by Lee Burvine
Morgan gave him a smile that seemed forced. "Just tired." An odd look came over her. "Could you take these for me, please?" She held out the diary along with the science journal and loose papers.
Rees grabbed it all and dropped it into the gym bag he took from the motel room, keeping a worried eye on Morgan while he did.
Morgan looked as if she were about to say something. She brought a hand up, then stretched out both arms ... and began to sway.
Danni quickly stepped in. "Kerry, are you all right?"
Morgan grabbed Danni's shoulder to steady herself. "My head is..."
Rees rushed to Morgan's other side. He couldn't see well in the low light, but her face looked extremely pale. "Let's get her somewhere she can sit down."
Rees and Danni helped Morgan into the Ferry Building. Louis and Kazemi followed close behind. They sat her down on the nearest open bench. She slumped forward, head in hands.
Rees noticed they were drawing some looks from ferry passengers who walked past. Not much could be done about that right now.
He crouched down in front of Morgan and gently lifted her chin. "Look up at me, Kerry."
She did. Rees could see her face clearly now under the Ferry Building's halogen lights. And that raised a frightening question.
It's bright in here. Why the hell are her pupils still dilated?
And then, looking back and forth again, he saw it was worse.
Only onepupil was dilated.
CHAPTER 58
SOMEONE HAD SECRETLY jammed an air hose into the base of Morgan's skull and was inflating it to a thousand pounds per square inch. Nothing less could explain the insane pressure and pain inside her head.
Rees got up out of the way as a very worried-looking Danni crouched down in front of her to take his place.
Danni took her hand. "Kerry, you don't look so hot."
"Well, it's been a long day and I haven't touched up my makeup."
Danni didn't even grin. "I'm glad you can still joke, but this is serious."
Morgan looked up at Rees, Louis, and the history professor, Kazemi. They were all staring down at her on the bench. By their expressions, you'd think they were keeping vigil beside her death bed.
I must look as bad as I feel.
"Kerry, you've got one pupil dilated." Rees didn't bother explaining. He seemed to assume she'd understand. She did. They were talking brain injury here.
"Yeah," she said. "My vision is going in and out." Even as she said it, Rees's face started to blur.
"When did the headache come back?" a fuzzy Rees asked her.
Morgan tried to remember. It was getting harder to think. "Not long after the car crash. The second impact must've compounded the injury, when I got slammed at Livermore."
"That's what I was thinking." Rees and the surroundings were coming back into focus again.
The concern on Danni's face had been replaced by a deceptive calm. Morgan knew that look. Danni had just made a decision that all the forces of heaven and hell couldn't change. Morgan could only hope it was a good one.
"We're getting you to a hospital now," Danni said.
Morgan looked up past Danni. "Louis, please call 911 for me."
Danni's jaw actually dropped.
"Hey," Morgan said to her, "I'm not thrilled about it. But if I've got a bleed or a blood clot in my brain, there aren't a lot of options here. Plus I think you all can make it to the finish line without me at this point."
Rees grasped Kazemi's shoulder. "Actually, Professor Kazemi and I can finish this without any of you. And we probably should. The man we're meeting by the bridge isn't expecting a crowd. We could spook him." He looked down at Morgan. "As soon as we have the artifacts, I'm calling the press. That should make things a little safer for you, Kerry. At least for the short term."
"Right," Morgan said. "I almost forgot, I'm going to be arrested now. And you guys too, pretty soon." She looked up at Louis. "You don't need to be here. They might not connect you to all this."
Louis glanced up and took a deep breath. When he looked down again he was nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. I'm in this for the whole ride."
Danni smiled at him as he pulled his phone to make the 911 call.
Moments later it was all done. The ambulance would arrive in minutes.
Morgan tried to give her gun to Rees. But, to her great surprise, he already had one with him. Long story, he told her.
There wasn't even time for appropriate goodbyes, just quick assurances that they'd all see each other again soon. They hoped.
Rees and Kazemi raced off to get a taxi. Morgan's eye caught on one of the other passengers leaving the Ferry Building. She wasn't sure why, though. Just something about him.
"How are you feeling now, Kerry?" Danni squeezed Morgan's hand.
"Kind of stupid, really."
"You're having trouble thinking?"
"Yeah, but that's not what I mean. I mean stupid for what I did to you. And us. Back then."
Morgan looked up at Louis, standing behind Danni and listening to their conversation. It wasn't until Danni also turned back and stared at him that he got the hint and stepped away.
Danni turned back to Morgan. "It wasn't stupid, Kerry. I just got a little ahead of ... well, of us I guess."
"You're right, it wasn't stupid. That's just a copout. It was something much worse than that." Morgan tried to think of how to say it. That she'd really just been afraid. Afraid to be a part of something she couldn't completely control or protect.
A couple. Or even a family.
She wanted to explain to Danni, to this incredible woman in front of her, how absolutely idiotic that seemed now.
But her vision started fading again. Not blurry like before. Going dark now. She looked up at the halogen lights. It was as if someone was dimming them slowly. She looked straight out ahead again at the indistinct shapes of people walking past.
And then everything turned to shadows. Just shadows.
With nothing visual out there to distract her, she noticed that a part of her mind was still working on identifying that man. The one she'd seen leaving the Ferry Building just after Rees and Kazemi.
His face was familiar. That's why she noticed him. But familiar from where?
And then she had it.
The teacher from the university. The one who said he knew emergency medicine. That was him.
"Kerry? What's happening?" Danni's voice, coming from directly in front of her.
Morgan spoke to the shadow that was all she could make out of Danni now. "I can't see anything. It's just dark shapes."
"It's okay. The ambulance is on the way."
The fear Danni was trying to hide was leaking into her voice. Morgan was afraid too. Terrified, really. But she stuffed all that. She had to focus on that teacher. She tried to think back in time, through the pain and fog in her head.
Out there on the lawn at the university, with the two downed officers, what had happened? She replayed it ... until a moment stuck out.
He put a hand on my shoulder. Morgan tried to reach back there with her fingers. She couldn't quite get to the spot he'd touched. "Danni, look on my coat. Back of my left shoulder."
A moment later Morgan felt a hand plucking something off the fabric back there.
Then Louis's voice, somewhere up behind Danni. "What is that thing?"
"Does it look electronic?" Morgan asked.
Danni's voice said, "Yeah. Yeah, it does."
Morgan held her palm up. "Set it in my hand." She felt Danni's fingers graze her palm. Then she closed her fist. Worked the thing down to her fingertips and rolled it between them. "It's a bug."
"No, no, no. What the hell? I mean, c'mon, what the hell? Who stuck that on you?" And that would be Louis, not keeping it together.
"Someone back at the college," Morgan answered. "He said he was a teacher. I just saw him again here in the Ferry Building."
Danni's voi
ce said, "So they've been listening to us this whole time?"
To Morgan the device felt too large for just audio surveillance. Those were really tiny these days. "I'm not sure. But I think it may be a tracking bug. I think he used me to find Rees and Kazemi. And now he's going after them. He's following them to the man who has the artifacts."
"We have to call Rees right now." Danni's voice had gone high and shrill. "We have to warn him."
"I'm on it." Louis said.
"No, you're not."
The voice had come from somewhere behind Morgan. Male. Slight southern accent. Morgan recognized it instantly.
"Any of you move, or yell ... I'll kill all of you right here. Don't care who sees it either. Understand?"
The blond man. He was here.
CHAPTER 59
THE TAXI STOPPED in the parking lot below the Golden Gate Bridge's southern observation area. Rees was fairly confident he and Kazemi hadn't been followed here to the rendezvous spot.
That didn't mean the man they were meeting up with hadn't been either.
Just before he exited the cab, Rees slipped his hand into the gym bag slung over his shoulder, and gripped the gun in there. They were close to pulling this whole thing off now and he wasn't about to let up his guard and blow it in the final stretch.
Together Rees and Kazemi crossed the parking lot as a steady drizzle drifted down through the lights onto empty parking spaces. The foul weather had chased all but a few determined sight-seers away. Anyone coming for them wouldn't have the luxury of hiding in a crowd, at least.
Downhill to the east of them, Fort Point guarded the entrance to San Francisco Bay. Off to the north, the Golden Gate Bridge arced across to the Marin headlands, its curving road deck illuminated by a string of amber streetlamps. Rain and mist erased the top halves of both towers.
They arrived at the Bridge Café, the arranged rendezvous point, as Kazemi's watch read six o'clock straight up. Right on time.
No one was waiting for them.
The place was closed. Unfortunate, because Rees really could've used a large, hot coffee about then. He was wet and very cold. Once again.
After a brief discussion Rees moved far enough off so that Osborn, when he arrived, wouldn't spot an unknown man standing with Kazemi and shy away.
And then they both waited.
A handful of people passed back and forth over the next half hour, heading to the stairs for the observation area or coming back down to the parking lot. None of them gave Kazemi a second look.
Though he wasn't squeezing the gun grip hard, Rees's hand was starting to ache. And it was beginning to look like their man wasn't going to show.
First no data cache, and now no artifacts. It was all falling apart right there in front of him.
To occupy his mind with less gloomy thoughts, Rees counted car headlights on the bridge and wondered what ordinary, run-of-the-mill business their drivers were engaged in. Whatever it was, he would happily trade places with any one of them right now.
He turned back to check on Kazemi again.
The door to the Bridge Café was open.
A man stood there in the darkened space, looking out. He said something to Kazemi, who turned around and waved Rees over.
Osborn. It had to be him. He was already here.
* * *
INSIDE THE CAFÉ, Osborn apologized profusely. He explained that he'd arrived about an hour early. He'd sat down to wait, and then the jet lag promptly dragged him right off to sleep.
He led Rees and Kazemi to a table by the service bar. Rees noticed Osborn had a pronounced limp. He thought the man might have been injured, until he saw the one platform shoe.
"So tell us, how did you arrange all ... this?" Kazemi gestured around the empty café.
Osborn sat down in a chair next to a white, plastic shopping bag, the heavy-duty, reusable kind. "Oh, well, Amsel sent me off with quite a roll of bills. You wouldn't believe the things strangers will do for you when the price is right. The owner of this fine establishment was very happy to rent it out for the night. Ten thousand dollars cash, and he suddenly lost all curiosity in what I wanted it for. The place is insured, I suppose."
Rees glanced around. A couple of neon beer brand signs provided the only dim lighting. He took a seat at the table across from Osborn, and Kazemi sat down next to him.
Osborn offered Rees a weary smile. "I'm sorry to be meeting you under these tense circumstances, Dr. Rees. So Edward Fischer recruited you too, did he?"
"I didn't really know what for at the time," Rees said.
Osborn laughed at that. "I can only imagine your surprise then when you learned."
Rees nodded more or less automatically. He was trying to listen, but he couldn't take his eyes off that plastic shopping bag on the floor beside Osborn's chair. "Is that it? The artifacts?"
Osborn glanced down at the bag. "Yes, not a very appropriate means of conveyance. Lost my valise in Golden Gate Park today."
Just seeing the bag and knowing its contents sent a thrill up Rees's spine.
When their authenticity was validated, and he believed it would be, the Jesus relics alone would become the most valuable material objects on earth. Not just historically, either. In all likelihood monetarily as well. Every shard of bone in there would make a Fabergé egg look like a Happy Meal prize. Throw in the lectionary codex, and the contents of that plastic shopping bag down there could be worth literally billions to the right collectors.
"I have an important question to ask you now," Kazemi fixed Osborn with a stern gaze.
Osborn swallowed and nodded. "Yes."
"Restrooms are which way?" Kazemi smiled. "I was going to head off to the bushes if we had to wait for you very much longer."
"I'm so sorry about that." Osborn said.
He directed Kazemi to the left of the service counter. Kazemi got up and carefully edged his way around the table in the low light, then walked off past the bar and around a corner.
As they waited for him to return, Rees quickly recapped the events of the last two days for Osborn. He concluded by showing him Fischer's food diary.
Osborn flipped through the pages with a bemused look on his face. "Well, that's just plain bizarre." He closed the diary and handed it back to Rees. "Do you think he lost his mind?"
Rees returned the diary to the gym bag and set that on the floor. He paused to seriously consider Osborn's question. "I don't know. I'm hoping maybe there's a code or a clue in there. Something that points to where the data cache really is."
"Without the complete time-recordings, we can't validate the historical artifacts. And vice versa. I take it you understand how all this works?"
"Basically, yes. Though as far as the artifacts go, I only know about the lectionary codex and the, uh, bone fragments. I was told you looked even further back."
"Yes. Fischer's aim was to search back as far as the birth of the Abrahamic religions, to Judaism. And that's what we did."
Rees was still sopping wet from standing out there in the drizzle for more than a half hour, but he didn't even feel the cold now. His excitement and curiosity had completely possessed him. "This may not be the time for it, but ... I'm very interested to know what you found out. Actually, strike that. I'm dying to know what you found out."
Despite his obvious exhaustion, a shared passion warmed Osborn's expression. "I should think you would be. It's really too much to go into briefly. But I will tell you we answered a long-standing question. Why no one had ever found any evidence of a large scale conquest of Canaan by the Israelites returning from Egypt after the Exodus."
"Because it was a peaceful infiltration?"
"Well, in a sense, I suppose." Osborn smiled. "You see, they never left."
"What?"
"The Israelites didn't conquer the Canaanites, Dr Rees. They were Canaanites. Just one particular tribe of Canaanites. Their patron god, Yahweh, was one of the seventy sons of El, the Canaani
te father god. Only much later did Yahweh graduate from being a member of the Divine Council to being identified with El himself."
"That part sounds a lot like Theodore Mullen's theory."
"Yes, essentially. Except it's something more than a theory now. Mullen was only working from some Qumran Deuteronomy fragments and the Ugaritic texts. We have a lot more than that. We can establish as fact that the first Israelites were Canaanites, just as the first Christians were Jews, and the first Muslims were Christians. The pattern repeats itself down through history. A subgroup making itself into something else by means of a new religion."
"Something politically autonomous," Rees added. "Subject to new rulers."
Osborn nodded. "Yes. And arguably that was the whole point."
"And the Exodus? That was a total invention?"
"No, not entirely. The Exodus story was borrowed and reworked from the history of a people the Egyptians called the Hyksos. Far from being slaves in Egypt, though, the Hyksos were Semitic rulers of the Nile Delta. Until they were expelled under Ahmose the 1st, that is."
"But the ramifications here ... if there was no Exodus, I mean provably no Exodus-then there was no Moses either," Rees said, trying to appreciate that this was now verifiable fact. "That's, that's just huge. More than huge. There isn't a word that big."
Osborn was nodding his head. "Yes. No Moses. And so of course no Ten Commandments. Not in the sense that God sent them down from a mountaintop. So there you have it. The whole historical foundation for Christianity and Islam crumbles."
Rees felt the enormity of it as a strange kind of numbness all over. It was hard to appreciate how significant this really was. How much it might change.
"And that's why," Osborn continued, "I'm not entirely sure we should make all of this public."
That caught Rees completely off guard. A moment passed before he asked, "Why not?"
Osborn rubbed his eyes. He looked bone tired now. "I'm a scientist like yourself, Dr. Rees. I couldn't say no to the chance to explore all this history. But I've had to ask myself too, do I want to destroy the faith that brings meaning and comfort to billions of people?"