The signature on the passport swam in front of her eyes. She brought it into focus. It looked like her handwriting That was the way she'd make the Z in Zacharias But Noel Emery had never written that name. It was an elaborate forgery.

But why? Where had Jason gotten it? And how was he planning to use it?

Noel pictured herself scrambling off the floor, going downstairs and waving the thing in his face.

But what was she supposed to say? "I've been searching through your luggage for incriminating evidence and found something strange I'd like you to explain."

At the thought, hysterical laughter bubbled up in her throat. Clasping her hand over her mouth, she shot a glance toward the door and forced herself to choke the noise off.

Grimly she tried to make her mind work with its old, sharp logic. She couldn't picture herself telling Jason how she'd found the passport. Nor was she capable of playing a cat-and-mouse game with him, either. Not in her praent state. Which left her only one real alternative: she was going to have to get out of here, and fast.

She looked uncertainly at the document clenched in her fingers. She might as well take this thing with her, because her own passport was still in the hands of the customs authorities.

She tiptoed back across the hall. After slipping into clean shoes, she pulled on her jacket and stuffed the passport into her purse. But it was impossible to keep her hands from shaking. She was alone in a foreign country. The police were looking for her, and a man named Montgomery was sure she was a smuggler. Jason Zacharias probably thought the same thing.

A fris son slithered up Noel's spine as she regardeq her luggage. There was a package in her flight bag that didn't belong to her. A package she'd been asked to bring to England. The jewelry. Good Lord, was that what they all wanted?

Noe1 pulled out the small velvet-lined pouch. Then she hesitated. Would she be in worse trouble by bringing it along? Without debate she stuffed the carrying case into her purse. The first thing she'd do after she got away was call her PI friend Jo O'Malley and tell her what had happened. She'd know what to do.

But first she had to escape.

Noel's gaze flicked to the windows. They were probably too small for her to wiggle through. However, the ones in Jason's room were bigger.

When she looked out, she saw there was only a short drop to the roof of a small addition that protruded from the main structure. At least she wouldn't have to make it to the ground in one fell swoop.

After securing the shoulder strap of her purse across her chest, she began to climb through the window frame.

She was halfway out when disaster struck.

One moment she was in control, her mind and body focused on escape. The next, she was dizzy, disoriented, and unable to make her limbs work properly.

Chaos Oh, God. It was one of the accursed attacks. Why did they always seem to come at the worst possible moments ?

Please, no. Not. . now. .

This time was different; her silent entreaty was vaporized by a blinding explosion that went off like a magnesium flare in the tissues of her brain.

For several seconds Noel was paralyzed by the totally unexpected agony. Then the white-hot pain made her sink down against the window frame, her fingers unfeeling as they gripped the wood. At first, nothing existed in the universe besides the almost unbearable agony. No thoughts. No sight. No sound.

Then, instinctively, her hands moved. Blindly she reached toward the front of her body, tearing at the tight band that constricted her chest. Lifting the strap over her head, she flung her pocketbook away. It landed on the floor, popping open and spilling its contents in a wide arc.

A moan welled up in her throat as she began to pull at her hair and claw at the spot where her scalp had been stitched together-as if there were some way she could let the demons out of her head. Then, when it seemed the pq was going to drive her insane, the red hot spikes in her skull began to cool.

For a moment, Noel lay across the windowsill pantqg , feeling a cold wind on her face and something hard and flat digging into her ribs. Struggling to sit, to escape from the terrible prison of her own body, she slipped back through the window into the room, landing with a thud on the floor.

Unaware of her surroundings, she was caught and held by a kaleidoscope of disjointed sensory input forming and reforming deep in the hidden folds of her mind.

Ghostly images. Wavering shapes. Half-articulated words.

A screeching parrot. The aroma of meat roasting over glowing coals. A stretch of moonlit beach. A man's hand stroking her breasts, making her tremble with need.

As the impressions shifted, her body went from hot to icy cold and back again.

Her emotions zinged from desperate wanting to terror and beyond. "

Shadow images.

Were they real? Or merely illusions?

The world as a blinding flash of orange. A leaf drifting on gently rolling water. The rich scent of almond roasted coffee. The moon again. Huge and round, rising over the crest of a mountain. But the scene felt wrong, as if it were enclosed like a snapshot in a silver frame.

Suddenly she was in the picture, wearing a mint green dress that draped softly around her body.

Like Jason's arm. He was there, too. Wearing his marine uniform. Uniform? No, that wasn't right. The dark sports jacket and gray slacks weren't military.

A smile flickered around her lips. He was so handsome And she looked so healthy and happy. They made a beautiful couple.

Yet as she stared at the people in the picture, sadness replaced the feeling of well-being. They were trapped. Unable to move. At the mercy of Hopscotch gg

" let us go, " she whispered.

From out of nowhere, a magic wand waved itself in front of the photograph, releasing the two lovers from their frozen pose. The woman grinned, wiggling her bare feet, feeling the warm sand of the beach squishing pleasantly between her toes and breathing the flower-scented tropical air.

The man laughed, sounding so free that she felt as if her heart would burst. She turned eagerly toward him, and his arms came up to shield her like a solid wall.

"Jason?"

"I'm right here."

Not on the tropical beach. On the shore of a lake. Holding hands, breathing the clean mountain air. Noel tried desperately to hang on to the scene. It was the one she wanted.

But she couldn't keep it from dissolving.

She gave a little moan when she realized he wasn't next to her anymore. He was far away along the shore. He was screaming at her. Waving his arms, shouting a warning. And she didn't know what he meant.

An explosion. The blinding light. His face cut and bleeding. Her own pain. Filling her mind again.

"No," Noel gasped, covering her eyes with her arm, warding off the terrible certainty that everything she wanted most in life had just been snatched away from her.

She lay on the hard floor panting, beating her hands against the wide boards.

Fighting off the honible image

Her will was strong. She made the frightening picture qssolve like mistburning off in the sun. It was quickly nplaoed by another.

A different heat. Slick bodies locked in a tight, urgent embrace. Mouthssealed together. Hands caressing, building heat. " " Noel? Where the hellare you? "

His voice. The same, but different.

She tried to answer. Failed. "

" Noel? "

She blinked. He was on the floor beside her, gathering her close. Scoopingher up in his arms. She was vaguely surprised that this scene didn't winkaway like all the rest.

She smoothed her hand across his shoulder. Hard muscles. Yielding flesh.Real. And the wonder of it almost took her breath away. "I wanted it somuch. And you're really here!"

"What are you talking abont?"

She smiled her secret smile. "I brought you back. Now everything's all right: '

He stopped as if caught in a freeze-frame; even the rise and fall of hischest had come to a halt. For an unguarded moment, the look of relief on hisface took her own breath away. "Noel."

When he carried her to the rocking chair and sat down, she rested her head dreamily against his chest, profoundly reassured by the beating of his heart.

It was rapid at first. Then she felt it slow to a more normal pace. " "

Noel, tell me what happened. "

At first there were no words to describe it. But as she looked up into hiseyes, everything became clear. Or at least, everything that she needed toknow.

"Jason."

Jason tried to catch his breath as he stared down into the trusting depths of Noel's eyes.

"Jason," she repeated.

Hopscotch gl When she said his name like that, he felt as if some tender, hidden core inside himself was tearing apart. " " Take it easy, sweetheart. What happened? Is it your head again? "

She nodded solemnly.

He swore under his breath, struggling to control his anger. She didn't need this. "Does it hurt?"

" Not now. "

She looked so peaceful. She didn't seem to be conoerned at all that he'd come in and found her sprawled on the floor under the open window of his room.

But her hair was disheveled. He'd heard her screamed and the sound of fists beating against the floor.

He took her hands in his, turning them so he could see the edges. They were an angry red.

"It's all right," she murmured.

There was nothing he could do but gather her close, rock her in the chair. But at the same time his perceptive gaze flicked around the room. It came to rest on the purse that lay on the floor. The bag was open, and the contents were strewn across the wide boards. The first thing he saw was a small zippered pouch. The jewelry? She must have taken it out of her carry-on luggage.

He could sge her wallet, too. And a blue passport folda. His brow wrinkled, Woqdn't customs have taken that away from her as soon as they'd picked her up for qstioning? qs gaze shot to the gaping cupboard and the unzipped duffel bag. He felt his nerve endings prickle.

While he'd been talking on the phone down stair Noel had been quietly going through his things, trying to figure out why he was here and what he was up to. And she'd found the passport.

He knew if he looked he'd find that the one lying on the floor wasn't the document she'd gotten from the State Department. It was the one Sir Douglas Frye had purchased from a very reliable but illegal contact in Zurich.

His mind went through the same steps hers must have taken, and he thought he understood what had happened Or some of it, anyway. Noel had been on her way out the window. She'd been trying to get away without his finding out. She didn't trust him.

So why was she snuggling so peacefully in his lap? "

" Noel? "

"Umm?"

"You found the passport." "

" Mrs. Noel Zacharias. "

"Yes."

She shifted, tipping her face up toward his. "Why did you leave me in Baltimore after we got married?"

The breath turned to a solid mass in his lungs. "Married ?" He could only manage the one word.

"Five years ago. I remember it, sort of."

A pulse had begun to pound in his throat.