Finding North (36 page)

Alex nodded. Bestat got a
towel from the rack and held it out. Alex wrapped herself in the
towel. For a brief moment, Bestat was close to her.

“
You found the key,”
Bestat said in her ear. “You haven’t completed it yet. You still
need two more items — one of which you already possess, and the
other you will have to find in China, in the caves.”

Alex scowled.

“
Keep the key with you at
all times,” Bestat said in her ear. “Many humans have died to
protect its secrets. I will explain everything. I will. But for
now, you must trust me. Fong and Ji’s life depends on
it.”

Bestat patted Alex’s
shoulder and walked out of the bathroom. Alex scowled at the
reflection of Bestat’s back. Every fiber in her being wanted to
climb back into the warm tub. Alex sighed and followed Bestat out
of the bathroom.

Chapter
Twenty-five

Friday
afternoon

May 20 — 1:35 p.m. China
Standard Time (7:35 a.m. CEST)

Between Beijing and
Dunhuang

Alex looked around the
private jet. Most of the team was sleeping or reading. Margaret was
helping Joseph with his Chinese at a round table near the front.
They had flown on Bestat’s private jet to Beijing, where they had
met her “friend” and Egyptian diplomat to China, Amam Ibn Hinna.
While Bestat treated Amam Ibn Hinna like an old friend, Amam Ibn
Hinna was almost reverent to Bestat. Amam Ibn Hinna greeted every
member of the team by name.

Amam Ibn Hinna stiffened
when he met Zack. The tension between the men was palpable as they
sized each other up. Zack’s stance was aggressive, and his sharp
blue eyes stared at the man like he was a dog or beast. Alex was
about to intervene when Amam Ibn Hinna smiled and moved on to the
next person. When he met Raz, Amam Ibn Hinna’s eyes lingered on
Raz’s face.

“
It’s a great pleasure,”
Amam Ibn Hinna had said to Raz. His heavy Egyptian-accented English
had a subtle hiss, which made every word he spoke seem menacing.
“I’ve waited a long time to make your acquaintance.”

“
Sir,” Raz had
said.

Amam Ibn Hinna opened his
mouth to say something and then looked at Bestat. He gave Raz a
wide smile and moved on to say hello to Vince. The entire
interaction took less than a minute total, but Raz was so unnerved
that Alex had steered them away from Bestat’s “friend.” They had
changed planes in Beijing and were now flying to Dunhuang and the
Mogao Caves on Amam Ibn Hinna’s private jet.

Alex leaned into Raz and
put her right hand in the palm of his left. Feeling her hand, his
hand closed over hers.

“
You okay?” Alex asked in
a low tone.

“
No,” Raz said. He opened
his eyes. For a moment, he stared straight ahead of him before
glancing at Alex. “I am not okay.”

“
What happened?” Alex
asked.

“
Which time?” Raz asked.
“When we were almost killed by the French military or now that
we’re flying seven hours into the interior of China with a
madman?”

“
Madman?” Alex
smiled.

“
Did you see how he
treated Zack?” Raz whispered. “You know, I’ve heard for years that
Zack trained with you as kids, but I’d never . . .
It wasn’t until that moment that I saw the Patrick Hargreaves in
Zack.”

“
Take-no-prisoners body
language,” Alex nodded.

“
You and Colin do it,” Raz
said. “Samantha, too.”

“
We are sexy,” Alex
said.

She nudged him with her
shoulder, and he smiled.

“
At least we’re not on a
freezing fucking cold C-130,” Alex said. She stretched out her legs
to demonstrate the room. “No numb feet or ear-bleeding noise. This
is comfy.”

“
Sure, keep the people
comfortable so they don’t get freaked out,” Raz said. “Anxiety
ruins the taste of the meat.”

Alex laughed, and Raz
smiled.

“
You know his name
means . . .” Raz nodded, “Man eater.”

“
Watch out boy — he’ll
chew you up,” Alex said.

Raz raised his index
finger and pointed at her.

“
No,” he said in a stern
voice.

Alex burst out laughing.
He chuckled.

“
And the ‘Ibn’?” Alex
asked. “Is that just to throw us off his true purpose?”

“
You mean because Ibn
means ‘son of?’” Raz raised his eyebrows. “I’m not buying for a
moment that he’s the son of the man eater.”

“
He’s the man eater,” Alex
nodded.

Raz gave an involuntary
shiver.

“
It is a little
horrifying,” Alex said.

“
You should be sleeping,”
Raz said.

“
How can I sleep when, at
any moment, I might have to slay a dragon?” Alex asked. “I didn’t
even bring my sword.”

“
Sword?”

“
Dragons are always killed
with swords,” Alex said. “Prince Charming uses a sword.”

“
An arrow in
The
Hobbit
,” Raz said.

“
Shit, I left my bow in
Beijing,” Alex said. “And look around you. You are definitely on
the ‘Most Likely to be Eaten’ list.”

“
Trece’s got to be first,”
Raz smiled. “He’s our prize bull.”

“
He has an impenetrable
defense,” Alex said.

“
Which is?” Raz gave her a
skeptical scowl.

“
He can talk the dragon to
death,” Alex nodded.

Raz laughed. Alex
smiled.

“
Talk to me,” Alex
repeated something he often said to her. “Tell me what’s going on.
I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”

He grinned at her. As he
usually did, she stretched up to plant a kiss on the top of his
head. She kissed the scar where they’d opened his skull last fall
to relieve the pressure of his swelling brain. Laughing, he swatted
her away.

“
What did Eloise Le Grande
say to you?” Alex asked.

“
She said that my father
was anxious to meet me,” Raz said.

“
And that freaked you
out?” Alex asked.

“
Sort of,” Raz said. “She
said, ‘Your mother is such a love.’”

Raz let out a
breath.

“
Momma.” Raz didn’t
attempt to mask the sorrow in his voice. “She spoke as if Momma
were alive. I . . . felt like a hole had opened, and
I’d fallen into . . . my desperate loss, my grief,
those dark days after losing her . . . and Vicki, if
you can believe it. That darkness just . . . closed
around me. And then I looked at you. I knew you’d figure it out, or
kill this creature who’d said these wonderful and horrible words to
me. You’d fix it. I just knew it.”

Raz put his hand over his
heart.

“
Will you kill her?” he
asked.

“
Of course — with my
sword.” Alex held out her right hand as if it held a mighty sword.
After a few slashes at the air, she grabbed her right chest with
her left hand. “Maybe an arrow. Yes, an arrow would be easier.
We’ll barbeque her for dinner. Lucky we got that big
grill.”

Raz smiled, and Alex
laughed.

“
She . . .
my mother . . .” Raz shook his head. “I’m a grown
man, and I still miss her. I wish you’d known her. She
was . . . so beautiful and loved
me . . . so much. I’ve never gotten over losing
her.”

“
I know.” Alex squeezed
his hand.

“
We were such great
friends,” Raz said. “I didn’t know that then. I thought every boy
and his mother . . . Now I see that she was my
mother
and
we
were friends. It probably wasn’t great parenting. But for
me . . .”

“
She was everything,” Alex
said.

“
Do you know if she’s
alive?” Raz asked.

“
I’ve never seen any
record that your mother is still living,” Alex said. “I asked Ben
about your father when I saw him.”

“
You did?” Raz
asked.

“
Just trying to figure
everything out,” Alex said. “He said your mother never told anyone.
‘Took that secret to the grave,’ Ben said. But if she’s
alive . . .”

Raz snorted a sad
laugh.

“
If she’s
alive . . .” Raz took a breath, which made him seem
taller, bigger. “That would be very good.”

“
I find it very hard to
believe that she would be alive and not . . .
connect with you in some way,” Alex said. “No, I’m sorry, Raz. I’d
never believe that your mother was alive and not in your life. And
if she were, I’d know about it. I believe she’s gone.”

“
She’s gone.” He gave a
sad nod. “Did Ben tell you who put up my name to work with
him?”

“
He said he didn’t know
and would look into it,” Alex said. “I heard from him before we
left. He said your name was on a list of five people. He’d asked
the person who sent the list. They didn’t recognize your name. Ben
said that he was so desperate for a good candidate that he didn’t
think much about it at the time.”

“
What if
she’s . . . alive?” Raz asked.

“
Sasha Peretz? Your
mother?”

Raz nodded.

“
I think we have to be
careful,” Alex said.

“
Because I want it so
much,” Raz said. “She could be an imposter or someone trying to
kill us.”

“
Or one of these
creatures,” Alex said.

Raz nodded.

“
And your father?” Alex
asked.

“
Who cares?” Raz shrugged.
“I never did. There’s more to being a father than fertilizing an
egg. Why would I care now?”

Alex nodded.

“
Sami’s asked me about
it,” Raz said. “When we were talking about having a child. She
thought my father might be important to our child. I told her that
our child will not want for males in his or her life. Patrick, as
grandfather, of course, John, Wyatt, Max, Cian, Eoin, and now
Jackie . . . the team . . . Like the
twins, our child will have a village of men and women ready to love
him or her. That’s my family now — and all that really matters to
me.”

Raz nodded.

“
I like your family,” Alex
said.

“
Me, too,” Raz said. “Your
turn.”

“
My turn?” Alex looked at
him.

“
What was the book?” Raz
asked.

“
Something Eloise Le
Grande gave me,” Alex said.

“
When did she give it to
you?” Raz asked.

Alex told him about the
first time she and Jesse went into the bookstore. Raz’s brow
furrowed, and he swallowed hard. He shook his head.

“
You think that was real?”
Raz asked.

“
I have the book.” Alex
shrugged. “Jesse was there, too.”

“
I remember
something . . .” Raz nodded. “A feeling of panic of
‘Alex!’ — like when we couldn’t find you after hearing you and the
team were dead. Full-blown panic. It was like a blink. Panic over
you, and, then, wham! You were standing right next to me. My heart
was racing and I wanted to run into the building, but there you
were. I felt . . . crazy.”

“
Sounds crazy,” Alex
nodded. “We need to be attuned to these kinds of discrepancies.
These feelings, human feelings, may be the only way we know when
things aren’t right.”

“
Their manipulation of
time isn’t perfect,” Raz said. “I wonder if anyone else felt
that.”

“
Let’s ask,” Alex said.
“Quietly.”

Raz nodded.

“
So, what is this book?”
Raz asked. “Did you look at it?”

“
Page after page of Linear
A,” Alex said. “Eloise Le Grande said that I would get the codex
from Bestat — at least that’s what I took her to mean.”

“
Weird,” Raz said. “This
whole thing is . . .”

“
Weird,” Alex said. “Get
this.”

Raz looked at
Alex.

“
The book fits into the
slot in the cartographer’s tool kit,” Alex said. “I’m sure the
caliper fits, too.”

“
The one that was your
grandfather’s?” Raz asked. “The caliper in your safe?”

“
Ben’s directional
compass, too,” Alex nodded.

“
Ben has a directional
compass that fits into that box?”

Alex nodded.

“
It’s all just so weird,”
Raz said. “This cartographer’s tool kit, the pocket watch, and
cufflinks, finding the books at the store, the
map . . . Was it the map you’d looked at
before?”

“
The map Colin found?”
Alex nodded. “It was a copy of the map of Ultima Thule. It seems
very old and very detailed but definitely a copy.”

“
It’s not the one you went
to see all those times?” Raz asked.

“
I’m pretty sure it’s the
same information and picture but not the map that Jesse and I used
to look at,” Alex said. “The one we used to visit was an original.
The funny thing is that I must have spent a lot of time with the
map because I could probably draw it right here.”