by Alex Archer
“Roux?”
“Sorry, Annja. I just get caught up thinking sometimes. Forgive an old man, would you?”
“Fine.”
“Spier is certainly more resourceful than I’ve given him credit for thus far.”
“Thus far?”
“Oh, certainly. I’ve known of his search for the pearl for some time now. I didn’t think he’d get so close, though. Especially when I was also searching for it.”
“Why?”
“Its powers, of course. The pearl is reputed to be incredibly powerful when possessed by one with the ability to tap into its true nature.”
“And what sort of true nature would we be talking about here?”
Roux smiled. “The power to control the world, of course. Isn’t that what all these ancient relics are supposed to do?”
“Some,” Annja said. “Not all.”
“Well, the ones worth going after all do.” He chuckled. “And naturally, Spier wants the pearl for his own purposes.”
“What purposes would those be?”
Roux shrugged. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet.”
“All right, then. Why do you want the pearl?”
Roux smiled at her. “You know I have an affinity for possessing items of antiquity such as the pearl.”
“Yeah,” Annja said. “I know.”
“Well, I want the pearl most especially so. I’ve discovered something of its true nature, you see….”
13
“And what would its true nature be?” Annja asked. A log cracked in the fire, tossing sparks and embers onto the wet sand where they fizzled and grew dark.
Roux smiled. “Well, now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? And honestly, I’m not certain that you should know just yet.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a loyalty issue,” Roux said. “You have this annoying habit of running off to do good whenever you sense an injustice. Frankly, that’s caused my personal agenda some problems over the past few years.”
Annja frowned. “You were the one who told me to embrace my destiny. You were the one who told me to step up and accept the responsibility that the sword placed on me.”
“Well, sure,” Roux said. “But within reason, Annja. After all, we’re in this together.”
“We?”
“You, me, Garin.” Roux shrugged. “Who else knows about the sword and what it can do?”
“A few people who have seen it in action over the years.”
Roux looked horrified at the thought. “You should have killed them.”
“Why on earth would I do a thing like that? They didn’t deserve to be killed for simply seeing the sword.”
Roux shook his head. “I don’t think I would have left any witnesses behind. No sense giving people something to talk about.”
Annja shook her head. “And what would they say? ‘Oh, I saw this magical sword’? Please.”
“They might,” Roux said. “And what happens then? The next time they see you, they try to take it away.”
“Yeah, good luck with that plan. No one has succeeded yet.” Annja stared at the fire. Between the woolen blanket and the heat from the flames, she was warming up rapidly. “If it was possible to take the sword, don’t you think someone would have done it already?”
“Maybe the time isn’t right yet,” Roux said quietly.
Annja glanced at him. She’d always suspected Roux had several agendas operating at any one time. She also suspected that he would have loved to possess the sword. He’d denied it, of course, but there was something about the way he looked at it from time to time that led Annja to believe it in her gut.
She shifted. “Well, if anyone wants it, they don’t have to attack me. Maybe I’ll just give it to them if they ask real nice.”
Roux sighed. “You know that won’t work, Annja. Based on my research, it might even destroy the sword.”
“Destroy it how?”
“It might shatter again. Thousands of pieces that would have to be reacquired and pieced back together. I can’t tell you how hard it was to find them all the last time that happened. I’d rather not do it again.”
They were quiet for a minute. Annja cleared her throat after inhaling a gust of smoke. “Tell me about the pearl, Roux.”
“I said no.”
“You said no, but I also know you. And you’re dying to let me take a peek at the knowledge you have. So what is it? What is it about the pearl that makes you so excited?”
Roux tossed another soggy log into the flames and watched it for a moment. “You won’t believe me, Annja.”
“Try me.”
Roux glanced at her. “Fine. The pearl isn’t organic. It’s man-made.”
Annja shrugged. “So what? What’s so incredible about that?”
“The pearl dates back to a time in earth’s history when such a thing would have been supposedly impossible to create.”
“Our understanding of history’s been wrong before,” Annja said. “How old is the pearl supposed to be?”
“Roughly twenty-five thousand years.”
Annja gasped and looked at Roux. “That’s impossible.”
“See?” Roux shook his head. “Honestly, Annja, I don’t know why I bother with you sometimes. After everything you’ve seen in connection to the sword and after all the experiences you’ve had, you still cling to this ridiculous notion that the world is as the world seems to be.”
“My skepticism keeps me from becoming a loony,” Annja said. “Anyone else would have flipped out if they’d suddenly found themselves with Joan of Arc’s old sword. Me? I seem to handle it pretty well.”
“Maybe you’re Joan of Arc reincarnated,” Roux said.
Annja waved her hand. “You know, I thought of that once. But, to be honest, I don’t know what I believe. If I was Joan of Arc in another time, then I ought to have some of her memories locked away somewhere inside my head, right?”
“Only if you happen to believe the usual silliness that most New Agey types espouse.”
“You don’t think I’d have her memories?”
Roux shrugged. “I don’t know for certain. What I do believe is that the process of reincarnation might prove so traumatic that the soul does its best to almost cocoon itself from the trauma. That would mean that memories, emotions and the like would only be released very, very gradually throughout the next life. In some circumstances—say, something like being burned at the stake—the soul might never release any indication of the former life.”
Annja looked at the fire and tried to imagine what it would be like to have the flames lick their way through clothing and flesh, burning from the outside in while a crowd watched.
She shook her head. It was too awful to think about.
“It was a terrible sight to behold, Annja.” Roux said this quietly above the winds that still rustled the nearby trees.
“Did she suffer for long?”
“I have no way of knowing exactly when she lost consciousness,” Roux said. “So, I can’t say.”
Annja shook her head. “The people who did to that her…”
“They paid for their crimes—I’m certain of it,” Roux said.
Annja looked at him. “How are you so certain?”
Roux shrugged. “Because I have to believe that any just and loving God would never allow one of His children to be killed in such a manner without repercussions to those who committed the grievous act.”
“That’s rather Old Testament.”
“I happen to like the Old Testament, Annja. It’s a lot more properly intimidating than the new huggable versions they perpetrate on the unknowing these days. Imagine if more people thought they’d be facing God’s wrath when they faced Him, instead of a big welcome hug. People might actually check their ridiculous behavior from time to time. That would be a good thing indeed.”
Annja sighed. The night was growing long and she needed some sleep. Hans was expecting her at the dock in the morning.
She looked up at Roux. “You were going diving tonight.”
“Yes.”
“So that was you back on the resort stealing oxygen tanks?”
“No. That was your dive master actually. I paid him a nice little bribe to bring all that gear out and set it up for me to use.”
Annja frowned. “You might have a word with him about his inability to fill oxygen tanks all the way to capacity.”
Roux smiled. “Well, he probably didn’t think he’d have another person using them. You didn’t happen to notice the label on the back of the tank you used, either, did you?”
“What label?”
“The one that said it wasn’t to be used. I had him bring out two that were half-empty so I could use them for inflating several flotation devices if I found anything down there worth bringing to the surface.”
“I must have missed that,” Annja said.
“I’m not surprised, considering you were in the midst of a rainstorm.” Roux stood and looked out at the ocean. “Although it certainly seems to be calming down now.”
“Is this your way of telling me to skedaddle?”
Roux looked back at Annja. “You’re not in much shape to go diving, Annja. You’re not even dressed for it.”
Annja grinned. “You’ve got a point there.”
“I can take you back to the resort.”
Annja nodded. “And then you’re going to return to the dive site.”
Roux shrugged. “I paid good money to get that gear out there. It would be a shame to see it being squandered like that.”
“And what will you do if you find something?”
Roux cocked an eyebrow. “Why, what do you expect me to do?”
“I don’t know…maybe share it with the world?”
Roux laughed. “And attract publicity? Good Lord, that’s the very last thing I ever want.”
“People deserve to see what you find, Roux.”
“People,” Roux said, “have tried their very best to destroy this planet time and time again. I don’t believe they deserve anything except a serious slap across the face to wake their collective pathetic soul. I sometimes doubt mankind would know what to do with something good. Most likely they’d simply try to destroy it.”
“Don’t forget, Roux. You’re part of mankind, too.”
“A regrettable thing that,” Roux said. “And if it helps, I don’t actually consider myself part of the human race any longer.”
“You don’t?”
“Annja, I’m six hundred years old. Somehow that makes me a bit more than just another human, don’t you think?”
“Well, you’ve certainly got the ego for it, I suppose.”
Roux frowned. “The thanks I get for saving your life.”
“Are we leaving?” Annja asked. The fire had started to die down and more rain was falling. Annja shivered and realized that she needed a hot shower and some serious sleep.
She glanced at Roux, who kicked sand onto the dying embers and then led her back down to the beach. In all probability, he wouldn’t find anything at the dive site tonight. That meant Annja would have to try even harder tomorrow to come up with something.
But what?
She wasn’t sure what she believed about the story of some lost civilization. Nor was Roux’s tale that the pearl itself was twenty-five thousand years old particularly believable. How would people back then have made it? How could they have possibly created a round sphere like that?
The problem was, as much as Annja might not believe it, Roux did. Worse, if Spier got wind of that theory, it would drive him on like nothing else had before.
And Annja still didn’t know what his motives were for possessing the pearl.
With Roux, that was fairly easy. Roux didn’t want anyone to have anything remotely powerful. So he simply tried to grab everything he could.
But Spier…
“Let’s get going. I want to dump you at the resort and then get back here before I lose the darkness.”
“You might find more in the sunlight.”
Roux shook his head. “As soon as the sun comes up, you and your merry band will be back out there. That’s the last thing I need.”
“Sorry to be a thorn in your side.”
Roux eased the boat out into the waves and then hopped on board. Annja sat near the bow.
At once, the engine sputtered to life and Roux guided them away from the beach, pointing them out toward the bay. “Annja, you’ve been a thorn in my side before, but it hasn’t stopped me from following my personal plans. And whether you agree or not, we are in this together.”
“We are?”
Roux nodded. “You just don’t see the situation for what it is. Yet.”
“Yet?”
“But you will someday. I really do believe that.”
“I guess I’ll look forward to someday, then,” Annja said. Because right then she didn’t think she and Roux were on the same page at all.
14
Annja awoke the next morning to gentle breezes and brilliant sunshine spilling into her cabana. The storm clouds had vanished along with the choppy seas and driving rain.
Annja sat up and ran over the previous night’s events in her mind. With Roux running around, she’d have to make sure that Spier didn’t notice. The last thing she wanted was those two worlds colliding in a way that would force her to have to explain how she knew Roux.
She could always describe him as a work colleague or something, but there was no guarantee that Roux would go along with that. He’d delighted in thwarting her actions in the past. No telling what he’d want to do this time around.
After a quick breakfast of an egg-white omelet and oatmeal, Annja headed down to the dock, aware that it was getting late. As she approached the dock, she saw Hans and the rest of the men loading up the boat.
Hans didn’t look up or smile in her direction.
“Good morning,” she said brightly.
He glanced up at her. “I went by your place last night to say hello.” He tossed a bag into the boat. “You weren’t there.”
Annja nodded. “I couldn’t sleep. I went for a walk.”
“Where?”
“All over.”
Hans frowned. “I spent some time walking around, too. I thought that maybe you had gone for a walk so I looked around. I couldn’t seem to locate you.”
“We must have missed each other,” Annja said.
Hans nodded. “I thought so, too. So I waited outside of your cabana until very late. Imagine my surprise when you came back with some old man, wrapped in a blanket and wearing nothing but your lingerie underneath.”
Annja smiled. “Oh, Hans—”
He held up a hand. “Listen, Annja, I know we just met, so I’m not trying to be all possessive here. It’s just that I thought you were different.”
“Trust me, Hans. I’m as different as they come.”
“Well, you can sleep with whomever you want, of course. I just wish you hadn’t chosen to shack up with that guy. Honestly, he looked ancient.”
If you only knew how old, Annja thought. “Hans, trust me, I didn’t sleep with him.”
“Annja, I’m a big boy. I can handle the truth. I know what I saw.”
“You saw what you did, but not for the reasons you think.”
Hans stopped loading the boat. “So, explain it to me, then.”
Annja frowned. How exactly was she going to explain Roux, the dive master, the lack of oxygen, the pearl and all that stuff they were going to see when they returned to the reef? She couldn’t.
“I don’t know that I can,” she said finally.
Hans sighed. “I thought so. Look, just be honest with me, Annja. If you want to fool around, then fine. I’ve done the wild stage of my life. I guess I was looking for a little something more…in-depth than just a good lay.”
Annja smiled. “I didn’t sleep with that guy, Hans. You’ve got to believe me. I can’t tell you everything that’s going on right now. No
t because I don’t trust you, but because it wouldn’t make any sense to you. Just give me some time, okay? I promise it will all be clear in a day or two.”
“Yeah, all right. Whatever.” Hans went back to loading the boat. Annja stood there a moment longer.
“So, am I still welcome on the dive?”
“Why wouldn’t you be?”
Annja turned and Spier stood there with a bright smile. He noticed the expression on Hans’s face and sniffed. “Hans, stop acting like a little boy. The woman has a right to be with whomever she wishes. Don’t pout.”
Annja scowled. “You told everyone?”
Hans shrugged. “I was upset.”
“Try devastated,” Mueller said, walking over to grab the oxygen tanks. “Honestly, it got a little embarrassing.”
Gottlieb chuckled. “I think, Annja Creed, that you may have broken our man Hans’s heart with your cruel and calculating sexual escapades.”
Spier leaned closer to Annja. “Hans said he was an old guy. If that’s true, might I interest you in a little dalliance later?”
“Oh, for crying out loud.” Annja stepped back. “I did not sleep with that man last night. Hans saw something he didn’t understand. What looked like an obvious explanation is not what happened at all.”
Spier and the rest of the team stopped. “So, what happened?”
Hans sighed. “She won’t tell me.”
“I can’t,” Annja said.
Heinkel snorted. “Ja, she slept with him.”
Annja put her hands on her hips and glared. “I most certainly did not.”
“She’s telling the truth.”
Annja groaned. She turned and saw Roux striding down the ramp toward the dock.
Spier and Hans stopped loading the boat. Spier said something in German to Hans, who only nodded.
Roux came up alongside Annja. “As delightful as a nocturnal interlude would have been—especially for Annja—we did not sleep together.”
Annja rolled her eyes. “You’re as bad as Garin sometimes,” she said under her breath.
“Perish the thought,” Roux said. To Spier he held out his hand. “I’m Roux. Very pleased to meet you.”