Whirlpool (Cutter Cay Book 6)

by Cherry Adair

  Bria said something to him in rapid Italian and he responded in kind. She left his side and headed for the buffet, smoothing strands of wayward hair back into the sleek bun at her nape.

  After a moment, Nick glanced around, appearing perfectly relaxed unless an observant man happened to notice how alert his eyes were as he watched the door. “Where’s Ariel?”

  “For the last few hours working with my tech people cleaning your tablet . She barely slept last night, she was so excited." And because Finn had spoken briefly to both Nick and Logan the night before, to confirm removing the tablet was sanctioned, he now said, "It was generous of you to allow us to bring it to Blackstar’s team for processing."

  “It was going to end up here anyway for Dr. Vadini to look at. Might as well speed up the process where we can.”

  The grid where they'd found the tablet was Nick's pet project. The emeralds indicating the phantom presence of the chest that had once contained the tablet, and the tablet itself, had been ridiculously easy to find. Too easy.

  Finn drank from his cup, then said, “I see your fine hand in yesterday’s discovery.

  Nick raised a brow. “That a question?”

  “That your answer?”

  Nick shrugged. “Luck of the draw. I would probably have found it myself if I’d been in that spot at that time.”

  “Uh-huh.” The middle Cutter brother’s response confirmed Finn’s suspicion that Nick had either discovered the tablet himself at an earlier time and left it in situ, or unearthed it somewhere else, then planted it for them to find. But how and when? He hadn't known they'd be there today.

  Either way- no coincidence. But why? What was his end game?

  Nick went to join his wife, and Finn sat down on the loveseat near Logan. Leaning back, Logan stretched out his long legs and drank his coffee.

  “Buenos días,” Núñez said cheerfully as he strolled in, cutting off further exploration of the tablet's provenance.

  The well-dressed Argentinian appeared to have walked straight out of a J. Crew catalogue. Wearing and open-collar royal blue polo, unstructured linen jacket, Chinos and trendy canvas deck shoes. He might have arrived “unexpectedly” yesterday, but apparently, he'd carried a change of clothes with him. Which meant he’d expected to be offered a berth last night.

  Núñez glanced down the length of the room at the table where the food had been laid out. “Ah, breakfast, you are indeed a gracious host, Finn.”

  “Did you discover anything new this morning?” Finn asked. He didn’t like the guy. It wasn’t – probably wasn’t, because he knew the Argentinian and Ariel had had a relationship. Although that certainly colored his view. Núñez was a little too slick, a little too unctuous. All in all, a man he didn’t trust – not with business and certainly not with Ariel.

  “This morning. Yes. But we should wait for him." He scooped eggs onto a plate and lifted the lid of one of the servers. “Vadini is an old man and wanted to rest. I look forward to spending time with the tablets in private today.” Finding things to his liking, he filled his plate, then stood indecisively, clearly trying to decide if he should sit alone at the nearby table, or bring his food down the length of the room to eat off his lap. He chose the table.

  "There'll be nothing private about the viewing," Finn told him shortly. "Look around. We have a full viewing audience." He glanced at his watch, still a few minutes before nine. His schedule demanded meetings start and end on time. But with the high winds, and the condition of the water, small craft would have a hard time crossing to Blackstar.

  Zane and his pregnant wife were off somewhere celebrating. News junkie Jonah stood across the room reading the news on his phone. And his speckled darling would, no doubt arrive with the fourth tablet at any minute, or in the next hour. Or whenever she felt like the tablet was worthy of being viewed.

  He took out his phone. He might as well drink his coffee and check his emails while he waited. Nothing was going to happen on time today.

  He opened a report sent by his security people, labeled Doctor Thiago Núñez. Speed reading the lengthy document on the small screen revealed the Minister of Antiquities had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gambling debts, a mistress in Buenos Aires, and another, conveniently located in a condo near the airport in Rio Gallegos. Núñez was a frequent player at both the floating casinos in Buenos Aires where they held his notes. But horse racing seemed to be his thing. Wherever he bet he pretty much always lost his shirt. His salary as a government employee sure as shit couldn’t pay for his excessive lifestyle. He enjoyed bribes and kickbacks. None of which surprised Finn.

  "Good morning, all," Ariel said cheerfully, as she entered the room, clutching the cloth-wrapped tablet to her chest. Finn turned off his phone as he rose to take it from her.

  He kissed her nose over the bundled tablet now in his arms. "Good morning," he whispered. "You look delicious."

  "Should've stuck around to find out," she murmured low enough for only him to hear as several pairs of booted feet echoed down the corridor.

  “You were snoring,” he lied. “Didn’t want to wake you.”

  "I was awake, didn't want to delay you going to work."

  Finn pressed a kiss to her mouth.

  Dr. Vadini entered the room, accompanied by three sharp-eyed T-FLAC operatives, each carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle. The next several minutes were spent with everyone getting settled.

  Vadini's attention was riveted to the coffee table, as Finn set the recently discovered fourth tablet on its stand.

  "Santa madre di Dio," he said breathlessly. "You found another?"

  "We wanted to surprise you. Finn and I found it in the wreckage of El Crucifijo late yesterday," Ariel told him, a crease between her tawny brows as she watched the T-FLAC operatives place the other three tables on the waiting easels.

  "Were you able to decipher the text?" Logan asked the curator, leaning forward, elbows on his knees.

  "We now know considerably more than we knew before," Vadini informed them, gaze still riveted to the gleaming tablets lined up on the coffee table. "This morning, Dr. Núñez and I spoke to two of my colleagues who have had great interest in Merrezo' s tablet for many years. Dr. Hervé, professor at the University of Chicago, who's field of expertise is not limited to Egyptology, but ancient languages, texts, and religious writings. And Dr. Petra Schröder at the Smithsonian." He smiled at Finn. "Thank you for the use of your audiovisual equipment. It was almost as if the four of us were in the same room. Shall I – we start?" he asked eagerly.

  "It's seven minutes after nine, we don't have to wait for everyone before we hear what Dr. Vadini has to say, do we?" Ariel asked as Finn returned to his seat and patted the cushion beside him knowing she wanted to pace. There was enough nervous energy and excitement in the air without her walking around the room. She sat but perched on the edge of her seat as if ready to jump up at any time.

  "We're here." Zane and Teal strolled in, hand-in-hand, hair and clothing a little rumpled, faces flushed. Although on Teal this rumpled look was pretty much her natural state. Finn smiled. The love they had for each other glowed around them, and they clearly didn't give a damn who saw it.

  "Present." Jonah glanced up from his phone as he brought up the rear. "Just an FYI on wife count," he grinned. "Callie Skyped before I left Scorpion to come over here. I've learned when dealing with a runaway bride to agree to absolutely everything, no matter how outrageous. I don't want her to get cold feet again. She wants to get married on Cutter Cay? Done. What Callie wants, Callie gets. All I want is Callie."

  "Wise man," Logan told his brother.

  "And I'll remind you all that the wedding is in three weeks," Jonah told them, running a nervous hand around the back of his neck." I don't give a damn if you have to pause the salvage of- fuck- an alien spaceship- you will be there, no matter what."

  "I'll make my plane available for the trip," Finn offered. His phone sounded a low, discreet beep. "My staff has accommodations avail
able for all of you," he informed them after a glance at his phone. "These winds aren't going to die down until this evening, and while our ships have stabilizers and are large enough not to be impacted, crossing between them in a small craft with these high seas is unnecessary and dangerous."

  Jonah's gaze slid to the fourth tablet. “Holy shit. One was profound enough- But four?" Jonah smiled at them. "Good for you."

  "Good for all of us," Ariel told him. "Dr. Vadini – what do we know?"

  Peri's first thought that morning when she'd opened her eyes, was that she could no longer live this lie. She'd carried it for so long, and it was a burden she desperately wanted to be rid of. Before Finn, the prospect of that task had been quick, if painful. Now she had a lot more to lose.

  Her tumbling thoughts; the impending loss of Finn, the anticipation of the Cutters’ response to her revelations, and the excitement of the tablets reveal, churned in her stomach. Those four tablets were going to be the best part of her day, probably the best part of her freaking year. She didn't want to ruin it by doing her big reveal and then being absent for the results. She’d wait...

  She let her gaze sweep the room: Logan, stern and the patriarch of the group, Nick, impossible to read, Zane the charming jokester, Jonah the news junkie- Her throat closed. Damn it, she liked them.

  Just a few more hours of inclusion, a few more hours of being welcome among them.

  A gust buffeting the window made Bria jump. "It's so weird to see blue skies when we're in the middle of a wind storm. One expects to see low, dark ominous clouds and torrential rain in weather like this."

  Finn's gray eyes, a little too penetrating, softened on her face briefly. He linked his warm fingers with hers. "Go ahead Doctor, we're all agog." There was an oddly challenging tone to his voice but his expression was impassive.

  A glance outside showed the waves slapping against the hull, sending up fans of windswept spray. The flags on deck snapped and twisted around the poles in the high winds.

  Externally, Peri reflected the excited stillness of the room. Internally, she felt the same savage winds seen beyond the windows. "High winds are common, and expected, at this time of the year," she told the princess. "You might've noticed the wind is always blowing. I've been in Patagonia when we've had winds of upwards of seventy miles an hour. It's about fifty right now."

  Bria took a sip of tea. "Then I'm very pleased to be safely indoors."

  "If I may--?" Dr. Vadini was almost quivering with excitement, and it was contagious. Peri's hand tightened in Finn's. After they'd made love last night, and he lay beside her, having fallen asleep mid-breath it seemed, she'd lain wide awake for hours.

  Her eventual exhausted sleep was torn by dreams where she was once again alone. Alone onboard Sea Witch, and alone in her glass house on the bluff. She loved her house, but it didn't feel like home. There was no denying that she'd spent a hell of a lot of lonely nights there. She better get back to being used to it.

  She'd been startled awake when, in the realism of a dream, she'd felt the sting of spray as the waves crashed around her, as she desperately searched the darkening sky for the light of a buoy to guide her home.

  On waking, the Finn-less space beside her had reminded her of the inevitable and brought fresh pain to the fissures already starting to tear into her heart.

  No more procrastination. She'd let everyone have their moments, and then she'd dive right in. Only adrenaline and steely determination, would see her through the next few hours.

  "If I may have assistance to rearrange the tablets— Thank you, you are most kind," Dr. Vadini addressed two of the operatives who immediately stepped forward. "Lay them flat, if you please- This one and this one at the top, then this tablet here," he pointed. "And that one here beside it. A little closer together – about two centimeters apart. Yes, precisamente, just so. Grazie mille."

  By the time the tablets were arranged precisely to his instructions, everyone was on their feet and gathered around the coffee table to get a better look.

  The tablets formed a four-foot by four-foot square. The bumpy gold sheathing them gleamed dully in the sunlight flooding the room. One tablet had a chipped corner, and each had several greenish-white spots where sea creatures had once clung. But that didn't diminish their beauty or their historical importance.

  "What are we looking at?" Zane tilted his head this way and that.

  "First, the form of the tablets. Then see that the edges here and also here-between the tablets – and also this detail match as if cut from the same piece of stone, just like a jigsaw puzzle." Vadini indicated the space between the top two stones, then the same gap between the bottom two.

  "But the edges don't match across the middle like a jigsaw puzzle pieces would, do they?" Teal pointed out, biting her thumbnail. "So how is this relevant?"

  "I will explain. The tablets are chiseled by the same hand. See the upward stroke here and again here, the slope of this form, here, here and here? The cadence of the words, and syntax, probably dictated by someone else."

  "This is written phonetically in the ancient Abipón language, extinct hundreds of years ago, as everyone knows. No one speaks it any more of course, but I and my colleagues have accumulated some knowledge over the years."

  Peri looked from the curator to Theo beside him as if glued to the Italian's hip. Theo raised a brow, a move Peri knew he only did when he felt smug and knew something you didn’t. His mouth curved into a subtle smile he tried to hide by rubbing his index finger over her bottom lip. Her direct gaze drilled into him and when the look in his eyes changed, going from lazy and smug to dark and intense, a small shock went through her. He was hiding something.

  She frowned. “Theo, you're an ancient cultural expert. Did you study this tribe?”

  “There is very little to study as the people have been extinct for hundreds of years, their language with them. Senor Vadini is correct, no one speaks it, and his two experts were of some help--but. . .” He paused for dramatic effect. She wanted to dash across the room to pull the words out of him but settled for glaring at him instead. “Like the good doctor, I have studied the culture. As he says, few written words survived the centuries. Most of what I know was passed verbally through third, fourth or fifth generation,” he finished.

  "Were you able to read them, too?" she asked on a rush of excited breath.

  "I was able to contribute more words at our video conference call earlier," Theo said a little pompously, his eyes, not on Peri, but on Dr. Vadini beside him.

  "This is good." Vadini smiled as he drew on a pair of white cotton gloves. "With those new words revealed to us- a few words here, a few words there, I believe between us we can accurately translate the words of Blackstar. I have spent a lifetime researching this ancient language. I have studied la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo my entire life, as did my father, and his father before him," he said with pride.

  "While there is no written word of the language, just a handful of words and symbols passed down through the generations, interpretation has taken time and infinite patience. Even should I understand what they once meant, some of the words here are not legible at all, having been worn away. But with the brilliant brains of Dr's Hervé and Schröder. . .and Dr. Núñez of course, I believe we have the-" He glanced at Bria. "La essenza?"

  "Just having the gist of them sounds fabulous," Bria encouraged him with a smile. "Please, tell us more."

  Peri liked Bria's palpable excitement and the way her dark eyes danced with anticipation. In another life, in another dimension, she and Bria might've been friends.

  "This is the order I believe, that the tablets should be read." Vadini waved a hand over the gold square. "From left to right across the top, then the same for the two on the bottom."

  "Or perhaps there's no order at all?" Finn's hand rested on the small of Peri's back. She felt each individual finger as if it were attached to a specific nerve in her body. All of them erotic. More than sexual, she felt an intimate connection to him i
n a way she'd never imagined she'd feel for anyone. An integral part of her that was going to be severed without anesthetic.

  I can't do this. Can't feel this way. In her head, a metronome ticked off the few remaining hours before all this heat, warmth and acceptance were blown to hell.

  Peri broke away from Finn to get – something - anything from the buffet table across the room. She mourned the loss of his touch and called herself a fool for allowing herself to care so much when she of all people knew what the end result would be. It was inevitable.

  After grabbing a bottle of water, she returned to stand between Teal and Nick. Finn gave her an inquiring look from his position on the other side of the table, a look she pretended not to see. She rubbed the icy bottle across the deep ache in her chest.

  Did people die of a broken heart?

  Of course not.

  But considering how hot things smoldered between them, there could always be a first time.

  "A simple explanation is the decorative border around two sides of each tablet, which, when matched together, form a perfect square."

  "Do the things actually tell us anything?" Logan asked, sounding as skeptical as Finn.

  "Sí. The first," Vadini pointed to the tablet top, left. "is the one discovered by you, Mr. Gallagher." He then glanced at Theo. "Please, feel free to step in to assist."

  Theo was clearly delighted to be asked. He put on his serious face and leaned over to point at the second tablet, the one that had been in the museum in Merrezo. "This word is chosen."

  "We're currently attempting to read tablet number one, Dr. Núñez. Let us keep our thoughts in order. We will get to the others in due course." Dr. Vadini told him. "Now that we have four tablets it's slightly easier to decrypt the text because we have now identified enough of the lost language to be able to interpret many words on la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo."

  Sucking in a breath, Bria frowned and said something sharply in Italian.

  The curator immediately looked contrite. "This information was not withheld from you, Principessa. I needed the words from the other tablets and the assistance of my esteemed colleagues. And they in turn needed to set their gaze upon the tablets to confirm what I hoped I knew. I have studied what we now have at length, and I will give you my educated opinion of what they say. The first states: 'Apocalypse preordained written in five parts-'"