Order of the Black Sun Box Set 6

by Preston William Child

  Mrs. Sylvia Beach had been in his custody for two days, refusing to speak until she could call her husband, Dr. Lance Beach, to let him know that she was alright and to arrange some sort of release with her captor. However, with the sensitive nature of Beck's lie to his employer, the investigator could not risk any communication until he’d replaced his unwelcome prisoner with the real deal.

  “Jesus Christ, Jon! He’s going to have you forked!” Maria wailed. She had a very feminine voice, almost childlike, but in the state she was in she reminded him of a frantic mother of a criminal juvenile. “How did you not know who you were kidnapping?”

  Beck licked the corner of his mouth, gesturing toward the frightened Sylvia Beach who was tied up on the office couch under Maria's house in Glasgow. “Look at her, Maria! Look! And tell me she does not look exactly like Gould in low light!”

  She had to concede that Beck was right. Maria glanced at the weeping wife of Dr. Beach of Oban and realized that she had the same dark hair, pointy, pretty face, and large brown eyes. “She was driving Nina's car. She was unlocking Nina's house. Explain to me how I was supposed to know that it was not her?” he fumed, bellowing like an animal for being ridiculed for his error.

  “Surely when you picked her up and loaded her in you could have seen that it was someone else?” she persisted in her quivering tone that bordered on the hysterical.

  Livid, Beck's watery, bloodshot eyes blazed at her. He was shaking in fear and masking it as rage as he shoved his girlfriend hard. “Would you have noticed? Have you ever kidnapped anyone, Maria? Have you? Huh? Have you got any idea what happens while you are taking someone against their will from a house where anyone can see you at any moment?”

  She shook her head, retreating as he came at her, shoving her against the table. “No! No, you don't, you stupid bitch! You don't even know anything about the shit I have to get done, do you?”

  She lifted her hands defensively and shook her head as she sobbed in fear of his salivating attack. But Beck wanted to set her straight. He hated it when comfortable pen pushers had the cheek to question mistakes, particularly when they had no idea what it was like to exercise that particular feat. It frustrated him to no end when people assumed they knew better without any experience, and now that he’d fucked up with a sinister organization at his throat – something they would no doubt soon discover – he was in no emotional state to explain the mistake to Maria.

  Filled with homesick fear, Sylvia watched and listened. If she could win over the woman's empathy she could perhaps get a phone call out to her husband. However, she was sure that she would have no such luck with her taker. Sylvia was not an expert on abduction, but from the scenario the three of them were fixed in, she knew that she would probably not survive unless she tried to escape. For one thing, the furious man would not let someone go who had seen his and his partner's faces.

  By affiliation, she would also know that Dr. Gould could figure out who the man and his girlfriend were. Of all things, Sylvia did not know that she was now the only stranger who knew that Maria existed, a very dangerous revelation that could mean the end of Beck and Winslet's cozy freelance career.

  “You have no idea how nerve wracking such an operation is, do you?” he yelled as she kept shoving and screaming. “You don't know how easy it is, in all that rush, that time-constrained mission, to miss the finer details of a fucking…woman's…face!” With that he slapped her, followed by a backhand quickly after. That was it for Sylvia, who had never witnessed such abuse in her life.

  “Please stop! Please don't! Just…stop!” she shrieked. Instantly she drew Beck's full attention where he stood heaving and spitting. “I swear to God, I will help you sort this out if you just stop hitting her. I swear! Look, I don't know who you are or what you want with Dr. Gould, but I don't care. I just want to go back to my husband and my children and forget about all this.”

  “What were you doing with her car? And her house keys?” he asked while tremors still persisted through his large hands.

  “She was going to play organ for a funeral service…” she tried to explain.

  “Just get to the why, for God's sake!” he roared. “I’m not interested in the Housewives of Happy Oban. Just tell me where she is.”

  Sylvia snapped back, “I am trying to tell you, for fuck's sake! If you would shut up for one second I can explain everything. Jesus, I just want to go home!”

  Pinching her eyes shut, she waited for a pummeling, but to her surprise, Sylvia was met with two quiet people, patiently waiting for her to elaborate. She sighed, wiping her tears with the back of her taped hands before starting again. “She was going to play, but while we were at the church where she practiced the music she said she had to leave after the service the next day. Said she had an urgent family emergency she had to attend. So Dr. Gould slept over at our place, because the funeral was first thing in the morning.”

  Beck sank back in his chair, responding in a soft tone, “That was why she did not come home that night.” He shook his head and looked at Maria. “That was the night I was supposed to grab her.”

  “Aye, so after the funeral she left in a taxi,” Sylvia continued. “She asked me if she could leave her car in our yard while she was gone and we said yes, of course. I told her I would feed her cat until she came back, so that is why I took her car to her house two nights ago.”

  “Oh my God,” Maria sniffed.

  Beck was visibly taken aback by the small discrepancy that had run his plans onto the rocks. “Such a stupid little thing and now Maria and I will pay with our lives.”

  “Don't say that,” Sylvia choked. “Please, don't say that. If you let me go, I will help you find her for whatever reason you were going to take her.”

  Beck laughed. “Are you serious? Do you honestly think we are going to trust you to help us catch the good little doctor while you have no fucking idea what her fate would be? Listen, lady, don't insult my intelligence.”

  “What do we do now?” Maria asked softly. “The newspapers reported that Gould was kidnapped.”

  “I know. I saw that, but what good is that going to do us?” he barked. “This bitch is going to be reported missing too; probably has. So we have two problems – one woman we cannot find and another woman we didn't want.”

  “But the good thing is,” Maria said, “that the papers will make it look like you succeeded. The…” she peeked at Sylvia before she used important names in front of her, “…your client…won’t know we haven’t captured the right person. It will hold the bullshit together until you’ve managed to get the real Nina Gould, babe.”

  Beck gave it some thought. Although he did not like to be outdone with plotting, he had to admit that Maria had a valid point. His mood lifted at once when he realized that Karsten did not have to know that he’d screwed up his quarry’s seizure. Intimidation was key. He pranced over to Sylvia, making sure that he looked positively pissed. Then he sat down next to her, clutching her hair.

  “So, where is Dr. Gould, Mrs. Beach?” he growled softly.

  “I have no idea,” she replied, knowing in her heart that it was the worst answer she could give, but it was the plain truth. Her eyes teared up as she tried to say it another way, but her tongue would not move. In her peripheral vision she could see the huge man tense up and it scared the poor frail Sylvia to death.

  “The next time you say that,” he said calmly, tightening his fingers against her scalp, “I will snap your neck before you even breathe out.”

  She knew he was serious. He had too much on the line to be bluffing.

  11

  Reunion

  While Purdue was stuck in traffic on his way to JFK, Nina was on a plane that was just about to land in Nova Scotia.

  As she was crunching down on peanuts, her only savory treat in-flight, Nina was utterly oblivious to the fact that she was a missing person. Blissfully unaware of the silent war that waged in her wake, she looked forward to seeing Joanne Earle again after so many
years. She remembered the rocky start to their friendship where Nina's intolerance for self-conscious girls made her a super bitch in the eyes of the Earle-girl, as she called Joanne back then.

  It was only after the plump, but attractive Joanne punched Nina's roommate in the gut for sleeping with Nina's boyfriend that the historian and the Earle-girl became close companions for the latter part of their graduate year. They were two very different women, yet they got along swimmingly after the historical punch in the main dormitory of the university, something Nina was happy to rekindle.

  On top of the reunion, Nina was extremely curious about the possible find that could point to an obscure legend that Alexander the Great had sent various armadas out during his respective campaigns to hoard most of his plunder. Although he was not exactly a persona grata to her, he was still one of the most powerful figures prevalent in history. She had even published a thesis during her second year at Edinburgh University analyzing the mighty Alexander's psychological vehemence toward military greatness. Other than that, the man was not all that great in her opinion. As a matter of fact, Nina had once stated that, like Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great was only a few chalices of apathy away from Galigula, leaving the son of Olympias on the less-than-great scale.

  “Dr. Gould, we should be touching down soon,” the attendant told Nina.

  “Thank you,” Nina replied, closing her edition of Ghostly Tales and Legends of Newfoundland and Labrador. “Do you know how long the flight to Goose Bay is, by chance? I'm not sure if it would be better to stay in Halifax overnight before flying through.”

  “Oh, that flight is less than two hours, but,” she looked at her watch, “given the hour, I would personally wait until morning. Unless someone is waiting at the airport there?”

  “No,” Nina smiled. “I think I'll take your advice and head on through tomorrow morning. Ta.”

  It was a good idea too, for back at Goose Bay things were getting tense as well. The annoying know-it-all gym teacher had a hundred-and-one opinions as to what had happened to the poor woman who's remains Lisa had happened upon.

  “Oh God, shall we call CSI?” Joanna mumbled to Pam as he laid out yet another theory of how the woman must have died. “I'm sure they are missing important clues that Sherlock here could fill them in on.”

  Pam just shook her head and sipped at her too hot coffee. Lisa was still in shock, sitting quietly next to the two female teachers and, of course, the loudmouth Nathan who had a plethora of metaphors to joke with. The body had been collected by the coroner after the local police had secured the crime scene. The teachers correctly estimated that the corpse was quite old, although only missing persons research would be able to reveal her identity and the circumstances of her disappearance.

  But their long weekend had otherwise gone on unperturbed by any further grisly mysteries, and fortunately for the teachers, the holidays were due and they could relax. Joanne had already contacted the principal to notify him that she would be staying on in Goose Bay for the rest of the holidays to meet an old friend with whom she wished to catch up. She effectively made it sound innocent enough that nobody would give her decision a second thought.

  Only she knew that she endeavored something far bigger, far more monumental, and she was going to do it along with a world-renowned historian she knew would not accept anything at face value. If Nina Gould declared the gilded piece genuine, you could bet your life that it was so. In her excitement, Joanne wished she could tell Pam, but the truth was that Pam simply would not appreciate the magnitude of the matter. It wouldn’t be a big deal to her, sadly, and Joanne was left to keep her own secret – at least until Nina arrived.

  She could not contact Nina since the last time they’d spoken, having gotten in touch purely by a stroke of luck. But after she had given the successful historian all the details of her position, Joanne knew Nina would keep her word and get there as soon as possible.

  By the next day she was not disappointed. After the school group and the detestably annoying Mr. Spence had departed, Joanne rented her two-bed cabin for another three days at double rates to accommodate Nina too. Being left alone in the peaceful ambiance of the lake was blissfully lonely. It played on Joanne's emotions between feeling abandoned here in the wilderness and favoring the solitude away from constant questions and having to maintain composure at all times.

  Quiet, apart from the bird songs and occasional call of wildlife, draped itself over Joanne where she sat near one of the boat houses. In her hand she had the golden medallion she’d unlawfully procured from the dead woman. Perplexed by how she’d found it, Joanne tried to figure out what would have made the woman swallow the piece. There was only one clear reason for such a desperate act, in Joanne's opinion, and that was for it not to be found on her person at any cost. This item was so important that the woman would rather choke on it than deliver it. Teachers and prison guards knew these things better than anyone.

  Countless times she herself had had to search students for weapons or suspected stolen items which would be hidden in the oddest places; and the more desperate the holder, the more elaborate the hiding place.

  Nina touched down at Goose Bay Airport in the late morning and headed to the holiday camp where Joanne Earle was waiting anxiously to let her in on something amazing. Even among all the zeal of the history teacher from Labrador City, Nina tried not to set her heart on it being a prize from the Macedonian warlord's personal chest of treasure. She had been disappointed before by relics that had seemed like dead ringers for the real deal and was then left feeling foolish and empty when they were proved false. So this time she elected to remain skeptical until she could find proof to feel otherwise.

  “Nice outpost, Grizzly Adams,” Nina remarked as she came strolling up behind Joanne's crooked frame, hunched over to wash the coin in the lake. Joanne was sitting on the jetty with her bare feet dangling in the water as she scrutinized her prize. When she heard that heavy Edinburgh accent behind her, her heart jumped and she swung around with a huge grin. “Nina Gould! I can’t believe you actually made it!” She pulled her feet out of the water and tucked the coin back into her jeans pocket to give the petite historian a proper hug.

  “Bullshit,” Nina teased, “you knew full bloody well I would come.”

  Joanne laughed, ecstatic to be at the receiving end of Nina's aggressive affection again after so many years. She took a step back and looked at the pretty woman she once knew. “My goodness, you look fantastic! And that is not an obligatory platitude. You…you have muscles, Nina. Fuckin' hell, what have I missed?”

  Nina flexed playfully. “Long story. Almost kissed the Reaper, so I had to hit the weights to heal faster and better, you know? Next thing I knew I was hooked. And you have not aged a day, Earle-girl. I bet you have been avoiding marriage, right?”

  “Like the plague. You?” Joanne asked as she relieved Nina of her suitcase and started walking toward their cabin.

  “Aye, of course. Jesus, I can’t think of a greater punishment on a great mind than the confinement of concubine duty. I’m glad to see you have not succumbed,” she laughed at Joanne's quirky expression at the concubine remark.

  “No, I have a life, thank you. Speaking of which,” the teacher started. “I believe you’ve been making waves in the academic world since 2012 or so, hey?”

  “Why do you say that?” Nina frowned, wondering which one of her adventures had made it all the way to Canada's gossip store.

  “I’ve read Sam Cleave's second book. Oh my God, what a roller coaster you’ve been on while on those expeditions with him and that explorer…what's his name, the guy who died during the last excursion?” They’d turned the corner to the front door of their cottage before Joanne realized that the dead guy was one of Nina's closest friends. She stopped in her tracks and pursed her lips together with regret. “Oh shit, Nina, I'm so sorry.”

  “For what?” Nina shrugged. “People die every day and we have to accept it. Especially people like Dave Purdue. He
died loving what he did and he had no regrets. Besides, I don't think of him as gone for good, you know? It’s as if he’s still around.”

  Nina could not help but feel bad for her nonchalant manner about death, particularly because she knew he was not lost to her. She felt ashamed, not only for lying to Joanne, but for pretending to grieve while others in the world, at that very moment, were not fortunate enough to pretend.

  “That’s a wonderful way to deal with the loss,” Joanne said. “I'm sure he would have loved to be here right now, to help us get to the bottom of this trinket and go looking for its origin. That’s if it’s authentic.”

  “Oh aye,” Nina smiled, “he would have done anything to be here right now, I'm certain.”

  By the time Nina got settled in and had unpacked her basics, the day had worn on into mid-afternoon. She was anxious to examine the relic, so they sat down at the breakfast nook by the kitchenette's window. The view was magnificent through it. Dark green towering trees rocked soundly in the breeze, ushering the rolling clouds across the lakeside. Even the water displayed rarely more than a ripple across its mirror where ducks and geese gathered in the afternoon coolness. At that moment, the only signs of other people were a few strewn water toys and a few odd pieces of clothing hung up to dry. Nobody was in sight.

  Being free from prying eyes, the two women deemed the time right to check out the coin and determine if it was genuine. Joanne placed it on the smooth wooden surface of the nook, allowing the eastern light to illuminate it against the timber background. Her eyes stayed glued to Nina's face to ascertain the result, but Nina's poker face revealed nothing at first.