The Astronomer
Page 39
“Why would anyone have kidnapped Fraya?”
“We have no idea. I spoke to her superiors, but they are as much in the dark as we are. All we can do is carry on searching the area in the hope that something will turn up to point us in some direction.”
“What about the tribesmen? Have you questioned the tribe?”
“They’re reclusive nomads. They avoid contact with civilization. Difficult to trace. Impossible to find. But we’re trying, anyway.”
Emilio jumped from his chair. “Thank you. Can you keep me informed?”
“Of course,” the inspector said. “If any new information comes up, you’ll be the first to know.”
“My secretary will give you my private numbers. Call me, no matter what time of the day or night.”
He disconnected and flipped back to the number for the social worker. She answered on the first ring.
“Mr. Larraín–”
“You wanted to talk about details. Where’s the girl now?”
“She’s in our care. As I said, Dr. Riber has requested you be contacted to take charge of Olivia in case of an emergency. I assume you’ll make the necessary arrangements to collect Olivia?”
“Of course.”
“I need to clarify a few details for the paperwork. Since you don’t have Peruvian residency, I’m deducing that you’ll want to take her back to Zone 30 with you?”
“Yes,” he said, wiping his brow. “I’ll get there as fast as I can. I’ll fly in by private jet.”
“That won’t be possible. You won’t get clearance for our airspace, considering the animosity growing with the rebel movement. You’ll have to take a commercial flight to Cusco. That’s all I can get you clearance for.”
Emilio’s mind was working overtime. He had to get to Fraya. He didn’t trust the local authorities to do enough to find her.
“How much time will I be granted to remain in Cusco, to get affairs in order?”
“We can grant you four days, two for traveling, and two for packing up Olivia’s belongings and to finalize the paperwork.”
Four days to find Fraya. “Under the circumstances, can I apply for a special extension?”
“I’m afraid four days are the special extension. It should be enough to make the necessary arrangements for taking temporary custody of Olivia, until Dr. Riber is either found, or declared missing. In the latter case, full custody will be granted.”
There was no way in hell. Fraya had to be found. Alive. Determination melted the coldness that gripped his insides. His heart was pounding, blood rushing to his ears now. There was no time to waste. Fraya had a daughter! He couldn’t bear to ask the question, and yet, he had to know.
“Who is the child’s biological father?”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Finally, the social worker’s voice came back, laced with a measure of uncertainty. “Mr. Larraín, Dr. Riber is your mate.”
“We haven’t been living together for two years,” he said, feeling the cut of the words anew to his bones.
“I ... see.” Another pause. “Mr. Larraín, Olivia is sixteen months old,” she said softly.
Sixteen months? It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be because it would mean that Fraya left him when she was ... pregnant. He stood frozen. It was too much to digest.
“Mr. Larraín,” the voice said sympathetically, “Olivia is your daughter.”
* * * *
A part of him felt like exploding with the knowledge that he had a child with Fraya. Another part of him was devastated that she had kept it from him. How much did Fraya really hate him to have kept his own daughter away, to run away without any intention of ever telling him they had a baby together? And all this time he believed the need had vanished because of Marguerite’s cure. It made sense, now. There wasn’t time to be happy or angry.
His next call was to Saunders.
“Emilio, I’m so sorry,” Saunders said. “I don’t know what to say.”
“I’ve just learned the news,” he said tightly. “The Peruvian police seem clueless. Tell me everything you know.”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much more, Emilio. I’ve spoken to our Peruvian office. All they know is that she went out yesterday morning to do a site inspection and was taken by tribesmen in the afternoon. Stix Shaw and Tanson Scarrabo were with her. They saw it happen. Tracy and I are on our way to Santiago now. There will be an inquiry committee run from head office. We’ll do everything in our power... If it’s a hostage situation for ransom, we’ll pay the points. The company is insured for that.”
“Is that what you think?”
“No,” Saunders said uncertainly. “I don’t know what the hell to think.”
“I’m on my way to the zone station now. At what time are you scheduled to land?”
“In four hours.”
“Not good enough,” Emilio bit out. “I’ll send my private jet for you. You’ll be here in two. Can you meet me at the station? I need to get every bit of information that can help Fraya.”
“Of course,” Saunders said. “Emilio ... I’m sorry.”
Emilio disconnected. Nobody could be as sorry as he was.
* * * *
Saunders walked into the private zone station lounge where Emilio waited, Tracy short on his heel. Emilio got up when they entered and shook hands with them both before showing them to the sofas. A waitress served refreshments and left discreetly again. Emilio hardly waited for her to be gone before his interrogation started.
“What did Fraya work on, Ben?”
“What had been agreed to,” he said, scratching his head, “searching for the lost Peruvian site.”
“Did she succeed?”
“Yes. She made an unbelievable discovery, realizing that the ancient tribes didn’t use the stars to map their constellations. They used the black holes between the stars. She believed she had found the location and she declared it to Welser. He approved a search party, but they were unsuccessful and Fraya was sent to survey the area for any clues.”
“Who led the initial exploration?”
“Hart Andrews and his team.”
“Who approved it?”
“As I said, Welser signed off the search party.”
Emilio pulled his hands through his hair. “Do you have Fraya’s site location?”
Tracy leaned forward, handing Emilio an ePad key. “This is where she estimated the lost city to be.”
Emilio took the stick, inserted it into his wrist pad and studied the screen. “She put her life in danger for this goddamn job,” he said in exasperation.
“Fraya wasn’t supposed to do field work,” Tracy said. “She declined when she found out she was pregnant. This is highly irregular.”
Emilio’s head snapped to her. “Who requested it?”
“Andrews,” Saunders said.
“And who approved it?”
“Welser,” Saunders said, looking puzzled now.
“Ben,” Emilio rested his elbows on his knees, “do you have any reason to believe that Andrews or Welser could be involved in any of this?”
“No,” he said, frowning. “Why would they? It doesn’t make sense.”
Emilio covered his face with his hands. He was quiet for some time, digesting the facts. He couldn’t come up with a single plan. There were no clues.
Finally, he narrowed his eyes on Saunders again. “Did you know she was pregnant when she took that job?”
Saunders chewed his bottom lip, then nodded slowly. “I knew.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
Saunders shook his head. “It wasn’t my place to interfere, Emilio.”
Tracy laid her hand on Saunders’s arm. “Ben, why don’t you go and get us all another drink?”
Saunders nodded absently. He got up and walked to the far side of the room, busying himself with the vitamin-water decanter.
“Emilio,” Tracy said gently, “I’m sorry about Fraya. She’s a good friend.”
Emilio pushed his fingertips together and lowered his head.
“Fraya must have really hated me,” he said bitterly, “not to have told me, to take off like that, denying me my daughter, and to be a part of her birth.” He felt emotions trapping the words in this throat. He swallowed tightly. Finally, he only said, “How I would have loved to see her belly growing, to see the changes in her. Now I understand why the physical need of our mating had vanished when Fraya had ... left me. And all this time I never suspected. All this time I believed it was Dr. Lavigne who had found us a cure, that is was the serum.”
“Emilio?” Tracy’s gentle voice pulled his eyes back to her. “What happened between you and Fraya that day that she took the job in Peru?”
“What do you mean? She had made up her mind about it before. She came to tell me in person she was going to accept the offer. She never told me she was pregnant.”
“When she left the office, she said she was going home to tell you that you were going to have a baby. She was so happy. She had declined the job, handed in her resignation.”
Emilio frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Something must have happened when she got home. She came back from Santiago the same afternoon and asked Ben to ignore her resignation, telling him she would take the job after all. She made us swear not to tell you about the pregnancy. I could never figure out what had gone wrong, but I promised to respect her decision.”
Emilio went back to that day in his mind, a day he couldn’t forget, the day he remembered like yesterday. And suddenly it all became clear to him. He felt the air being knocked from his lungs, as if he had received a physical blow.
“Oh my God,” he said, grimacing in agony. “She came home to ... Antonio.”
“Who’s Antonio?”
Emilio spoke more to himself than to Tracy when he said, “She came home to discover I had an illegitimate son with an ex-lover. Suzanne had agreed to let me see Antonio, but only if Fraya was out of the picture. I explained the situation to Fraya, wanting her to understand the importance of her telling me what she wanted for our future. I was willing to let Antonio go, even if it would break my heart, if Fraya would give me as much as a tenth of the love I felt for her.”
Emilio got up and started pacing the room. “She knew she was pregnant, but she didn’t tell me because ... because she didn’t want me to give up Antonio.” He stared at Tracy, perplexed. “She made the biggest sacrifice a person could make in an act of selflessness.”
Tracy looked sad, suddenly. “She really loved you, Emilio.”
“She loves me, do you hear me?” He shocked himself with the force of his words. “She loves me,” he repeated softly.
Chapter Forty-One
Fraya suppressed the panic that threatened to overtake her as the tribal men, their faces hidden by their scarves, dragged her into a tent. Her feet and hands had been tied up in the car and a bag pulled over her head, which they had removed once they entered the campsite, but they had left the ropes intact. She tried to fight the two men on either side of her, but soon realized that it was futile. It would be wiser to save her energy. A man stood waiting inside the tent, his back turned to her. As her eyes moved over the crop of blond hair, she stilled. She froze in shock and confusion. Slowly, he turned and greeted her with a lopsided grin.
“Hello, Fraya,” he said softly.
“Andrews!”
The men pushed her forward and forced her down until she sat on the dirt against the side of the tent, her arms pulling painfully up her back in their constraints. Her abductors unwound their scarves, and she flinched when she recognized their faces. Panagakos had a look of pure malice, while Smit had the decency to seem apologetic.
Andrews took a step toward her, a smirk now curving his lips. “Aren’t you going to ask what’s going on?”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me anyway,” she bit out, trying to sound brave.
“No,” Andrews said, closing the space between them, looking down at her. “I have no intention of telling you.”
She winced at the coldness of his tone. “You won’t get away with this. They’ll find me.”
“I’m bargaining on that. Very much. They will find you. When we want them to.”
Panagakos laughed. “They’ll find your body.”
Andrews gave Panagakos a look that shut him up. “Tie her neck to the tent pole. We’re moving at sunrise.”
Fraya watched as Andrews and Smit left the tent. Panagakos took a rope and wound it so tightly around her neck she nearly choked.
“Don’t try to move,” he said with evil satisfaction, “unless you want to strangle yourself.”
He left her after that. Fraya felt weak with fear. There were men moving about the site, but she couldn’t even turn her head to see how many of them there were through the slight opening of the tent flap. All she could do was hear the activity, scurrying sounds of metal clanging and preparations for whatever plans awaited.
Smit came back later to loosen the knots of the ropes around her wrists, feet and neck, and he threw a blanket over her. The cuts in her ear ached when he drenched it with disinfectant before sealing them with mousse glue. He had brought food, hydrated meat pellets, which he tried to spoon-feed her, but she shook her head.
“We’re going to walk a long way tomorrow,” he said. “Try to keep up your strength.”
Still she shook her head. She was too nauseous to eat, but she drank the water he held to her mouth. Watching him closely Fraya wondered if she could evoke sympathy with him. She had to try, at least.
As he wiped away the water that had run down her chin, she searched his face. “How long have we been working together, Greg?”
He looked away from her, refusing to meet her gaze.
“I have a daughter, Greg. Let me go and I’ll make sure they don’t put you behind bars. Andrews will not get away with this.”
Smit turned his face back to her. With sagging hope she saw that his eyes had turned hard.
“He will,” he snapped, before pulling the blanket up to her waist. “Try to sleep. You’re going to need it.” Then he marched from the tent.
No one else came back to see her during the night. Fraya didn’t close an eye. All she could think about was Olivia, and Emilio. Now Emilio would never know she loved him. She never told him, and if she was going to die, that knowledge would go with her to her grave. A sob escaped her throat when she thought about her baby girl. What was to become of her?
At daybreak Andrews threw open the flap. He didn’t enter, but told the two men who did, “Untie her and bring her outside.”
Fraya rubbed at her hands and neck. The men, dressed in traditional tribe wear, pushed her into the clearing where another five men waited, including Andrews, Smit and Panagakos. One of the men pulled out a knife and made sure she had seen it before he shoved her forward, the knife at her back.
“Keep her between you,” Andrews said to the two men. He took Fraya’s chin in his hand and turned her face roughly to meet his. “Don’t attempt anything stupid, unless you want your baby to die.”
Coldness enveloped her heart.
Andrews looked up at the nine thousand eight hundred foot high mountain that formed the back of their campsite. “We’re climbing all the way up there.”
Fraya stared at him in shock.
He smiled grimly. “There’s an old Inca footpath leading to the top. If you try anything, you’ll probably fall to your death before my man gets a chance to knife you down.”
A realization dawned on Fraya as she looked around. “You’ve found the site, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” Andrews swung a backpack onto his back. “Your coordinates were spot-on.”
“I don’t understand...” she started, but then she did. Andrews had found the site, and lied to her about it to get her here. The question was why.
“Let’s move,” Andrews said, taking the lead.
The man with the knife pushed her forward, almost causing her to trip. Fraya looked up at the mountain, its top hidden in clouds. Her heart went cold.
The tribesmen leading Andrews and his team up the mountain clearly knew the secret path. It was well hidden and almost impossible to spot. In two places they had to cross a few stepping stones protruding from the wall of the vertical cliff, which had Fraya’s heart in her throat. She tried not to look down as she maneuvered the stones, a rope connecting her to the man in front of her. At another point they had to use a hang bridge that didn’t seem secure. At first, when Fraya saw the gap in the path, she didn’t notice the ropes that were braided together to form the bridge. It had been loosened on the other end of their path, hanging down the abyss, cleverly hidden under the overgrowth of bushes. The distance between the point where the path broke off and where it continued again a few feet ahead was too big to attempt a jump. The cliff was as smooth as marble. Fraya had thought that they had come to a dead end until one of the tribesmen went ahead, navigated the steep drop with amazing ease, and bridged the gap with nothing more than his bare hands and feet. He pulled the rope up and threw it to Fraya’s side where one of the men tied it around two pieces of rock, enabling them to cross, one by one.
The altitude was making the climb all the more harder. Fraya battled to take air into her lungs. At the bottom of the cliff, the tribesmen had handed out coca leaves for them to chew, but even so, she felt the physical effects taking its toll. All the while her mind raced, trying to analyze Andrews’s reasons for her capture, and to work out his plan.
It was dusk when they finally reached the top. Fraya felt herself pulled up over the edge of the cliff by her hands before the tribesmen hurried on, helping the rest of Andrews’s group over the sharp rocks. Fraya fell onto her back, her eyes closed in exhaustion. There was no possibility of escape, no way she could ever make her way down that scary path, unless she wanted to commit suicide, and the men knew it, because when she opened her eyes again the guard who had held the knife at her back lay a distance away from her, catching his breath, not needing to watch her so closely now.