Those in Peril (Unlocked) by Wilbur Smith Page B

to see you immediately, Mrs Bannock.’
    ‘How long will it take you to get here?’ she demanded.
    ‘The traffic is terrible this morning, but I should be with you in twenty minutes or less.’ She hung up and then phoned the concierge in the lobby.
    ‘I am expecting Colonel Roberts to call. You know him. He has been here often over the last few days. Send him right up when he comes.’ It took Roberts twenty-three minutes, and she opened the door on his first ring.
    ‘Come in, Colonel.’ She was studying his face, trying to read what he had in store for her before he spoke. He gave his coat to the Mexican maid and followed Hazel through into the sitting room, where she rounded on him, no longer able to contain herself.
    ‘What do you have for me?’
    ‘You know that the US Navy sent a destroyer to the last known position of the Dolphin . It reached there a few hours ago.’
    She caught his sleeve. ‘Please don’t keep me in suspense, Colonel. What have they found?’ He made an embarrassed gesture of running his hands over his thick iron-grey hair.
    ‘Only an area of floating wreckage.’
    She stared at him. Her expression was blank.
    ‘So?’ she said at last. ‘What does that tell us? How do we know this has anything to do with my yacht, or my daughter?’
    ‘There was a lifejacket in the wreckage. It was from your yacht. The name was painted on the jacket.’
    ‘That proves nothing,’ she said and then saw his expression of pity.
    ‘The Manila Bay has been ordered to return to its patrol station,’ he said.
    ‘No!’ she exclaimed, her voice rising sharply. ‘No! I won’t believe it. They are not calling off the search.’
    ‘Mrs Bannock, they’ve searched the area by ship, plane and satellite. The Dolphin is a large vessel. It could not possibly have been overlooked, if it was on the surface.’
    ‘You think she’s been sunk,’ she demanded, ‘and that my daughter has gone with her? My Cayla dead? Is that what you’re saying? Then how do you explain Cayla’s text message to me that there were strange men on the ship?’
    ‘With all due respect, Mrs Bannock, you’re the only one who has seen this message. And we have the evidence of the floating wreckage,’ he said gently. ‘I think we will now have to make an announcement to the press that the Dolphin has disappeared—’
    ‘No!’ she cut him off. ‘That would be an acceptance of the fact that Cayla is dead.’ She went to the window and looked down over the park, struggling to regain her composure. Then she turned back to him. ‘My daughter is still alive,’ she said firmly. ‘I know this with a mother’s instinct. My baby is alive!’
    ‘We all hope that is the case, but with every day that passes that hope fades a little.’
    ‘I am not giving up!’ she shouted at him. ‘Nor should they.’
    ‘No, of course not. However, we have to think of other possibilities.’
    ‘Such as what?’ She was very angry and very frightened.
    ‘That part of the Indian Ocean is an area of intense seismic activity on the seabed. A number of tsunami have been recorded recently—’
    She cut him off again. ‘Tidal wave. You think the Dolphin was sunk by a tidal wave? You think my daughter has been drowned?’
    ‘Believe me, Mrs Bannock, we all sympathize with you . . .’
    She jerked her arm away. ‘I don’t want your bloody sympathy. I want you to find my daughter.’

    H azel sat alone in her beautiful bedroom in her beautiful apartment looking out over the most powerful city on the globe, and she was truly alone as she had never been in her life before. The desolation swept over her in regular waves. Every time it took her longer to rise to the surface again. She was being drowned by her loneliness. Even the most powerful man in the world was unable to help her. There was nobody. She paused at the thought.
    Perhaps there is one last resort . She sensed a tiny spark of hope in the suffocating darkness. She remembered his voice, the last