Delaney was simply a summer intern working under my guidance at the Montgomery Mining Lab in San Diego. Honestly, she wouldn’t even be here in Lania if I hadn’t made the fateful decision to let her come along on this expedition. Taylor had just finished her master’s degree at Stanford, and I’d thought her studies in environmental geology would be helpful.
Yeah. Okay. I’d also wanted her to come so she could get her first experience with international field work, too. I was supposed to be her mentor, so I wanted her to get every single opportunity possible during her internship that would help her in her future career.
However, if I’d thought for even a single second that bringing Taylor along would put her life in danger, she never would have set foot in this damn country. She wasn’t just my intern. Taylor and I were friends, too.
How could I have ever imagined we’d end up in this situation?
Nothing about this routine trip should have been dangerous. There wasn’t supposed to be any political unrest in Lania anymore, and it should have been perfectly safe for her to be here with me.
“How can I do that, Taylor?” I rasped. “How can I go and leave you and Mark here?”
“How can you not?” she countered weakly. “If you don’t go and try to get us rescued, none of us will last much longer.”
“Don’t say that,” I pleaded, even though I knew she was right.
Taylor and I were both extremely debilitated. We hadn’t eaten in nine days, and the small amount of rainwater we’d been gathering through the tiny windows was drying up. Periods of rain were short and sporadic here. We’d gotten to the point where we’d go through long periods of silence because we simply didn’t have the energy to speak anymore. More and more often, we were having periods when we weren’t completely lucid.
Eventually, our bodies would give up the fight. We’d fall asleep, and just never wake up again.
“We’re realists, Harlow,” Taylor answered softly. “We both know we’ve been slowly dying of dehydration for days now. I’m not sure what kind of shape Mark is in at the moment, but I’m sure time is critical for him, too. The rebel will come back. Let him get you out of here so you can get Mark and me out of here, too. Once you’re back in the States, you can tell the negotiators what’s really happening here. I know you’ll raise hell until someone comes for us.”
“I want them to take you,” I whispered. “I don’t want to leave you here. I’d rather be the one who stays.”
“You know I love you for that, but it’s not going to happen,” Taylor answered. “I’ll be okay, Harlow. If I know you’re on your way home, it will give me some hope. Something to live for if I know help is coming.”
My heart rebelled at the idea of leaving Lania without Taylor and Mark, but my brain knew she was right. “I don’t understand why you’re not being released with me. If my ransom was really paid, it must have been Montgomery Mining that paid it. The only one who would care enough to fork over money for me is my mom, and she doesn’t have that kind of cash.”
“And you think Montgomery would have paid for the release of a mere intern, too?” Taylor murmured.
“Yes. I know they would have. The Montgomery brothers are billionaires, but they’ve always made sure they ran a fair and ethical business, even though it’s the largest mining corporation on the planet. I’ve worked for them long enough to know that they do care about their employees, even their summer interns.” I’d once been one of those summer interns myself, so I knew they were good to every employee, and not just their upper corporate management.
“Then maybe the rebels only agreed to releasing you first so they could get more money,” Taylor suggested. “There’s definitely nobody out there who would hand over the kind of money they’re probably demanding if Montgomery doesn’t do it. Nobody will ever even know I’m missing.”
“I’m sure it has something to do with the money,” I agreed. “And your friends would know you’re missing.”
“You’re the only friend I have in San Diego, and the only person who even knows I’m here,” she whispered.
Since Taylor had recently relocated to San Diego to do her summer internship, I couldn’t argue with her about that statement. Her college friends from Stanford were probably spread