by Cameron West
prologue
–1491–
But for God and the bakers, all of Italy slept through the sultry August night and the moment of the great discovery—that is, all except the inventor, who stood back from the heat of his forging furnace, astonished, holding the cooling, practically weightless dagger in his palm. The piercing blade glinted in the orange light as beads of sweat gathered like berries on the hairs of the man’s strong wrists.Placing the dagger point-up in a vise, the man hefted a sledge and struck the blade’s tip with full force. The hammer’s iron mallet split like a ripe melon. Using his extraordinary powers of reason, the man struggled to account for this miracle. There was only one answer. An incalculable ingredient had been added to his experimental mixture of metals.
Gazing skyward out his window, the genius contemplated another question even more profound. Would his incredible discovery be used for good or for evil? As he solemnly watched the molten sparks from his furnace chimney race toward the velvety heavens, the man from Vinci made his decision.
And five centuries passed.
twenty years ago
one
Isank into the black leather sofa in my father’s spacious office, leaning against a pillow that looked like a big, silky Chiclet. Tension rippled through the room. I glanced up at my dad, who was slumped forward in his chair, elbows on his leather-topped desk, forehead in one hand. His face was six inches from the speakerphone—a boxy thing, separate from the telephone, that sounded even worse than they do today. Wedged between the fingers of his other hand was a number-two pencil that he nervously wiggled back and forth.The voice coming out of the phone belonged to Ensign Hector Camacho, a representative from the Coast Guard. “I’m very sorry, sir,” Camacho said with professional dispassion.
My dad winced as if he’d stepped on a thumbtack. “You’re saying he could have gone down anywhere within a hundred-mile radius?”
“I’m saying that—”
“Can’t you find that plane? You cannot fathom the importance of this, the devastating consequences!” Sweat glistened on my father’s upper lip.
“Try to calm down, Dr. Barnett,” Camacho said. “I know how difficult this must be for you, losing, uh, Mr. Greer.”
“Henry!” Dad shouted, and then, as if in an afterthought, he said, “Oh, God . . . Henry.” I knew Henry Greer was the pilot and courier my father had sent to France to retrieve a page of Leonardo da Vinci’s notes.
“Was he a relation?” Camacho asked.
My father ignored the question. “So there’s no way at all to recover this airplane?”
“He went down in very deep waters, and probably at high speed,sir.”
My father snapped the yellow pencil and threw the two halves on the floor. “Jesus!”
I squirmed in my seat and thought maybe I should take a walk. But I stayed.
“I know,” Camacho said. “I’m very sorry.”
My dad was silent for what seemed like a full minute before I realized that he was crying. That got me, and I felt tears welling up, too.
Out of the little box, Camacho’s voice said,“Mister . . . um, Doctor?”
“You’ll call me if anything turns up?” Dad said desperately. “Anything. A piece of paper. A scrap of paper.”
“Of course, sir.”
“A document of any kind. Anything with writing on it.”
“We’ll call you immediately if anything at all is recovered, sir.”
My dad collected himself. “Thank you, Ensign,” he said. “ Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, sir,” Camacho said, and disconnected.
My father stared at the dead speakerphone. I got up and walked over behind him, my boot heels silent on the thick maroon carpet. When I placed a hand on his shoulder, I realized his shirt was damp from sweat.
“Dad?” I called softly.
He slowly raised his head and looked at me through watery eyes. “It’s gone, son,” he whispered. “It’s gone.”
On July nights the humidity in Georgetown was so thick it looked as if a plastic shower curtain had been hung in front of the moon.Sometimes, after my mom and dad had kissed me good night and closed my door, I’d get out of bed and kneel down in front of my second-story window, open it up, and poke my head out into the night. I’d squint up at the hazy yellow face of the moon and feel the air-conditioning going one way and the hot, sticky air going the other, until I’d start to sweat or a mosquito would nail me.The night of the plane crash I lay on my back in bed, propped up on my elbows. My mother leaned over me, dressed in her light blue cotton robe, scrubbed clean, no makeup. I breathed in the scent of her favorite soap—apricot from Caswell Massey—hoping to ease some of my worry. I watched Mom’s eyes as she fluffed my pillow.Her eyes are the color of acorns,I thought. The serenity they normally radiated was absent that night. And my sheets were tucked in too tightly. I pried them loose with my toes.
“You did the wash today, huh.”
“Nothing like fresh sheets, is there?” Mom said, managing a smile. “Okay, there we go. You can cozy up now.”
There was no chance of that happening. I laid my head back and my mother pulled the covers under my chin.
“Is Dad coming up to give me a kiss?”
She sighed. “I don’t think so, sweetie. I don’t know when he’s coming up. He’s . . . you know, he’s pretty upset.” She covered her mouth with her hand. If she cried I’d have a nightmare for sure.
“But it was an accident,” I said. “It wasn’t his fault.”
“I know, but . . .” She sat down on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on my chest. I wanted to hold it, but my arms were stuck at my sides like a mummy’s.
“Dad feels responsible,” she said. “If he hadn’t bought the notes for the museum, or if he’d gone to get them himself, instead of sending the courier . . . He’s really . . . upset.”
“Is he going to feel better tomorrow? What about the museum party? Are we still going to have the party? We’re not, are we?”
Just the low hum of the air conditioner.
“Maybe now nobody’ll ever find the Medici Dagger.” I sighed. “What would Leonardo think of that?”
“It was a tragedy today. For a lot of people.”
“I could have helped. I could have done something.”
“Honey, you’re eleven. There was nothing you could have done. Now go to sleep. Everything’s going to be all right.”
She kissed my cheek and gave my earlobe a little tug. “Have swell dreams and a peach,” she whispered in my ear. “Swell dreams and a peach.”
“Big peach,” I said, taking a last whiff of her. “Oh, Mom . . .”
“I know. The night-light.”
She stopped by the door, clicked on the little light, and turned off the overhead.“Happy dancing shadows . . .” she began.
“. . . in Reb’s sleep-tight light,” I murmured, finishing our little ritual. She padded down the hall, creaking the old floor in all the usual spots.
Everything’s going to be all right. Everything’s going to be all right. I wish I could have done something—flown the plane maybe. Everything’s going to be all right. Everything.
I was dreaming about twigs crackling in a campfire when my mother’s scream woke me. I bolted up in bed and looked out the window, surprised by the brightness. The campfire? A second scream shook me out of my dream state. I smelled smoke and realized the light was from a real fire creeping up the outside of our wooden house.
“Mom! Dad!” I shouted as a window exploded somewhere downstairs. Smoke billowed up from under my door like a ghost coming to get me. I jumped out of bed; the rug felt oddly warm under my bare feet. Running to the window, I threw it open and punched the screen out. All around me flames licked the h
ouse. Looking up, I saw the shake-roof shingles burning, shooting cinders like a million fireflies into the night sky. The whine of fire engines pierced the roar of the blaze, and I heard my mother scream my name from somewhere deep in the house.
“Mom!” I yelled as I crawled backward, feet-first, out the window. I hung on to the sill with an iron grip, looking into my room, waiting forsomething—I didn’t know what. My hands began to tremble, but I held on tight.
Just as the first fire truck came racing down our narrow street, my bedroom door burst open and I saw Mom standing in the doorway, flames all around her. Our eyes met and she shrieked,“Reb! Jump!” Her nightgown was on fire. Men’s voices shouted at me from down below— echoes from a distant canyon. As my mother threw her arms out and took two steps toward me, the house shuddered and the roof collapsed, with a sound like a thousand bones breaking, crushing her into eternity.
I froze for a second, suspended in a place where the claws of horror couldn’t touch me. Then, scrambling my feet up the clapboard siding, a dozen splinters piercing my soles, I pushed off the wall and turned in midair, arcing over the walkway, going into a dive, reaching for the ground. I heard yelling as I hit the small patch of grass by the big elm near the curb and rolled smack up against the tree.
And then the world went black.
I don’t remember the name of the doctor who told me my parents had died in the fire. I know it was a man, though, because the voice was deep and had come from somewhere above little gold sea horses that floated in an ocean of royal blue tie.“Can you look at me, son?” he asked.
I gazed at the strange, curly-tailed creatures, envying their silken inanimateness. “I am looking at you,” I replied flatly.
He cupped my face in his cold hands, swallowed audibly, and said again, softly, almost crying, “Can you look at me, son?”
I realized that he was probably thinking of his own kids. I felt sorry for him, having to be the one to tell me. I couldn’t look at him, though. I just let him deliver the news while I mingled with the sea horses. It wasn’t really news.
I’m nobody’s son,I thought.
the present
two
Icrashed through the third-story picture window of the huge chalet at the exact moment the entire floor exploded. Landing on my stomach on the snow-covered, second-story roof, I did a “Superman” down thirty feet of steep pitch. Gunfire erupted from the nearby woods, breaking off chunks of slate all around me. I scrambled to get my body turned around before I ran out of roof.I slid over the edge feet-first, latching on to the big tin rain leader with my fingertips. One of the men in the forest yelled something in Russian. I heard two bursts of gunfire and felt the metal rip on either side of me. The section of leader I clung to groaned and broke off, and I fell twenty feet, barely managing to get the jagged piece of tin under my boots. I hit the steep, sloping ground in a crouch and slingshotted down the hill like a snowboarder on a double-diamond trail. Four guys jumped on two snowmobiles, roared their two-strokes to life, and took off after me.
I yanked my gun out of its shoulder holster, pointed it at the snowmobile on my far right, and squeezed off three rounds. The driver grabbed his chest, and the snowmobile smashed into a tree and exploded.
With the second sled closing in, I entered a steep, bumpy clearing. Fifty yards ahead, a single red and yellow hang glider launched off a sheer cliff. I aimed for the glider and crouched, feeling the spring in my thighs and the stir in my belly as I prepared for the dive. In an instant, the ground disappeared and my board dropped off into space; the snowmobile driver behind me swerved to a stop at the edge of the precipice.
I arched my back and stretched every fiber in my arms and fingers toward the glider, shot by the wing, and grabbed on to the frame at the front. The glider took a sharp dive. Some biceps and body English would have snapped it back up, but I leaned forward and to the right and we went into a spin. One, two, three, four, five electrifying, corkscrewing seconds ticked by before I countered with my hundred and eighty-five pounds, yanked the frame with all my strength, and pulled the glider straight to sail out over the icy blue lake.
The second unit director’s voice came over my earpiece. “Jeeeezusss, Reb! What the hell happened up there?”I locked my harness to the glider frame. My hands were trembling, but not from the chilly mountain air. It was “the heights”—the shakes I get whenever I fly or take a fall. I don’t make the heights public.
“Did you get the shot?” I said into my lapel mike, feeling the ebb of adrenaline.
“Of course I got it! It was gorgeous. But major heart attacks are happening here. Who said spin? Did anybody say—”
“Marty, nothing bad happened, right?”
“Uh, right.”
“Then please just say ‘thanks.’ And ‘that’s a wrap.’ Don’t forget to say that.”
“Okay, okay,” he squawked. “Thanks, that’s El Wrappo!”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
I’d nailed it—the whole scene. It was over the top. I knew it would be. Knew it when I talked Charlie, the hang-glider pilot, into going for the spins. He didn’t want to, of course, but I swore to him it would be all right. “Think of the bragging rights,” I told him, “and besides, you can always break off and pull your chute.” Charlie didn’t know I left mine in my trailer.
Nine cameras rolling—one take. A good morning’s work andthe end of the picture for me. Later they’d punch in the close-ups of the star, the dapper and always cool Tom Sloane, apologizing to a beautiful hang-glider pilot:“Sorry to drop by unannounced.” Meanwhile, Charlie was giving me the thumbs-up. I grinned, unclenched a hand, and pulled my earlobe, hoping he didn’t see the heights.
There was major whooping and back-slapping when we got back to the set, followed by everybody thanking everybody and exchanging temporary goodbyes. I made the rounds fast, then changed out of my getup into a tight black T-shirt, faded jeans, brown leather bomber jacket, and custom-made Beatle boots.
I was getting ready to leave when the producer, a slim woman named Rhonda, all red hair and big lips, headed my way with the star himself.
Tom was about my size and looked remarkably like me—dark wavy hair and brown eyes—which kept me busy as his double. His best quality, though, other than his naturally good teeth, was his wife’s spinach and mushroom quiche.
I heard Rhonda telling him, “Are you kidding me? With this in the trailer we could show two hours of you sleeping and still rake in a hundred and fifty mil. And that’s just domestic.”
Today I’d fallenandflown, and still had a touch of the heights. I slipped my hands into my pockets.
Tom flashed me his famous smile. “Jesus, Reb, how’d I do that?”
“You had no choice,” I replied with a shrug. “They were trying to kill you.”
“Good line,” Rhonda said. “Very macho. But that spin, Reb. One of these days you’re going down. Don’t you know the meaning of the word ‘danger’?”
“Danger’s my maiden name,” I said, forcing a grin.
She laughed. “C’mon, let’s all go celebrate.”
“Can’t,” I replied, turning in the direction of my ’68 silver-blue Jaguar XK-E. “I left some wet towels in my washer.” I could feel my gut churning and knew I’d better get out of there fast.
Tom turned to Rhonda. “Towels?” he bristled. “What’s he talking about, towels?”
As I made my escape, I heard Rhonda smoothing him: “ Stuntmen . . . strangers in a strange land.”
I pulled off the road at the first deserted spot, sank to my knees, and threw up all over some wildflowers.Rhonda had it almost right. But I’m not going down one of these days. I already went down.
The warm western sun presided over a shiny sea as I pulled up the short driveway to my Malibu bungalow. I let the motor idle for a moment before turning it off, not wanting to hear the lonely crackle of the cooling exhaust system or the single cardinal singing to itself, as if it didn’t matter that I was alone again
.I reluctantly entered the house, quickly stripped, and threw on my old Speedo shorts, a holey T-shirt, and my Etonic something-or-other running shoes. I had to get out and take a run. Didn’t want to. Had to . . . breathe . . . sweat.
Sometimes when I run I forget where I am, evenwhoI am, and become a jungle man in a loincloth and bare feet—a vertical streak of blood and muscle racing through tall grass and wet trees, with monkeys oo-ooing and a slinking panther catching my scent and salivating.
My mind is clear and still in that jungle, and I can spot the black beast before it lunges, and dodge it or, worst case, catch its eye and get one laugh in before it sinks its long white teeth into my neck. I dodge for a living, and I already know what dying is like. I knew the second the roof caved in on my life, the second I let go of the sill. The last time I died I didn’t get to laugh. So getting the laugh in now, that’s important.
I did the 4.2-mile loop through the Malibu hills, stretched out in the driveway till I stopped sweating, then went in and showered. I cooked some scallops in ginger and fresh chives, opened a bottle ofwine, poured a glass, and moved into the living room carrying my dinner.
Beethoven’s “Pastoral” played softly in the background. My eyes glanced across the room, past the rows of art books that lined my bookshelves, to the dents in the recently laid carpet where a heavy Morris chair had been. I tried not to look at the empty space, but free will had all but eluded me since Emily left three weeks earlier, taking her chair with her. I didn’t ask her to leave, but we both knew our relationship was destined to fail. I came home from a shoot and found her packing her bags, dividing up the few things we’d bought together. Emily’s dents weren’t the first. At that moment I’d sworn, yet again, that they would be the last.
She’d said she wasn’t mad at me, she was mad at herself—being a therapist—forever thinking she could nest in a tumbleweed. I didn’t stop her from reciting the litany of my sins, though I’d heard them all before: risk-taking bordering on self-destruction, unresolved issues of pain and loss, fear of intimacy, inability to commit. Handing me the spare house key at the front door, she told me that I ought to look into my dreams, then closed with what she referred to as my “obsession with Ginevra de’ Benci.”
