by T E Stouyer
Later that same afternoon, Marie Heirtmeyer stood in the entrance hall of Adam’s old apartment in Paris, wondering what to do with herself. Kincade and Arianne had been out since the morning. They had gone to run some errands and to survey the hospital where one of Kincade’s comrades—a man named Da Costa—was being hospitalized. They had asked Soran to hack into the hospital’s network and retrieve Da Costa’s file. His surgery had gone well. He was out of danger. However, Kincade couldn’t exactly walk into the hospital and carry his friend out through the front entrance. He and Arianne would have to scout the building and figure out the best way to get Da Costa out discreetly, as soon as it was safe to move him.
From what Marie had overheard, Kincade also wanted to get his hands on a burner phone in order to contact someone in the US. But she didn’t know who, or why—the others didn’t trust her enough yet to share every detail with her.
In the meantime, Marie had been asked—though it had sounded more like an order—to refrain from leaving the apartment, or from contacting anyone. Not even her family and friends.
Normally, the detective would have found it easy to accede to that request. She wasn’t in the habit of chatting to her colleagues outside of the work place. She didn’t have that many friends, and had no actual family to speak of.
But this time was different.
This time there was Hans. Her fellow detective. Her partner. Her friend.
He had been stabbed in the chest while trying to help Marie apprehend a dangerous killer. He was lucky to still be alive. A few more inches and the blade would have pierced his heart. Certain death. When she had been to the hospital, the doctor had assured Marie that her friend was out of danger. Yet, she still felt a strong urge to check on him. She felt responsible. The only reason Hans had come to Paris in the first place was to help her. And what if there had been some unforeseen complications following the surgery?
Marie still had Doctor Laplace’s card in her purse. Several times that day, she had thought about giving the doctor a call to inquire about her partner’s condition. But each time, she had stared at the card at length and had slid it back inside her purse. Each time, she had stopped herself. And it wasn’t just because Kincade and his friends had asked her not to contact anyone. Her real reasons were a little more selfish.
Leicester’s operatives had seen Marie’s face. But both she and her partner had come to Paris using fake IDs. She believed, at this point, the best way to protect Hans was to keep her distance from him. He was too vulnerable at the moment, lying helpless in that hospital bed. His anonymity was his best protection.
Incidentally, Marie’s partner happened to be in the same hospital as Kincade’s friend. Which wasn’t really surprising since both men had been wounded at the same location—and at around the same time. Due to the severity of their conditions, it made sense that the both of them would be taken to the nearest major hospital.
Marie had considered asking Arianne and Kincade to check on Hans if they got the chance, or asking Soran to retrieve his medical file as well. But in the end, she had decided against it. The detective had only mentioned her partner once, in passing, during her first conversation with Professor Fournier. That was it. The professor and his friends didn’t really know anything about Hans. And she intended to keep it that way. She wasn’t really sure why she had chosen not to confide in them. Perhaps she didn’t quite trust them either. They were such a strange bunch.
Ashrem had spent most of the afternoon resting in his room. He hadn’t yet fully recovered from his injuries. While Doc Chen and the redheaded guy had chosen to spend the time cooking in the kitchen, along with Lucielle who had insisted on helping them. Although, judging from her siblings’ reactions, the detective expected the young girl would probably do more harm than good there.
Marie had been extremely surprised, even shocked, at how relaxed everyone appeared to be, considering all they had gone through on the previous day. The normal reaction would have been to feel tense, or worried, or maybe a little paranoid. But generally speaking, on edge. She wasn’t sure what to make of their lack of reaction. But it was, without a doubt, Rock and Soran whom she found most baffling of all.
She took a few steps forward and peeked into the living room once again. And sure enough, the two of them were still at it. They were standing in the middle of the room, arguing over which program to watch on the television as Soran tried to snatch the remote control away from the giant. Looking at them now, no one would ever believe that only a few hours ago, the two men had literally tried to kill each other.
Strange bunch, Marie said to herself once again.
She walked further down the entrance hall and checked inside the dining room. Professor Fournier was seated at a large glass table, carefully looking over some documents. Occasionally, the old man shot an annoyed glance at the double door connecting the dining room to the living room. The noisy pair on the other side were working particularly hard at making a nuisance of themselves today.
Marie thought this might be a good time to have another talk with the professor. He had already spent a good part of the morning bringing the detective up to speed on everything that was going on. He had told her about the work both he and Aleksandr Karpov had been doing at the Arc facility, and about the mercenaries and their precarious situation. And finally, he had told her about the data card. The one Adam had hidden after his escape from the Arc. The one containing his last project. No one knew the exact nature of the secret stored within the card. Only that it was supposedly very powerful, and potentially very dangerous. But they did know that Adam had gone through great lengths to keep the card from falling into the wrong hands. That alone was enough to explain why all parties involved were so eager to find it.
By then, the detective knew everything. Or rather, almost everything.
During her long conversation with Fournier, there was one question Marie had avoided asking. She had not dared, because she feared the answer. But now, she could no longer put it off. She simply had to know.
“Do you mind if I join you?” she asked as she walked into the dining room.
Fournier looked up. “Oh, Marie. No, not at all. Please, take a seat.”
She sat in a chair next to him.
“I can only imagine how strange all this must be for you,” the old man said.
Marie smiled. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll get easier. I promise.”
“I hope so,” she said.
She then marked a long pause, while keeping her gaze fixed on him.
“What is it?” Fournier asked. “Was there something on your mind?”
“Yes. I need to ask you something. And I need you to be honest.” The tone of her voice indicated that she was about to bring up a serious matter.
When he saw this, Fournier put down his documents and leaned back in his chair. “Of course.”
“When we first met, I told you that I had had an encounter with the man who murdered Professor Karpov.”
The old man gave a slight nod. “Yes. You did. Johann.”
“He said something to me … something I haven’t been able to get out of my head.”
A sombre veil descended over the professor’s face. He knew what she was about to ask him. Ever since learning the truth himself, he had dreaded this moment, though he knew it was bound to arrive.
“That man,” Marie continued. “Johann. He told me that I played a role in the professor’s death. He told me that he couldn’t have done it without my help. What did he mean by that?”
Fournier averted his eyes. Even though he had been expecting the question, hearing it out loud still provoked an uneasy response from him.
But despite his initial reaction, he tried his best to hide his distress. In an attempt to appear casual, he began to gather his documents into a pile as he gave his reply. “Johann has always been a very disturbed individual. He enjoys playing twisted games with people. It’s best to
ignore him altogether, if you ask me.”
In spite of the old man’s efforts, the detective noted the irregular pitch of his voice and the unsteadiness of his hands. “Please,” she simply said.
Fournier removed his glasses and slowly rubbed his eyes, the way tired people sometimes do. Then, he turned to Marie and said, “During the drive here, Lucielle told me she finally understood how Damien had been able to find Alek so quickly.”
“Are you saying it was because of me?”
The old man quietly nodded.
“That’s impossible!” Marie exclaimed. “I never told anyone about the professor. Not once.” She almost sounded as though she was pleading for him to believe her. Her voice resonated with a painful frustration, and her eyes burned with the passion of the innocents when they’re wrongly accused of committing some terrible crime.
“I believe you,” Fournier calmly said.
“Then … how? I don’t understand.”
“Back at my house, you told me that when you met Alek, he helped you solve a case.”
“Yes …” Marie replied, in tentative voice.
“I imagine he kept on helping you after that, correct?”
“Yes, he did,” she said, still not sure where he was going with this line of questioning. “The professor helped with some of the more difficult cases. The ones my colleagues and I couldn’t figure out due to a lack of evidence.”
“You see, Damien already suspected that Alek was hiding somewhere in Berlin. But Alek was a careful man. He had managed to stay under Leicester’s radar during all those years. How to find him then?”
Fournier paused for a moment, and expelled a full breath of air from his lungs, as though he needed to relieve the pressure building up inside his chest.
“When Alek and I went into hiding,” the old man continued. “We were forced to leave everyone and everything behind. But no matter how isolated I became, one thing always stayed with me. The guilt. Guilt for everything that happened at the Arc. For my part in it, and for everything I couldn’t prevent. Guilt for not being able to help Adam when he needed me the most. And most of all, guilt for abandoning his children, for leaving them behind.” The professor marked another pause. “I’m quite certain Alek felt the weight of that same guilt over the years. Now, to people like you and me, this wouldn’t be much to go on if we were trying to track him down. But to Damien and Lucielle, who possess a unique ability to predict and extrapolate events, that simple realization coupled with a general idea of Alek’s location … well, you might as well send out a flare in the middle of the night to let them know exactly where you are. I imagine it was relatively easy for Damien to identify the young detective who, seemingly out of nowhere, had begun solving cases which had had everyone else in her department stumped.”
Marie’s eyes had been stretching wider and wider with each word the professor had uttered. By the time he was finished, she looked like she was staring at an apparition.
She remained frozen like this for a while, paralyzed by the shock of her terrible realization.
Then, all of a sudden, she felt sick. Nauseous. And the feeling grew so unbearable, she wanted to crawl out of her own skin.
Sensing her distress, Fournier gently placed his hands on hers and said, “It wasn’t your fault, Marie. I assure you.”
“Yes, it was,” she said, almost shouting. “That man wasn’t lying. It was my fault. The professor died because of me.”
Tears were pushing hard to get to the surface, but Marie fought to hold them back. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t cry. Not anymore.
“Please, listen to me,” Fournier said in a gentle voice. “I chose to live in a secluded area, away from everyone. But for Alek who was in a big city, surrounded by millions of people, the temptation was too great to resist.”
Marie glanced at him with a perplexed expression. “What temptation?”
“The temptation to ease the guilt. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Even if he’d never met you, at one point or another, Alek would have found some way to help others, some way to make amends. If it hadn’t been solving cases with you, it would have been something else … and Damien would have found him all the same. I’m certain of it. And Lucielle agrees with me. So you see, you couldn’t have changed what happened. It truly wasn’t your fault. In fact, I’m glad the two of you met.”
Marie lowered her eyes and said in a half-whisper, “How can you even say that?”
“The picture,” Fournier said. “The picture of you and Alek in that park. Words cannot express how much it means to me to know my friend was once again able to smile in such a way.”
Despite Marie’s resolve, a few tears had managed to force their way through. She promptly wiped them with the back of her hand and shot up from her seat. “Thank you for telling me the truth,” she said. She then left at a hurried pace, and returned to her room.
Chapter 4 – Second Clue
Later that evening, Arianne and Kincade entered Adam’s apartment through the kitchen door. They found Rock, Sonar, Lucielle, and Soran doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen counters.
“You’re back!” the young girl exclaimed at the sight of her sister.
“I see you’re making yourself useful,” Arianne said. “That’s good.”
Lucielle smiled, looking proud of herself.
“How did everything go here?” Kincade asked the others.
“Fine,” Rock replied. “We didn’t wait-up on you, but there are some left-overs in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
“It’s alright,” Kincade said. “We grabbed a bite to eat while we were out.”
Soran raised an eyebrow at his sister and said, “Hmm, did you now?”
“Oh, stop it,” Arianne said. “We bought sandwiches from a stand in a park. We couldn’t risk going to a place where there might be cameras.”
“I baked a cake!” Lucielle declared out of the blue. Her green irises were sparkling with excitement. It was obvious she had been dying to make this important announcement to her sister.
Arianne did her best to match the young girl’s enthusiasm. “Wow, you did?”
“Yep. Hulin showed me how. You and Nate wanna try it?”
“Sure,” Kincade replied. But then he saw three pairs of eyes screaming for him to decline the seemingly benign offer. “Huh … but I’m kind of full right now,” he promptly added. “I’ll have some later.”
Arianne was also taken aback by the level of alarm in the trio’s eyes. But she decided to heed their silent warning. “Yes, later,” she said.
“Oh,” Lucielle said, looking disappointed.
“It’s getting late, Luce,” Arianne told her sister. “Maybe you should go take a shower. It’s almost time for bed.”
“OK,” the young girl replied, before scurrying out of the kitchen.
Arianne waited a moment to make sure her sister had gone far enough away and couldn’t hear them anymore, and then turned to her brother and his two cohorts. “Surely, you three are overreacting,” she said. “I’m sure Lucielle’s cake can’t be that bad.”
“Ooh, you’re so wrong about that,” Soran told her. “Believe me, sis, we just saved you from one of the most horrible experiences of your life.”
Rock and Sonar vigorously nodded in agreement.
“All right,” said Kincade. “Let’s try to be a little bit more serious. You guys finish up in here. In the meantime, I’ll go take a quick shower, too. After that, we’ll have another group-meeting. We need to make sure we’re all on the same page before we figure out what to do next.”
Twenty minutes later, everyone was once again assembled inside the living room.
It was Doc Chen who got the informal meeting started. “Were you able to get in touch with Ben?” he asked Kincade.
“Yeah. He’s on his way.”
“Who’s Ben?” Soran asked.
“Benjamin Green,” Kincade replied. “He’s the last member of our team.”
�
��Oh, why did he stay behind?”
“Ben didn’t take part in the mission that landed us in trouble with the US Military. Since he wasn’t affected by Leicester’s deal, I saw no reason to get him mixed up in all of this. Unfortunately, it’s become clear we’re going to need all the help we can get. Besides, we figured it’ll be much easier for him to get Da Costa out of that hospital.”
“Why is that?” Soran asked. “Won’t Leicester know about him, too?”
“Sure,” Kincade replied. “Leicester’s aware of him. But I don’t think he bothered to get a file on Ben. And even if he did, there’d be no reason for him to show it to Jenkins or Carson.”
“I’m glad you were able to reach your friend,” Ashrem said. “Between the hotel, the professor’s home, and his office in London, Leicester’s been kept pretty busy. Which is probably the only reason Da Costa’s presence in that hospital has remained a secret up until now. But it’s only a matter of time before Leicester finds out about him.”
“I know,” Kincade said. “I trust Ben. He’ll get Da Costa out of there. We’ve already given him all the information he needs.” He then glanced at Arianne and her siblings. “Any progress on solving that riddle?”
“Hmm, yes and no,” the young woman said.
“What do you mean?”
“Some of the words like Queen, tower, and knight, seem to point to England.”
“Oh … of course. You’re right, they do.”
“But there’s also those two dots. They’re obviously not there by accident.”
“Two dots?” Rock echoed. “What dots?”
“You didn’t notice them?” Soran asked, sounding surprised.
The giant shook his head. “Nope.” He turned to his redheaded comrade. “You?”
“Erm … I gotta admit,” Sonar said. “I kinda missed it too.”
“Let’s have another look,” Kincade suggested.
“Sure,” Arianne said. She went to her room and returned with the necklace and a flashlight. “Soran, do you mind getting the lights?” she said as she walked past him.