He donned the headphones and turned the radio dial past the endless recitation of prayers that had brought them no help. A loud burst of static made him start, and a voice in Arabic barked a question: "Is there anyone there?"
It was loud enough to be heard in the cabin, because Ronnie gripped his arm.
"What is he saying?"
Foreboding unfurled in his belly. "He's asking if there's anyone here. You do the talking. Pretend I died in the crash, then if it's the would-be killers they might leave us alone."
She donned the headset, pressed the mic button and started to speak into the mic. "I don't speak Arabic. I've been in a plane crash. I'm all alone in the desert. Please send help immediately."
He watched as a roar of static tightened her muscles. Then he could hear enough to make out a different voice in heavily accented English. "You are alone?" "Yes, I need help." The line went dead.
"Can you hear me? I need help?" She looked at Zadir. Then turned off the microphone. "What if they're legit? Do I need to tell them where we are?"
"They can probably tell our coordinates from the distress signal the plane sent out."
"Hello? Are you there?" There was no response. She turned to him, frowning.
"This isn't good. Why would they disappear like that?"
"Because they got the information they needed."
"That I'm alone, so they can leave me to die out here?" She held the mic close to her mouth. "Hello, are you sending help?" She shrugged, and even though she'd turned the mic off, she whispered, "I want it to sound legitimate, like I'm waiting for them."
No answer.
"It probably is the bad guys, isn't it?"
He nodded. "But the signal would have gone out to anyone who was listening, so hopefully the Saudi authorities got it, too. I'm assuming we're in Saudi Arabia, because most of the Empty Quarter is within Saudi borders. They may be trying to contact us on another frequency. I'm sure there's an official frequency for this kind of thing, but I don't know what it is so we'll have to hope we stumble across it."
"Let's keep scrolling. If they could hear you, someone else will be able to hear us, too."
Veronica's tight body was a real temptation but he managed to keep his hands off it while he scrolled up and down the range of frequencies. She was all business today, no flirtation or mention of last night's wonderful lovemaking. He resolved to stay focus on the task at hand.
They'd turned the volume up so loud, using the headset as a crude speakerphone, that even a burst of static fired his adrenaline. Every time they heard the familiar drone of a voice, or even some promising silence, they repeated Mayday and waited with their hearts pounding.