Jack did not stop smiling. But suddenly it did not reach his eyes any more.
Hell, thought Ramon. Good score, Ramon. Second time in half an hour.
To cover his discomfort, he said roughly, ‘That kid who brought the food—you should have got her number instead of beating up on her. Then you’d have a date yourself.’
Jack shook his head. ‘Too much of a fighter.’ But at least he was smiling again as if he meant it. ‘I wonder who she really was?’
‘What?’
They were getting out of the elevator. Ramon looked back at the camera, suddenly worried. ‘Do you think she was some sort of spy? Political? Industrial? What?’
Jack laughed. ‘Hey. Calm down. No one spies on the guys who put up tents at disaster sites.’
‘But back in the elevator you said—’
‘Back there I didn’t want you bad-mouthing the committee. It would undoubtedly get back.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Security guards rent out embarrassing bits of the surveillance tapes.’
Ramon stared, torn between affront and suspicion. ‘I don’t believe it.’
Jack shrugged.
‘How do you know?’ said Ramon, half convinced in spite of himself.
‘I’ve done my time as a security guard.’
And that Ramon did believe. He knew that Jack had done every non-career job going while he was trying to get Armour Disaster Recovery off the ground.
‘Though never in a state-of-the-art building like this.’
Jack looked round the entrance hall with a wry smile. Trees wafted in the air conditioning. There was a faint tinkle from a baroque fountain. The marble walls gleamed. Palms were everywhere. Among them, almost unnoticed, a steady stream of people arrived, departed, delivered, left messages. Their heels clipped on the floor. Their voices were lost in the cathedral-high atrium. And not one of them took any notice of anybody else in the flow.
Ramon shuddered. ‘Give me mud every time.’
Jack nodded. ‘Not exactly human size, is it?’
‘Big enough to get lost in—’
But Ramon was talking to himself. As he stared, open-mouthed, Jack suddenly wasn’t there any more. He had cast away his briefcase and was sprinting across the mirror-tiled floor.
Bewildered, Ramon fielded the briefcase and tried to see what had grabbed Jack’s attention. The crowd streamed around him, oblivious.
And then Ramon saw.
It was the fiery delivery girl. She had lost her baseball cap and was backed up against a marble wall. A tall man was towering over her. He seemed to be shouting but his voice was lost in the echoing hall.
The girl did not seem to be following him anyway. Her eyes were quite blank. Terror, thought Ramon.
He had seen enough terror to recognise it easily, even across a crowded cathedral-sized entrance hall. So had Jack. Ramon knew exactly how Jack would react to the frozen panic on the girl’s face.
‘Oh, Lord,’ said Ramon. He stuffed Jack’s briefcase under his arm and pelted after him.
Jack was tall and fit as an athlete after the last three months’ physical demands. But the girl’s opponent was built like a prize fighter with huge shoulders and a neck like a bull’s. Jack should not have been any match for him. But Jack had him in an arm lock in three short, vicious movements.
Ouch, thought Ramon who knew what Jack was capable of in one of his rare fits of fury. He speeded up.
‘That’s enough.’ Ramon grabbed Jack’s arm and hung onto it. He meant to sound authoritative but it came out like a plea.
Jack looked down at him as if he had forgotten where he was. He shook his head a little, as if to clear it. Then looked at the man in his grip.
‘Who are you?’
The man choked out something indecipherable. He put up his hands to ease the pressure on his throat. Jack relaxed his grip a little.
‘What makes you can think you can push women around?’ Jack rapped out.
The man’s chest heaved. He looked furious—and bewildered.
Beyond them, the girl straightened slowly. The black panic left her face but she still looked frighteningly young and vulnerable. A loose golden-brown plait fell forward over her shoulder.
She was panting. ‘He has no right. He’s nothing to do with me.’ Her voice was suddenly very young, too.
The man was conventionally handsome, with chiselled features and expensively styled hair. But when he turned his head to look at her, his expression was as ugly as a street-corner punk’s.
‘Oh, no? I’ve got a piece of paper that says I’m your guardian.’
She flinched. But she did not deny it.
‘Great,’ muttered Ramon. Aloud, he said soothingly, ‘Jack, these people don’t want us interfering in their private affairs…’
Jack ignored him. He looked at the girl. ‘Well?’
‘He’s married to—a relation of mine,’ she said in a hurried, uneven voice. ‘I don’t ask them for anything. I don’t want to have anything to do with them.’ Her voice rose. It was quiet enough but it had the intensity of a scream.
Ramon winced. He was not surprised that Jack did not let the man go.
The man let out a roar of frustration that at last attracted the attention of one of the security guards. He ignored Jack and Ramon. ‘You owe Donna,’ he said. ‘You know it. I know it.’
It sounded menacing, even to a stranger. The girl whitened. Her sudden pallor revealed a dusting of golden freckles across her nose.
The security guard began to stroll over. Jack was still holding the attacker in an arm lock. The girl looked past the man, straight at Jack, her hands twisting.
‘I don’t. I don’t owe anyone. I never asked…Please…’ Her voice was all over the place.
Jack said, ‘Your guardian?’
She looked at the man, though it was easy to see that she did not want to meet his eyes. ‘Brendan, please don’t do this.’ It was obviously a huge effort to speak with even an attempt at calm. ‘I don’t want anything from you. I never have. I just want to be free.’
Jack’s face was a mask.
Oh, Lord, that’s torn it, thought Ramon.
Jack said slowly, ‘How old are you?’
‘T-twenty-two.’
He looked at the big man in his grip. ‘No one has a guardian at twenty-two.’
‘You do if—’
But the girl was not waiting any longer. The security guard reached them. They all turned to him instinctively, the tight little circle round the girl widening for a moment. She saw her chance and took it. She dived between Ramon and Jack so fast that she knocked Ramon flying. In seconds, she was out through the revolving doors.
Jack’s captive swore. He would have taken off after her if Jack had not wrestled him up against the wall and held him there.
‘I think not,’ Jack said very softly.
‘But that girl is my ward.’
‘She doesn’t seem to think so.’
‘I