymoon.

At dinner that evening, Rollie tried to be cheerful.  After all, he had a lot to be happy about.  Angie was safe, the extremists had been brought down, Sallah had been stopped, and now that the Saudi authorities had the information on Sallah’s operation, they were already working on capturing the rest of his people.  Yet the Aussie still kept thinking about all the time that he and Angie had lost on their honeymoon.  Well, there was no point in dwelling on it.  Nothing could be done about it.

Hashim looked at Rollie’s face.  The Aussie’s expression had been a bit melancholy throughout the meal, and the sheik could guess why.  As honeymoons went, theirs had been a catastrophe, and now there was very little of it left.  Hashim wished that there was something he could do about that.  He grew thoughtful.  Maybe there was.  The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea that had come to him.  His dinner finished, Hashim excused himself and went to make a few phone calls.

Later that night, Rollie stood on the balcony watching the stars.  Angie came up beside him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“You know, you never told me how you were rescued and how you managed to get the cavalry to come find me,” she said.

“I’m afraid that I can’t take credit for any of that, Love, except maybe for me having the brilliant foresight to knock out one of that guy’s teeth.”

“Huh?”

Rollie grinned.  “That’s exactly what I said.”

He told her what he knew about Hashim and Chuck identifying Abdullah from the tooth, then tracking Sallah through him.  He also told her about Kamilah’s dream, which had been vital in figuring out where they were.

“As for the cavalry, that was all Chuck and David’s doing.  I think they had half the U.S. military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia searching for us.  Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  I guess some phone calls were made, and a few people were reminded how much the U.S. government owed us.”

“How nice it is to have friends in such high places,” Angie commented, somewhat sarcastically.

“Yeah.”  The Aussie paused, looking out into the night.  “I think, though, that they’d be a bit too friendly if they knew something that I realized a while ago.”

“What’s that?”

Rollie looked down at the floor.  “I didn’t want to tell you this because I knew that it would worry you.”

Angie stiffened.  “What is it?” she asked, now definitely worried.

His gaze lifted to her eyes.  “Um, it’s about the subliminal messages that Winslow sent.  Remember how I said that they are now buried so deeply in our subconscious minds that you would not even be able to reach them with hypnosis?  Well, that is true.  Hypnosis wouldn’t be able to pull them out, but . . . I can.”

“What?”  Angie stared with incomprehension at her husband.

“Through the Dreamtime.  If I go deep enough, I can reach them and bring them back up.  I had no idea that Dreaming delved that deeply into the subconscious mind.”

Angie suddenly felt very uneasy.  “How did you find this out?”

“It was after I pulled you into the Dreamtime with me.  Just before I came back out, I caught a glimpse of the messages.  At the time, it didn’t register on me.  I sort of had other things on my mind.  But I now realize what it means.  All that information on the S.M.G.T. and the other stuff is sitting right there in my head within easy access.”

“Rollie, what’s going to happen if our government finds out?”  A look of horror came into her eyes.  “What if someone else finds out?”

“This is why I didn’t want you to know.  I knew that it would worry you.”

“I almost wish that you hadn’t told me,” Angie murmured.

A look of guilt crossed the Aussie’s eyes.  “I’m sorry, Ange.  I shouldn’t have said anything.  I just. . . .  I didn’t want it to be a secret between us.  I’m sorry.”  His eyes dropped to the floor again.

Angie turned his face toward her.  “Hey, don’t be sorry.  I’m glad that you didn’t want to keep a secret from me.  I don’t want there to be any secrets.  In that way, I’m happy that you told me.  But this still scares me.  What’s going to happen if, when we get back, somebody decides that they don’t want to take our word for it when we told them that Winslow’s information was unreachable?  If they hypnotize you, you’ll tell them that you can reach it.  And if you refuse the hypnosis, they’ll know that you’re hiding something.”

Rollie shook his head.  “If I want to, I can control what I do and don’t do under hypnosis, and I can even break the hypnosis when I choose to.  I found that out a long time ago.  There was this traveling magic show that my mum took me to in Alice Springs one summer.  One of the acts was this guy who would hypnotize people from the audience and make them do stupid things, like cluck and flap their wings like a chicken.  Mangela had been training me in the Dreaming for a couple of years, and I had gotten pretty good at it.  Anyway, this guy decided to pick me as one of his subjects.  I didn’t really want to do it, but I didn’t want to look like a coward.  Well, when he started trying to put me under, I got scared.  I could feel myself losing control.  I fought back and pulled right out of it.  But then, he got mad because I was fighting him, and I decided to let him put me under.  Well, it didn’t work out the way he expected it to.  He tried to get me to do the things that he’d made the other people do, and I refused.  No matter what he told me to do, I wouldn’t.  Even under hypnosis, I could tell that he couldn’t believe it.  He finally asked me what I would let him make me do.”  The Aussie grinned.  “I told him that he could make me not see him anymore.”

Angie laughed, picturing the young Rollie Tyler saying that to the guy.

“The audience just loved that, and they started applauding.  By then, I had decided that I’d had enough, and I brought myself out of the hypnosis.  You should have seen the look on that guy’s face.  He couldn’t believe what I’d done.  He tried to corner me afterwards, but Mum decided that she didn’t like the looks of him, and we got out of there.  There was some . . . trouble with him later, but he finally left us alone.”

“So, if they hypnotize you, you can just make them believe that the information really is unreachable.”

Rollie nodded.

“Well, that makes me feel better.  Just as long as they don’t hypnotize me and ask me if you can get the information.”

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Something occurred to Angie.  “Rollie, when you were hypnotized to find out what happened when you were shot, could you have brought yourself out of it if you’d wanted to?”

Rollie shifted uncomfortably.  “Yeah, I think so.  At the time, though, I didn’t know if I could still do it.  It had been a long time since I’d let myself have anything to do with the things Mangela taught me.”

“But you knew that there was a possibility that you could.  You didn’t even try, though, did you.  Even when you were reliving all that fear and pain over being shot and dying, you just kept letting it happen.”

The Aussie remained silent.

“Why?  Why didn’t you try to stop it when it got so hard for you?”

“Because I thought that it was important.  I thought that I’d learn things that would help me figure out what was missing in that whole thing, so that I could. . . .”

“Protect me,” Angie finished.

The Aussie shrugged, not looking at her.

“Damn it, Rollie!  Why do you keep doing that?  Why do you keep hurting yourself or letting yourself get hurt just to protect me?”   Angie’s will hardened.  “I want you to stop, Rol.  I don’t want you to do that anymore.”

“No,” Rollie said quietly, looking straight into her eyes.

“Rollie, I--”

“No, Angie.  I would do anything for you, except that.  Please don’t ask me to stop trying to protect you, because I can’t.”

“I can take care of myself, Rol.”

“I know you can.”  The Aussie smiled briefly.  “A lot better than I can take care of myself.  But, I’m still always going to want to protect you, no matter what.”  The smile returned, bigger this time.  “Even if I have to battle dragons to do it.”

“Terrific.  I really do have a knight in shining armor on my hands,” Angie muttered.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.  It was just something that I was talking to Maria about when we were in the slavers’ camp.”

“Oh.  Well, there isn’t any knight here, just a guy who is madly in love with you.  Besides, I’d look ridiculous in armor, shining or otherwise.”  A look of mischief filled his eyes.  “And there are a few things that you can’t do while wearing a suit of armor, Ange.”  Rollie’s eyebrows waggled.

“Oh, knowing you, you’d figure out a way.”

“I’m good, Angie, but I’m not that good.”

Angie slapped him in the arm, laughing.  They came together in a kiss.  As they drew apart, she sighed deeply.  “You have no idea how much I want to make love to you right now.”

“So, what’s stopping you?”

“Rol, you are in no condition to do that sort of thing.  In fact, you shouldn’t even be on your feet.”

A slow smile spread across the Aussie’s face.  “We don’t make love while standing up, Ange.  Well . . . not usually, that is.”

With a grin, Angie went into the bathroom as Rollie got undressed and crawled under the covers.  A couple of minutes later, she came back out to find her husband fast asleep.  She looked down at him, a tender smile on her lips.  Then she stripped off her own clothes and got into bed beside him.  She snuggled up against him with a contented sigh and followed him into sleep.

Angie couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face as she watched Rollie consume his second helping of lunch.  He had slept straight through the night and the morning, not waking up until almost noon.  Angie hadn’t had the heart to wake him.  She was glad that she hadn’t.  He looked ten times better today than he had yesterday, though he was a long way from being back to normal.  His sunburn was just beginning to turn to tan, though she could tell that he was going to peel, especially on his nose, cheeks, and the back of his neck, where the burn had been the worst.  As for her, the medication she was on was keeping the pain of the knife wound at bay.  Doctor Habib had very sternly warned her to take it easy with that shoulder and arm for the next couple of weeks.

Angie glanced over at Hashim, smiling again.  With Kamilah’s insistence, he had invited Fatima’s father over for dinner, mentioning that it would be desirable for Fatima to come with him since his mother and Angie wished to visit with her.  Fatima’s mother was dead, and her eldest brother did not live in the household, so it would just be her and her father.  Angie was looking forward to seeing the Saudi woman again.

Rollie looked at Kamilah.  She had been acting distracted throughout the meal.  Something was clearly on her mind.  It could be that she was thinking about her niece being found or about this woman who looked to be coming into her son’s life, but he didn’t think that was it.  He had this odd feeling that it had something to do with him or something close to him.  Whatever it was, if it was something he needed to know about, she would tell him.

Later that afternoon, Rollie sat in a chair on the balcony.  Despite the heat, he felt as if he wanted the fresh air.  At least he was in the shade.

Angie pulled another chair out onto the balcony and sat beside him.  Rollie continued to stare at the distant mountains.

“I’m sorry that this honeymoon turned out the way that it did.  It wasn’t what I wanted,” the Aussie said in a low voice.

“Rollie, we’re alive and we’re still together.  That is what’s important.  Everything else is just window dressing.”

Rollie looked into her eyes, then kissed her tenderly.  “I just wish that I could have given you more of that window dressing.”

“Well, maybe in a couple of years, we can go on a second honeymoon.”

The Aussie smiled.  “That sounds like a plan.  Will we take the kids with us?”

Angie’s eyebrows rose.  “Kids?  As in more than one?”

“Well, of course.  I’m counting on you to follow through on your genetic heritage of producing twins.  Don’t tell me that you’re going to disappoint me.”

“Jeez!  Talk about pressure to perform!”  Angie wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck and pulled him closer to her.  “I’ll do my best, sir.”

“That’s all I ask,” Rollie told her as he claimed her mouth.  He pulled her up out of her chair and onto his lap.  “Hey, where’s your sling?” he asked.

“I took it off to perform certain duties in the bathroom.  My arm feels fine.”  She saw the look of disapproval on her husband’s face.  “I’ll put it back on, Mommy.  Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

Rollie chuckled at her words.  He then pulled her close.  “Maybe it’s a good thing you’re not wearing it right now,” he said as he pulled her lips back down to his.  His hand snaked inside her blouse and began lightly running across her ribs and stomach.

Angie broke the kiss reluctantly.  “Rollie, we’re outside.  One of Hashim’s men could see--ohhh.”  The Aussie had deftly freed the first two buttons of Angie’s blouse and was now running his lips and tongue across the curve of her breasts.

“Let them watch if they want to,” Rollie responded.  “I’m just making love to my wife, something I haven’t done in nearly a week.”

“Has it only been that long?  It seems like months.”  Angie let out a moan.  Rollie had finished unbuttoning her blouse and had undone the catch of her bra, pushing the material aside to continue his attention to her breasts, his mouth covering a nipple.  She felt the familiar rush of heat flow through her body.  Standing up briefly, she came back down to straddle her husband’s legs.  “To hell with the guards,” she said as she took possession of Rollie’s mouth in a hungry kiss.

Pushing aside the clothing that separated them, they made love right there in the chair, immersed in the love and passion that they had each feared they would never know again.  High on the euphoria, they rocked together, leaving behind all the worries and sorrows of the last week and rediscovering the depth of their bond yet again.  As the ecstasy of their climaxes finally hit them, they held each other tightly, lost in the unity of their bodies and spirits.

As their hearts and breathing calmed in the aftermath, the newlywed kept holding each other, not wanting to break contact.

“It’s been way too long since we did this last, Ange,” Rollie murmured, raining kisses on her neck and shoulders.

“Mmm.  Yes, it has.”  She looked into his eyes, smiling.  “Wanna do it again?”

Rollie grinned.  “Most definitely, but you’ll have to give me a while to recover.  I am still in a weakened state, you know.”

“I would never have guessed it a few minutes ago.”

They went inside and dispensed with their clothing.  On the bed, as Rollie lay on his back, Angie kissed and caressed his neck, shoulders, and chest, then moved slowly downward to his flat stomach.

Rollie moaned deep in his throat.  “I see that you’re not willing to let this happen in its own good time, are you,” he said.

Angie met his eyes, smiling wickedly.  “Not a chance.  I’ve been without you for far too long.  We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“I have only one request.  Just don’t put me back in the hospital.”

“I promise I’ll be gentle,” Angie replied.  She continued her activity, Rollie shuddering and panting beneath her, moaning frequently.  Then, abruptly, he pulled her up to his level and covered her lips with his.  He rolled over, imprisoning her beneath him.

“I demand equal time,” he said, his voice low, as he did unto her as she had done unto him.

They made love a second time, slowly, deliberately, caressing and kissing continually.  They slept then, only to wake up less than an hour later, wanting each other again.  The remainder of the afternoon passed as they gave each other their love and passion.  Finally, it was time to get ready for dinner.  They showered, got dressed, and headed downstairs.

“You are looking even better than you did this afternoon, Rollie,” Hashim said.  “Did you get some more rest?”

“Uh . . . yeah, I got a bit of rest.  Angie insisted on getting me into bed.”  The Aussie looked over his shoulder at his wife, giving her an exaggerated wink.

It was strange to see Fatima wearing the outer cloak and veil when she and her father arrived.  Angie wanted to go to her and throw her arms around her, but sensed that it would not be wise.  She and Rollie realized very quickly that Fatima’s father was of the old Saudi beliefs.  He pointedly ignored both Angie and Kamilah and even seemed unhappy that Angie was not veiled.  Dinner was strange and not really very pleasant for the newlyweds, as the women and men were segregated to different areas of the dining room.  It wasn’t until then that they truly realized how different and outside of Saudi customs and protocol Hashim and Kamilah had been during the couple’s visit.  The only thing that made the dinner worthwhile was seeing the glances that the sheik and Fatima occasionally stole.

After dinner, Angie, Kamilah, and Fatima went to Kamilah’s quarters, while Rollie stayed with Hashim and Fatima’s father in the sitting room.  Rollie did not feel comfortable being there since he sensed that Hashim wished to ask Fatima’s father about her.  He was also bored out of his mind since the older Saudi seemed mainly interested in talking about politics and his work, which also surprised the Aussie since he had expected the man to talk about his dead son.  Angie had told Rollie about Fatima’s brother.

After around twenty minutes, Rollie excused himself and headed toward his and Angie’s rooms.  About halfway there, he was handed a note by a servant.  He read the note, his eyebrows rising in surprise.  Then a grin spread across his face.  The note was from Kamilah and it read, “When you have had enough of men’s talk, come join us in my quarters.”  Smiling happily, Rollie changed direction and headed toward the rooms of Hashim’s mother.  He knocked tentatively on the door.  At the sound of Kamilah’s voice telling him to enter, he went in.  The three women, who were all sitting on a pile of pillows on the floor, turned toward him.  Fatima’s eyes widened in surprise and she reached for her veil, but then she saw that Hashim’s mother was making no move to put hers on.  Confused, she sat half in the process of donning the veil, looking from Kamilah to Rollie.

“Do not concern yourself with the veil, dear,” the older woman said.  “You will find that things are a bit different in this household.”

“I. . . .”  Fatima hesitated for a while longer, then let the material fall.  “My father would punish me if he knew that Rollie was here with us and that I was unveiled.”

“Then we will be sure that he does not find out,” Kamilah said.  “Besides, from what I understand, Rollie has already seen what you look like--as has my son.”  She smiled faintly, then turned to Rollie.  “It did not take you long, did it.  I was expecting at least another ten minutes.”  Her dark eyes were twinkling.

Rollie grinned and sat behind Angie, pulling her backwards into the circle of his arms.  “Actually, I was already on my way to our rooms when I got the note.”

“Note?”  Fatima turned to Kamilah.  “Is that what that note was?”

The older woman smiled.  “I knew that Rollie would eventually seek to escape from the conversation downstairs and would much prefer to be up here with his wife.”

The Aussie’s grin widened.  “Kamilah, you have come to know me way too well in these three weeks.”

She reached out and gave his hand a squeeze.  “Not well enough, dear boy, not nearly well enough.”

Fatima’s eyes looked about ready to pop right out of her head.  “I have never seen a Saudi woman treat a man who was not family in such a way.  Does Hashim know that you do this?”

“Yes, of course he knows.  Oh, I did keep the veil on when I was in Rollie’s presence--while he was conscious--and Hashim was there, but it was simply out of some lingering adherence to custom.  Once Rollie and Angie became more than just guests to us, I could have stopped doing that, and Hashim would not have thought twice about it.” Kamilah smiled.  “I suspect that he has known for quite some time that Rollie has seen my face.”

“He sounds so different from my father and my brothers.”

“I am sure that he is different.  My husband, though not nearly as Western-minded as Hashim, was quite liberal for a Saudi.  It was his suggestion that my son go to a college in Europe.”  Kamilah smiled.  “Then Hashim decided to get even more Western and attend a university in the United States.”

“I would love to see the U.S.  It would be wonderful,” Fatima said dreamily.  “But it is not something that is likely to happen.”

“Oh, I would not say that.  Things happen,” Kamilah said with a mysterious smile.

The four of them talked ceaselessly, the women not in the least unhappy to have a man present for some of their ‘girl talk’.  For his part, Rollie was as content as could be.  Angie was snuggled back against his chest, her cheek pressed against his.  Kamilah seemed happier and more at ease than he’d ever seen her, and Fatima had lost her nervousness about being unveiled by choice in the presence of a man and was chatting happily.  They laughed often, like old friends getting together after a long separation.  The Aussie was just sorry that Hashim couldn’t be there.  The sheik would probably have had a lot better time than he was having downstairs.

Fatima studied the newlyweds.  She was at last getting to know the real Rollie, and she was finding that he really was as Angie had described.  His smile truly was one that would “melt the polar icecaps,” as Angie had put it.  She could understand how it was that Angie had fallen in love with him.  Fatima was also getting to see a side of Angie that she hadn’t before, the warm, outgoing, fun side that had not been revealed while they were captives of the slavers.

There was something else that she was seeing far more deeply, and that was the love and the amazing bond between the newlyweds.  They often seemed to know exactly what the other was thinking.  She had heard of this happening with couples who had been married for many years, but not with newlyweds.  But then, they had known each other since they were both quite young.  She had a feeling that it was more than that, though, a lot more.  She had already seen the evidence of it at the slavers’ camp.

One of the topics that they seemed to talk mostly about was Hashim.  Fatima had gotten the distinct impression that Kamilah and Angie were deliberately steering the conversation in that direction.  She didn’t mind, though.  She wanted to learn more about him.  The second most talked about subject was herself.  She was not as happy about that.  Fatima had been reluctant to talk about herself at first, but finally started opening up.  Before she knew it, she was freely expressing her opinions on just about everything.  She found that Kamilah agreed with many of them.

Everyone was sad when a servant told them that Fatima’s father was ready to leave.  They all stood, and Angie and Fatima embraced.

“I am going to miss you, Angie.  I feel like I have a sister in you.”

The blonde hugged her more tightly for a moment, then they drew apart.  “I’m going to miss you, too.  You helped me so much when we were in that place, especially when . . . well, you know.  And I know that the escape wouldn’t have been a success without you.”

After the young Saudi woman and her father had left, Kamilah asked Hashim to come up.  When the sheik saw that Rollie was there, he smiled.

“So, this is where you went off to.  So much for retiring early to rest.  I wish that I could have joined you.  I believe that Fatima’s father must be the world’s largest windbag.  He never stopped, except when I excused myself to take a very important telephone call.”  Hashim focused his attention on Rollie and Angie.  “The call was from the producer of the movie you will be working on when you get back to the States.”

The couple glanced at each other in surprise.  “Why would he be calling here?  And why didn’t he ask to talk to one of us?” the Aussie asked.

“Because it was a call in response to one that I made to him yesterday.”

“All right, Hashim.  What’s going on?” Angie asked.

The sheik grinned.  “Say hello to a new backer for Star Fury.”

“What?  Hashim, what are you doing?” Rollie asked.  “Why in the world would you want to be a backer for a movie?”

“Why not?” the Saudi replied.  “I did a little checking, and it looks to be a sound investment, especially since Tyler F/X will be doing the special effects.  I understand that they are quite good.”

“Is that why you did this?  Because it’s our movie?”  Rollie shook his head.  “You shouldn’t have done that, Hashim.  If the movie bombs and you lose your money, we’d feel bad because you did it just out of friendship.”

“Rollie, money can be replaced, friends cannot.  Among other things, this will give me a legitimate excuse for coming to New York sometime in the near future.”  He looked at his mother.  “And there is no reason that I can think of why I should not bring my mother along for the trip.”

Rollie, Angie, and Kamilah all smiled when he said that.

“This will be great, Rol,” Angie said.

The Aussie grinned.  “Yeah, it will.  You might be making a big mistake financially, Hashim, but thanks.”

The sheik nodded.  “Oh, there is one thing that you need to know.  I made one stipulation when I made my offer to be a backer, and that was that they delay filming the parts of the movie that require Tyler F/X for an additional two weeks.”

Rollie’s and Angie’s mouths dropped open.  “Two . . . two weeks?” Rollie repeated, stunned.  “And they agreed?”

“Well, since I was giving them an additional two million dollars for the budget, I should think that they would agree.”

“Two million?” Angie said, looking even more stunned.

“Yes, and with all that extra money to play with, I expect even more spectacular special effects from Tyler F/X.”

Huge smiles spread across the faces of the newlyweds.  Angie gave the sheik a hug while Rollie shook his hand enthusiastically.  “What can I say, Hashim?  Thank you,” the Aussie said.  He looked at Angie.  “We have two more weeks for our honeymoon, Ange.  Three weeks in Australia.”

“Thank you, Hashim.  Thank you so much,” Angie said.

“This is a wonderful thing that you have done, my son,” Kamilah said.  She looked at all of them.  “There is something that I must tell you.”

“What is it, Mother?” the sheik asked.

Kamilah motioned for them all to sit.  “This was not an easy decision for me.  But now that it is made, I know that I have made the right choice.”  She paused, then looked at Rollie and Angie.  “I must go to Australia with you.”

Hashim and the newlyweds just stared at her for several seconds.  “But why?” the sheik finally asked.

“When Rollie spoke of the Dreamtime and the Dreaming, it touched me somehow.  I felt a need to go to that place, to talk to the people who taught him these things.  Hashim, there are things that you do not know about my life before I married your father.  This gift that I have was not a welcome thing to my family.  There was no one that I could talk to about it, no one who could understand.  Until Rollie arrived, I have always felt alone in that way.”  Kamilah smiled at the Aussie gently.  “You were a wonderful surprise to me.  I had never thought that