Rula Sinara - The Twin Test

Escaped. Not kidnapped. Or killed. Or—God help him—eaten alive.

He raked back his hair and started for the open door. His flash of panic dulled to a smoldering irritation the second he spotted a piece of paper with a pair of cheeky smiley faces drawn on it taped to the glass behind the billowing sheers. Not again.

Their modus operandi. Cryptic notes. Nothing but the sketched faces and “bored x 2” written under them. How many times had he told them that they needed to stay put until he returned? Three hours was all he’d asked for out of desperation. Their nanny hadn’t arrived in Kenya yet, and the chief engineer overseeing the oil field extension Dax had been contracted to survey had set up a meeting this morning.

Dax ripped the paper down and crumpled it. It wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with their escapades. Using their twin factor to play pranks with hotel staff whenever he traveled was probably half the reason the hotels he frequented knew him so well. He wouldn’t be surprised if his name was tagged with a warning note: Beware of the twins .

Only he’d never stayed here at the Tabara Lodge before. Heck. They’d never stayed anywhere this exotic. He wasn’t worried about them sneaking into a hotel kitchen and switching the salt and sugar, or dressing up as the Grady twins from The Shining and knocking on random hotel room doors at night. No, at the Tabara Lodge he was more worried about what they’d run into. This was Africa...as in safari land.

As stunning as Kenya was, there was dangerous wildlife out there, and the girls’ idea of survival and self-preservation was limited to some pact they had never to rat on each other.

Dax tugged at the collar of his polo shirt, where it chafed the back of his neck. He paused only for a second to secure the door they’d left open.

He’d told them a million times to keep the bungalow locked up so that nothing would get stolen. He’d expected them to stay locked in because it made him feel more secure about leaving them alone for a few hours. Sure, he’d chosen Tabara because it was family friendly and had flushing toilets. But the guests and staff were still strangers. He had also been warned that wildlife here could be unpredictable and that vervet monkeys considered open doors an open invitation. He made a mental note to check his bags and equipment for anything missing—once he found his missing kids.

An area of flowering shrubs and fruit trees that shaded benches fashioned from thick, twisted branches, extended beyond the rustic stone patio. Twelve thatched-roof bungalows, joined by stone-lined dirt paths, sat in a semicircle around the main lodge, complete with reception area, restaurant and pool. Considering the view of the golden savanna in the distance, this upscale safari lodge watered its gardens well. It seemed a wasteful luxury for a region that suffered severe drought seasons, but then again, for what he was paying for an extended stay, the lodge could afford the extra water.

Water. He knew exactly where to look for them first—the one place he’d forbidden the twins to go alone.

He headed for the main lodge, rounding a small cove where urns of flaming red hibiscus surrounded a metal sculpture of a giraffe and its baby. The scent of pool water and earsplitting squeals hit him before he cleared the garden.

“Out. Now.”

“Dad! Jump in!”

Ivy disappeared under the water and shot across the pool so quickly that all he could make out was a blur of purple. Fern popped her head out of the water and pulled one of her green swimsuit straps higher on her shoulder.

Sandy had chosen the two colors when she was planning their nursery and outfits before they were born. The purple-and-green color coding had stuck as a way of telling the identical twins apart and, even now, the girls considered them each their favorite colors because their mother had chosen them. As for Dax, it made life a lot easier when he wasn’t wearing his contacts or when he was too tired to pay attention to their subtle differences, like the fact that Fern had always weighed a pound or two less than Ivy.

“Not happening. Now, both of you, out.”

He grabbed a complimentary towel from a stack and tossed it to Fern as she hoisted herself onto the edge of the pool. Ivy hedged her bets and flipped around for one more lap before obeying.

“You’re not really mad, Dad,” Fern said, wrapping her wet arms around him. “Are you? Because I’d feel guilty, and you know how that knots up my stomach and makes it so I can’t eat.”

Guilt trip, huh? He loved them to death, but these two were going to age him twice as fast. Make that four times as fast if they’d inherited their ability to guilt him into doing what they wanted from his mother.

“I totally am, and I would never make you eat if you weren’t up to it.” Dax tossed another towel at Ivy as she dripped on over to them. “So glad you could finally join us.”

“Oh, come on, Dad. Didn’t you have ‘physical education’ written on the schedule you made up for our nanny? Since she’s not here yet, we figured we should get it done anyway, like the responsible individuals you’re raising us to be,” Ivy said.

“Yep, we’re on time and everything. In fact, isn’t math up next, Ivy?”

Fern smiled at her sister, and something unspoken passed between them. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but his parental instincts screamed conspiracy. Was math a code word or something? Man, he wished he could tap into their telepathic twin phone line. He narrowed his eyes and put a hand on each of their shoulders when they tried slipping past him.

“Math and reading were the only things you were supposed to do the past three hours. That and staying put.”

“But the power went out again,” Fern said.

That would make it twice since they’d arrived yesterday—if she was telling the truth. Being at the mercy of generators was something they’d have to get used to during their stay here.

“You don’t need power. Your math was printed out and there’s plenty of sunlight for reading.”

They started to argue and he cut them off.

“I’m not kidding, you two. I set your ground rules to keep you safe. Swimming without supervision isn’t okay—”

“But we’re good swim—”

“Don’t interrupt me, Ivy. I don’t care if you’re Olympic gold medalists. Things can happen. You could hit your head jumping and get knocked unconscious in the water. Or something even worse. And everyone here is a stranger—staff and guests. What if there was a creep hanging out here? Or a wild animal?”

There wasn’t even a lifeguard on duty, for crying out loud.

The images he’d seen of the South Asian earthquake-triggered tsunami that killed thousands—including families on vacation, lounging around pools—flicked through his mind. He’d been a sophomore in college at the time, and his friend had been on vacation in Indonesia. He’d died in the tsunami, along with his parents and sister.

The entire family. Gone. Unexpectedly.

The tragedy had hit Dax hard, eclipsing the other disasters ruining his life at the time, like his girlfriend dumping him and his parent’s divorce announcement.

He hated the unexpected.

Dax sucked in a deep breath, rubbed the base of his throat, then put his hands on his hips.

The tsunami was a memory. The past. The reason he’d decided to study quakes. To save people. To stop natural disasters from shaking and tearing lives apart like fissures in the crusty earth. It wasn’t something he talked about, especially not to the girls.

“We’re at a lodge, Dad. I think we’d need to go on a safari to see the wild animals.” Fern folded her arms and shifted her weight to one side. They’d been begging for him to take them on a safari, once they arrived in Kenya, but he didn’t have time for one yet. They weren’t here on vacation. He had work to do. People to answer to.