KERRY FELT DAR’S hands come to rest on her shoulders as she stood in the doorway trying to spot an open table. The tables were rough and wooden, and the atmosphere casual and very relaxed.

She’d spied a free table and started easing her way through the crowd, when Dar’s hold on her tightened and pulled her to a stop.

Curious, she turned and looked up at her. “What’s up?”

Dar pointed to a small table near the window. “Let’s sit over there.”

“There?” Kerry squinted. “Oh.” She recognized the faces at a nearby table as the people they’d seen escorted by the police that afternoon.

Dar led the way over, taking the rearmost seat against the wall 132 Melissa Good as Kerry settled in across from her. She glanced casually at the table next to them, where the five hijacking victims sat. They still looked shaken and not very happy, and as she watched, Dar realized one of them seemed familiar. She leaned back and searched her memory, trying to place the oldest man’s distinctive profile.

“Two of whatever this rum special is,” Kerry told the cute waitress who stopped by with her tray at the ready. She put down the drink menu and looked over at Dar. “Boo.”

With a start, Dar glanced back at her. “Sorry.” She rested her elbows on the table and indicated the next table with a jerk of her head. “One of those guys looks familiar.”

Kerry’s eyes shifted. The people at the next table were somber, hands clenched around nearly empty glasses, and there was a sense of tense shock still about them that she attributed to their ordeal.

One of the women was about her age, also blonde, but with tightly curled hair and wide, amber eyes. She seemed to be the most shaken, and even in the low light of the restaurant Kerry could see she’d been crying. “Those people who got hijacked, you mean?”

she asked, lowering her voice.

“Mm.” Dar turned her head slightly, studying the other table without appearing to. Kerry did the same, but none of the men looked familiar to her so she turned her attention back to Dar, lifting a brow in question. “Not to me.”

“No.” Dar shook her head. “I think…” She leaned back on her chair arm and called out to the older man, “Jacob?”

The man started a little, and then peered at her uncertainly.

“I’m sorry, I don’t…” He leaned a little closer. “Good heavens...

Dar?” He swiveled in his seat and extended a hand, an honestly pleased expression crossing his face. “Dar Roberts!”

Dar took his hand with a firm grip. “How are you, Jacob? It’s been a long time.” Very long, Dar realized. She’d last seen Jacob Wellen over six years earlier at a technical convention in Las Vegas.

“It certainly has.” Jacob smiled. He was a man of medium height and build, with wiry gray hair and a closely trimmed beard and moustache. “What a great surprise. Here.” He turned to his friends, who had turned to look at Dar. “Folks, this is an old colleague of mine, Dar Roberts,” Jacob said. “Dar, this is my wife Minnie and her brother Richard, and this is my son Todd and his fiancée Rachel.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Dar replied courteously, and then half turned. “This is my partner, Kerrison.” To Kerry, she said, “Jacob and I survived the last great reorg you’ve heard so much about.”

Kerry stood and took Jacob’s hand. “My sympathies.” She grinned. “I’ve heard.” Her eyes shifted to the rest of the table.

“Hello.” The return greetings were cordial, if a little restrained.

Kerry wasn’t sure if that was due to their circumstances or her Terrors of the High Seas 133

introduction as Dar’s partner, but she gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed the former.

Jacob shifted his chair over. “Why don’t you pull that table over and join us, Dar,” he suggested. “We have plenty of room.”

The others shuffled their chairs to either side while Dar edged their smaller table over, then everyone sat back down again. “What a coincidence, bumping into you here, Dar,” Jacob said. “You out here on business?” He turned to the rest of his family before Dar could answer. “Dar’s the CIO of ILS now. One busy lady.”

“Nope,” Dar replied, lacing her fingers and resting her chin against them as she propped her elbows on the table. “We’re on vacation, as a matter of fact. What about you? Still working out in Australia?”

“Just got back,” he said. “Thought we’d take a tour through the islands before we settled back in the States again.” His face crumpled into a frown. “Bad idea that turned out to be.”

“Dad,” Rachel murmured.

“Why?” Dar asked. “Seems like a nice place.”

“Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving, as many folks found out about you, huh?” Jacob sighed. “Let me tell you what happened to us last night.”

“Dad!” the young man interrupted. “They said not to talk about it.”

“Thanks, kid, but I know what I can say and who I can say it to,” Jacob told Todd with a tolerant smile. “Dar here may look about your age, but she’s got more savvy up top than anybody I ever met.”

Dar snorted. “You only say that because I saved your butt in Paris.”

The waitress returned with Dar and Kerry’s drinks. She took in the table arrangement without blinking, then caught Kerry’s eye.

“Get you something to eat?”

Kerry glanced over the small menu. “Can you get us two bowls of the stew, two baked yams, and some of this?” She pointed to the bread.

“Sure.” The woman smiled at her, then took the menu and disappeared into the crowd. Kerry turned her attention back to the table, interested to hear Jacob’s version of what had happened. She noticed furtive glances from the younger pair, and she returned the looks with mild amusement. Another thing to add to her coincidence list—one of the people the pirates chose to attack just happened to be an old colleague of Dar’s. What were the odds of that, really? Certainly, ILS had a huge employee base, and they were a worldwide organization, but sheesh!

Jacob rested his arms on the table. “It was like something out of a really bad movie of the week.”


134 Melissa Good

“Been there, done that,” Kerry murmured under her breath.

“We were out off the big reef just north of here, fishing,” Jacob went on. “It was getting on to dark, so we were about to pack it in and come in to dock, when this big, racy boat came up to us.”

“Black?” Dar hazarded.

“No.” Jacob shook his head with a frown. “White with blue trim, why?”

“Just curious.”

“Anyway, I figured they needed some help, or their radio was out, you know.”

“Sure.” Kerry nodded. “You want to help people if you can.”

“Right,” Jacob said. “So I let ’em pull up and tie on, and next thing I know, the damn bastards…” He glanced up. “Pardon me, ladies.” He gave them an apologetic look and then returned his attention to Dar. “Damn bastards jumped on board and pulled out guns!”

Dar affected a surprised look. “Guns? For what? What did they want?”

“Everything,” Rachel muttered. “And boy, were they obnoxious about it.” She shook her head. “They scared Todd’s mother, pushed us around. It was awful.”

Kerry gave her a sympathetic look. “I bet it was. That’s just lousy.”

“Wouldn’t have been so tough without those guns. They were just punks,” Todd added.

His tone was sullen, and it was obvious, at least to Kerry, that his pride had taken a beating. “Did they say anything to you? Who were they?”

Jacob took up the story. “Didn’t say. Just told us they were taking the boat, and left us on a sandbar with a handheld radio and nothing else.” He shook his head in disgust. “Punks. Todd’s right.

They were just two-bit Johnnies with a couple of rifles.”

“They took your boat?” Kerry asked.

“And everything on it,” Jacob agreed wryly. “Did I feel like a jackass? You betcha.” He sighed, picking up his drink and draining it. “Good thing there was a marine patrol that came by about a half hour, forty five minutes later, and rescued us before the tide came in.” “Wow,” Kerry murmured.

“Did they say what they were doing it for, Jake?” Dar asked.

“Just for money, or what?”

The older man shook his head again. “Didn’t say a word, Dar.

Just told us to get off the boat, that they were taking it. No reason—

no ifs, ands, or buts.”

At that moment, the waitress returned with a large tray. She set down food for both tables, and the conversation ceased while Terrors of the High Seas 135

everyone got their plates.

Dar pulled her plate over and inspected the bowl nestled beside a steaming baked yam that smelled of vanilla and nutmeg.

The waitress put a basket of hot bread in the middle of their table, and then set down another round of drinks for Jacob’s party. Dar held up her own glass, and indicated Kerry’s, and the woman took them with a smile as she retreated back toward the kitchen.

“So,” Dar took a piece of the bread and dunked it into the stew, then bit a piece off and chewed, “what’d the cops say?”

“Bah.” Jacob waved a hand in disgust. “The usual. Asking us a million questions, telling us how shocked they were, that this never happens, blah, blah, blah.”

Kerry looked up and met Dar’s eyes. One of her pale brows lifted.

“They did, huh?” Dar murmured. “Let me guess. They told you to just file a claim as quickly as you can with your insurance, and they’d do their best to find the boat before it left the island, right?”

Jacob looked at her with honest surprise as Todd blurted, “Yes, that’s right. How’d you know?”

Dar’s eyes narrowed and a faintly unpleasant smile appeared on her face. “Let’s just call it a hunch,” she said. “So, what’s your plan now? You going to head back to the States?”