“Anything else pop up?” Finn asked.
Rafe shook his head. “Alexander Capellas runs a restaurant. The same one his grandmother ran, and her mother before that. The necklace came to him through his father’s side of the family. His father stepped out of the picture when he was a child, but the extended family stuck around, and, as the last son, he inherited it along with other possessions from his grandfather.”
“No clue why he suddenly parted with it? His family has hung on to that thing for over a hundred and fifty years. Any financial worries with the restaurant? Relatives ill and needing medical care? Gambling debts?”
Rafe shook his head. “Nothing. He’s comfortable, but he doesn’t live the high life by any standard, and there is nothing to indicate he suddenly wanted to change those circumstances. He’s known as a hard worker, loyal, honorable.”
Finn nodded. “He’s as stubborn and as strong on protecting his family name as Theo is about restoring his. That’s why I can’t figure out what could possibly make him change that, after decades of legal battles that had to hurt him financially as much as it hurt Theo.”
“Maybe my government convinced him,” Felicity said.
This had come up on the plane ride, with no good rationale coming out of it. “It makes sense, but with what?”
“Blackmail?”
“He lives in a small Greek village and runs a family restaurant—”
“The one thing he is the most stubborn about is his family,” Rafe said. “If your people had something on a member of his family, and threatened to take it public, even if just in his immediate village—”
Finn nodded. “That could do it. He’d hate it, but it might be enough. It would have been for Theo, I think, if it were damning enough and there was no other alternative, or the pressure was just more than he could surmount. And, as you said, his resources were very limited.”
“I’ll do some more digging, look at that angle. I started digging back on his father, but so far, I can’t track the guy at all. It’s like he—”
“Disappeared?” Felicity and Finn said at the same time. “Sort of like they made Julia disappear from her former life,” Finn finished.
Rafe’s expression changed. “Except, as far as I can tell, his father’s life until that point was pretty routine. Yes, his wife died giving birth to Alexander, but from what I’ve dug up, his family was quite close and they all dealt with the blow. I don’t know that his answer would have been to also abandon his family. He seemed to be cut from the same cloth as the rest of them in terms of loyalty.”
Finn thought about that, then had another idea. “What if he was convinced to leave, or go down a different path, for the same reason his son was convinced to give up the necklace.”
“To protect the family name?”
“In their culture, and his was especially Old World, it could follow.” He looked at Rafe. “Maybe we need to dig more on the father, but also start tracking back. Theo has the provenance on the necklace up to the point where it left his family’s hands in the early eighteen hundreds. So it would have to be something that happened with it after that.”
“With it, or to it,” Felicity said.
Both men looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve talked about testing the stone, and the setting, the necklace, to verify it is in fact an artifact and not some kind of duplicate, or something that would be out of the ordinary. I’m thinking that if the necklace proves authentic, it doesn’t rule out foul play in the same vein.”
“I’m not following,” Rafe said.
“I think I am.” Finn paused on the path and turned to Felicity. “You mean you think something is hidden in or on the necklace.”
“Something like that.”
Rafe said, “But microtechnology didn’t begin until—”
“It doesn’t have to be a micro dot or chip,” she said. “It could be something encrypted, scrolled into the metal, or—”
“Or designed right into the jewelry. I know something about that.”
They turned to find Julia and Reese behind them.
“You think it’s not the necklace itself, but information being passed along with it?”
“What else about a gemstone and some jewelry could jeopardize security, or, by passing it along to someone, be seen as a betrayal of one’s country?” Reese countered.
“We’ve been discussing it, too,” Julia said, “and I think you’ve hit on something.” She looked to Rafe and Mac. “Do you have equipment that could scan for technology?” She glanced at Felicity. “We also can’t rule out that Alexander’s father worked for his government, in the same capacity we do for ours. Microtechnology did exist in his day.” She looked back at the men. “I can go over it and look for inconsistencies in the metal work. If you have a really good magnifier, we can examine it for possible micromessaging.”
“You mean engraved right into the setting? Or, the stone?” Felicity looked properly horrified at the thought. “That piece is over a thousand years old. Would they really desecrate it like that?”
“If it’s even the original setting. No one knows. It’s been in Capellas’ family for over a century.”
“I didn’t have it authenticated,” Reese said. “I did verify it was in the case, and I had the provenance paperwork direct from Capellas as well.”
“So, you got it straight from Capellas?” Rafe asked. “Or did someone else play mule getting it out of Greece?”
“No, I was sent down there to get it. I got it out—”
“Did it go to headquarters before coming to the States?” Felicity asked.
He shook his head. “No. Direct to New York for the meeting with Chesnokov’s agent.”
“And you knew he’d be using a courier,” Rafe stated.
“Yes. I knew to expect Andreev. Chesnokov uses him frequently. There was nothing out of the ordinary there.”
“He didn’t demand any kind of proof it was authentic?”
Reese turned to Mac. “I have an impeccable reputation. He relied on that.”
Unfazed by Reese’s cool response, Mac pressed. “You weren’t concerned that you might jeopardize that impeccable reputation by not personally guaranteeing its authenticity?”
“There was no time for that. And no, I was following orders as I always did. I trusted they would not set me up.” He looked to Julia. “A misplaced trust, it would seem. For both of us.” He looked back to Finn and Mac. “But, at that time, I had no reason to believe it wouldn’t be in their best interests as well to maintain my integrity. I worked with them often enough, it was to their advantage as well.”
Mac nodded, as did Rafe, satisfied.
Now it was Finn’s turn. He looked to Julia. “I know you have a background of some kind in art, but this is jewelry, and—”
“My background is actually in ancient studies and archaeology.” She smiled. “With a second master’s in art history.”
Even Reese looked surprised by that little tidbit. “New revelations,” was all he said, though.
Julia flushed a little. “You never asked,” she told him.
“You’re so young to be so accomplished,” Felicity said, then quickly added, “I didn’t mean to presume anything, but you’ve done a lot, especially considering a past that you’ve alluded wasn’t perhaps a good one.”
She looked to the rest of the group, somewhat warily, then said, “My past was unique, and definitely threatening, but not in the manner you would ever assume. I was considered something of a prodigy as a child. I tend to pick things up rather quickly. Some people tried to use that skill for gains that weren’t exactly legal.”
Finn had a feeling “some people” might have been her own family. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s in the past now,” she answered with a shrug, clearly ending that conversation. “So, I can help you with authenticating it, at least to some degree, and looking for signs of alteration. I did have a brief look at it while it was in
my possession, but I had no tools to use, and I couldn’t bring it in to work. Anything I had that would have helped me with that went up in the fire at my other studio.”
“Another reason, perhaps, for the fire,” Finn noted.
“I say we get inside and start things up,” Mac said. “Then, dinner.”
“Always food with this guy,” Finn said, smiling and trying to ease the tension and strain. At least they were all getting along with one another, and the source was situational and not temperament oriented. Still, it was exhausting. And, admittedly quite selfishly, he was getting impatient to be done with this, so he could focus his energies where his attentions were most interested at the moment: on Felicity Jane.
But first things first.
After dinner and another brainstorming session that didn’t net any new possibilities, but did give them a chance to get to know one another a little better, they all headed over to where the Trinity offices were housed, and the temporary lab that Rafe and Mac had cobbled together during the latter part of Finn’s expedition.
“Nothing else coming in?” Finn asked Felicity as they followed Rafe and Mac down the hall. During dinner MI-8 had attempted to make contact with all three of their errant agents on their individual PDA’s.
No one had responded to the transmissions.
“Nothing new,” she said.
There had been some debate on whether they should even decode and read the messages, on the off chance there was any way, given they were MI-8 issued units, they could be tracked. They’d moved back to the East Coast leaving little to no trail behind them, and they wanted to keep it that way for as long as it took to get a break in the case.
She glanced up at him. “I’m still not sure about leaving the messages unscrambled.”
“I think I might be able to help with that,” Mac said, looking back at her. “I need to do a bit more tweaking to the programming, but we might be able to load them directly into our system, then put the code in to unscramble, so there can be no direct connection of any kind. I should have it functioning by morning.”
They all nodded, then paused as Rafe stopped in front of a set of double doors.
“It’s pretty basic, haven’t had time to do more than move stuff from other places all into one room, but it will make this a lot simpler if we can consolidate.” He opened the doors, and even Finn was impressed. “Nice.”
Felicity walked in, her mouth open in a silent “O.” Julia and Reese were a bit more reserved in reaction, but Finn thought they looked suitably impressed as well.
“You have the case?” Rafe asked. “I thought we’d start over here with a simple magnification.” He turned to Finn. “Close the door, will you? This is the only room with no windows, so we control the lighting. I also redirected the air, and we have our own system, which should keep the stone and setting as protected as possible while they are exposed.”
Mac turned to Finn with a “Look, Pa!” smile on his face. Finn nodded and gave him the thumbs-up. His family never let him down, but that didn’t mean they didn’t surprise him from time to time.
“Julia?” Rafe said, all business.
She brought the case over, and everyone crowded around. They’d decided to wait until they got it back to Virginia safely before opening the case again. She pushed it over to Reese, who dialed in the combination on the lock and opened the outer, airtight case that held the actual jewel case.
“This case is actually only a few centuries old,” he said, leaving the jewel case in the specially designed airtight casing. “The original has long since rotted away. This one is holding up okay.” Rafe handed him a pair of protective gloves, to keep any oil from his skin from getting onto the case or the necklace. A moment later, everyone was staring at one of the largest sapphires Finn had ever seen.
“The engraving and setting is typical of the time, and the workmanship is outstanding,” Julia said. “The stone isn’t cut nearly to today’s standards, but—”
“It’s stunning,” Felicity said.
“On sheer size alone, it’s impressive,” Finn agreed.
“Let’s move it over here, to this table,” Rafe said. They kept the old case sitting in the airtight case, with the necklace still resting on the crushed satin backing. “For now, we’ll leave it sit, as is. See what we can see.”
Everyone pulled stools and chairs over and clustered in front of a flat screen that Mac had mounted on the wall. “Julia, tell me if you want to see anything in more detail,” Rafe said, maneuvering the overhead scope. Mac seated himself at a computer keyboard and loaded a digital pointer and grid onto the flat screen.
They spent the next four hours straight going over every last-minute detail of both setting and stone. Julia was responsible for moving and turning the piece, but despite the broad-ranging capability of the equipment they had, nothing untoward came up.
“I can scan it for any technological elements,” Mac said, “but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope.”
“Should we look at the case?” Reese suggested. “It’s been around long enough that several Capellas generations have had contact with it.”
“Not a bad idea,” Finn said. “I wish there was a way to lift fingerprints without causing any potential damage to the surface. Who knows what we might find?”
Rafe smiled. “I can help you with that.” He went over and got a kit. “I had this sent out for a case I was on last year, never had a chance to use it.”
Another three hours elapsed as prints were excruciatingly carefully lifted and the case was examined as thoroughly as they dared. “I don’t have X-ray capability, but that might be an option. As would dating it, but that takes time and materials I don’t have.”
“But could get?”
“I’m not sure we’re going to be given the luxury of an extended time to figure this out,” Reese said. He lifted a hand to stall Finn’s rebuttal. “I realize the care we took to cover our tracks here, including blocking any signal that might be transmitting from our cell units, while still receiving incoming transmissions. You’ve been more than generous,” he said to Finn. “But I’ve worked with my agency long enough to know that they are very good at tracking something—or someone—down, when they want to. And they have three someones in this case. We won’t have long. Mark my words. We need a break, and we need it soon.”
Yet, by three in the morning, they were forced to call a halt when nothing had come up on the fingerprint search, and, without more delicate technology, they couldn’t continue without potentially harming the artifact.
“We’re still digging on the Capellas,” Rafe said. “Maybe something will pop up there by morning.”
“You mean later in the morning,” Mac said on a yawn. “I’m heading down to the cabin. I’ll be back in a few hours.” He looked to Finn. “I’d like to bring Kate.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to involve any more people than we have, just because it makes us more vulnerable—”
“Being here makes them all vulnerable. She’d like to be here, and I think maybe a fresh brain—a very sharp one, by the way—and a fresh pair of eyes might do us good.”
Finn nodded in agreement.
Rafe stood. “I’ll introduce you all to Elena another time, but I’ll be back up here in a few minutes.”
“You’ve been running nonstop since we left San Francisco,” Finn said. “If you want some down time—”
“I want to figure this out,” he said, then looked from him to Felicity, and back. “You’d be doing the same for me.”
“I wish I’d been here to do so. And you’re right. See you in a few.”
Finn showed Reese and Julia to their suite and explained how to operate the security system that was independently wired for their set of rooms, as well as the one that ran the entire house.
“Very…layered,” Julia said, quite approving of the intricate system.
“We’ve had occasion to house clients that require certain levels of safety,” Finn resp
onded. “I’m just glad we had this handy. Sleep well.”
He backed out of the room, then turned to a yawning Felicity. “Just one day,” he said.
“One day what?” she responded.
“One normal, not sleep-deprived day. That’s what I want with you.”
She smiled sleepily.
“Of course,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “I’ll want a bunch more of them, probably all in a row, so perhaps we really need to get rid of some of our guests first.”
She nodded, then leaned her head against his shoulder as he put his arm around hers and steered her down the hall. “This isn’t my usual set of rooms, and I’d really rather have you over there, but it’s on the other side of the house, and I think it’s best to keep us all in the same general vicinity.”
“Given the level of threat they’ve used already with the fire, I think that’s a good idea.”
“Rafe has external security on. And we have good perimeter security around the entire farm, very recently updated from what I understand. But it never hurts to keep alert.”
She yawned again, then laughed at herself as he steered her through another set of double doors into a sitting room and, after setting their personal alarm, right through that room into a nicely appointed—he knew some would say rather grandiose—bedroom. “I’m not so sure alert is something I could aspire to at the moment. Or I’m certain I’d be making some kind of comment about this room.” She sank onto the edge of the bed and dropped straight onto her back and stared up at the fresco ceilings, each ornate section painted with a mural of angels. “Looks like something my family might have dreamed up. I wouldn’t have ascribed it to you, however.”
“I’ve renovated all the areas we use. Haven’t made it to this wing yet. This was my father’s idea of good taste.”
The Black Sheep and the English Rose Page 31
