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He escorted her to the bathrooave him a scowl that told hirunted, which by the sound of it she guessed was as close to a laugh as he ever got, and leaned against the doorith his arht here if you need ht to her full five feet six inches and gave him her best professorial stare--the one that sent fresh desire to study "I won't need you for this," she said as she shut the door in his face

The effort of putting on all that attitude made her head throb and spin Whatever it was she'd been shot with had one heck of a wallop Of course, she'd missed a couple ofmuch

Now that she was vertical and relatively coherent, she took inventory of her situation She still had no idea where she was, or who David was She assumed he worked for the US military, but there was a chance that he just wanted her to think that For all she knew, he could be a foreign spy, sent to pick her brain for the decryption algorithms she'd previously worked on

She wasn't as freakishly smart as her sister, Lilly, but she wasn't stupid, either She knew the power her solution would give to any intelligence agency, be they government-sanctioned or otherwise Infor infor mat power As soon as Noelle realized just how far she could take her work, she kneas too powerful a weapon to develop Whoever had control of it would never again have to worry about breaking any code, at least not as they existed today Her solution wasn't just a one-ti tool If she took the tih co power, her ould coh ciphertext, and eventually it would have enough data not only to break any code, but actually to predict future codes based on historical information The system would first learn, then it would teach

Developing so that complex would likely take her years, but the fact that she could ales of her brain, was enough to convince her that it was not only possible, it ithin her ability to create

No one kne far her solution had advanced, and if she wanted to stay alive, she'd keep it that way She couldn't iine a situation in which soainst her will, but she was sination for hu as no one knehat she was capable of, there was no risk that she would be forced to work on what she considered the ultimate codebreaker

The question was, if they didn't know about that-- which she knew they couldn't--then ere those men after her? Why had David come to save her?

And more importantly, could she trust him?

Noelle looked around the cra special, just a combination of cracked, mildewed tile and water-stained wallpaper The lasshigh above the toilet

One just big enough for her to squeeze out of if she really tried

The door to the bathroom was locked, but she knew that it wouldn't take David much effort to break it down She also knew that he'd do just that if he heard her trying to escape She could tell hiet out while the water was running to er now than before, though she still felt rubbery all over andtook a lot more effort than it should have

She could try to run She ht even be able tostanding between her and whoever had tried to kidnap her earlier? It see but help her so far Maybe it was just a ruse to lull her into a sense of false security, but Noelle didn't think so There was soruff and not exactly a gifted conversationalist, but he had protected her He'd gotten her out alive Groggy, but alive

Noelle wasn't one for trusting instincts She preferred logic and facts and a thick stack of eht now, she didn't have any of those All she had was her intuition and it was telling her that David was a goodout aand facing the night alone, weak and unarht now, David was her best bet

When Noelle caainst the doorfralad you didn't try it," he said

"Try what?"

"The "

Noelle tried to still her expression before he could see her shocked reaction to hi "I don't knohat you're talking aoout," she told him

A faint flicker of amusement crossed his eyes "You're too s out theYou'd have fitted, but you wouldn't have gone far before I tracked you down"

Noelle rolled her eyes "If I'd really wanted to get away, I would have, so don't go getting all macho he-man at me"

"No, ave hihts over the sink and

"Your head still hurting?" he asked, bending his knees so he was on a level to look directly into her eyes

"Yeah, but I'll live"

He pulled a little penlight out of his vest of stuff, and said, "Hold still"

The light hurt, but whatever he was looking at must have bothered him, based on the serious frown he noore

"The tranq should have worn off by now, but your reactions are still sluggish Are you on any s?"