“What did you do?” Sebak screeched. Tears were streaming down his chalk-white face. “I heard the explosions. Are you trying to kill me? I did everything you told me to do.” Then he saw Gideon and Dobran. “I thought you were only going to question him. He’s the one who will kill me.”
“Not if you get us out of here,” Joe said as he jerked him to his feet. “You’ll never see Dobran again if you help me get him away from here before anyone breaks in and tosses another bomb. I didn’t set off those explosions.”
“You’re lying,” he said uncertainly.
“Have it your way. I don’t have time to argue. I have to find a way out.” He pushed him down to his knees again. “I’ll put the manacles back on you and you can wait for someone to come…or not.”
“No.” He struggled back to his feet. “I’ll show you. But then you’ll let me go?”
“We’ll talk about it. I’m still not sure you don’t know more. But we’re not going to let Dobran go, I need him. So he won’t be around to go looking for you. Move!” He was gazing around the gallery. “No doors. But there’s another way out, right? Show me. Hurry!”
“I will. I’m hurrying.” Sebak was running toward the back of the gallery. “The mummy…”
“Mummy?” Joe was helping Gideon move faster with Dobran. “What are you talking about?”
Sebak was standing before an upright ornate mummy sarcophagus whose top was a huge, carved hawk. “It’s a passageway that leads out of the back of the house and down a tunnel toward the road.” He was opening the lid, then swinging the five-foot shelf containing the wrapped mummy to one side. “Dobran liked the idea of using the mummy to hide the door.” He ducked inside. “Follow me.”
“Wait a minute.” Joe had a thought. “Gideon said that everything in the gallery was on a separate control. Does that include video cameras?”
“Of course,” Sebak said. “Everything.”
“Then where can I pull the tapes?”
“They have a special code to release each section of the display areas. There are six kiosks.”
“Six!”
“Sirens, Quinn,” Gideon said quietly.
Joe heard them, too.
“Shit.” No time to stay and grab the videos. Worry about it later. “Get going, Sebak.”
Sebak disappeared into the darkness.
“Macabre,” Gideon said dryly as he dragged Dobran farther into the sarcophagus. “This decision must have been made during one of his more bizarre narcotic episodes.”
“Whatever.” Joe was negotiating the entrance to the tunnel while still trying to help Gideon with Dobran. “Pull that lid shut behind you, then call Nassem and tell him to meet us at the road in back of the château.”
“I’m sure it’s bad luck to close the lid of a coffin on oneself.” Gideon slammed the lid behind him. “Oh, well, I look to you to protect me.”
“Don’t count on it.”
“But I most certainly do, Quinn. Otherwise, I’ll drop Dobran and let you lug him out yourself.” Gideon reached for his phone. “And I think those sirens are closer…”
* * *
Robaku
It was done.
Eve was breathing heavily, as if she’d been running.
She was shaking from exhaustion.
But you didn’t beat me, you son of a bitch.
No, he wasn’t quite done. But only the eyes were left to insert. The eyes were always the last step in completing a reconstruction.
Her hands were trembling as she reached for her eye case.
“Eve?” Jill was beside her. “Can I help you now? You don’t look so good.”
“Tired…” Eye case. “I have to get the eye case. We can’t look at him until I put in the eyes.”
“I won’t look at him. I know this choice is as important to you as the sculpting itself.” She gave Eve the eye case and opened the lid. “Which ones?”
“Brown. We’ll try brown first. Brown eyes always predominate.” She took out the right eye and carefully put it into the socket. She didn’t look at the face, her gaze fixed only on that dark, shiny eye. “I think it’s time you got that photo, Jill.”
“I do, too.” Jill squeezed Eve’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back. Put in the other eye.”
Eve was already doing it. She carefully inserted the left eye.
Anger.
Screw you. I’ve done it.
“Here it is.” Jill handed her the blown-up photo. “May I look now? I don’t need the photo. I know what the son of a bitch looks like.”
“Go ahead.” She forced herself to look down at the features of the man in the photo. She felt a ripple of shock as she gazed into those dark eyes so much like the ones she’d just inserted. The shape of the orbital cavities were identical to the ones she had just created. Varak? It must be Varak. What other features were the same? She identified the curve of the cheekbone immediately. She remembered those bold, Slavic cheekbones. She couldn’t take her eyes from the photo, caught by the sheer power of that face. Dominance. Power. Intensity. And darkness, so much darkness.
“Eve,” Jill said gently.
Eve glanced up from the photo. “You should be relieved. It has to be him. It was lucky that I was able to repair those orbital—”
“Eve. Look at him.”
Eve’s gaze followed Jill’s to the reconstruction.
She stiffened. Her hand was shaking as she reached for her phone. “I’ve got to call Joe.”
* * *
Asarti
Joe’s phone was vibrating in his pocket.
Not now. Later.
He couldn’t answer it. He was almost at the end of the tunnel. He could see Sebak ahead, rolling aside a large boulder.
“No!” Joe called. “Don’t go out there yet. We don’t know what’s happening. This might be too easy. It doesn’t take a mental giant to figure out that there might be a back way out of that gallery. Explosives. Fire. Then someone waits to see who goes running. Let me take a look.” He pushed Dobran at Gideon and strode to the opening. Shrubs. A thin stand of trees. A stretch of lawn that led to the road several yards away. As he watched, he saw their driver, Nassem, pull to a stop at the curb of that road.
No sentries. No police. No fire trucks. They all seemed to be at the front of the house, where he could hear sirens, shouts, breaking windows.
“Safe?” Gideon was beside him.
“How the hell do I know? Probably not.” Joe’s gaze was scanning the trees. “But it’s safer than any other option.”
“What are you doing to me?” Dobran had raised his head and was staring blearily at Joe. His voice was slurred. “You won’t get away with this.” He saw Sebak a few feet away. “Call the guards. Why are you just standing there?”
“You said you’d keep him away from me,” Sebak said to Joe. “He saw me with you. Knock him out or something.”
“Sorry,” Gideon said. “With the drugs, he’s handicapped enough. Yes or no, Quinn?”
“Yes. But you head for the car and let me follow. Zigzag. Don’t give anyone a good shot. I’ll cover you.” He unlocked Sebak’s manacles, then pulled out his gun and pointed it at him. “Help him get Dobran to the road. If you cause us any trouble, I’ll put a bullet in you, Sebak.” His gaze was scanning the trees. “Go!”
Gideon moved. Joe stood in the shadows for an instant, letting his vision become accustomed to the dark as Gideon and Sebak streaked toward the car. No one on the grounds or behind the trees. What about those upper branches? If he were a sniper, that’s where he would be.
But a sniper would now have to change positions because he had a prey constantly moving in a zigzag pattern.
Watch.
Look for any motion.
Which tree?
A rustle in the leaves of the oak tree.
Joe swung his gun to cover it.
An owl flew out of the branches.
But something nearby might have startled it.
The pine next to the oa
k.
A rifle barrel aiming, then leveling.
Shit!
Joe was aiming even as he ran toward the tree.
His shot was only a second behind that of the sniper.
That second was enough, dammit. He heard Sebak scream with terror as he watched the sniper plummet from the tree to the ground.
Joe barely glanced at the man’s bloody skull as he tore across the grass toward Gideon, who was kneeling beside Dobran.
Gideon looked up at him and shook his head. “Head shot. Dead. Either the shooter was good, or I wasn’t zigzagging at my top potential.”
Joe muttered a curse. “He was good, and there’s no doubt Dobran was the target. It was no random shot. He was being slow and careful, or I would have seen him before I did. And I went for the head. So I can’t even question him.”
“Then may I suggest we get out of here?” Gideon asked. “With all that noise going on in the front, I doubt if anyone heard the shots, but it’s best not to risk it.” He glanced at Sebak, who was curled up, frozen, a few yards away. “What do we do with him?”
“Take him with us,” Joe said curtly as he turned and ran toward the car. “You’re right, we have to get back to Robaku. We came up almost empty with Dobran. I’ll let Novak question Sebak and see what else he can drag out of him. And as soon as we get back to the plane, I want you to call Novak and tell him to find a way to get those security videos out of the gallery museum before the police yank them and get around to scanning them. The last thing we need is for anyone to know we were here if they didn’t know already. There has to be a reason why there was only one sniper waiting here for the rats to run out of the trap. We’ve got to have time to put everything together.”
“You’re calling me a rat?” Gideon jerked Sebak to his feet and pushed him toward the car. “Most unkind and inaccurate, Quinn. I’ve been more a beast of burden tonight…”
* * *
Joe glanced at his phone the moment they were a few miles away from Asarti.
Eve.
He muttered a curse as he punched in the return. “What’s wrong?”
“That’s what I was about to ask you. Why didn’t you answer me?”
“I was involved. Things didn’t go as expected. Are you all right?”
“No.” She went on quickly: “I’m okay. It just doesn’t seem as if anything is all right at the moment. I just finished the reconstruction. I thought it was going to be fine, that we’d gotten lucky.” She paused, then said shakily, “I was wrong. It isn’t Varak.”
“No, it isn’t,” Joe said. “Look, I have to get off the line, you stay where you are until I get back there. We’ll be boarding Gideon’s plane in another fifteen minutes. Let me talk to Jill.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to relay a message through you. I have a few orders to give, and you might phrase them as requests. They are not requests.”
Silence.
“You weren’t surprised about Varak, were you? Why not?”
“Not now. You’ll know everything I do as soon as I get back there. Until then, all I want is to make certain you’re safe. Let me talk to Jill.”
Silence.
Then Jill’s voice on the line. “What’s happening? Eve is upset enough without having you worry her.”
“Does Novak know about the reconstruction yet?”
“No, Eve wanted you to know first. I’ll call him when she hangs up from you.”
“No, you will not. Novak doesn’t know until I’m there to control him.”
“Control? Novak? And he deserves to know. He’s been in this from the beginning.”
“The only one who deserves to know is Eve. But I’ll probably need the two of you to get her out of this nightmare, so you’ll both know as much as I do once I’m certain that I can trust Novak. He’s entirely too accustomed to running the entire show, and I won’t risk Eve because he has some plan I don’t know about.”
“He wouldn’t risk her.”
“And I don’t trust either of you, so how would I know? We’ll discuss it when I get back. Until then, no one finds out that the reconstruction is done. Eve is still working on it. As long as no one knows there’s a weapon to be wielded, then no choices will be made that might put a bull’s-eye on her chest.”
“I won’t lie to him.”
“That’s up to you, but if you ever want me to trust you as Eve appears to do, you’ll handle it so that only you will have the responsibility. You will do this, Jill.”
Silence. “I’ll consider it.”
“No, you’ll keep her safe, and when I get there, we’ll let Novak join the party. I’ll see you in a couple hours, Jill.” He cut the connection.
He glanced at Gideon. “Any comment?”
He shrugged. “Not unless you expect a vote of approval. I’m playing this straight down the middle. From your point of view, you might even be right about Novak. He does have an obsession about Varak that might lead him to be a little impetuous.” Gideon looked him in the eye. “But then so do I. That doesn’t mean I’d do anything that would hurt Eve. I don’t believe he would either. But you’ll have to make up your own mind. I won’t get in your way as long as you don’t put obstacles in my path.” He smiled faintly. “It was an interesting evening. You do keep things moving, Quinn…”
* * *
“He knew that it wasn’t Varak,” Eve said, as Jill handed her phone back to her. “Something happened there tonight.”
“Well, we obviously won’t know what it was until he gets here,” Jill said sharply. “He could have spent the time he used trying to intimidate me on telling us. But evidently he didn’t want to do that. And something pretty important happened tonight with us, too.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m a little annoyed with him.”
“He told you that you couldn’t tell Novak,” Eve said.
“Novak has a right to know. He’s not going to run out and start some kind of bizarre offensive just because we’re certain.”
“We might be certain, but proving it is a different matter. We always knew that would be true, Jill.” She looked at the reconstruction. Why could she still not shake this feeling of darkness and hate as she gazed at the skull? “And I can see why Joe might not want to jeopardize either my life or freedom.”
“Do you think I can’t?” Jill grimaced. “But he’s put me on the spot by not letting me tell Novak. We’ve been on the same team, and now I’m not supposed to trust him? At least he said that it would only be until he got back here.”
“You’re going to do it?” Eve gazed at her in disbelief. Then she smiled faintly. “I don’t believe it. You’re angry with him. Why are you doing it?”
“He offered me a price I couldn’t refuse. The bastard said it would help him to trust me.” She got to her feet. “But I don’t intend to lie to Novak. It will only take Gideon a couple hours to get Quinn here, and you’re not going to be finished with this reconstruction until he walks in that door.” She took out Eve’s computer and opened it. “You said there were all kinds of computer details and comparisons to complete a reconstruction job. Sit down and start doing them.”
Eve slowly dropped back down on her stool. To her amazement, she couldn’t smother her smile. Only moments before, she had been swirling downward through confusion and terror, yet now she was feeling an instant of welcome humor. “And what if I finish before Joe shows up?”
“I’ve got it covered. I’ll be nagging you and asking questions to make certain that computer reconstruction will have so many minute details that it will take you twice as long as it usually does.” She opened her own computer. “Though I might annoy you a little.”
Eve brought up her forensic programming. “And all to keep from lying to Novak?”
“And to stop your idiotically stubborn husband from saying I didn’t obey his damn orders. He said to keep you safe and not tell Novak.” She was focusing on the photo. “It’s up to me if I do it in a way that may please both of them…�
�� She suddenly looked up at Eve. “Do you think I’m being manipulative again?”
“Perhaps. But I can see it’s sheer self-defense.” And it would keep Eve busier until Joe did walk in that door. She had been frightened when he hadn’t called her back, and she didn’t want to think about what he’d been doing during those minutes. “I’ll permit myself to be manipulated as long as I’m aware it’s happening.”
“It just seemed easier.”
“You sound like my son, Michael. He’s always certain everything would be easier if he did it.”
“I’ll take that. You love the kid.” Jill looked down at the photo again. “Now I’ll get back to doing a facial analysis, while you get busy with the victim.”
Victim.
Eve felt a ripple of shock at the word.
All the time she had been working on this reconstruction, she had never consciously thought of this skull as that of a victim. The possibility had always been there, of course. But she had only felt the darkness, the antagonism, the hate. Even now, it was difficult to feel sympathy for this man who had died in Varak’s place. Split personality, Jill had called it, when Eve had given the name Varak to the reconstruction. Was it the reason that lingering darkness remained?
Or was it the ferocious anger that his identity had been stolen as well as his life taken from him in this horrible way?
Either way, she had to change how she thought about him.
Not a monster but a victim.
Chapter
12
Joe and Gideon walked into the museum two hours and fifteen minutes later, followed closely by a very grim Novak.
“Surprise. Surprise,” Novak said sarcastically as he glanced at the completed reconstruction, then at Jill. “At least a surprise for me until Quinn showed up here fifteen minutes ago and told me. But I appear to be the only one who wasn’t on the need-to-know list.”
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