by JL Terra
“We can’t keep this up for long before we’ll be surrounded by cops.”
Still on the line, Remy said, “I have a minute or two before I’m toast on the traffic cams. I’ve lost control already. I’m backtracking, but they’ve locked me here so they can hold me while they figure out what I’ve been looking at.”
“So whoever you tipped off is in your system?” They’d had breaches before. It was never good.
Remy said, “For now they’ve just paralyzed me. Some MIT dropout, I’m guessing. City employee with a god complex.” She paused. “But they’ve also got a helicopter on it. They can see you from the sky now.”
So now wasn’t the time for either him or Shadrach to stick their heads out the window and give away their identities.
Shadrach kept as close as he could on their tail. Daire shook his head at the insanity of the mission. Providence had aligned the events this way for a reason. At least, that was what he had always believed. Now he just needed to figure out what that reason was.
To show him the book wasn’t secure?
Or something else?
Daire fired the rifle again, this time at the opposite back tire. Rubber exploded and the van weaved as it continued on. At the next corner they skidded, equally as fast as before. Police cars headed toward them from the north.
“It’s gonna overturn.” Shadrach gripped the wheel and took the same corner. He stayed right behind them.
Daire didn’t get why the driver continued like that, stubbornly determined to kill everyone in his vehicle.
This was all far too organized to be a random confluence of events. There was something going on between Penelope and these guys. And the people who’d contracted her to get the ancient book. Perhaps she’d been selling ancient relics on the black market for years.
Or collecting specific items for a purpose.
For someone.
He’d removed that threat from the world. “I killed him.”
Up ahead the van crashed onto its side.
Shadrach yanked the wheel to the left. “Remy, is the helicopter still watching?”
Daire could hear cop cars, but they’d lost them for at least a couple of minutes. Not long at all.
“Affirmative,” she said. “It’s right on top of you. And they’re about to breach my system. I’m going to have to cut and run, I’m afraid. Plus I think Dauntless has to pee.”
“Do it,” Daire said. Safety wasn’t first, but it was one of their top priorities. Exposure was a risk to them all. Shadrach drove past the van. No movement from inside, though they couldn’t see much other than the undercarriage without passing it and peeking in the front windshield.
Shadrach pulled into an alley between two tall buildings. Far enough the helicopter hopefully wouldn’t be able to see them. Both climbed out and ditched the weapons. They used a side door and came out the front of the building, walking at an easy pace like any other day.
“I don’t see Penelope or anyone else,” Daire said. “Do you?”
“No.” Shadrach eyed him. “You really should’ve ditched the jacket. It’s a dead giveaway.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to argue, but then it hit him. Shadrach was right. Anyone in the international covert operations community, or private security, who saw his leather jacket knew who he was. That he worked for Ben.
“The jacket goes with me.”
Shadrach stared for a moment, then nodded. The former Marine sniper was the same way about his rifle. No one touched it. No one even opened the case without his permission.
No one moved inside the van. He rounded it to the back doors and pulled the handle. The door swung out and landed on the ground in front of his feet.
Two cop cars pulled up. When the first officer hopped out, Daire yelled, “I think these people are hurt!”
Penelope lay on the floor of the van. Her eyes fluttered as she regained consciousness.
He looked around inside. Two dead, one of which was the mangled driver. The third had been shoved out. Shadrach said, “This kind of feels like deja-vu.”
Daire couldn’t argue with that.
Penelope moaned again and her gaze focused on him. “No.”
“Sorry to foil your getaway.” He’d had enough of her claiming to be the victim.
The cop looked in the van and whistled.
“She’s alive, but she needs an ambulance.”
“On its way.” The guy motioned over Daire’s shoulder. “We have to look for the other vehicle. Stay with her.”
“Sure thing,” Daire said. He shot Shadrach a look and saw his teammate’s lips twitch. Better than they could have hoped for.
Penelope shifted where she lay and winced, then expended the energy she needed to stay awake by glaring at him. Behind her was a black, hard-sided box. A tactical equipment case—like the ones they transported their weapons in.
Shadrach said, “You’re clear.”
Daire climbed over her. He made sure the gun wasn’t within her grasp and kept one eye on her while he shifted the case into reach.
“Still clear.”
He flipped the latches. Foam had been stripped out of the inside of the case. A cavity big enough to hold the box he kept the book in. Daire looked at Penelope. “Where is it?”
Her mouth widened. “No one can take the past from us. Only we will control the future.”
“He is dead.” Daire stared her down. “I don’t think you have the book. Any of the books.”
She cackled, then gasped and coughed. Blood coated her lips. “We will find—.” Her eyes rolled back in her head.
Daire slammed the lid of the case down in frustration. “I killed him years ago. I ended this.”
There was no way it was happening again.
More cops showed up. Then the ambulance. Then detectives and a Lieutenant. News crews. Daire and Shadrach both gave statements on what they’d “seen.” It was frustrating as all get out, but if they didn’t work the ruse to the end—as witnesses were stumbling onto the scene—it put them under suspicion.
Three hours later, a nurse at Mount Sinai went to check her patient’s blood pressure and found only rumpled covers on an empty bed.
Penelope Silver was gone.
Chapter 5
Penelope was unconscious, lying across the backseat of the car when Shadrach pulled into a tiny regional airport in upstate New York. He handed a stack of bills to the security guard who waved them on without even blinking at their arrival. Not even checking the IDs of the two men wearing sunglasses against the glare of sunrise on the horizon.
Shadrach headed straight for the hangar and pulled the vehicle through the open doors. He’d called in on the way there, which meant the pilot was already into his preflight checks. It wouldn’t be long before they were wheels up. Headed back to England to hand Penelope over to the British Museum—and whatever authorities they chose to bring into the situation. If she really had been stealing and selling artifacts on the black market, justice would follow.
It was the rest of it that worried him.
The implications alone raced through his veins like a virus. That, or he was still bleeding off adrenaline. He shivered against the wave of cold. Shadrach would probably believe the latter, which was fine. Daire wasn’t anticipating explaining everything to the team.
They climbed out of the car just as Malachi rounded the open door of the hangar and strode in. Blood coated the bottom half of his T-shirt, but he’d washed his hands.
Daire said, “How is she?”
They shook hands as Shadrach walked past him onto the plane.
Malachi said, “Got stitched up, and Remy got her a flight out that leaves in a couple of hours.”
“Good deal.” Daire motioned to the car. “I have something I need a hand with.”
Malachi didn’t even react to the unconscious woman in the backseat of the car. Daire hauled her out and slung her over his shoulder, ignoring the bruise in his chest where she’d shot him. He’d barely fel
t it until now.
Malachi fell into step beside him with the rest of their stuff. “So we’re turning her back in?”
Daire nodded. “The museum can decide what to do. But first, we need her to wake up so she can answer some questions. There’s no point turning her back over to a civilian organization if she’s a potential danger.”
Malachi shrugged. “Shooting her would take care of that.”
It would also make for a shorter report.
Too bad that wouldn’t get Daire the answers he needed. This was personal. He had a five-hour flight to figure out how to break the news to his team. And to rouse Penelope Silver. Maybe he should inject into Penelope some more of what they’d dosed Sanjay with to make him talk.
Daire wanted to believe someone had simply stumbled across a reference to the book he had hidden so carefully years ago. That they’d unearthed buried secrets and didn’t exactly know what they had stumbled upon—maybe just hoping to benefit financially. That would be the best case scenario.
Then again, Penelope might have been drawn into some kind of cult following of the man Daire had killed. She could be a true believer in a myth from long ago that had no bearing on modern-day life. It had happened before.
The mythical creature tied to Ben had drawn attention to itself after being ordered to kill everyone who knew about it. In an effort to control it, a man had ensnared a group of people who were affected in some way or another by the deaths that had been carried out by the creature. Even brainwashing them in order to gain their allegiance. In the end, they’d all been willing to die. Or be turned into twisted facsimiles of the creature itself.
Daire wanted to beg the heavens that this wasn’t something similar. None of them had emerged unscathed from that experience. And while Ben had been reunited with the woman he’d lost, not all the endings had been happy.
Daire laid Penelope on the floor in the back of the plane, then secured her hands and feet with zip ties. He told the pilot they were ready to leave, and within a minute or two, the plane was taxiing out of the hangar and headed for the runway.
Shadrach pulled out a laptop and set it on the table between two rows of recliners that faced each other. He used the built-in Wi-Fi signal to make a video call to Remy. When she answered, her camera loaded the image. She smiled, her red hair and glasses completing the nerd persona she favored. A German shepherd wandered over and nudged her elbow. She patted the dog on the head and smiled at them. “Hey, guys.”
“You’re such a good boy,” Shadrach crooned in a high-pitched voice.
Dauntless whined.
“Yes, you are.”
Daire said, “Do we need to be concerned about a breach of the network?”
“I’m running a check right now, but I think I got out of there in time.” Remy’s gaze flicked to the side, and she bit her lip for a second. “The safeguards I had in place are keeping them from following me back to the source.”
Malachi wandered over and sat across the aisle from them. Listening, but also looking at the gun magazine in his hands.
Daire said, “Play it safe. We’ll talk again at the meeting on Monday.” In the meantime, he needed to check that the book in New York was where he’d left it.
“Will do.” She tapped on her keyboard then reached up to swipe the screen of her computer. “What about Penelope? Anything from her I should know about?”
“Soon as she wakes up, we’ll be questioning her.” Daire turned to look back at the archeologist. Still unconscious. “If she doesn’t want to talk, then I’ll use something. It’s about five hours before we hit London airspace. We have time.”
Remy nodded. “And this scroll she was looking for?”
“Let’s save that for Monday as well,” Daire said, hoping none of them called him on it. “I’ll brief you then on what I know.”
At least as far as what they needed to know. Given Daire had killed his enemy, what would this book even mean to whoever wanted it? It had no power in and of itself. And no one in the world but Daire knew what to do with it. The idea it might be dug up from where Daire had hidden it from the world, and put back into circulation—into public view—made him want to ditch Penelope and run back to his condo in New York.
He’d thought it was so secure. Hidden in a place that could never be found. No one alive, except him, knew about the book. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake now that he knew there were people after his things. Whatever the threat, it was real.
All three books, not just the one he’d hidden in New York, were in danger.
Penelope moaned. He looked back and saw her stir.
Shadrach said, “Looks like she’s waking up.”
Daire didn’t know if he should ask Remy to check on the other two books. At least one of the books was hidden so obscurely it would take anyone who was looking years to find. Buried where no one would ever think to go.
This one was in New York. The other had been handed down through generations, unbeknownst to the family that their “heirloom” was so much more. Last he’d heard, they’d been talking about loaning it to a museum.
What if the book in New York was the last artifact to be found? His entire life would be exposed.
Perhaps, with Ben’s team all going their own separate ways, it was time to move on. Restart his own journey. Safeguard the books for good. Make sure they never fall into the wrong hands again.
Penelope gasped. Daire pushed out of his chair and made his way back to her. She lay on the floor and stared up at him, wide-eyed.
Daire waited.
“I’m not going to tell you anything. You’ve kidnapped me, and I don’t have to do anything you say.”
Behind him, Shadrach snorted. “Wow.”
Daire said, “I guess you could just tell the British Museum all about what you’ve done. I’m sure they’d be very interested to hear what you’ve been up to.”
Her eyes flashed. “You can’t turn me over to them. They’re going to take me into custody when what I really need is a hospital.”
“Seems to me prison is exactly where you need to be.”
Shadrach said, “Given they have hospitals in prison.”
“You can’t…” She sputtered. “I’m not…”
Daire leaned an elbow on the back of the seat closest to him. “Who were those men in the van?” Men they had fought multiple times today. And at least one of them had died, only to show up again moments later. Did she know who—what—they were?
“They’re my kidnappers.” She stared at him like he was a moron.
He had to tread carefully or she would shut down. Had she been coached not to give away any secrets? He wanted to be sure she definitely wouldn’t tell him what she knew before he resorted to injecting her with anything. But he was quickly running out of patience.
“Who hired you?”
“I know nothing about the book or who wants it.”
“You’re obviously associated with them. Whatever you have going on with illegally-obtained artifacts doesn’t matter that much to me. I want to know about the past.” Daire paused, waiting for her reaction as he disclosed the name of the first book, the one he had hidden in New York. “Your business is your business.”
“Then why are you turning me back over to the British Museum like some kind of… of…criminal.”
Daire wanted to roll his eyes. Wasn’t that exactly what she was? Life usually wasn’t black and white, but she’d deceived her employer for money. “How did you know the book would be in New York?”
“I was given instructions,” she said. “We’ve been over this. I was emailed.”
Daire had never told anyone where he’d hidden it. There was no record of him having acquired it, or of it being sold to him. Nothing. If he’d actually forgotten at any point where he’d hidden it…well, that would have made things better. No one on earth would’ve known where it was then.
“Impossible.” He lifted his chin.
“He said you’d say that.”
Ice washed over him. Like falling into a frozen lake. “You talked to…”
“Can you see the wind? It flows through the trees and moves from place to place. Touches at will.” She paused, her gaze absent now. “So it is with him.”
Daire blew out a frustrated breath.
Behind him, Shadrach snorted. He muttered something under his breath about mumbo jumbo, which Daire ignored.
He said, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with. And you won’t, until the point your will is taken from you. The last thing you’ll know is that you’re burning alive.”
“To be such is reserved for the most devout of his followers.”
“He is not a god,” Daire said. “I have seen him bleed. When I pulled my sword from his belly.”
“Is he dead?” A knowing smile curled her thin lips.
“So I thought.” Because I killed him.
“And yet you do not believe in him?”
He wasn’t going to get anywhere with this woman. She’d clearly been suckered into a world she didn’t understand, couldn’t control, and wasn’t going to escape from alive.
Shadrach got up and made his way over. “Is she crazy, or what? Talking about gods like they’re just walking around here on earth.”
“There is only one God,” Daire said. “And it is not the man she’s talking about.”
“You lie!”
Daire glanced at Shadrach. “She thinks I’m lying.”
The younger man grinned, though his eyes held that edge of world weariness. Everything he’d seen and done was there like a shadow in his gaze. Daire knew Shadrach didn’t believe, but that didn’t stop him from respecting the man. Shadrach might not want to converse much about spiritual things, but that was fine. Ben’s faith was certainly an important part of his life, though it was more understated than many people’s.
Daire had walked his own path. So far in working with Ben’s team, the details just hadn’t come up. And yet it was intertwined with everything he needed to tell them.
Shadrach said, “As informative as this conversation is, maybe you should ask her again who those guys were.”
