Insisting, Sora keep her bright smile in place. “But I don’t know you.”

“I am Kyuhyun al-Haaris, Sheik Leeteuk’s youngest brother.” He took her hand and Sora gave his damp fingers a firm squeeze and a generous pump. Her smile became a grin.

“Wll, I declare, I am charmed. Leeteuk didn’t tell me there were more just like him hidden in these old walls. And does this ferocious beast have a name too?”

“I call him Ouasyr, Cesar.”

“Cesar, a noble name for an impressive animal. It suits him well.” Sora laugh and laid on a Southern drawl as thick as she dared. “Here I thought I was alone in this big old, rambling house. “Here I thought I was alone in this big old, rambling house. Ali has done his best to entertain me, but I am so bored. Is this a library? Chance I could find a magazine on one shelves, or a romance? I’m dying for something to do.”

As she spoke. Sora fluttered her eyelashes and strolled into the adjacent office, noting every electronic device. “Landis, is that a computer? Why, my father has one of them.”

Kyuhyun and the massive dog padded after her. Quadir said something, but Sora hardly heard him. She was memorising the layout. A teletype machine in the corner next to a computer, modem, laser printer, Xerox machine, every electronic gadget known to man. A small-screen color television was tuned to CNN. Acting line an airhead, Sora bent down over one of several computer keyboards.

“Wow, is that Arabic? I didn’t know there were such things. I guess they make computers for everybody now, don’t they?” 

She came to a halt before a wall of bookshelves. They were crammed full. “Oh my, somebody does like books. They make a room look so impressive, don’t they? I’m not much for reading, but then –“ she sighed “- it seems I shall go ever out of my mind waiting for Leeteuk to come back. I’m so lonely I could try to read a book, maybe.”

There wasn’t a title she could read until she came across Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung. The young man finally came forward, passing around her to stop at a shelf and plucked a book from it. “Perhaps this would do.”

He offered a worm copy of Higgins’s Day of Judgement. 

“Ooh, rather heavy, huh?” Sora injected a note of disappointment in her voice. “You wouldn’t have any Jude Devercaux, would ya?” She scanned the dust jacket before turning to the opposite wall. There, above the bank of communications equipment, were the maps.

“Say!” Sora ached for a piece of gum to complete er parody. “Ya’ll wouldn’t have Rolling Stone, would you?”

“Rolling Stone?” Kyuhyun voice slid into octave. His palms sweat. Her perfume floated around him like jasmine in full bloom, sweet, intoxicating and tempting. “I have a back issue or two in my room.”

“I just knew it.” Sora grinned. “You just look like the type to be true to rock and roll. I bet you dance well too, don’t ya?”