Alex Moreau smiled widely as she stretched and took a deep breath of fresh air. What an absolutely beautiful morning it was. Had she ever seen such a lovely day? The exotic fragrance of the stunning yellow, red and white flowers just outside added to the fantastic feeling of the moment.

The doors to the French windows were still open as she stood front of them towel-drying her hair, but now a breeze blew the curtains around her soft body, making her feel wicked and wonderful. She giggled, remembering how she had squealed with laughter as she tried to escape from Derek's clutches when he joined her in the shower. His eyes were teasing before they had shared a long kiss. She closed her eyes and remembered how his slow and gentle touch had made her skin tingle as he washed her. Little scrubbing had taken place after that after she wrapped her arms around his neck, unable to fight the wanting that ran through her.

Alex sighed as she grabbed a robe and tied it around her waist. Since it was now closer to lunch, she needed to order brunch for them. She reached for the phone. But where was...? Spotting it off the hook and on the floor, she grinned and placed the receiver back on its base. The Legacy brass would not be happy if they had been trying to reach Derek. Hopefully things were quiet after what he did at the portal and...

She was startled when the phone rang. "Hello?"

"Well it's about damn time someone answered that phone," Nick groused.

She laughed. "Nick, how..."

"And what, pray tell, was wrong with the phone?"

"Gee, I don't know," Alex said as she fought to maintain a normal tone. "Maybe... I guess something happened to it?"

"Yeah." He chuckled. "I'll just bet." His voice lowered. "Is Derek around? I got the info he wanted."

Her heart constricted. "On ketamine?" She cleared her throat. "He's in the shower at the moment. Why don't you give me all you've got?"

"Alex, I don't know if you want to hear..."

"Nicholas Boyle, I am a grown woman," she said with a rock-steady tone, albeit a low one. "If Jeroen did do something to me, then any information you can give me on ketamine might help me recall something."

"I doubt it, Alex," he told her. "Knowing that creep, he likely gave you a large dose. Basics? It's a tasteless, odorless, disassociative anesthetic, which separates the mind from the body. You don't feel pain because your mind is elsewhere. A large, anesthetic dose knocks you out cold. That's why ketamine is classified as a date rape drug because when it's given like that it does knock you out, paralyzes you, and leaves you helpless and vulnerable with no memory later as to what happened to you. You might not even realize that something did unless you discovered some time missing or you came to in a different place. You understand I'm using 'you' in general terms, not 'you' in particular."

He snorted. "People keep taking this stuff in higher and higher doses since it's addictive. Not physically, but psychologically. There's even a chance that one day if you keep taking it that you'll totally disassociate your mind from your body. If that happens, there's no way to reach you or bring you back. Man, they'll lock you away some place where you'll spend the rest of your life, because your mind ain't never gonna reconnect with your body."

"Insp. Williamson mentioned some of this. God, why do they take the chance..." She couldn't imagine the torment of friends and family after her own encounter with drugs many years ago.

"You gotta get out more. Because they enjoy the experience. It's like an LSD trip with the visual effects, but PCP with the physical. Users like it because the trip can last an hour or more. In sub-anesthesia doses you get a more mellow one, while with large doses you're out but you go down what's called the K-hole where you can have a near death or out of body experience. Hey, at least it stops you from feeling pain and is said to be a sexual stimulant."

"Great. So it's very dependent on dosage as to what you'll feel."

"And how it's taken. You get the most immediate effect with an intramuscular injection. You get the most bang for your buck that way. It can be snorted like coke, but you need more powder than the liquid to reach the same state. You can swallow it too, but it's supposed to taste awful and make you sick to your stomach."

"So it's still used? Still available?" Derek's voice came from the bathroom phone.

"Hey, Derek. Yes, it is. Mostly in vet offices. It became a Schedule III controlled drug a few months ago, so stealing it from veterinary practices is the way most are getting it. It would be interesting to know where Jeroen got his from."

"Probably from a village vet, then placed in a diplomatic pouch from the Dutch embassy," the older man said. "It may not be restricted yet in various parts of Europe."

"That's what I was thinking, Derek. Oh, one more thing," Nick said. "The reason why it's mostly used on animals is that doctors originally found out that as patients woke up from this anesthesia they suffered, though that might be subjective, a kind of LSD psychedelic episode. So the problem comes when people emerge from anesthesia. That's when they'd have the hallucinations, the NDE's and OBE's."

"I don't suppose ketamine would show up in any blood tests at this point?"

"Not ketamine itself, Alex," the ex-SEAL told her. "It's metabolized pretty fast in your body and it wouldn't show up after 24 hours. But there is a specific test to check blood and urine that can be used for up to 14 days. Ketamine breaks down into norketamine, and you can be tested for that using..." Nick shuffled some pages, "...high-performance liquid chromatography."

Alex sighed. "It doesn't sound as if I can do anything about it at this point. I'll see a doctor when we get back to San Francisco and do my best not to dwell on it." Her voice softened. "Thanks a lot, Nick."

"You bet, honey. You two coming back today?"

"I don't think so, Nick," Derek said as Alex's eyes widened. "As I mentioned yesterday, we have to give our statements at the local police station and I'm not sure how long that will take. We still have a few injuries from our time on the mountain too, so I think we'll stay here and relax for another day."

"Sounds good." Nick chuckled. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Nick!" The young woman felt the heat on her face as she heard him hang up the phone.

"Is that a bit of a blush on your face?" Derek entered wearing a white robe and a towel around his neck. He looked at her and grinned. "I think Nick and Rachel have pretty much figured things out."

Alex smiled as she went into his arms. "And it's not as if it won't be obvious when we get back to Bora Bora." She lightly kissed him. "So what time do we have to go to give our statements?"

"I did tell the inspector that it would be this morning." He lowered her robe off her shoulders and kissed the nape of her neck.

She sighed, then groaned as his mouth lowered to her breast. "I guess he wouldn't mind waiting another couple of hours." She giggled as he pulled her back to the bed.

"God, when I was in that pit," Alex said an hour later as she lay in his arms, "I would never have dreamed that we would end up in a lovely room like this..." She kissed his nipple before her fingers slid down his chest, "in a lovely *bed* like this. Then to find that body in the pit." The young black woman shuddered.

"A body in the pit..." She could sense his confusion.

She frowned. "Maybe I should call Dr. Guilder again. You were telling me earlier on the mountain that these marae pits held the relics of their ancestors. I met one of them -- a young chief's daughter who ran to the marae to avoid being captured by Dut... umm, slave traders."

He kissed her head. "Alex, unfortunately there's no avoiding that the Dutch were among the slave traders hundreds of years ago. Many terrible things have been done in the name of imperial expansion."

"I know," she said softly. "But this woman had been so scared and refused to be taken that she jumped into the pit to join her ancestors. She broke her back when she fell, and she died there alone. I expected to die alone in there too, but I was determined that Jeroen was going to pay for killing you."

He raised himself on his good elbow. "You thought I was dead?"

Alex touched his face, the terrible scene of finding him replaying in her head. "I heard a gunshot while in the pit, then I saw Jeroen's face, peering down at me and laughing. I called you and called you, telling myself that you promised to get me out. But you didn't answer and I knew that you'd come if you could."

"I'm so sorry." His gentle voice made her eyes moisten.

She shook her head. "Actually, it just made me more determined to get out of there and get him."

Derek gave her a hint of a grin. "I'm proud of you. But how did you find me?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "After I got out of the pit," Alex continued softy, "I began to search for you. It started to pour, but in a flash of lightning I saw..."

He squeezed her hand. "You don't have to..."

"Yes, I do," she said, squeezing back. "You were... you were lying half out of a... a grave. I touched you, hoping that there was some thread... You were cold and pale. I uncovered you and dragged you into a cave to get us out of the rain."

"I don't remember." His brow creased. "How did this..."

She glanced at him. "Happen?" Alex shook her head. "I don't know. I was in the pit, but a few minutes later I heard the gunshot. Jeroen looked down and said you couldn't answer. I took it for the worst, especially when I called for you and you didn't answer. And you didn't come for me."

"But then you found me and..." His tone was quiet, trying not to upset her more than she was.

"I dragged you into a cave. At least we were out of the heavy rain. I was crying, talking to you, holding you tight." She smiled faintly. "Then you ordered me to stop choking you."

"Ordered?" He lowered his voice as he lay back on the bed. "I have a difficult time, Ms. Moreau, in believing I would do that. I'm sure you're mistaken."

"Oh, yeah." She laughed as she thumped his chest. "Do the words 'Josephus dig' mean anything to you?"

"You were so furious with me." He shook his head. "It took some time for you to realize I was right."

"The annoying thing about you, Dr. Rayne, is that you're almost always right." She said it softly, then kissed his chest.

"Almost?" he mocked in a louder voice. "It's a wonder you put up with me." He sighed. "I used to wonder how my mother put up with my father."

"She must have loved him very much at one time," Alex said, her voice still quiet.

"She did and I did. If it wasn't for his obsession with those sepulchers..." He leaned on his elbow again. "He wasn't that bad, previous to his compulsive hunt for those damn chests. It completely changed him into this driven... madman. He had no time for his wife or his children once he learned of the sepulchers' existence and power." Derek chuckled. "But before that, he had his moments. He would sometimes tell me bedtime stories when I little. One was about an ancestor of ours -- Black Jack Rayne, pirate of the Seven Seas."

"What? Are you making this up?" She looked up at him with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "You know, Derek, if you want to play 'the pirate and the captive' all you have to do is ask." She giggled at the pinkish tinge now showing on his face.

He cleared his throat. "I beg your pardon, but Captain Black Jack Rayne was very real. I used to think my father was making him up too, sort of a 'look what happens when you don't follow the rules' warning. Rather ironic coming from him..."

After a short time Derek spoke again. "If you check into old Legacy records, you'll actually see the name of Sir John Rayne struck from the rolls. He was the youngest son of a wealthy English family, an adventurer, expected to join his father at the London House, but when it came time for him to become a precept he became involved in a scandal and was kicked out, dismissed from the Legacy in disgrace. He has such promise... a brilliant scientist... but his methods conflicted with the Ruling Council..."

"Is that where you get it from..." He gave her a brief grin before continuing.

"Anyway, the scandal got him ostracized from his family and the Legacy, so he turned to piracy. He had quite the life after that, you see," Derek said, "with being the captain of a pirate ship. He and his crew burned and plundered ships from West Africa to the Caribbean."

"You would have made a fine pirate captain, Derek." She murmured as she brushed the hair back from his face, "Come on, let's see if you can shiver me timbers..."

He laughed as he lowered his mouth to hers. "Aye, aye, matey."

End part 36