by T E Stouyer
“And I promise you, we won’t abandon your friend. As Luce said, it’s not like Leicester to resort to such tactics. In fact, I don’t believe the threat was his idea.”
“You’re right,” Lucielle said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Karl Schaffer was the one who came up with the idea.”
“Either way,” Arianne said to Marie. “The point is, Leicester can be reasoned with. So try not to be too alarmed.”
“Thank you,” Marie quietly replied. “I’d like to be alone for a while if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” said Professor Fournier.
They all watched in silence as the detective left the living room with her head down.
Rock waited until he heard Marie close the hallway door behind her and said, “Do we need to worry about her?”
Ashrem and Arianne exchanged a quick glance.
“She’s just a little shaken because of the news about her friend,” Fournier said. “If Alek trusted her, then I think we can trust her, too.”
Having returned to her room, Marie sat on the bed and gazed absently at the small park across the road. An inner struggle was raging on underneath her still exterior. She had a difficult choice to make. Either trust in her new allies, or take Leicester up on his offer.
Part of her truly wanted to believe in Professor Karpov’s old friend and in his extraordinary companions. But what if that was the wrong decision. Hans’ life was in the balance. Could she really place his fate in the hands of strangers, however well-intentioned and resourceful they may be?
The other option was to betray them.
But even if she chose that option, how would she go about it?
Surely, they would be watching her closely from now on. Never mind getting her hands on the necklace again, there was no way they would let her leave the apartment.
Then it occurred to her. Professor Fournier. He trusted her a lot more than the others did. He had felt an immediate affection for her because of her connection to Professor Karpov. She also felt the same way. The last thing she wanted was to betray his trust. She hated the idea. But didn’t she have an obligation to try? For Hans’ sake.
But even if she somehow pulled it off, how would she get in touch with this Leicester? She had no idea who he was or where to find him.
But how did they know about Hans in the first place? she asked herself.
All of a sudden, she got up and rushed to the bedroom drawer. She grabbed her purse and frantically searched through it.
There it was. The card Doctor Philippe Laplace had given her.
She stared at it for a long time, and then finally whispered, “Hang-on, partner.”
Chapter 9 – Deal
Later that night …
Andrew Leicester went to the bar cabinet in his office and poured himself a glass of scotch. “Care for a drink, Karl?” he asked.
Karl Schaffer was seated on the couch, studying a sheet of paper with great interest. “No,” he replied. But then, he raised his head and peered at Leicester.
“What is it? Did you change your mind about that drink?”
Schaffer kept his eyes fixed on the Briton a while longer. There was a strange glimmer in his eyes. “You’re not keeping anything from me, are you?”
Leicester was taken aback by the question. “Why, of course not! What on earth prompted you to ask that?”
Schaffer gazed at the document again. “Nothing. I just wanted to make sure, that’s all. To be honest, this is not what I expected.”
Leicester smiled. “No, it certainly isn’t.”
Schaffer checked the time on his phone. “Shouldn’t they be here, by now?”
Leicester peeked at his watch. “It’s been almost half an hour since Mr. Jenkins called me from the road. I’m sure they’ll arrive shortly.”
Schaffer looked away, with a scowl on his face. He appeared even grumpier than usual.
Leicester observed the German for a moment and said, “You might as well speak your mind, Karl.”
“Fine, I will. I think it was a mistake.”
Leicester rolled his eyes. “Oh, that again.”
“We’re wasting valuable time,” Schaffer grumbled.
“Come now, we’ve been over this. Broadly speaking, I find cooperation to be a more effective tool than coercion. In my experience, it yields far more reliable results. Besides, if what she’s told us is true, we still have time.”
“Precisely,” Schaffer said. “If it’s true.”
“We’ll find out soon enough. In any case, we’ve already gone through with it, so the point is moot.”
Schaffer grunted. Leicester was right, and he knew it. The German was not the type to argue for the sake of arguing. All that was left to do now was to wait. He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. While Leicester walked over to the window and patiently sipped his scotch.
Not five minutes had passed when a knock came and broke the silence.
Leicester answered. “Yes.”
His secretary opened the door and said, “Mr. Jenkins has returned. Should I show him in?”
“Yes, Rachel, please do.”
She stepped away but left the door ajar.
Jenkins walked in almost immediately, followed by Carson and a tall blond woman.
Leicester and Schaffer stood up and approached them.
“Ah, Mr. Jenkins,” Leicester said. “I must confess, Karl and I were starting to get worried. Your little excursion went without incident, I hope.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry about the wait. We got a bit held up at the airport, but other than that everything went fine.”
Leicester turned to the blond woman. “And you, detective? Now that your partner’s safely on a plane back to Germany, and that you’ve spoken to your chief about having someone pick him up. I trust you’re satisfied I’ve held up my end of our agreement?”
“I am,” Marie replied.
“Good,” said Leicester. “Mr. Jenkins told me you stopped to collect the necklace on your way here.”
“She had left it inside a locker at the Gare du Nord train station,” Jenkins explained.
Marie took out the pendant necklace from her purse and handed it to Leicester.
“Excellent,” said the Briton. “You’ve also agreed to tell us everything you know that might help us decipher the message.”
“Yes. But I don’t know much.”
Schaffer held up the sheet of paper. “Then perhaps you can start with this.”
“It’s a copy of a poem,” Marie said. “Apparently it contains a hidden clue.”
“And the original?” Leicester asked.
“You’re holding it.”
Leicester’s gaze fell to the necklace.
“Stop talking in riddles,” Schaffer said in an impatient tone. “Where is the message left by Adam?”
“I meant what I said,” Marie replied. “It literally is inside the pendant. If you shine a beam of light on it at a specific angle, the message will appear.”
The four men exchanged a series of quick glances before their eyes converged on the pendant.
Jenkins then went to the door and opened it. “Get me a flashlight,” he told one of the sentries posted outside.
Moments later, the guard returned with the flashlight and gave it to Jenkins, who then closed the door and went over to Leicester and asked him for the pendant.
“It’ll be easier to see it if we turn off the lights,” Marie suggested.
“Of course,” Leicester said. “Mr. Carson, if you please.”
Carson nodded and went to the wall next to the entrance and flipped the light switch.
The office was now pitch dark.
Jenkins turned on the flashlight and held the pendant inside the beam.
The stone refracted the light into multi-colored billowy shapes, but there was no message.
With the room now partially brightened, some visibility had returned. Still, Jenkins’ face was the only one Marie could clearly make out because of h
is proximity to the light source. She couldn’t really see the expressions on the others’ faces. But she didn’t need to. She had no doubt the intense glare Jenkins was aiming at her accurately represented the general mood inside the room.
“The beam needs to be more focused,” the detective promptly offered. “Arianne suggested the pendant had been designed that way to reduce the chances that someone would accidentally stumble upon the message. Here, let me do it.”
She took both objects from Jenkins and pressed the flashlight directly against the stone. Then, imitating Arianne, she began to tweak the position of the beam in the search of the correct angle.
It created a scintillating light show, which brightened the room even more.
“Whoa!” Carson exclaimed.
Now that she could see everyone better, Marie noted that Leicester and Schaffer also felt a sense of awe as they gazed at the mesmerizing lights dancing on the walls and the ceiling.
But Jenkins had no reaction.
Marie shot a couple of furtive glances his way and was surprised to see that he appeared completely unmoved by the bewitching spectacle. In that moment, she recalled what Professor Fournier had told them about Jenkins’ past, and about his hatred for Adam. Later on, the professor had again insisted she steer clear of Leicester’s right-hand man.
Marie had only known Jenkins for a few hours. But even in that short period of time, she had come to believe Professor Fournier’s concerns were fully justified. From the moment she had met him, her instincts as a detective had warned her that Jenkins was dangerous.
“Here we go,” she said.
Letters had finally begun to form among the ribbons of shimmering colors.
There was complete silence in the office as all four men stared fixedly at the words glowing on the wall in front of them.
“You have to focus the light at a precise angle for the text to appear,” Marie explained.
Schaffer, like everyone else, was intrigued by the strange message, and by its means of delivery, but he also felt a certain disappointment. This was the exact same poem the detective had given them—the one on the piece of paper he had been staring at for the past few hours. He had hoped the original message would contain additional clues to help them decipher the code.
He moved closer to the detective and said in low and unfriendly tone, “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know,” she replied.
“What?” Schaffer growled.
“There’s more,” she told him.
She flipped the pendant around and repeated the same process.
It wasn’t long before new letters appeared on the wall.
“Oh, now that’s interesting,” Leicester said.
“Indeed,” Schaffer agreed. “Part of this is quite clear. Perhaps a little too clear, in fact,” he added in a dubious tone.
“There’s a reason for the two separate clues,” Marie said. “Arianne and the others mentioned that one indicated a location and that the other was a password.”
“A password?” Schaffer echoed.
“That’s right. They believe that without the password, it’ll be impossible to access the data on the card.”
“Yes, I’m sure Adam would have seen to that,” Leicester remarked. “Do you know what that password is?”
“No,” Marie said. “Like I told you earlier, they still hadn’t figured it out by the time I snuck out.”
“What else can you tell us?” Schaffer asked.
“As you pointed out, the location is quite clear from the second clue. RFH … Royal Festival Hall. The others suggested that A13 was probably a seat number. Seat 13 in row A.”
“What about the dots?”
“They refer to the two dots over the letters e in the poem. But I don’t know what they mean.” Marie flipped the pendant around again and showed them the poem one more time.
They gazed at the cryptic message a while longer, until Leicester finally asked Carson to switch the lights back on.
Marie turned off the flashlight and handed the necklace back to Leicester. “That’s all I know,” she said. “I believe I’ve also held up my end of the agreement?”
“Yes. You’ve been quite helpful.”
She shot an uneasy glance around the room. “Does that mean I’m free to go?”
Leicester smiled and gave a faint nod. “You’re free to go.”
Schaffer couldn’t believe his ears. He nearly jumped on the spot, as though he had received an electric shock. He whipped his head towards the Briton and said, “You don’t actually intend to simply let her walk out of here, do you?”
“Why not?” said Leicester.
Schaffer turned and eyed the detective menacingly. “Where are the clones?”
“That was not part of the deal,” Marie said in a firm voice.
“Du hast keinen Deal mit mir [You don’t have a deal with me],” he countered, speaking to her in German.
“But she does have one with me,” Leicester interjected. He placed himself between the two and turned to Schaffer. “Think about it, Karl. Wherever the clones were when she last saw them, I imagine they’d be long gone by now. Do you really think they’d kindly wait around for us to come and pick them up?”
“Fine, I’ll concede that point. Even so, we can’t let her go. She’s seen too much. She knows too much. She could expose us.”
“Expose us?” Leicester chuckled. “I don’t think so. One does not go around talking about secret experiments in human cloning without presenting solid evidence. For a respectable detective like our friend here, that would be a rather tragic mistake. It would only bring about an abrupt end to what seems like a promising career. And after the misfortunes that befell her partner, I’m sure the detective sees the wisdom in putting all of this behind her and moving on with her life.”
“You won’t get any problems from me,” Marie said.
Leicester smiled. “I have no doubt. I’m sure your chief inspector will want to hear a detailed report of your recent activities upon your return. Karl can have a word with him about that. Just to make sure he doesn’t ask too many bothersome questions. Would you, Karl?”
Schaffer said nothing for a while, and then calmly returned to the couch. “Fine, have it your way, Andrew. But you alone will have to take responsibility for this decision.”
“Of course,” said Leicester. He then glanced at Marie. “Now, detective, I believe that concludes our business together. Mr. Carson will accompany you to the airport.”
Marie hesitated for a moment. “I just need to collect mine and Hans’ belongings from the hotel before I return to Berlin.”
“By all means,” Leicester said. “Take all the time you need. Mr. Carson will stay with you until you’re safely onboard your plane. I don’t believe we’ll meet again.”
Marie shot another quick glance around the room, before she turned on her heels and headed for the door. She tried to hurry without making it appear as though she was doing so. She didn’t want to let the others see that she was nervous. But considering the way Schaffer and Jenkins were eyeballing her, she thought it’d be a good idea to get out of there as quickly as possible. Even without looking, she could feel their gazes tracking her every step as she moved across the room. They were like two predators struggling to control their primal urges as they watched their prey stroll away from them.
Carson gave Leicester a faint nod and then followed the detective outside.
As soon as the door closed, Schaffer turned and glowered at his British counterpart. “I don’t understand what you’re thinking, Andrew. We should have at least kept her with us until we got our hands on the card.”
“What further use could she possibly be to us?” Leicester calmly asked.
“I don’t know. That’s my point.”
“We should focus on the more important matter,” Leicester said. “After all these years, we finally know where Adam hid the data card. I’ll call my people to make sure the entire area is evacuated an
d secured until we get there. We can’t risk Arianne, or worse Damien, getting their hands on it first.”
Schaffer gave an approving nod.
Leicester turned to Jenkins. “Please make the necessary arrangements. We leave for London, at once.”
Chapter 10 – Strange Box
The Southbank Centre is a world-famous arts complex located near Waterloo Station, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. It’s renowned for hosting a variety of artistic events throughout the year. Visitors can enjoy routines from street performers, and a number of other diverse activities taking place on the outside. However, the centre’s main performances all take place inside its main venues: The Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, and the Hayward Gallery.
The Royal Festival Hall is an auditorium with a 2500-seat capacity, divided into different seating areas. At the back of the auditorium, immediately behind the main stage, is the choir area. Directly facing the stage are the front stalls, then the rear stalls, and on an upper level, the balcony. Near the stage, to the left and right of the front stalls, are the side stalls. And finally, above the side stalls are the boxes, offering small private seating areas.
At around 01:45 am, London time, the lights came on inside the Royal Festival Hall auditorium. Shortly after, a group of men walked in and proceeded down the aisles towards the stage.
“I believe there’s a row A on the balcony section as well,” Leicester said, glancing upwards. “We’ll search up there next if we can’t find the card down here.”
“I wonder why Adam chose this particular building,” Jenkins wondered aloud.
“I was just asking myself the same question,” Schaffer said.
“Ah, I forgot that I was in the company of a German and an American,” Leicester remarked. “What if I told you both that this place underwent an extensive renovation a little over 10 years ago?”
“I see,” said Schaffer. “By pretending to be one of the workers, Adam would have had the perfect excuse to come and go as he pleased. Which would have given him plenty of time to find a way to hide the data card.”
“Exactly,” said Leicester.