A Covenant of Thieves

by Christian Velguth

  “High as a kite. You should ask for some of this stuff. Look like you could use it.”

  Rick glanced down at himself, at his muddy, soot-stained clothes. It was a wonder they had even let him into the hospital last night. All things considered, though, he felt fairly ok.

  “What happened?” Kai asked. “With Berhanu, K’ebero -- the Ark?”

  Sighing, Rick broke the bad news. He recounted his escape from Dungur and Berhanu’s death -- and the Ark’s annoying insistence on remaining hidden. As he spoke, he felt himself spiraling back down towards a foul mood. He struggled against it, for Kai’s sake more than his own.

  Kai, however, hardly seemed fazed. “Ah, well,” he said, turning his head to smile vaguely up at the ceiling. “Least we’re alive, right?”

  “Sure, but…” Rick struggled with the urge to feel annoyed with Kai’s flippancy. “But it was all pointless, if we can’t find the thing. All that crypto we spent, all the -- everything that happened to you. It was just another Grail hunt, like you said.”

  “Maybe.” Kai sounded like he was drifting back towards sleep. Then he inhaled sharply as if prodded by something sharp and turned to look at Rick with earnest eyes. “Hey. Did Estelle make it out?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, she’s fine. Her and Hopkins are staying at a hotel nearby. With Nasim al-Faradi.”

  This revelation bounced off Kai like a feather. He nodded, returning his gaze to the ceiling. “Good, that’s good. She didn’t get eaten?”

  Rick smiled. “No, Kai. You kicked that dinosaur’s ass. Estelle’s fine.”

  Kai’s eyes were half-closed now. “‘S just an animal, Rick…didn’t really want to…”

  He began to snore. Rick watched him for a moment, then got up to go in search of some coffee. It was surprisingly good, and now that he knew for sure Kai was ok, Rick decided he could allow himself to get some fresh air.

  The sky was clear, but it was just a tad too humid when he exited the hospital. He crossed the parking lot and walked to the side of the road, sipping his coffee. The hospital sat on a hill, overlooking the Gondarian cityscape. He could just see beyond the edge of the city, to where the rugged highlands resumed their dominion of the countryside. Part of him wanted to run off right now, get started tracking down the Ark, wrap up this whole shitty job as quickly as possible. He needed to slow down, take a breath and plan a few steps ahead.

  The thought of taking the time to do that made his insides itch. It felt like starting over because it pretty much was, but that didn’t have to be a bad thing. The frowning face of Kai that appeared in his head helped him ignore the sensation and listen to his rational side for once. Slow down. Do the thing right before you screw it up again.

  “How’s our boy doing?”

  Rick turned towards the voice, surprised to find that he wasn’t all that surprised. Ibis joined him beside the road, wearing that same dark poncho and gloves despite the heat. “Kai’s been through worse. He’ll be in fighting shape in no time.”

  “Good to hear.” Ibis didn’t sound bothered either way. He had his hood down, revealing thinning hair and rather large ears. He put his hands in his pockets and raised his chin slightly as if to sniff the air, gaze fixed on the cityscape. “You and I need to have a chat.”

  “And here I thought you came all this way just to bring Kai flowers.”

  Ibis glanced at him, a glint of something dark in his eyes at the tone of Rick’s voice. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for three days. Thought you’d decided to run off on me. Or gotten yourselves killed.” He glanced over his shoulder, back at the hospital. “Guess it was closer to the second one, huh?”

  “Had some trouble with the locals. Getting to Axum was a pain in the ass, and then Kai had to go toe-to-toe with a dinosaur.” If this surprised Ibis, the man didn’t show it. “Also, the Ark is gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be standing here. It’s just gone. The sanctuary guardian squirreled it away somewhere.”

  Ibis arched an eyebrow. “Did he? Why?”

  “Dunno. Seems to have been warned that someone like us was after it.”

  “Warned by who?”

  Rick looked up at him, studying that lined face, trying to see beyond its nonchalant surface. Trying to read those faded green eyes. The eyes of a killer, as Hopkins suspected? “Martin Kingston,” he finally said. “Berhanu Abraham. And Radical Dynamics. Their benefactor.”

  Ibis said nothing, merely pursed his lips slightly as if tasting something with a tad too much salt.

  “Those documents you gave us were put together by Martin Kingston, weren’t they? You stole them, which is why they’re incomplete. You never had a team on the ground to begin with. He did all the legwork.”

  “Sounds like you’ve got it figured out,” Ibis said. “Not sure why this is relevant. All’s fair, right?”

  “Did you kill Martin Kingston?”

  Ibis looked at him. “Does it matter?”

  “Just curious. They sent his daughter, just like you said they would. To finish the job. A bit over her head, if you ask me, but I guess it’s all about who you know these days. Either way, it worked out pretty well for you. Martin Kingston out of the picture, Estelle Kingston handed the reigns while she’s still green. Makes stealing the Ark from Radical Dynamics that much easier -- or, well, it would have.”

  Ibis turned his body to face Rick fully, folding his arms. The poncho moved strangely, liquid-like. He looked more bored than anything. “Where are you going with this?”

  Rick shook his head. Where was he going with this? He felt a simmering anger at the old man, a desire to lash out, to blame someone other than himself for Kai’s current condition. And then there was what Booker had said. About the crews getting taken out. Melted.

  “I just want to know what I’ve got to look forward to. Am I going to be able to walk away from this without a target on my back?”

  “Doesn’t that fall under the category of occupational hazard?”

  “Sure. But, again, this is Radical Dynamics. Not some private collector with more money than sense. They own the world, and I intend to keep living in it for a few more decades at least. So, tell me: Did you kill their guy? Did Kai and me get roped into a vendetta?”

  The old man’s eyes were narrowed, his mouth a thin line. Rick held his gaze resolutely.

  “No, I didn’t,” Ibis said finally. “As I heard it, he caught some bug while doing recon for Radical Dynamics. Kicked the bucket after leaving Ethiopia. You’re right that I stole his research, what little there was to grab, and you’re right that I was banking on them sending Estelle as replacement. But I didn’t pull the strings.”

  Was it a lie? Rick didn’t think so. Odd as it seemed, he felt fairly certain that Ibis had never lied to him throughout their partnership. The man seemed to hold himself above such petty moves, to consider Rick and Kai not worth lying to.

  He nodded. “Good to know.”

  “Yeah. Now, about the terms of our partnership --”

  “One more question, actually.”

  Ibis’ expression soured a degree further. “Go ahead.”

  Rick took a breath, a moment to steel himself. So far, Ibis had said nothing about Booker Hopkins, which suggested he knew nothing of the FBI’s involvement. Rick would have preferred it to stay that way -- if Ibis didn’t know, then odds were Club Nabonidus didn’t, either, and his reputation with the Club remained intact -- but he needed to ask. He needed to know.

  “How many other crews have you hired and killed?”

  The noise of the day died with the question. Rick didn’t move, every nerve and muscle in his body thrumming, hand gripping his coffee tight, ready to spring at the slightest hint of an attack from Ibis. But the old man merely stood there, looking out past the trees on the opposite side of the road, arms folded beneath his poncho.

  “You’ll need to run that by me again, son.” His voice was neutral.

  “Chicago.
London. Hong Kong. Forgot the other one, but it doesn’t matter. It’s been all over the Club, all over the dark web. Crews getting jobs and turning up dead. Acid to the face, right? You know anything about that?”

  Ibis looked down at him, and smiled as if they were revisiting some old joke. “We back to this again? You were so convinced I was going to off you back in Milwaukee. Instead, I put you on the trail of the biggest score of your life. I don’t get it, son. Pull the pole out of your ass.”

  Rick smiled thinly. “That didn’t sound like a no to me. Grandpa.”

  He was keenly aware of how quiet it was, how empty the road and the hospital parking lot was. Ibis had his arms still folded, hands hidden beneath that poncho. It was impossible to tell what else was under there. A shoulder holster? A syringe? An ampule of triflic acid?

  Ibis nodded in a way that could have meant anything. “Sounds to me like we’ve reached an impasse. A good place to end our partnership.”

  “Sounds fan-fucking-tastic to me.” And Rick meant it. All at once he realized he wanted nothing to do with this dried-up old geezer, this cryptkeeper-looking --

  “The Ark’s gone,” Ibis was saying. “According to you. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. I’ll find someone else to look into it.”

  “Sure. Ok. I guess I can live with that.”

  Ibis’s smile twitched. “You’re not going to stop looking for it, are you?”

  Rick tried to lie, but found he couldn’t. “No.”

  “Yeah,” Ibis sighed. “Didn’t think so.”

  His arms moved sharply beneath the poncho, reaching for something. Rick stumbled backwards, hurling his coffee at Ibis as his heels caught on something, and he was falling --

  “Rick?”

  The voice wasn’t Ibis’, didn’t make sense to his panicked brain, wasn’t worth focusing on. Rick hit the ground and immediately rolled, twisting away and springing back onto his feet, hurrying to put as much space between himself and Ibis as possible. He made it a few feet, ears roaring with the rush of his own blood, and then froze.

  Ibis was gone. The spot where he had been standing was empty, save for a puddle of coffee and his cup, rolling in a tight circle. Rick looked around frantically -- it was all open space, the road on one side, the parking lot on the other. There was no place for Ibis to have disappeared to. Even if he had broken into a sprint, Rick should have been able to glimpse his bony old-man ass disappearing around a corner of the hospital or retreating down the empty road.

  There was nothing.

  “Rick!”

  He spun, muscles still twitchy, reflexes still on high alert. A car had pulled into the parking lot, and someone was stepping out of it. Estelle. She slammed the door and hurried towards him, dressed in a fresh outfit that looked more suited to Ethiopia than her yellow blouse and jeans had. A few steps away, she paused, cocking her head. “Are -- are you ok?”

  “Yeah,” he said breathlessly. He glanced over his shoulder one more time. Nothing. He turned back to Estelle to find her watching him warily. “Great. Just -- dandy. What’re you doing here?”

  “I -- I left the hotel. I mean…I had to leave. Something’s not right. I don’t…I don’t think I can trust Radical Dynamics anymore. Or Booker.”

  “Oh yeah?” Rick was barely hearing her, his mind still working. Where the hell had Ibis gone? The man had been seconds from killing him, Rick was certain. Why not just stick around and finish the job? What could he have --

  And then it hit him, like a bucket of cold water. “Kai,” Rick breathed.

  Estelle walked towards him. “What? Is he ok?”

  Without answering, Rick turned on his heel and sprinted for the hospital. He heard Estelle calling after him as he burst through the entrance, boots slapping on the lobby floor, someone from the reception desk shouting, asking who he was and what he was doing. None of it mattered; it all bounced off him like rubber pellets. He could only hear his own breath and a droning mantra in his head:

  No no no no.

  Rick burst into the ICU, rushed to Kai’s suite and threw the door open. The room was empty, the bed neatly made.

  “Sir?”

  He whipped around, causing the nurse to take a few steps back. “Are -- are you alright?”

  “Kai,” Rick gasped, resisting the urge to grab the man by the shoulders. “Where --?”

  “He’s being imaged.”

  “Take me!”

  “Alright, sir, if you’ll just calm down --”

  “I am calm! I’m calm. Please.” Rick gulped, drawing a breath and forcing himself not to shout. “I’d like to see where he is.”

  The nurse seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of spending any more of his day dealing with a panicky visitor. Ultimately, it seemed, it wasn’t worth the effort to throw him out. “Very well. Follow me.”

  Rick trailed behind the nurse, fists clenched to keep himself from running, as they made their way through the ICU to imaging. The entire way he kept his head on a swivel, scanning for a glimpse of a dark poncho, a balding head, a wrinkled white face among the black --

  “There you are, sir.” Rick had barely noticed as the nurse brought him through a door and into a room with a wide window. He looked up now, and through it could see Kai lying on a bed while armature-mounted scanners whirled around him.

  Relief flooded him, powerful enough to make him light-headed. “Nobody else has been to see him?”

  “Other than the technicians? No, sir. You are his only visitor.”

  Rick nodded, feeling himself slowly come down. His heart was still pounding, but he was breathing more normally. “Great. Good. Thanks. Just -- how much longer will he be?”

  “They are nearly done.” The nurse was watching him closely. “Are you certain you are alright?”

  “Fine, thanks. I’ll just --” He nodded at the window. “Until he’s done.”

  “That will be fine.”

  The nurse didn’t leave his side, however, but remained with him as Rick watched the rest of the imaging process. When Kai was finally rolled out of the room in a wheelchair, he looked to be in good spirits and was decidedly not dead. “Hey. Sounds like I’m healing up pretty good.”

  “That’s great,” Rick said, reaching down to grip his shoulder. He walked with Kai all the way back to his suite. Only once Kai was safely in his bed, and Rick had checked every corner of the room, did he say, “I’ll be right back, ok?”

  Kai gave him a thumbs-up with his one good hand. Rick closed the door and walked back to the lobby, moving through the halls much more calmly than he had done minutes earlier. He found Estelle there, looking a bit lost.

  “Is everything ok?” she asked, hurrying towards him. “You looked terrified. Is Kai ok?”

  “He’s fine. Everything’s good. Just needed to, ah, pee. Did you see a guy, when you pulled up to the hospital?”

  “A guy?”

  “Yeah, standing next to me.”

  She slowly shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. I was sitting in the back of the car, so…” She shrugged. “Should I have?”

  “No. Forget it.” Rick cleared his throat. “So. You were saying?”

  Estelle was looking as if she regretted her decision to come here immensely, but she nodded. “I… You’ve never lied to me. I mean, you have, you lied from the moment we met. But it was different -- somehow. More…”

  “Honest,” Rick suggested.

  “Yeah. Which is completely stupid and makes no sense, but -- but it’s like you said, on the train. That’s just how the game is played, and everyone knows that. So…so I kind of feel like maybe I can trust you?”

  “Are you asking me?”

  “I don’t know,” she sighed. “Can I?”

  Rick considered it. She was the competition, the very person he and Kai had been hired to outwit. On the other hand, Rick was pretty damn sure Ibis had just tried to kill him, which was as good a termination of their partnership as he could hope for. And Estelle, it seemed, was also in a def
ecting mood this afternoon. So where did that leave the two of them?

  “Sure,” he said finally. “Let’s say you can. But why? What happened?”

  Estelle glanced around, then came closer. “Is there somewhere we can go? Somewhere less exposed? I have something I think you should see.”

  * * *

  Kai was still awake when Rick returned to his suite with Estelle. He looked up, face brightening slightly to see her. “Hey!”

  Estelle smiled, looking a bit shy. “Kai. I’m so glad you’re alright.”

  “You too. Hey, did you attack that dinosaur with a stick? I have this weird memory…”

  “Um -- yes. Yes, I did.” She seemed oddly embarrassed, but Kai only grinned.

  “Awesome. I owe you one.”

  “Me too. I wouldn’t have been able to get the stick if you hadn’t…done what you did.”

  Kai shrugged as if fighting off a ravenous genetic monster was an everyday thing. Rick watched the two of them smile awkwardly at each other for a moment, then loudly cleared his throat. “So. You want to tell me what’s going on now?”

  Estelle glanced at him and visibly steeled herself. “I think Radical Dynamics killed my dad.”

  Rick blinked. “Oh. Kay…”

  Kai’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, what?”

  Estelle seemed to have been expecting their reactions. She removed her glasses and held them out to Rick. “He left me a message. The Kohen gave it to me, in Axum.”

  “The Kohen --?”

  From a pocket she produced the fragments of what looked like blue ceramic, as well as a small memory card. “He gave this to me. It was a small stone, but it was fake. The card was inside. It held my father’s message. You should watch it.” She glanced at Kai. “You too.”

  Rick still wasn’t sure what his place was in all this, but he was curious and more than a little excited. Maybe the message pointed towards the Ark. He donned the glasses. The HUD was fuzzy, making his eyes water. In moments it had calibrated, however, bringing the HUD into focus. The message was already cued up, a file titled Estelle. He played it.