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weapon and walked across the deck. Laz pulled his night-vision goggles out of his pocket and put them on. He skimmed the horizon around the boat and saw…nothing. Maybe the faint shadow of something but nothing concrete.
    Damn, he was restless. He really wished that Fridjtof had given him an excuse to fight. He needed the physical release of sparring with someone.
    He sent a wordless message to Savage using clicks on his wireless mike and earpiece to be on alert that the pirates may have been signaled and continued about the business of running the ship on alert for an attack from pirates.
    Laz tried not to think of the lovely doctor who might be risking her neck by just being on this mission, but it was hard not to. She had captured his attention whether or not he wanted the distraction of her. His secret fantasy woman had dropped in his lap—here of all places.
    He had combed bars and bowling alleys back home looking for a woman like Daphne…hell, that was probably why he hadn’t found her. She wasn’t a honky-tonk barfly but a real sophisticated woman.
    He didn’t waste time worrying about the class differences between them. He knew that he could overcome any of those superficial differences. Talking to her tonight had made him realize that he wanted to overcome them. He wanted to have something with Daphne. If it turned out to be a fling, well he knew he’d be better for it.
    Damn, maybe it had been too long since he’d had some R&R. Maybe what he should have done before they’d left Madrid was found a lovely Spanish señorita and spent a few days in her bed.
    But somehow he suspected no matter how many women he’d had, Daphne still would have affected him the way she did. If the threat of pirates wasn’t imminent, he knew he’d have found a way to seduce her tonight.
    â€œLaz, you there?” Savage said in his ear.
    â€œGo ahead,” Laz said.
    â€œWenz has picked up an unmonitored call coming from fifty nautical miles from your location. This beacon sounds like it might be a distress call.”
    â€œDo you think it’s the pirates?” Laz asked.
    He crossed the deck quickly and took the stairs leading to the bridge two at a time.
    â€œThor, take a break. I’ve got the bridge,” he said to the crewman working in the bridge.
    â€œYes, sir. I’ve been dying for a cigarette,” Thor said.
    â€œEnjoy,” Laz said. Once the man was gone, he pulled up the navigation maps on the computer.
    â€œGo ahead with the coordinates, Savage,” Laz said.
    Savage gave him the coordinates and Laz logged them into the computer program. “We don’t have a history of attacks in that area.”
    â€œAffirmative. Check your logs and let me know if any previous captains experienced distress calls before being attacked.”
    â€œWill do,” Laz said. That was one way to get his mind off Daphne and back on the job, he thought ruefully.
    It wasn’t usual for him to woo a woman, and he’d never been tempted before this. The job—this mission—was the most important thing in his life. Like all the missions before this one. And the ones that would come after.
    The lovely doctor was just a woman, and he knew he’d do well to remember that. She was someone he could enjoy for the length of this mission but beyond that she was from a different world.
    And a man who changed his name and his persona every few months wasn’t the kind of man who could offer her anything more than a few hours’ pleasure in bed.
    And he did want that. She was sweet yet sexy at the same time. She was smart and sassy and everything he wanted in a woman.
    He shook his head. The job, he thought. He needed to stay focused on the job. Men who didn’t often ended up dead.
    And he sure as hell wasn’t ready to check out of the game yet.

Chapter Three
    The way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.
    â€”M IYAMOTO M USASHI
    D