by N. J. Croft
She did, with a shaking hand. He glanced at the number, but it told him nothing, and then shoved the paper in his pocket and the gun back in his waistband. He picked up his bag and turned and walked away.
He realized as he pushed through the door that he hadn’t paid the bill. He didn’t turn back.
He had five days.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Zach watched him go. He had a feeling that Noah was holding something back. That he didn’t entirely trust him. Could he blame the man?
All the same, they needed to work together on this, because he couldn’t do it alone. And right now, Noah was his only option. Plus, while Zach had been cut off from the intelligence community, Noah still had connections.
After his failed trip to Germany, he’d come here because he’d used up all his other leads and had nowhere left to go. This was where Eve had died. Maybe he could backtrack somehow. Find John Chen. Kill the bastard, but only after torturing him to find out who he worked for.
While he’d found no trace of John, he had seen another face he recognized at the hotel where Eve had spent her last nights. Noah Blakeley. They’d worked a case together a couple of years ago and found they had a lot in common. But while Zach’s bosses had written him off as a crazy guy with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, Noah had been listened to. Perhaps having a bloody uncle who was also a general had something to do with that. He’d gotten to head up a special project focused on finding patterns in terrorist attacks. Predicting where new attacks might happen.
Noah had been with a woman when Zach had spotted him, as different from Eve as it was possible to get. He didn’t know her. He’d taken a picture and sent it off to an old buddy who still owed him a favor, but the results had come back negative—she didn’t have a file. He’d watched them and seen the woman leave the hotel the next morning with a bag and Noah arrested a few hours later. Zach had been loitering ever since waiting for his new partner to get out of jail.
His phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, but it wasn’t a number his phone recognized. He accepted the call.
“Zach?”
The voice was familiar, and he exhaled. At fucking last. “Tarkhan. I’ve been trying to get hold of you for days.”
“I was out of contact for a while. I’ve been laying low. But I might have some information for you. Someone you can talk to.”
He’d asked Tarkhan to put him in contact with the Darkhats. They had a common enemy, after all. If they had been responsible for Eve’s death, then they would pay, but only after they had helped him destroy the Descendants.
Tarkhan claimed he didn’t know any Darkhats, that they were nothing more than a story people whispered in the shadows. Zach hadn’t believed him.
“Where?” he asked.
“Meet me at the spot where you saved my life.”
Very cryptic, though he knew the place. During Eve’s search for the Spirit Banner, Tarkhan had taken a fall when his horse was shot dead from under him by a pursuing helicopter. He’d broken a leg, and Zach had gone back for him, got to him just before a vehicle had arrived to finish the job.
“I’ll have company,” he said.
“Who?”
“Noah Blakeley.”
“Eve’s husband?”
“Ex-husband, and he wants to know why Eve died. I believe he’s a good man.”
“Okay. Text me when you have a time.”
He got another beer and sat back in his seat, angling the chair so he could watch out the window. Around twenty minutes later, Noah emerged from the hotel. He’d clearly showered and changed, and a bag was slung over his shoulder. There was a pinched expression on his face. Clearly something had happened since they’d parted.
He stood as Noah pushed through the door.
“Let’s go,” the man said. “You have a car?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re driving.”
Zach had left the car parked a few streets away, and he led the way out the side door of the bar, along an alley, then onto the street. Beside him, Noah was silent, lost in his thoughts, his lips a tight line, a tic jumping in his cheek.
“What happened?” Zach asked.
“Nothing.”
He thought about pushing it, but the other man seemed to be on the point of explosion. Maybe best give him time to calm down. As he stopped by a blue SUV, he hit the unlock button, and the car beeped. “I heard from Tarkhan,” he said as they climbed in. “He arranged a meeting with some people who might be able to help.”
“Who?”
“Darkhats, I believe.”
“They’re the ones who shot Eve, right?”
“Yes, but ultimately, they want the same thing we do. To stop the Descendants. And right now we don’t have a lot of allies. As long as we’re not trying to find the tomb, they should have no problem with us.”
Noah cast him a glance he couldn’t quite decipher. “Where?”
“The Great Taboo. Close to where Eve found the Banner.” He turned on the engine and pulled out into the traffic before speaking again. “Who was the woman you were with?” he asked.
“The woman?”
“Pretty, dark haired—ring through her nose.”
He glanced at Noah, saw his lips tighten. “I have no clue.”
“Come on. I’ve told you everything I know. Give me a little something here.”
“I told you, I don’t know who she is. She told me her name was Star—”
“The space archaeologist Eve worked with?”
“So I was led to believe. However, the real Star was found dead shortly after Eve died. She’d been tortured. So I don’t know who my Star was.”
Zach had never met the woman, but Eve had liked her. The list of people who had died because of this was growing, but it was nothing to what would come afterward. “Have you any idea why she was killed?”
Another look, then Noah shrugged. “She was helping Eve to find the location of the tomb. I believe they found it. Star—the real Star—sent Eve an image showing the location, which she picked up the night she died. I’m guessing that’s why they came after her. They meant to kill Eve—they didn’t need her anymore—and take the image, which would lead them to the tomb.”
“So they have everything they need?”
“No. They didn’t find the image that night. Eve didn’t have it on her when she was taken. My guess was they killed her prematurely, realized the image wasn’t there. Then they took the real Star, trying to get a copy, but there were no copies. So they have to find the original. Or maybe they already have.”
“Go on.”
“We found it. In a safe deposit box in the Marriott hotel, where Eve went after she called you.”
“So where the hell is it? You do still have it?”
Noah scowled. “The morning after we found the image, I woke up and Star was gone and the image with her. Shortly after, the police turned up, and I was arrested. Apparently, they received an ‘anonymous phone call’ that I was armed and dangerous and planning a terrorist attack.”
“You think this woman made the call.”
“Maybe.”
“And you think she’s working for the Descendants?”
“Maybe.”
“Jesus,” Zach growled. “Say something other than maybe.”
They pulled up at a red light, and he cast Noah a sideways glance. He was frowning, then he gave a shrug. “We find the image, then we find the tomb, and no doubt we’ll find our spider. He or she is coming for that talisman.”
“You really think they’ll come in person?” Zach wasn’t convinced. They’d been so secretive up to now.
“Yes. It’s too important. Too symbolic. They won’t be able to resist.”
“What if they already have the image?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
�
�Yes, it does,” Zach said. “We might never find them. You don’t know this place. It’s wild and vast, and people have been hunting for this tomb for years and never found it. If they have the location, they’ll be in and gone with the Talisman while we’re still stumbling around looking for them.”
“Well, we’d better find the location then, or we’re all fucked.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Noah rested his head back and tried to make sense of it all.
When Zach had explained the Descendants and the Darkhats, Noah’s initial reaction was that Star must have been working with the Descendants. That she’d latched onto him in the hope that he would lead them to wherever Eve had stashed the image.
Except Star had taken the image over two days ago now, and he had just received the text about Harper. Why would they be asking him to find the tomb if they already had the location?
Maybe whoever she was, she was working alone and had her own agenda.
Or was she with the Darkhats?
If so, there was one thing he didn’t understand: he was still alive. These were ruthless people. While he was pretty sure the Descendants had killed Eve, the Darkhats had tried first. So why had Star left him in the land of the living? He’d been drugged. It would have been so easy to finish him off. Why hadn’t she? Maybe she found it hard to sleep with a man and kill him the next day.
And then there was Harper.
Noah had decided back at the hotel that he wasn’t going to tell Zach about her. Not yet, anyway. He didn’t know the man well enough to trust him with his daughter’s life, and it was likely that he would not see Harper’s safety as a priority here. Zach had already admitted that he was directly responsible for Eve’s death. He’d used her when it must have been blatantly obvious that she was far from ready to be thrown into the middle of something like this.
But she had been Zach’s only lead, and so he’d sent her out here—or at the least strongly encouraged her to come. And she’d died. He clearly felt guilty about that, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do something similar again. The man was driven. He would no doubt consider Harper to be collateral damage. Much like he’d seen Eve.
“You trust this Tarkhan?” he asked.
“As much as I trust anyone. And I told you—I saved his life. He owes me. Mongolians like to pay their debts; I’ve learned that much.”
The truth was they needed back up. This organization—the Descendants—clearly had immense resources. They couldn’t go up against them alone. And right now, he would take any help he could get. He just wouldn’t trust the bastards.
“Okay, so we go to the meeting and see what they have to say. But you don’t tell them I found the image. If they’re as paranoid as you think, I won’t last long once they know that.”
“Okay.”
“Tell me what you know about Tarkhan.” He needed to understand who and what he was dealing with. He also needed something to take his mind off other things.
They’d chopped off her goddamned finger. She was eleven years old. What sort of monster could do such a thing? And they wanted to take over the world. What sort of world would they have with people like that in charge? He couldn’t let his mind wander to what Harper must be going through. The best-case scenario was that they were keeping her drugged.
He wanted to kill someone so badly in that moment that his whole body tensed.
“Hey, are you okay?” Zach asked.
“I’m fine,” he lied. He was as far from fine as he’d ever been. He had an eighteen-hour drive to try and come up with a plan. Though until he met these people, he wasn’t sure what his next move would be. “Tarkhan?” he prompted.
“He’s a historian who has spent most of his life studying Genghis Khan,” Zach said. “Mainly working on analysis of various translations of something known as The Secret History of the Mongols. A sort of memoir of Khan. His parents were also historians. They taught at the university in Ulaanbaatar. But any study of Genghis Khan was frowned upon under the Soviet regime—they didn’t want him to become a rallying point for the Mongolian people—so his parents were sent to a labor camp when Tarkhan was still a child. He grew up mainly with his grandparents. His father died in the camps. Tarkhan defied the regime, continued his studies in secret, or as it turned out, not so secret, as he also ended up in a labor camp. He spent twenty years there. Was released when the Soviet regime collapsed. He’s one of the most respected scholars in the country. And he’s been working with Eve for around six years.”
From when she returned to the U.K. after their separation. She’d gotten a position in Cambridge almost straight away through a recommendation from her old professor.
“Though they’d never met before Eve’s trip to Mongolia, they had talked a lot.”
“And how does he tie in with these Darkhats?”
“I’m not sure. When he first told me about them, he made out that they were little more than a legend. That no one really knew whether they existed or not. However, I’m not sure that’s the case. I think he knows they exist and has contacts within the organization, and he’s sympathetic to their beliefs. It was Tarkhan I called the night Eve died. I thought he might have been able to get someone to her quicker than I could. Obviously not.”
“Could he have turned on Eve? Maybe he didn’t want her finding the tomb any more than his Darkhat friends.”
“I don’t believe so. He was genuinely fond of her. Besides, at that point, we didn’t know she had the answer. Why kill her, then?”
“Maybe they didn’t know where she was before.”
“Are you saying I handed her to them?”
“It’s a possibility.”
Zach was quiet while he thought it through. “Perhaps,” he conceded. “But I don’t think so. I think John Chen killed Eve. She liked him. John Chen, I mean. Your ex-wife had atrocious taste in men.”
“Yeah. Did she like you?”
“I think so.” He sighed. “She was happy, you know.”
Noah frowned. “You mean when she was shot or when she was killed?”
“When I met her in England, she was like…a shadow. Scared of everything. Closed off.”
Noah had known that; he just hadn’t been able to reach her. Hell, if he had, or even if he’d tried harder, then they might have stayed together. She might be alive. “Go on.”
“When she came out here, it was like she was waking up. As if she’d been in a nightmare and she was only just escaping. She changed in front of our eyes. In the end, she faced up to her fears, and she was so fucking brave. She killed a man with a goddamn spear.”
“And now she’s dead.”
A wave of exhaustion rolled over him. He hadn’t slept too well in his prison cell. Too much on his mind, frustration, anger…fear. He wasn’t really used to fear. Usually in times of conflict, his mind went crystal clear—he actually functioned better. This was different. Fear was like a live thing crawling inside him. Clawing to get out. Clouding his mind.
He rested his head back against the cool leather of the seat and closed his eyes. He cleared his thoughts, forcing out the anger and the images and the fear, leaving his mind blank. And finally, lulled by the motion of the car, he fell into a light sleep.
He woke briefly as they crossed the border into Mongolia. No one stopped them or questioned them, and they were through the border control in minutes. He took over to give Zach a chance to rest.
They swapped back a couple hours later. Noah managed to fall asleep again but woke at the sound of Zach’s voice. He kept his eyes closed and listened.
“We’ll be there around mid-day tomorrow,” Zach said and then ended the call.
The car slowed, and Noah peered out of the window. They were pulling up in front of what he guessed was the Mongolian equivalent of a motel.
“We’re stopping?” he asked, sitting up straight and running a h
and over his eyes. The sun hadn’t yet risen. The lights from the hotel reception lit up the parking area, but all around was darkness.
“For a couple hours.”
“Why?” He didn’t want to stop. He was on a schedule here.
“We can’t take the car into the Great Taboo,” Zach said as he turned off the engine. “The roads are non-existent. Last time, we used horses.” A shudder ran through him. “Not happening again. I’ve organized an ATV. We’ll pick it up where the tarmac ends.”
“We can’t go now?”
“The ATV won’t be there until morning. I couldn’t organize it sooner. Besides, it’s not a good idea to drive off road in the dark. We’d likely crash.”
It made sense, but he didn’t like it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Noah shifted on the hard seat; his hands gripped the edges as they crashed over another bump in the non-existent road.
The ATV was an open-sided vehicle with a canopy of dark brown canvas across the roll bars to form a roof, which at least shaded them from the sun.
Zach was driving again. Noah’s shoulder was aching like a bitch. Last night when they’d gotten to their room, Zach had cleaned it up as best he could. Another of the stitches had torn, but the rest had held, and he didn’t think it needed more—just a tight bandage to hold it together. And probably him resting for a few days, which wasn’t going to happen. Zach had done the bandaging and then insisted on giving him an antibiotic shot just in case.
He’d talked to Peter. Lucy and Daniel had been moved to a safe house, and he’d spoken to Eve’s parents and told them it was just a precaution.
Noah hadn’t mentioned Zach. He was wanted by his own people, and Peter might have felt compelled to hand him over. Right now, Noah’s need was greater.
The first couple of hours had been driving on tarmac. Then the road had come to an end, and they swapped the car for an ATV. Now, they were driving along a dirt track over rolling hills. A mountain range loomed ahead of them, beneath a deep blue sky. They hadn’t seen another vehicle for over an hour. He didn’t think he had ever been anywhere so remote. They did see the occasional bird of prey hanging high overhead, and once a group of wild, feral-looking ponies galloped along beside them for a few miles. Otherwise, the place was vast and empty.