The Golden Elephant

by Alex Archer

  Well, Easy’s rich, isn’t she? Annja thought.

  It all came back to the Golden Elephant. Was it possible they were after the same thing? When Annja had barely learned of the thing’s existence—had yet to verify it really did exist?

  “Put it this way,” she said out loud, attracting curious glances from a set of Japanese tourists. “Is it possible we’re not?”

  She didn’t see how. What else could explain all the coincidences, not to mention the sudden attacks?

  Wait, a dissenting part of her mind insisted. There’re plenty of reasons for Easy to be here. She was a jetsetter, a noted cosmopolitan, although the paparazzi were known to give her wary distance—possibly because of those twin Sphinxes. She had gone to school at Oxford and the Sorbonne, as well as Harvard.

  “Right,” Annja said. “So she just happens to visit two of her almas mater just as I happen to be in the same towns and a bunch of people end up dead. Sorry.” The last was addressed to a young couple with a pair of small kids clinging to their legs, staring at her in mingled horror and fascination.

  “I’m a thriller writer,” she said, waving a hand at them. “Plotting out loud. Don’t mind me.” She showed them a smile that probably looked as ghastly to them as it felt to her and walked on up the street, trying to figure out what a distracted novelist would walk like.

  Now you’re scaring the tourists, she told herself in annoyance. If anything’s going to bring down the heat on you it’s that.

  She sighed. I’m really trying not to leap to conclusions based on prejudice here, she thought. Prejudice as to her rival’s primary occupation—Ngwenya’s nationality and skin color meant nothing to Annja.

  But I keep coming back to the strong suspicion Easy Ngwenya’s a conscienceless little multiple murderess.

  IN HER HOTEL ROOM, a modest three-star establishment not far from the Tuileries with only moderately ruinous rates, Annja sat back and ran her hands across her face and back through her heavy chestnut hair, which hung over the shoulders of her black Chasing History’s Monsters crew T-shirt. Her notebook computer lay open before her crossed legs, propped on a pillow so the cooling-fan exhaust wouldn’t scorch her bare thighs.

  She had been doing research not on the Golden Elephant—a quick check of her e-mail accounts showed no helpful responses to a number of guarded queries she’d fired off to contacts across the world—but on the Elephant Calf. Princess Easy herself.

  She was a concert pianist, world-class gymnast, martial artist, model, scholar. Pot hunter. There was a quote from an interview with the German magazine Spiegel that jumped out at Annja: “To be sure I’m rich and multitalented. But that has nothing to do with me. Those are circumstances. I prefer to focus on my achievements.”

  She rocked back on the bed, frowning. She badly wanted to toss that off as spoiled-little-rich-girl arrogance. Arrogant it was. But at base it made sense.

  And Elephant Calf Ngwenya had achievements.

  She had even been a celebrity as a little girl. National Geographic had done a spread on the official celebration of the birth of a royal first child of one of Africa’s most powerful tribes, and again on the party her father had thrown for her fifth birthday. At the latter Easy foreshadowed things to come, wowing the crowd playing Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” on a concert grand piano, then ruining her pink party dress and shoes in a fistfight with the eight-year-old son of the ambassador from Mali. She won.

  Her father was technically the chief of a tribe of South Africa’s Zulu nation and an outspoken critic of the ANC-dominated government. He accused them of repression and corruption, of leading the populous, resource-rich country down the same nightmare path to ruin as neighboring Zimbabwe. Repeated attempts had been made on his life. In one the then-fifteen-year-old Princess Elephant Calf had killed two would-be assassins with two shots from a colossal colonial-era double-barreled elephant gun. What got widely overlooked in the subsequent furor in the world media was the fact that the recoil from the first shot of the monstrous gun had broken Easy’s shooting hand. Yet she had coolly lined up a second shot and blown a hole through the midriff of an adult male wielding a Kalashnikov.

  Annja had to nod her head to that. Spoiled little rich girl she might be. But she was the real deal.

  Less than a year later Elephant Calf left home for good, propelled halfway around the world by some kind of parental explosion. She had gone on to earn multiple degrees from some of the world’s toughest and most esteemed institutions.

  She’d carved out a reputation as an adventuress. She was outspoken in defending what academic archaeologists dismissed as pot hunting.

  “The majority of artifacts recovered go straightaway into the basements of universities and government-run museums,” she had told an interviewer for a rival cable network of Annja’s employer. “Where they lie gathering dust. If they’re not mislabeled or lost due to incompetence. Or thrown out as a result of budget cuts. Or stolen by government officials. All of which happens far more than the academic world lets on.”

  Annja shook her head. What Easy said was true enough, Annja knew. But it was only part of the story. She failed to mention sites plundered by profit-driven pot hunters, priceless context destroyed and lost forever; provenance muddied and, of course, indigenous peoples robbed of the priceless heritage of their ancestors.

  She’s one of the bad guys, she told herself determinedly. All her clever rationalizations don’t change that. Even if she believes them.

  And I’m getting pretty convinced she’s behind all these killings—even if they did blow up in her pretty little face.

  9

  Annja ran her eyes back up the page of the Italian antiquities journal she was reading. It dated from the spring of 1936, during the heart of Italy’s bungled incursion into Ethiopia. Since it was an official academic publication from Axis days, it promoted Germanophilia. Scholarly content had apparently been encouraged to bring in German contributions even when peripheral. Annja’s eye had skated disinterestedly over an article on discoveries by the French in the Cambodian sector of their Indochinese empire in which the author felt compelled to mention the infrequent German efforts in the region.

  Suddenly her awareness snapped to the phrase, “German Southeast Asian expedition of 1913-14.”

  Her gaze whipped back up the column of the time-yellowed page. She was surprised the old journal hadn’t been transcribed to digitized form and the original stored away; perhaps the French library system was showing residual pique at the fascists. And there it was—the phrase that had belatedly snagged in her attention, which continued, “led by Professor Rudolf von Hoiningen of the University of Berlin.”

  She pumped her fist in the air beside her. “Yes!” And smiled happily at the glares that earned her.

  “EXCUSE ME,” A VOICE said. “Aren’t you Annja Creed?”

  The voice was young, masculine, smoothly baritone without being oily and spiced with a Latin accent. Annja couldn’t place it. That was unusual.

  She looked up from her croissant. She blinked. The only thing she could think of were American beer ads, where drinking the advertised brand seemed to guarantee the drinker the company of magazine-cover models.

  If women got their own beer commercials, the man standing at her little table in the library’s cafeteria would be their reward for imbibing.

  He was tall, lean, immaculately dressed without being overdressed. His hair was dark and slicked back on his fine, aristocratic head. His cream-colored jacket was thrown casually over one shoulder. His eyes were dark and long lashed, his features fine yet thoroughly masculine.

  “I beg your pardon,” she said.

  “I’m a fan of yours. Both your yeoman service on Chasing History’s Monsters and your more serious work,” the man said.

  She managed to avoid having either to clear her throat or gulp her coffee to speak intelligibly. “Uh, really?”

  “If you’ll forgive the forwardness, please allow me to introduce myself. I
am Giancarlo Scarlatti Salas. A colleague, at least in the scientific realm. I am an archaeologist myself. I received my degree from the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, my homeland. I did my graduate work at the University of Padua.”

  “That’s in the Humid Pampa, isn’t it? Land of the Comechingón people?”

  He laughed. It was a surprisingly easy laugh. “Spoken like an archaeologist!” he said. “The average person would no doubt have said ‘land of the gauchos,’ if she even recognized the word Pampa. May I sit?”

  “Where are my manners? Sure. Yes. Please.” She started to get up, for no reason she could actually identify.

  He held up a perfectly manicured hand. “No. Please. I’m fine.” He sat.

  “You seemed a bit preoccupied when I noticed you,” he said. “I’m here doing research into recent progress being made in translating the great hoard of documents from the ancient kingdom of Tombouctou in Africa, which were recently discovered.”

  “Oh, yes. I’ve heard of that. It’s outside my area, but seems tremendously exciting,” Annja said.

  “Quite.” He leaned forward. “But, if you’ll forgive my noticing, you seem perhaps a bit excited yourself.”

  Am I that obvious? She almost blushed.

  “You must have just learned something remarkable,” he said.

  She sat a moment. What the heck, she thought. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table.

  “I’m trying to track down an early-twentieth-century German expedition into Indochina,” she said.

  “Indochina? Not the usual German stomping grounds of the day,” he said.

  “Not at all, as far as I can find. Then again I’ve had a ridiculously hard time finding any mention of it whatsoever. What’s got me worked up is that just minutes ago I was finally able to put a name to it—the von Hoiningen expedition of 1913.”

  “Congratulations,” he said with a genuine smile.

  “Thank you. I have yet to turn up anything more on the expedition. But at least now I know I’m on reasonably solid ground. For a while there I wasn’t sure the expedition really happened.”

  “I see. You must be most gratified.” He sounded enthusiastic. “Do you mind if I ask, does your interest arise from your work on the show or your own researches?”

  “Both,” she said. “I’m afraid I’d better not say anything more about it because of that. The network’s legal department is a bear about their nondisclosure agreements.”

  “Ah! Lawyers. I understand.” He sat a moment, looking distracted. His elevated foot swung slightly to and fro.

  “I work mostly in Mediterranean and South American archaeology,” he said at length. “But something about that name seems to tweak my memory. If I were to be able to provide you a further lead, would you be able to tell me what all this mystery is about?”

  “Sure! If you’re willing to wait until the show is either shot and scheduled, or the proposal gets shot down.” None of which was exactly untrue.

  “If I get a paper out of it, I’ll be happy to credit you,” she added.

  “That would be most kind. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I won’t take up any more of your valuable research time. It’s been a delight meeting you, Ms. Creed. May I offer you my card?”

  “Oh, yes.” She fumbled in the day pack she wore. “And here’s mine, too. It’s got my cell number. In case you remember anything about Rudolf von Hoiningen, you know.”

  “To be sure.”

  She extended her hand. He took it in both of his, bent over it and lightly pressed his lips to it. Then he let it go, and with a last smile turned and strode off.

  She stood looking after him, goose bumps all over, wondering if this was what it felt like to be asked to the prom, and feeling like a damned fool for feeling that way.

  THE SOUND OF HER cell phone trilled Annja awake.

  In the darkness of her hotel room she floundered a moment. The ring continued, above the muted traffic noise from the street outside and the radiator’s hiss and clank. She was crabby at being roused from sleep.

  The air was thick with the smells of traffic and hot metal. She thought about turning on the light but decided against it. She could see her cell phone glowing on the nightstand, even though her eyes wouldn’t focus.

  She groped for it and knocked it to the floor. Fortunately it bounced on the throw rug next to the bed.

  Finally she found the phone and fell back into bed, clutching her prize. I’m too stressed, she thought. Usually I snap wide-awake. It was another thing to worry about, since that facility had saved her life more times than she wanted to count.

  She managed to say “Annja” instead of “Yeah?” And was instantly glad.

  “Splendid.” The baritone voice poured from the phone like honey with its distinct accent. “It’s Giancarlo. Giancarlo Scarlatti. We met today.”

  “I remember,” she said. “Hi, Giancarlo. What’s up?”

  “I may have something for you,” he said. “I remembered where I heard about Professor Doktor von Hoiningen.”

  Annja sat up straight. “What?” she asked.

  “I believe I know somebody who can help you….”

  10

  Out of the traffic a remarkable figure materialized. An obviously female rider, with a colorful polycarbonate mushroom of a helmet and a UV-blocking face shield, she was dressed in a dark burgundy sweater, gray culottes, stockings that matched her sweater and grey athletic shoes. She sat at ease in what appeared to be a mesh lawn chair atop two wheels, pedaling serenely with feet secured by black straps. The apparition held her arms by her sides, steering by means of handles jutting to the sides below the level of the seat. The vehicle negotiated its way deftly through the traffic to the curb. The rider disengaged her shoes from the pedal straps, clambered out of the seat, hauled the unlikely-looking bicycle up onto the sidewalk and wheeled it to the rack. She locked it in place, then took a shoulder bag from the rack behind the seat.

  Unstrapping the helmet, she walked toward the door. As she pushed into the little pastry shop where Annja sat, she shook out a head full of gleaming wine-red hair. Her eyes lit on Annja. Beaming, she strode forward, helmet tucked under her arm like a medieval knight.

  “But you must be Annja Creed,” she said in charmingly accented English.

  She was tall, Annja discovered as she stood up politely, no more than an inch or two shorter than Annja herself. She had that sort of lush tautness Annja associated with French women. At close range, as Annja shook her proffered hand, finding her grip strong and cool, she could see the woman’s red hair was laced with a few silver strands.

  “And you must be Dr. Gendron,” Annja said. “I’m so pleased to meet you.”

  “Isabelle, please,” the woman said. “We are not Germans, after all.”

  Annja laughed as they both sat. “Interesting you should mention Germans and titles,” she said. “But I thought national distinctions were supposed to dissolve over time in the European Union.”

  The professor made a rude noise. “Many things are supposed to happen. I understand that in America, when children put lost teeth under their pillows the tooth fairy is supposed to bring them money. Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler—aside from being destructive monsters, what had those men in common?”

  “They all tried to unify Europe?” Annja guessed.

  “Bon! You do know history. Instead of just the pretty lies that are so often told in its place. But enough of events beyond our means to affect. I’m hungry!” She picked up a menu.

  Annja sipped her coffee as the professor fished a pair of reading glasses from inside her sweater and perched them on her fine, narrow nose.

  The waitress came. Both women ordered pastries. I can see why the professor does it, Annja thought, riding that bike everywhere. I’ll have to run around the whole city to work off the starch overload.

  Gendron crossed her legs and leaned forward when the menus had been surrendered. “So. Giani tells me you’ve a question about
some antique German expedition.”

  “How do you know him?” Annja asked.

  “Giancarlo studied under me for a time.” A slight smile flitted across her features.

  Annja felt a stab of curiosity. She also felt a strong desire not to ask. It would have been intrusive, anyway.

  “He must have enjoyed it,” Annja said. She felt like kicking herself. Instead she drove on. “I actually read one of your books as a textbook my freshman year. Dynamite and Dreams: A Survey of Pre-Twentieth-Century Archaeology. I found it fascinating. A delightful surprise, I have to tell you.”

  “I hate it when my students fall asleep on me,” Gendron said. “I’ll try not to let that make me feel old, that you read my book as a schoolgirl.”

  “In college,” Annja said. “It wasn’t that long ago.”

  “I’m just having you on, as the English say. When I was a student I always felt years older than my peers. Now all my students seem to be twelve, and yet my contemporaries all seem decades older than I. I appear to have become chronically unmoored. Alas, it doesn’t stop age slowly taking its toll. But I refuse to let that compromise my enjoyment of life.”

  “Good for you,” Annja said sincerely.

  “Now, what was it you wanted to know?”

  “Whatever you can tell me about Rudolf von Hoiningen and his expedition to Indochina.”

  “He came of East Prussian nobility reduced to genteel poverty by Bismarck’s German unification. By what exact means I do not know. He appears to have burned up what remained of his inheritance to finance his 1913 expedition.”

  Gendron sipped her coffee. “Rudolf was a gay, apolitical, physical-culture buff obsessed with the mystic knowledge of the ancient Buddhists and Taoists. None of those things was particularly unusual among well-born Prussians of the day, although not so frequently in that exact combination. He was also a premier archaeological explorer of his day, very progressive in his refusal to rely upon dynamite, a staple of the time. As the title of my textbook reminds us.”