Stone Junction (40 page)

He stopped to rest several hours later. He pulled off on a dirt side road and slipped the Diamond out of the false differential into the bowling bag. He climbed in the camper. He stared into the center of the jewel for nearly ten minutes, concentrating, but couldn’t see the spiral thread of flame. He vanished. The diamond vanished with him. The spiral flame was immediately visible. He emptied his mind and focused on the Diamond-center flame. He felt himself filling with light, becoming light, and he used the light to fuel his concentration. When he reappeared, he felt amazingly refreshed. Not until he put the Diamond back in the bowling bag to ride up front with him and stepped from the camper did he realize the moon had risen. He’d vanished for at least three hours. ‘No limits,’ he shouted to the moon. ‘Hang on, honey, I’m coming to see you.’

Volta hung between trance and sleep. He could sense Daniel but not strongly enough to locate him. The only way Daniel could have taken the Diamond was to make it vanish with him, and he would have had to do it quickly. Perhaps he’d imagined it vanished with him. Perhaps the Diamond had been amenable. Or hungry. He couldn’t imagine Daniel looking into the Diamond. He wasn’t sure if the whisper of sense he felt emanated from Daniel or from some ghost-echo of his own fears that Daniel had been, at best, deranged, or, at worst, claimed by the Diamond. Daniel had powers. Indisputably had powers. But he was not as powerful as the Diamond.

Melvin Keyes, CIA Southwest Supervisor and a sharp-tongued man himself, would have enjoyed the sledgehammer wit of the director’s dressing-down if he hadn’t been its recipient. The director’s rage dwindled at last, and now, as they stood in the looted vault, the director was reduced to repeating the list of Keyes’s offences, less in anger than disbelief. ‘And you had the
entire
security forces of
every
intelligence office in this
country
at your inept disposal, on an
unlimited
budget, and they, or he, or she, or goddamn
it
– excuse me if I sputter – stroll right in and steal the diamond and walk right out. Pardon me, Mr Keyes, if I just can’t fucking believe it!’

Keyes, eyes averted, waited till he was sure the director had finished. ‘Sir, I share your distress, but consider the evidence: four checkpoints, cameras, laser detection grid, five-pound trip pressure alarm on the floor, double-key
and
coded lock untouched – it simply was not
humanly
possible to steal that diamond undetected. Therefore, I’m forced to conclude we’re dealing with an alien species, one whose technology far surpasses ours. Consider, too, that our scientists have never seen
anything
like this diamond. Geologists, physicists, they all agree the probability of its occurring naturally is incalculably small. I think it was an information-gathering device of some kind, and they simply took it back.’

‘
They?
’ the director curled his lip.

Keyes wasn’t anxious to say it again. He looked at the vault floor. ‘I think we’re dealing with alien beings, sir. Nonhumans.’

The director said icily, ‘I don’t believe in little green men. Nor does the president.’

Keyes gave up. ‘Well, if it was taken by humans,’ he said crisply, ‘they’ll be caught. We have two hundred agents in the field as of this moment, another fifty on their way, and a number of specialists working on forensics and interviewing the guards.’

‘Wonderful!’ the director said, his sarcasm so massive a D-8 Cat couldn’t have budged it. ‘The agents will remain under your questionable command for the time being. However, after my humiliating conference with the president and the NSC this morning, Dredneau has been called in to take charge of the investigation.’

Keyes was incredulous. ‘Paul-Paul Dredneau? Sir, the Diamond is classified as a Zero-Access Red-Line Secret! Dredneau is a Canadian –a
French
Canadian at that. Not to mention he’s crazy, a schemer, a fraud, a notoriously––’

‘As the
president
ordered,’ the director cut him cold, ‘Dredneau is in charge of the investigation. If you’d done
your
job, the president and NSC wouldn’t have required his services.’

‘With all due respect, sir, in my estimation the man is a show-boating fool, untrustworthy, and utterly incompetent.’

It was Dredneau himself, standing at the open vault door, who murmured, ‘
Your
estimations, Mr Keyes, have already proven their considerable poverty.’

Dredneau was dressed in early Alfred Noyes: a long claret duster, a spotless white shirt with a ruffle of lace at the chin, doeskin trousers, calf-length boots of Spanish leather, and silk gloves – also spotlessly white – that he ordered by the dozen from Paris. Barely an inch over five feet and slightly bow-legged, he looked less like a nineteenth-century highwayman than a jockey turned fop.

The director, momentarily taken aback, offered his hand in greeting. ‘Dredneau. I’ve looked forward to meeting you.’

Dredneau, ignoring the director’s extended hand, bowed. ‘Paul-Paul Dredneau at your service, sir. I understand’ – he glanced pointedly at Keyes – ‘that your security has failed, resulting in the regrettable loss of a most valuable gem.’

‘It was stolen sometime between noon of the thirty-first and 1 a.m. on April second. As you may have already been briefed, it was seemingly stolen from a locked vault without tripping or bypassing five separate and quite sophisticated alarm systems.’

‘How
perplexing
,’ Dredneau simpered. ‘Fortunately, I was in New York concluding a nasty case involving a planned terrorist attack on the city’s Easter Parade – now foiled, thank goodness – and I was able to respond with alacrity to your president’s urgent summons. But before I bring my faculties to bear on the case at hand, allow me to introduce Roshi Igor, my assistant, bodyguard, and valet.’

Neither the director nor Keyes had noticed Igor standing outside the vault door, a surprising oversight. On hearing his name, Igor entered. Four hundred pounds of dense muscle, he had wrists like mahogany four-by-fours protruding from his frayed coatsleeves and a neck like a redwood stump. Igor’s eyes, though, were more imposing than his bulk. Set close beneath the Neanderthal slope of his brow, they looked like the bore end of a sawed-off double-barreled twelve-gauge.

Dredneau said, ‘Igor only recognizes his name and a small number of commands, but he is extremely sensitive to any feelings of rejection, hostility, and – No!’ he barked, as the director offered his hand to Igor. ‘I don’t allow him to shake hands. He has no conception of his strength. I’ve seen him turn a baseball into a frisbee.’

Keyes laughed nervously. ‘Did you make him yourself or rent him from Hollywood?’

The director said quickly, ‘Hell, he looks real sharp to me.’

Dredneau smiled. ‘I’m sure you appreciate the relativity of intelligence’ – again glancing at Keyes.

Keyes said, ‘Perhaps we could discuss your friend’s infirmities sometime later and turn our attention to the investigation, which is
already
solidly underway.’

Igor began slapping his buttocks with his massive hands.

‘No!’ Dredneau commanded.

Igor immediately quit.

‘Jesus, what was that all about?’ the director said.

‘I’ve taught Igor to communicate his feelings to me through the use of gesture. He thinks Mr Keyes here is a rectum.’ Dredneau smiled at the director. ‘I believe you were sharing a similar perception as we arrived.’

Keyes took a step toward Dredneau and Igor took a step toward Keyes.

‘Stop!’ Dredneau ordered. They did. ‘Enough playful banter, even if it does mitigate a serious situation. To work, gentlemen, and my work is information and deduction. First, some information. Besides its obvious value as a gem, what is this diamond’s importance?’

‘The fact is,’ the director said, ‘we don’t know. We brought it here for tests. The diamond is perfectly spherical but, as far as we could determine, uncut or unworked in any way. And our scientists say the probability of natural occurrence is infinitesimal.’

Gazing upward as if into space, Dredneau said, ‘Have you entertained the possibility it might be from another part of the universe?’

‘Of course,’ Keyes said derisively. ‘Only an inhuman intelligence could have circumvented the security.’

Dredneau, still gazing upward, said softly, ‘You’re wrong of course, Mr Keyes.’ He pointed at a faint circle on the vault ceiling. ‘A member of an alien species with an advanced technology would not have found it necessary to hang from the ceiling on what appears to have been a common toilet plunger.’

‘Horseshit,’ Keyes said.

Dredneau ignored him. ‘Only two elements of this case truly interest me. The first, obviously, is the practical question of how our thief managed to open the vault door without sounding an alarm.’

‘We’re waiting,’ Keyes interrupted.

Dredneau continued to ignore him. ‘The second question is philosophical.’ Dredneau swept his arm grandly around the vault walls stacked with gold bars. ‘What sort of man, upon entering a vault full of gold, would have the presence to see beyond it?’

‘Yes indeed,’ Keyes said with mocking joviality, ‘that
sure is
some fascinating speculation, but we’re more concerned with things like
who
is the thief.’

Dredneau said wearily, ‘I’ve already deduced
that
.’

‘Good God, man,’ the director said, ‘tell us!’

‘He’s jacking us off, sir,’ Keyes said.

‘The thief ’s name’ – Dredneau paused – ‘is Isaiah Kharome. He was, and perhaps still is, driving a camper truck of some sort, posing as an itinerant preacher and the publisher of obscure religious tracts, but apparently affiliated with some ancient magical cult.’

Keyes said, ‘Just
prestoed
it right out of here, huh?’

‘Send it,’ the director ordered Keyes.

‘Sir,’ Keyes appealed, ‘you’re kidding?’

‘Now.’

Keyes turned to Dredneau. ‘How can you look at some dim circle on the ceiling here and not only detect it was left by a toilet plunger, but
deduce
the identity and disguise of the thief?’

‘Because I’m a genius,’ Dredneau said. ‘And now, I must refresh my faculties. If you find him, please notify me immediately at the Turquoise Hilton in Albuquerque, the only decent accommodations in miles. In the meantime, please send me a detailed outline of the security arrangements, as well as the vault blueprints. I’ll be available for further consultation. Good day, gentlemen.’ He turned on his heel and headed out the door, pausing to collect Igor.

Keyes said to the director, ‘You don’t really want me to put that Isaiah Kharome camper-truck bullshit on the wire, do you? Everybody looking for a phantom of Dredneau’s vanity?’

The director exploded, ‘Goddammit,
yes! Send
it. I’m not going to tangle assholes with the president over this. If you don’t like it, Mr Keyes – well,
you
fucked it up,
you
fix it.’

Melvin Keyes made three calls. The first was to issue the agency-only bulletin on Isaiah Kharome. Then he rang his staff assistant for complete record checks on Isaiah Kharome and Paul-Paul Dredneau, further instructing him to deliver the security system schematics to Dredneau, and to tell Dredneau a Seabrooke representative would be arriving within the day. The third call was to Gurry Debritto in California.

‘Yes?’ Debritto answered.

‘Keyes. Are you available? It’s for me only.’

‘If it’s interesting.’

‘It’s an interrogation. Somebody either knows more than he’s telling or I’m getting jerked around.’

‘That’s not interesting.’

‘A quarter of a million, with the possibility of more – say ten million – if you recover a certain object associated with the inquiry.’

‘What sort of object?’

‘I can’t discuss it until you agree.’

‘Two-five for an interrogation? He must be extremely reluctant, well protected, or dangerous.’

‘We can talk tonight at 8 p.m. in Albuquerque. Mama’s Cafe.’

‘Half in front, as usual. The Cayman account. You have the number.’

Keyes chuckled. ‘I’m always glad to see a man save for his retirement.’

‘I don’t save anything,’ Debritto said. He hung up.

The phone booth was freezing cold in the desert sunrise. By the time Daniel finished dialing, his breath had fogged the glass.

Volta answered after three rings.

‘Allied Furnace Repair.’

‘Hello,’ Daniel said, teeth nearly chattering.

Volta didn’t reply.

‘I got it,’ Daniel said.

‘Yes, so we heard,’ Volta said softly. ‘Good.’

‘There were complications.’

‘You knew there could be complications. There usually are.’

‘There still are,’ Daniel said. His voice sounded tight, jerky.

‘So I’d surmised,’ Volta said. ‘Their existence, not the specifics. What are they?’ Soft. Patient.

‘How did I do it?’ Daniel blurted. ‘You must know.’

‘No doubt you imagined it.’

‘No doubt?
None
? No, I have doubts. That should please you.’

Volta didn’t respond.

Daniel said, ‘I don’t know whether I imagined it or it imagined me.’

‘Come visit. Perhaps I could be of help in understanding the distinction.’

Daniel shuddered. ‘No. You don’t even understand what I’m saying.
You
don’t
need
to see it. I do. I need to see it. It’s my responsibility now. I’ve seen inside it and I need to see more because it wants me to.’

‘I never considered the Diamond my responsibility,’ Volta said. ‘I considered it my
due
. We have both earned rights in this matter. I only ask that you honor mine.’

‘That’s what I’m trying to do, don’t you understand?’

‘No, I don’t,’ Volta said.

‘You’d have to vanish with it to see inside, to see what you want to see, to even know
if
you want to see it.’

‘I respect your judgment, Daniel, and I truly thank you for your concern, but I have to reserve that decision for myself.’

With his fingertip Daniel drew ragged circles on the fogged glass.