The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that his head hurt.
Actually, he didn’t as much notice it as the resonant pounding thumping through his head made him all too painfully aware of it. A slight moan escaped his lips.
The second thing he noticed was that it was dark.
Well, that was easily remedied. Nigel had learned long ago that, nine times out of ten, opening his eyes was the solution.
He opened them.
Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of the other times. He couldn’t see anything, even now that his eyes were opened. However, his eyelashes had brushed against something when he opened them, and he figured that something was covering his eyes.
When he went to move whatever it was, he discovered that his wrists were bound together.
"You’re awake." The voice was low and masculine, but Nigel couldn’t tell anything else from the voice. It didn’t sound familiar.
"Where am I? What happened?" he demanded – at least he tried to. His voice cracked and he broke off coughing.
The mystery man held a glass up to his lips, and Nigel gulped down the water gratefully.
"You weren’t supposed to wake up yet," the man said, pulling the glass away once Nigel had drained the contents.
"Who are you?" Nigel demanded again. "What’s happening?"
"You forget ‘where am I?’" the man said, sounding amused.
But Nigel didn’t appreciate the humour. He suddenly felt drowsy and, despite his best efforts, started to nod off. "What did you do to me?" His words started to slur together and he barely heard the answer before losing consciousness once again.
"Don’t worry. It’s not snake venom, like I prefer, but it will do."
"Viper."
Sydney stopped laughing when she found out why the police suspected Nigel.
"What do you mean, he’s gone?" Panic gripped her and despite Shanahan’s urges that she lie down and not strain herself, she wouldn’t get back into bed.
"Ms. Fox," Shanahan tried again. "You aren’t well. You barely survived the rattlesnake poison. Please, calm yourself."
"How can Nigel be missing? You said you were going to assign him a police officer! I told you the Viper was after him!"
"We did." To add to her anger, Shanahan didn’t seem to be ruffled at all that Sydney was carrying on like that. He just stood there, cool and calm, with an all-too professional air. Nigel was gone, and instead of helping her look for him, he had decided to blame the Englishman instead. "He’s dead now. He was found outside of Bailey’s room, shot."
"It wasn’t Nigel."
Shanahan closed his notebook. "Ms. Fox," he said formally, "I understand that you’re going through a lot right now. However, anything you can tell us would be of great value."
"Nigel isn’t the Viper," Sydney repeated, teeth gritted.
Shanahan didn’t budge, either. "I’ll come back tomorrow," he said. "Maybe then . . ." He trailed off, obviously not wanting to incite Sydney further. "The Viper is an extremely dangerous criminal, Ms. Fox. Anything you can tell us will help us find and capture him." He turned and left.
"He’s not Nigel!" Sydney yelled at the closing door.
As furious as she was at the moment over the police officer’s stubbornness, Sydney wasn’t going to sit around and wait for the authorities to realize how stupid it was to suspect Nigel. The instant the door had closed she was on the phone. She had the feeling she knew where the Viper had gone, and where he was, Nigel would be.
"Ancient Studies," the chipper voice of Claudia greeted. "How may I help you?"
"Claudia? It’s Sydney."
"Syd?" Claudia instantly became concerned. "How are you? Are you feeling better?"
"I’m fine," Sydney quickly assured her. "Look, I need a favour. I need you to book me the next available flight to Cairo."
"Cairo? You mean Egypt?"
"Of course Egypt," Sydney snapped. Instantly she felt bad for losing her temper with Claudia, but it hadn’t been a good day.
"Are you sure you’re up to it? I thought Nigel said you wouldn’t be getting out of the hospital for another couple days."
"Just book the flight, Claudia," Sydney said firmly.
"Okay, okay," Claudia said, not willing to fight with her boss any further. "Two tickets? Is Nigel going with you?
"No," Sydney said, swallowing hard. "Just me."
End of Part Ten
Go to Part Eleven.