"Pity. I was hoping to jog your memory."

Across from her Jason hadn't moved. "Are we talking about the locket from the robbery in the grocery store? "

"Aye. I thought you'd like to see it: '

Jason shrugged, picked up the necklace and swung it between his fingers. "I don't know much about jewelry. And, really, if you don't need me, I'd like to go down to the target range."

"Come back in half an hour. Your wife and I will be ready for lunch."

Jason nodded pleasantly, then stood and strolled out of the room. Noel somehow kept herself from calling him back. And somehow she kept herself from begging the Sovereign for more information about the locket. Had her uncle been using it to carry secrets? Had he left it with her for safekeeping? Had he pulled her into this dangerous game all those years ago?

If she asked the questions that threatened to burst from her lips, she'd give herself away. So she kept silent-and continued to play the role of Stepford wife.

NoEL szvqqv the men who had been invited to the auction Arthur Lloyd, Clarence Buell, Prince Abu and Jed Spencer must all know about the chip that was supposed to be in her head. Why else would they be giving her such speculative glances?

Lloyd was a rotund British earl who looked as if he'd stepped out of a nineteenth-century painting. Clarence Buell was a bantam-size American businessman with a Texas accent. Abu was an Arab prinoe. His hawklike features were set off by a traditional burnoose and white robes. Jed Spenoer seemed a bit out of place in the crowd. Younger and tougher than the rest, he was cocky enough to joke with his host.

She liked him the least. He'd held her hand too long when they'd been introduced. Then he'd crowded her as they'd stood talking at the hors d'oeuvres table.

The other men spent much of their time sizing each other up. Yet they gave very little away. The formula for the synthetic fuel must mean a great deal to all of them or else why would they have traveled so far and to such a dangerous place to bid on it?

They had all come by private limousine direct from the Glasgow airport, although Noel suspected that the landing strip at the castle would have accommodated their private planes. But apparently the Sovereign had specified the means of arrival.

Another thing he'd demanded was that Noel look her best. She'd spent the morning on her own hair and makeup and then donned the dress he asked her to wear, a black sheath that hugged her hips. His taste in jewelry was impeccableT though, a diamond necklace and a matching bracelet.

Once again she looked toward the stone archway at the entrance to the reception hall. Kevin and Terrence flanked the door, and she knew other guards were stationed along the hall.

With a little shrug of defeat, she abandoned hope of seeing Jason. He'd donehis best to avoid her over the past twenty-four hours. He hadqn't been inbed when she'd finally fallen into a restless sleep the night before. Andhe'd been gone when she woke in the moroing. Only the indentation of anotherhead on the pillow told her that he'd been beside her at all.

He hadn't given her a clue about what was going to happen this afterooon.Not a word of warning about what to expect. He could have wakened her anddone that in the dark hours of the night. But he'd chosen to cut offcommunication.

Panic tightened in her chest, and her fingers clenched the stem of achampagne glass. Had something gone terribly wrong? Did Jason know shewasn't going to make it out of the castle after all? Or that neither one ofthem would? Was that why he was distancing himself?

She struggled to keep her face from betraying her anxiety Jason had convinced her to trust him and lured her here to Castle Lockwood. Had he only been using her?

"Well, gentlemen, perhaps we should adjourn to the media room," the Sovereign announced. He cut a very impressive figure in his tuxedo jacket and shirt over a black and-red tartan kilt.

Striding over to Noel, he offered her his arm like a considerate host. As he led her across a palace-size Oriental rug, she felt as if she were being led to the gallows.

Unlike the rest of the castle, the media room was sleek and modero, with four swivel leather chairs clustered in the middle of the large space. The curved walls of the room held giant television screens.

Looking infinitely pleased with himself, the Sovereign escorted her to a tall, upright chair on a dais facing the bidders. All eyes were on her, and she shuddered.

Then, mercifully, he pressed a button on a controller in his hand, and the screens to her right and left sprang to life. A narrator began to talk of present fuel needs and oil reserves and projections into the future as pictures of jet planes, power plants and modero cities began to flash on the screens, interspersed with maps of the world showing dwindling oil reserves.

One screen shifted to the fires that had destroyed so much of the Kuwaiti oil

fields, and Prince Abu muttered something under his breath. Then the narrator explained how a cheap synthetic fuel could change the balance of world power.

Sir Douglas pressed a button that stopped the show. "Well, gentlemen, now that I've whetted your appetite, leYs begin the bidding."

"I want to see the formula before I pay for anything," the sheikh spoke up.

"So far, we're taking this on faith," Lloyd added.

"Hmm. Yes. The formula. Of course, I couldn't trust it to any sort of electronic transmission. So it was brought here on a micro dot '

Noel tensed as the Sovereign swept his hand dramatically toward her. She started to scramble out of the chair. But Bridget, clad in her white lab coat, had materialized from a small door to her left. She pressed her hands firmly on Noel's shoulders, pushing her back into the seat. Then she worked a lever with her foot, and restraints came up to capture Noel's arms.

Struggling futilely against the bonds, Noel couldn't hold back a scream that echoed and reqchoed in the cavernous room. " " You may know I like to conoeal information in jewelry" The Sovereign came up behind Noel and unfastened her necklace. He held up the sparkling circlet. " However, the information isn't in here. " With a secret smile, he corrected the impression he'd given as he set the necklace down on a table beside the chair. " The micro dot is on the same chip that has been controlling our subject's behavior. "

Exclamations filled the room, followed by new interest in the men's eyes.

"We're going to remove it now and project the formula onto one of the screens. Will that be satisfactory ? "

Murmurs of agreement rose from the group. Noel stared at them in horror. She could see from the hard, bright looks on their faces that it would be useless to beg any of them to help her.

"Why don't we auction off the lady first?" The suggestion came from Jed Spencer, the young man who had been so fox ward with her. "That might be more interesting than getting right to the formula."

The Sovereign laughed and looked appreciatively at the speaker. "What a splendid idea. She's been here for several days, and my interest has already been stimulated. So you'll have to take her away from me. I'm going to start the bidding at ten thousand pounds," the Sovereign said.

"Fifteen thousand," Abu countered.

"Twenty." Buell joined the bidding.

"Ztqventy-five," Sir Douglas shot back. "Will anyone top twenty-five?"

Noel felt nausea rising in her throat. Just then there were sqveral exclamations in the room. Parts of the media show were back. A city at night. A plane taking off.

She could see Sir Douglas was working the controller in his hand, but nothing happened except that the loud strains of a Highland jig filled the room, quickly rising to ear-splitting proportions.

"What the hell?" Spencer exclaimed.

"Just bear with me-" the Sovereign began.

He stopped in mid-sentence as a foot-high message in bold red let ten flashed across the screen behind Noel.

DISK ERROR 999. DATA RELIABILITY SEVENTY-Fq pqcq'r AIYD DEcREAs IrrG. The words were punctuated by a screech of bagpipes.

"What's that? Is it the formula?" Abu asked, standing up and glancing back toward the closed door.

"A computer malfunction," Sir Douglas said quickly. Noel could hear the cahn veneer in his voice beginning to crack. Looking perplexed, he huddled above the controller in his hand, his fingers moving over the kqys, but the action seemed to have no effect.

DATA RELIABILITY SEVEN? "Y PERCENT pq DqING HEAT SENSORS HIGH.

The Kuwaiti oil-field scene was back on one of the oq pqels. Only, as the filmed flames from an oil fire leaped toward the ceiling, real flames shot from the back projector.

Several of the men jumped up, backing away as smoke began to pour into the room.

In the next second, the automatic sprinkler system came on, dousing the air and all of the occupants in a torrent of water. It stopped as soon as the fire was out. Then giant fans began to clear the smoke. At least something was working.

Bridget dashed for the door through which she'd entered , found it locked and began to beat her fists against the barrier.

"We're trapped. It's a trick. He's going to kill us all " , she sobbed.

Noel sat, stricken with terror, trying to make sense of what was happening. Theqroom seemed to be going crazy around her.

Then, suddenly, she remembered their arrival at the castle. Jason had asked Sir Douglas a casual question about the computer system. Was it like the onein the ambush house? The Sovereign had smiled and nodded as he told him itwas.

Jason. Hope leaped inside her chest. Was he taking advantage of the information he'd gleaned from the Scot and his own computer expertise?

With all her strength, she tried to pull herself out of the chair.Incredihly she heard a tearing noise. She pulled harder, and one of the armstraps came loose. Grabbing it, she peered at the torn end. It looked as ifit had been cut part way through.

What about the other? With a little effort, she freed herself from that one, too.

AUTOMATIC RECOVERY FAILURE. DATA RELIABILITY.

SIXTY PERCENT AND DECREASING.

She was about to jump up, instead she forced herself to remain in the chair as she surveyed the room. The Sovereign was typing at a keyboard, shielded from the rest of the room by a glass wall.

Bridget had joined the men at the main entrance. Lloyd picked up a chair and smashed it against the barrier Then he sat down heavily, gasping and clawing at his chest.

Abu pushed him out of the way and picked up the chair.

Now the message was auditory as well as visual. "DATA

RELIABILITY FIFTY PERCENT AND DECREASING. WARNING.

SELF-DESTRUGT ALERT. SELF-DESTRUCT ALERT. ".

She had to get out of here!

Her gaze snapped to the TV screens as another memory came back to her.Jason. . she could feel Jason holding her hand, writing in her palm.Telling her how to get out of the media room. Third screen from right. Adoor.

Noel stood up and stumbled down the step to the main floor. It was hard tomove quickly in the tight dress. Reaching down, she wrenched apart one ofthe side seams.

The lights flickered. For several seconds the room was plunged into pitch-blackness.

One of the men shouted angrily and Bridget screamed.

Then emergency bulbs came on at intervals above the screens.

With a little prayer of gratitude, Noel began to make her way across the

water-soaked rug toward the curved wall. She was almost there when stronghands captured her shoulders, jerking her to a halt.Gasping, she tried to twist away."You're coming with me, lass," Sir Douglas Frye hissed. One hand twisted painfully in her long hair. The other kept a death grip on her arm."No!"His face was very close to hers. His eyes were fierce. "It's Jason, isn't it? How did the two of you do it?"Noel remained unresponsive."I watched him with you. It looked like he didn't give a damn about you.

But he does, doesn't he? That's why I kept him away from you for the past

twenty-four hours."