Reckless Road

by Christine Feehan

  “No, Horus didn’t work for anyone. At times he presented his papers to the university. He lectured. But no, he refused to take money from anyone. He didn’t need to. He didn’t want anyone telling him what he should be working on. He wasn’t . . . structured. He was a dreamer.”

  Anat indicated the drawing. “I shouldn’t have kept it. We were going to destroy it, of course. We always destroyed anything that was dangerous.” She stretched her arm up and touched the drawing with trembling fingertips. “I didn’t think anyone would ever discover what it was. How could they? It took Horus and me to open it. Even Amara, my daughter, and Ken couldn’t do it. So I thought it would be safe to keep it. I loved it so much, and I didn’t have many things I could bring with me.”

  She dropped her arm and clasped her hands in her lap before looking up at her granddaughter. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t think there was any reason to tell you. Clearly, there was. How did you find out?”

  “I did,” Player said. “I was in her bedroom all those weeks and I could see the drawing. I didn’t need the device to see the plans for the bomb. I have this weird thing I do when I’m upset. Some people count; my brain puts together bombs.”

  Anat gasped, her eyes going wide. “Horus did that. He had . . . problems stemming from things that happened to him when he was a child. He said when he focused on building intricate bombs, new ones, different ones, he would have to concentrate completely; nothing would penetrate, and he wouldn’t feel or hear anything going on around him. He learned to do that from an early age, so it was what he always did.”

  Player exchanged a long look with Zyah and then with Czar. “My mind must work along the same lines as your husband’s did. In any case, I began building that bomb in my mind over and over. When Zyah and I were together, we accidentally opened the portal. Someone was on the other side watching us, and he was very unhappy with us.”

  “Amir.” Anat whispered the name so softly, Player almost didn’t catch it. “He would be furious. And scared. Confused.” She looked at Zyah. “Amir was twenty when the explosion killed everyone aboard the yacht. You must remember him. You called him Uncle Amir. Everyone thought him dead. We wanted it that way. He barely survived. A fisherman found his body floating miles away and took him home. Amir convinced the fisherman someone had tried to kill him, so the man never told anyone he had found Amir.”

  “It wasn’t an accident, then,” Zyah said.

  Anat shook her head. “Horus had enemies. He was too outspoken against the government at the time, and he refused to do the things they asked of him. I tried to talk to him. We all did. He was writing articles for the newspapers and stirring up the younger people. Horus had a brother twenty years younger than him. His brother and his wife were killed in an accident. His wife had no family, so we took their infant son, Amir.”

  “The man in the portal was Amir?” Player asked.

  “It had to have been,” Anat said. “There was only one other portal set up. Horus had a small estate in France. If we had to flee our country, we were to go there. He had property, money, identities for us if we needed them. The other portal was there. I sent Amir there. It was the only way I knew he would be safe. He would have a home, money and a life. I knew I could make a life for Zyah and me here in the States. No one would come after us. We were women and had nothing. If anything went wrong, I could contact Amir and send for money, but it was safer not to. I knew that there would be eyes on me for a long while. Not because of this project.” She indicated the drawing. “No one knew about this but the five of us. But Horus’s family was considered a threat, and that included Amir.”

  “You turned over all of Horus’s money and properties to Amir and came to the United States on borrowed money?” Czar asked.

  “Most of Horus’s money and property were confiscated—only what he had in France was left, and that was very little in comparison to what his wealth had been. I love Amir as a son. I raised him from infancy for twenty years. As a woman, I wasn’t a threat to anyone, but he was. In France, with a new identity, he could marry, have a life. As long as we stayed away from each other, and there was no connection between us, there would be no threat to him.”

  “You sacrificed so much, Mama Anat,” Zyah said.

  Anat shook her head and indicated the drawing. “I should have destroyed this. It was the last I had of Horus and Ken. I loved them both so much, but I should have been able to part with it. Horus would have been so angry with me.”

  “Can Amir open the portal from his side?” Mechanic asked.

  “No,” Anat said. “The portal took two of us to open it, and it was always one-sided. Horus could talk to Amir through it, but Horus and I had to be together to open it. Player and Zyah must be together to open it. Amir must have been shocked when the portal opened and he started seeing through it. Probably shocked and rather horrified.”

  “The other portal has to be like this one is—portable,” Savage ventured.

  Anat nodded. “Yes. The other is very small. I don’t know how it got to be in France.”

  “Clearly, it meant enough to Amir to risk getting it from your home before he left and taking it with him when he was fleeing to France. How did he get to France?” Czar asked.

  “We had friends,” Anat said. “I had him smuggled out of the country, although I never revealed his identity to anyone.”

  “He took the portal, just as you took the drawing, because it was what Horus and Ken created,” Savage said, his voice gentle. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Anat. It’s human to want to keep something because it holds memories for you.”

  Player exchanged a long look with Zyah. She knew things about the others that most people would never know, but she also saw moments like this one. Savage had so much good in him. Player, like all the members of Torpedo Ink, was terrified of losing him. Terrified he would ride over a cliff one day. Savage thought of himself as a monster, but seeing him with Anat, it was impossible to view him that way.

  “Amir was so upset and didn’t want to give up me or Zyah,” Anat said. “He felt guilty at taking the money. And he was alone without us. He felt like, as the only man left in the family, it was his duty and right to protect us. It was a hard time for us both. I insisted he couldn’t contact me and that I couldn’t contact him. I would do anything to keep him safe. As the years went by, he contacted me via email, and we were still careful, setting up a formal way to make certain we knew the other one was safe. He had a Facebook with pictures of his family. I did the same so I could share pictures of Zyah.”

  “Perhaps it’s time to open the portal and talk with him,” Player said. “We need to make certain he’s on the same page.” He had felt the absolute malevolence directed at Zyah and him. It was possible Amir hadn’t recognized Zyah in the murkiness of the portal. Player had been the one facing him. There was no mistaking the waves of black anger pouring off the man in that portal. Player had known the stranger intended to find them and either kill them or use them for his own dark purposes.

  “Yes.” Anat couldn’t suppress the eagerness in her voice. “Please do.”

  Czar waved the others back out of sight of the frame. “Leave Anat, Player and Zyah there for the moment. I want to be certain this man is going to cooperate with whatever Anat wants. Anat, can he pass anything through the portal to you?”

  Anat frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Clearly, the bomb can be passed through the portal. Can Amir pass a bomb to us?”

  “No, nothing can go from his side to our side. It’s merely a means to communicate. The only thing that can go from our side out is the bomb. And the bomb is made to go through the portal. It was an experiment, like in the Jules Verne novels. The impossible that is improbable that becomes illusion and then reality.”

  Player looked over Anat’s head to Czar. “Anat, did Horus have psychic talents? Was he able to build illusions and hold
them?”

  She nodded slowly. “Yes. He was very good at them, but if he held them too long, he would get terrible headaches and his illusions could become an alternate reality. That was very dangerous. He had to be careful. I know that sounds crazy, but it was our world. I could help him when that happened.”

  Zyah slipped her hand into Player’s. “We understand, Mama Anat. We’re going to open the portal now.” She turned into Player’s body, sliding her arms up his chest and winding them around his neck. “He was like you,” she whispered. “That’s why we can open it. He had a lot of your talents. And I have many of Mama Anat’s.”

  Her mouth brushed over his lips. Little strokes of desire sending fiery darts through Player’s bloodstream. It was difficult to keep his eyes open and focused on the frame, observing the way the etchings deepened into a full-blown scroll and then began to roll. He heard someone make a sound of shock, and then there was silence again.

  Zyah’s mouth moved on his. Her tongue traced the seam of his lips, and he opened, unable to do anything else. The tip of her tongue felt like a flame. The moment she kissed him, he was kissing her. The fire raced between them, hot and wild. No holding back. They always tried, but it seemed like a wildfire that just roared out of control.

  Player tightened his arms around her but forced his eyes to stay open when he only wanted to keep his focus on his woman. The frame spun, moving faster and faster. The drawing itself receded into utter darkness, a black hole. The tension in the shed rose, stretched out until it felt as if any moment a hole could be torn in the atmosphere itself.

  “Don’t let go of each other,” Anat counseled.

  At first, it seemed, no one was on the other side.

  “Be patient. If he isn’t right there, the portal will summon him with a sound. If he’s anywhere near, he’ll come. He’s most likely got it in his private den or somewhere the rest of his family won’t see it,” Anat said. “Please stay connected.” There was eagerness in her voice she clearly tried to suppress. She hadn’t seen Amir in seventeen years, other than in pictures on the Internet. This would be the closest she would come to him in person. “He goes by François Marcellus Sanchez. It’s his legal name now.”

  A figure slowly began to take shape, the eyes first. He was a distance away, clearly guarding his identity.

  “François,” Anat called out to him. Her voice dripped with tears. “My son.”

  “Maman?” There was a wealth of emotion in the voice. The figure crept closer until a face with dark brown eyes was centered in the middle of the picture frame. He had dark hair, and as he got closer, they could see the web of scarring that ran along his face and neck, cutting along the dark shadow of his jaw.

  Anat reached up with trembling fingers as if she could smooth those scars away. “François. I didn’t think I would ever be able to talk to you. To see you.”

  “Seventeen years, maman,” he whispered. “I had made up my mind to come to you. I know I gave you my word that I wouldn’t, but I feared I would lose you before I could see you again. Zyah grew up without knowing me. You were lost to me. She was lost to me.”

  “We’re here,” Anat assured.

  “They don’t care about us now. They don’t even think about us,” François said. “I want to get on a plane tomorrow and come to see you, and I intend to do just that.” There was absolute conviction in his voice, as if she might dare to contradict him. If she did, he was going to refuse to listen to her. “Someone opened the portal. I can see now, it must have been Zyah.”

  “She didn’t know what she was doing. It was an accident. It scared her. You scared her. Her man, Player, is like my Horus,” Anat explained. “They moved the drawing from my house in order to protect me, not realizing I knew what it was. Player was afraid the bomb might go off and kill me.” She smiled affectionately at Player.

  Player felt that smile right through him, like an arrow to his soul. Zyah’s grandmother had taken the club, his family, into her home, into her heart, welcoming them in the way Blythe had. He tightened his hold on Zyah, feeling he was lucky to bring not only Zyah to his family, but Anat. For so long, he had felt unworthy of the others, apart from them. His mind defective and even dangerous to them because of his strange talent. Sharing Zyah and Anat had more than made up for any shortcomings he might have.

  “I was recovering from a brain injury,” Player explained. “The drawing was in front of me, and I could clearly see the plans for the bomb. My brain works on things like that, and it did. The next thing, Zyah and I saw you and you scared the crap out of us. We were terrified for Anat and had no idea what to think. I asked my family for help. They’re very good at finding people. Fortunately, Zyah, my family and I all believe so much in Anat, that before we did anything, we asked her. She told us how this all came about. It’s pretty incredible.”

  “Unbelievable is what you mean,” François said. “The things Horus and Ken thought of and then proceeded to do were beyond this world. Out of a science fiction movie. If I tried to tell someone about them, people would think I was crazy.” He hesitated. “What do you mean, your family? Maman, this kind of technology is extremely dangerous. If it fell into the wrong hands, it would be a disaster. No one else knew about this. It was kept a secret because it was so dangerous.”

  “Horus was well aware of that. He honestly didn’t think it would work. None of us did. Ken and Amara tried first and couldn’t open the portal. Ken was the one who had designed the portal, so naturally we thought they could open it. Even for Horus and Ken, the idea was too far-fetched. You can imagine how shocked we were when it worked for us,” Anat said.

  “Zyah and—I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name,” François said.

  “My family calls me Player,” he supplied.

  “Player, then. If it got out about this, any government or terrorist group would come after both of you in a heartbeat. You know that.”

  “I know. It was always meant to be destroyed. I just didn’t think anyone else could ever open it or even read it,” Anat admitted.

  “Did you tell anyone about this?” François asked Player.

  “Several of my family members know. They’re here now,” Player said. “I’m in a club. Czar, our president, is here. A few others. Mechanic, Savage, Destroyer, Ink, Storm.”

  Observing the absolute dismay on François’s face as each man moved into sight and then out again, Anat tried to assure him. “These are good boys. I was robbed and beaten and they took care of me. Player was shot preventing Zyah from being kidnapped. They’ll do whatever it takes to protect us, François. And I intend to destroy the drawing after talking to you. I don’t want to, because I love it so much, but this has shown me that it is much too dangerous to have around. The club thinks it needs to be destroyed as well.”

  “I think it best, maman. I’m sorry that you’ll lose Horus’s drawing when it means so much to you, but I did buy a ticket, and I’m coming to see you. It isn’t the same, but having your son back might help.”

  “It more than helps,” Anat assured. “You have two beautiful daughters and a son of your own.”

  “I do. My wife is an incredible woman. I can’t wait for you to meet her. I haven’t told them anything about why I’m traveling to the United States. I didn’t know what was happening with the portal at the time I purchased the ticket, so I was traveling alone.”

  “When are you coming?” Anat asked, nearly holding her breath.

  “I’m flying out tomorrow.” Again, François’s voice was very decisive.

  Player glanced at Czar. That didn’t give Code much time to find out very much about Anat’s son. As far as the club was concerned, Anat was theirs. Their grandmother. That meant they took care of her. They protected her. She clearly loved this man. She’d raised him from the time he was an infant, and she’d done everything to protect him, but seventeen years had gone by and he hadn’t reached
out to her. He hadn’t found a way to send her money or help. They had a code. It was different and they knew that, but still, it was the way they lived. Czar was already texting, filling Code in, telling him to put everything aside until they knew what they could about François.

  “I can’t wait to see you, François,” Anat reiterated. “We will be destroying the drawing as soon as we close the portal, so we won’t be able to contact each other this way.”

  “You have my contact information, correct?” François said.

  She nodded. “And you have mine?”

  “Yes. Je t’aime, maman.”

  “I love you, François,” Anat whispered. She glanced back at Zyah and Player. There were tears in her eyes.

  Player released his hold on Zyah and put a little distance between them. At once the inside of the drawing began to color in. The process was slow, but it was impossible to see François. Where there had been darkness, light began to shine through, leaving the lines of charcoal to fill in. Player, watching, found it a fascinating procedure. Eventually, the drawing was just that again, an intricate, beautiful picture surrounded by an intriguing frame.

  All of them stood behind Anat’s wheelchair, staring at Horus’s drawing for a long time. Destroyer leaned close to Anat. “You ready? Let’s go out to the yard.”

  She nodded and reached back to pat his hand. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Zyah followed behind the chair and Player took the picture off the wall. He dreaded burning it almost as much as the women did. It really was priceless, but it was too dangerous to keep. He carried the framed picture out to the pit dug in the ground and lined with rocks, already waiting. The fuel, branches of dried oak and redwood, was stacked. Storm lit the tented smaller twigs, and Player waited for the larger branches to catch fire before putting the picture, facedown, on top of it. He didn’t wait, nor did he show it again to the women.

  Zyah reached her hand out to Anat and then leaned close to her, circling her neck with her arm. Player stepped up beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Savage and Destroyer both pressed close to Anat to give her comfort while they all watched the picture burn. When it was completely consumed by the flames, Anat looked up at Destroyer.