B right spears of light pounding against Zadir's eyelids announced that morning had come once again to the Rub' Al Khali. He reached out for the lovely woman who'd slept in his arms, but she was gone.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Ronnie?"
"I'm in the cockpit." Her voice stirred excitement in him. Last night had been incredible. Maybe the dangerous situation they were stuck in had unleashed some primordial energy, but he'd made love to her as if their lives depended up on it and the climax had left him too exhausted and drained to even worry about their dilemma.
He sat up and pulled clean underwear and pants from his luggage. Today, he was going to get them both out of there. He took a judicious gulp of water from his water bottle and headed for the cockpit.
She sat in the pilot's chair, looking ridiculously poised and elegant in a crisp, white, fitted dress that set off her gorgeous dark complexion. She turned to him, eyes glowing with excitement. "I found a distress-call button. Or a pull, more accurately. Look." She pointed to a small orange handle far up on the right among the rows and knobs and dials. "I tugged on it right away. I've been doing it every few minutes since."
"Damn, how did I miss that?"
"We were focused on the radio. I think it will send a signal up to a satellite and let them know we're in trouble. It may even give them our coordinates. You made me think of it last night when you mentioned that there might be another way to send a distress signal."
"You're as brilliant as you are gorgeous." He kissed her cheek and watched a smile spread across her sensual mouth. "Hopefully, now all we have to do is sit here until help shows up. Unless…" An ugly thought had crossed his mind in the dead of night.
"Unless what?" She turned to him, her face so happy and excited that he didn't want to share his fears.
He shoved a hand through his hair. "Unless it also summons the person who's trying to get rid of me."
He watched her smile fade, and she bit her lip with small white teeth. "I didn't think of that. I suppose they thought we'd die in the crash. Now that I sent the signal more than twelve hours later, they'll know that at least one of us survived." He nodded. "And they may well be the first to get here."
"What can we do?"
"We need to hope that someone legitimate also hears the signal and gets here first. Let's try again to raise someone on the radio."