Four Years Ago
Prue Brooks stepped out of the aircraft and into a wall of humid air that hit her in the face. Almost straight away, sweat broke out on her skin. Papua New Guinea was loud in ways Washington never was. Somewhere beyond the chain-link fences and security, birds shrieked, men shouted, luggage carts rattled over cracked concrete. Life. Proper messy life. Not the polished life she had led in the States or the very proper schools she had attended. Daddy had wanted her to attend some finishing school in France; she had refused and worked instead for a nonprofit, 'Educating Our Future', helping underprivileged kids get a good education.
She paused at the top of the mobile stairs for half a heartbeat, letting it sink in. Three weeks in Port Moresby. Three weeks before her father w
