It had been a while since Marilyn had last visited Giovanni’s car. While we were alone, Marilyn told me something that she hadn’t shared with the others. She knew where Giovanni’s money came from, she said, but he’d sworn her to secrecy. Marilyn told me that one hundred gold coins fell from one of the books he’d found. Giovanni explained to her that after the blue orb disappeared back into the book, gold coins magically fell from the pages. She promised never to tell anyone, but because I was Camden Ford, who had also discovered one of the original copies of The Chronicles of Satraya, she felt compelled to break that promise. Giovanni didn’t know what to make of it. He said the books were special.
The gold coins she mentioned confirmed something that I had suspected for many years. The blue orb and the books seemed to give to the finder the very thing or ability he or she needed most at that moment. Giovanni received treasure, Deya was healed, and I received hope. I cannot write what Madu received because I promised him never to reveal it. Nonetheless, in all cases, the books somehow knew what to provide.
Logan paused for a moment. The last few lines reminded him of something that Sebastian had said to him at the auction. It was that same phrase that had haunted him ever since: “Where the books will choose to go.” These books seem to be governed by some mystical law and purpose, Logan thought. He continued to read his father’s account.
I asked Marilyn if she knew where Giovanni was. She didn’t; she’d never heard from him after he disappeared. Marilyn did remember, though, that just before Giovanni found the books, he had taken a job as a handyman for a well-to-do family living in the city. They paid him a meager wage, but people didn’t complain back then. I asked if she knew the name of the family; she did not. But she did remember that Giovanni continued to work there even after he’d found the books and had been given the gift of the gold coins. She told me he would take the books everywhere with him, even when he went to work.
I looked around the converted train car. Giovanni’s bedding was in the corner; a blanket and a pillow were neatly stacked. Next to where he slept was a small nightstand with a candle on it. I wondered if he had been working on the flame technique. He had secured a short pole from the ceiling of the car where he hung some clothes. Judging by the condition of his space, Giovanni may have been homeless, but he was not destitute. He did what he could with the circumstances in which he found himself. Displayed on a shelf were some trinkets and a picture of a woman and three children. Marilyn told me the people in the picture were Giovanni’s wife and children. They had been casualties of the Great Disruption.
As I continued to look around, I spotted something in the overhead baggage compartment of the car. I reached up and brought down a box. Marilyn told me it was the tin box that had contained the books. With her approval, I opened it. Inside I found a folded piece of paper, which was a help-wanted advertisement for a handyman, and, more surprisingly, many of the gold coins. Both Marilyn and I asked the same question. Why would Giovanni disappear with the books and yet not take the coins with him? They were certainly worth a great deal; they could be used to start a whole new life. I put the job posting in my pocket and gave all of the coins to Marilyn. I told her to keep what she wished and to give the rest to the others. I asked her then if I could keep the tin box, and she agreed. I left the passenger car and exited the Hauptbahnhof through a back door. Then I continued my quest in the city of Zurich.
Logan took from his backpack the tin box that he and Mr. Perrot had found under the floor in the basement of the Council of Satraya headquarters and set it on the coffee table. He wondered if this was the box that had contained the original set of the Chronicles that Giovanni had found on the tracks. He set it back down to finish reading his father’s account.
The address on the job posting led me to an unoccupied private home on Bellerivestrasse, which I later found out at the WRF office was owned by Fendral Hitchlords. I looked through the logs for the deceased of that time, searching for any information concerning a man by the name of Giovanni Rast. I found the death notices for his wife and children but not for him.
All four of us had found our sets of the Chronicles on the same day, July 21. Giovanni had disappeared four months after his discovery. I had completed my investigation and confirmed my suspicions, but I was powerless to do much about it. I now knew Fendral never spoke of his experience with the blue orb because he’d never had one. Giovanni Rast had experienced the blue orb. While I don’t have any direct proof, I know in my heart that Fendral had something to do with Giovanni’s disappearance. How Fendral knew the value of the books and the exact events that took place may never be known. The bigger question that haunts me is, what am I to do with this information that I was so driven to discover?
Now Logan knew Fendral’s secret.
44
Would you follow your own advice?
—THE CHRONICLES OF SATRAYA
WASHINGTON D.C., 7:00 P.M. LOCAL TIME,
47 HOURS UNTIL LIBERTY MOMENT
“Do you really think that Andrea and Simon care about you?” Valerie asked Monique Sato.
The dark-haired young woman sat silently opposite Valerie at the table in the interrogation room at WCF headquarters. Alex Daniels, a ten-year veteran of the WCF who had been temporarily assigned as Valerie’s new partner, stood in the corner listening to every word. Cameras mounted in the upper corners of the room recorded everything that was taking place.
“We can place you at the Council offices the night of the murders,” Valerie said. “We know about G-LAB, the doctor, and the antigen that is being deployed. We even know that the attack is scheduled to take place on Freedom Day. We know that you, Andrea, Lucius, and Simon are all working together, and that somehow Randolph Fenquist is also involved.”
Monique was no longer wearing the red and white baseball cap that had ultimately led to her capture. The authorities had programmed the airport security cameras to look for anyone wearing the cap she had stolen from the mother in the airport restroom. The cameras had shown someone discarding the cap and a baby stroller at a fast-food restaurant at the other end of the terminal. Authorities caught up with her trying to exit the airport near the international terminal. The hat and the stroller were in evidence now. Monique’s hair was pulled up in a knot, revealing the stressed expression on her face.
“Are you going to get me a lawyer or not?” Monique asked defiantly. She’d asked that question repeatedly since she’d been arrested. “I just want a lawyer.”
“I’m surprised that Andrea hasn’t sent anyone over to help you,” Valerie said. “Char—” She caught herself as she almost said the name of her dead partner. “Alex. Alex, don’t you think that if they cared about Monique, they would have sent their attorney over right away? They’re rich people; they should know a bunch of good lawyers.”
“I know I certainly would have,” Alex said, playing along. “If I heard you were arrested, I would do everything I could to help you out.”
“They are not going to send anyone, all right?” Monique lashed out. “You don’t understand.”
“Then help us understand,” Valerie said.
“I ran away. They were going to kill me.”
“We can protect you,” Valerie assured her.
“No, you can’t,” Monique said. “Not from them.” She shook her head, whimpered softly. “I just want an attorney . . .”
Valerie stood and left the interrogation room, followed by her new partner. They walked behind a two-way mirror where they could keep an eye on Monique.
“She’s not giving anything up,” Alex said. They had been interrogating Monique for more than two hours, and she had said very little.
“Well, at least we know why they haven’t sent a lawyer for her,” Valerie said. “She ran.”
“She’s scared, that’s for sure.” Alex looked at Monique, slumped over the table, her head resting on her arms. “And I don’t blame her. On the one hand, she has them after her, and on the other hand, she fa
ces the prospect of going to prison for a very long time.”
“Don’t feel too sorry for her—she helped kill four people,” Valerie said. “We need something to draw her out. Did we get any information about her past? Anything about the people she hangs with, family, friends, anything?”
“There’s not that much.” Alex pulled up a report on his PCD. “We know she’s a Japanese national. She came here when she was twenty-one and landed a job working for the New Democratic Party as a media director. After a few years there, she went to work for Cynthia Brown. She’s been Cynthia’s assistant for almost three years. She doesn’t have any priors. But there have been five large deposits that went into her bank account over the last two and a half years; we’re trying to trace where they came from. She sends money to her parents in Tokyo every month. Her father has some type of chronic disease, not sure—”
“Chronic disease? I wonder . . .” Valerie’s eyes lit up. “We know from Dr. Malikei’s journal that he was creating a designer drug to help Andrea and her son. What if they promised Monique to do the same for her father’s illness? I wonder if that was the special project he was referring to.”
Valerie went back into the interrogation room and took a seat at the table. Alex sat down beside her. “When was the last time you saw Dr. Malikei?” Valerie asked.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Monique answered. She sat back in the chair and crossed her arms.
“That’s too bad,” Valerie said. “We were hoping someone could help us locate his family so we could tell them he was shot in the head.” Valerie brought up a picture of his corpse on her PCD. Monique uncrossed her arms and sat up in the chair, obviously unsettled. She stared at it. “I thought that might get your attention. I told you Andrea and Simon don’t care about you. One of their thugs shot the doctor right in front of me. And after everything he did for Andrea and Lucius—even for you. He had a special project for you, didn’t he?”
“How do you know about that?” Monique said sharply. “Tell me! How do you know about that?”
“So you do know the doctor,” Valerie said. She projected a page of Dr. Malikei’s notes on her PCD and pointed.
Andrea has instructed me to stop working on Project Ryōshin. She told me it will no longer be needed and my efforts in this area are no longer authorized.
“After everything I did for—” Monique stopped herself. But Valerie could see she was trembling, and tears were welling in her eyes.
Valerie knew she had broken her. She shut down the projection and spoke softly. “The doctor was also making a serum for you, wasn’t he?”
“It was for my father. Andrea and Simon promised to help him.” The tears now flowed freely.
Alex gave her a handkerchief from his coat pocket. “What does ryōshin mean?” asked Alex, struggling to say the word correctly.
“It means ‘parents,’ ” Monique answered. “They said I only had to do a few things. If I helped them, the doctor was going to create a medicine that would cure my father of Alzheimer’s.” Monique paused, shaking her head in disbelief. “They lied to me. They’ve been lying all along.”
“I’m afraid so, Monique. There is nothing honorable about these people. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.” Valerie paused, giving her words time to sink in. Then she continued in a compassionate tone. “How long have you been working for Simon and Andrea?”
“Two years,” Monique replied. “At first, they just wanted information about what the Council was up to and any information about their activities and plans. They paid for all my father’s medical bills; they paid the hospital in Tokyo directly.”
“Are the five large deposits to your bank account from Simon and Andrea?” Alex asked. She didn’t answer. “Well, are they? Yes or no?” Alex asked. Still she didn’t answer.
“Tell me about the Council murders,” Valerie said. Monique continued to remain silent. “If you want our help and protection, you have to tell us everything.”
“I received a call from Simon a week before the auction,” Monique reluctantly explained. “He told me not to pass on to Cynthia any information about the upcoming sale of the Chronicles. I was to make sure she didn’t know the books were being sold. The auction house tried to contact her at the office, but I didn’t relay the messages. Everything was going according to plan, but then—” She stopped.
“But, then what?” Valerie urged her on.
Monique took a deep breath and continued. “Another Council member got wind of the auction and told Cynthia about it. That happened on the same night as the World Federation of Reconstruction banquet. I made Simon aware of the situation, and then he gave me instructions.” Monique wiped away some more tears from her eyes. “I was to take the EMFE and activate it in the basement of the Council building. He told me about a secret tunnel that would get me into the building without anyone knowing.”
“What’s an EMFE?” Alex asked.
“I heard them use the name Electromagnetic Frequency Emitter, EMFE for short. I don’t know much about it,” Monique said. “It’s some kind of advanced weapon that they kept locked up at the plantation house. One of Simon’s men brought the device to me outside the office that night. I used the tunnel to enter the basement while the auction was going on.”
“Why did he ask you to do that?” Alex asked. “Why didn’t he have one of their men plant the device?”
“That’s easy to answer,” Valerie interjected. “Once Monique helped to kill the Council members, she would be in it up to her ears. There would be no way out.”
Monique looked startled, as if she had never thought about it like that. “I set the device on a table, and I had to pass a small coil through a hole that I made in the basement ceiling and the meeting-room floor.”
“How did you drill a hole without the Council members hearing?” Alex asked.
“They gave me a pen laser,” Monique said. “It was easy to use.”
“That explains the tiny hole we found in the ceiling,” Valerie said to Alex. She turned back to Monique. “What’d you do next?”
“Once I passed the coil through the hole, I put on a pair of dark glasses to protect my eyes from the blast of light, and I turned on the device. I was told the device would get really hot, but once a green light flashed, I should turn it off and pack it up and leave the building. Which is what I did.”
“That explains the green flash I saw on the videos and the burn mark on the table in the basement,” Valerie said. “What happened after that?”
“I went back to the WFR banquet and mingled the rest of the night.”
“What happened after I saw you leave the plantation house with Andrea last night?” Valerie asked.
Monique explained how their departure plans suddenly changed after the incident there. She told them about the mysterious men who forged new identification glasses for them, the woman named Gretchen who guided them through airport security, and her escape from the restroom, which led to her eventual capture.
“Let’s go through the video at the airport and see if we can get an ID on this Gretchen woman,” Valerie said to Alex. Then, to Monique, “What does the EMFE device look like? Where’s that device now?”
“It is about the size of a small dinner plate and about four centimeters thick. It’s not very heavy, about one kilogram. They keep it somewhere in the house at the plantation. You should be able to find it there.”
“That’s going to be tough since the house was blown up,” Valerie said. “But you know that.”
“We’re still combing through the rubble,” Alex said. “Where in the house did they keep it?”
“I want protection, and I want a deal,” Monique said vehemently. “If I tell you where the device is, you need to ensure my safety and help me get back to Japan.”
The clock was ticking. Freedom Day was now less than forty-seven hours away.
“Fine,” Valerie snapped. “First, you tell us where the device is and sign an agreeme
nt to testify against Simon and Andrea when we apprehend them. After that, we’ll see about sending you back to Japan.” When Monique remained silent, Valerie looked directly into her eyes. “Monique, this is the best deal you’re gonna get.”
Monique nodded. “But I want signed paperwork now.”
“Signed paperwork?” Valerie said, annoyed, as she turned to Alex. He looked ready to throttle Monique. “All right, we’ll take you to the plantation, and you show us exactly where the device was stored. I’ll have the paperwork brought there.” She stood and gave Alex instructions. “Get a team together, and take her to the car. I’ll meet you outside in ten, and we’ll head to the plantation. First, I need to run upstairs and clear things with Burke.”
“There’s one more thing,” Monique said. Valerie stopped in the doorway and turned around. “Andrea and Simon gave me green pills to take before I activated the device in the basement.”
Valerie exchanged a glance with Alex and left the interrogation room.
• • •
A shot rang out just as Valerie exited the WCF offices. Instinctively, she hit the ground and took cover behind one of the structural columns at the front of the building. She peered around the column and saw Alex and two agents drag Monique behind the unmarked armored WCF vehicle they were taking to the plantation, while the other agents provided cover. Valerie drew her weapon and rushed over to assist Alex, who was kneeling beside Monique, attempting to stop the blood that was flowing from her chest as she struggled to breathe.
“Stay with us,” Valerie said. “Help is on the way.”
Monique shook her head. “Fireplace,” she said between strained breaths. “Fireplace.” They were the last words she ever uttered.
Valerie’s hands and shirt were covered in blood. Helmeted WCF agents with rifles and automatic weapons were fanning out around the building, cordoning off the street, and running into the surrounding buildings. The sound of an ambulance siren grew louder by the second, but it was too late.
Journey Into the Flame: Book One of the Rising World Trilogy Page 28
