THE GOD'S WIFE (22 page)

While the workers had been gushing over Rebecca, Jonas and Raven already sidled unseen over to the elevators. Rebecca heard a metallic ding and saw them slip inside an elevator door.

“Well, go on up, girl. I won’t even call,” the watchman said with glee. “First, you give me your autograph, then you run along.”

She scribbled her name on a piece of paper and hurried off to the elevator bank. Jonas and Raven were already on floor thirty-two, according to the overhead lights. She got into the next available ride and shot up to the middle floors.

Once off the elevator, she felt someone pull her left arm. Jonas whispered in her ear. They were going to take advantage of this lucky break and let Rebecca surprise Sharif, if he lurked there. He and Raven would stay in the hallway, ready for help if she should need it.

“With the door locking me inside? How are you going to support me?”

“Carryout service,” Jonas said, popping on a Cubs hat backward. He slouched and pulled off his jacket, exposing a “Cooler by the Lake” t-shirt he must have stashed in his back seat. He became a college student before her eyes. She nodded with trepidation and knocked on the heavy oak door.

“Who could that be now?” a shrill voice called from inside.
Lenore. Great luck.
The door jolted open, and the squat, pug-nosed dancer stood staring up at Rebecca. Shock registered in her glance, but she blinked and recovered within a millisecond.

“He’s out,” she said, putting a hand on her hip. “I don’t suppose you came to see me.”

“I think you have someone I want,” Rebecca said, not missing a beat. Lenore tried to close the door, but Raven and Jonas appeared from either side and helped Rebecca push herself in.

The apartment was bigger than many ranch houses Rebecca had seen. All the tasteful furniture graced the glittering picture window that overlooked the lake. Boats and lighthouses twinkled their lights in the distance. Amid the finery — the overstuffed brocade couch, the velvet curtains, the objects d’ art that filled every tabletop — sat Amy. She wasn’t tied up or restrained in any way but perched on the end of an antique chair in a far corner. Her chestnut hair was messy, but she was in good shape, considering the long bus ride she had just endured. When she saw Rebecca, she jumped up.

When Rebecca ran to Amy, the younger sister reached up and hugged her sibling around the waist. She held fast, but there was no fear in her grip. Amy must have been secure in Sharif ’s lair. Rebecca’s heart pounded as she considered how to get her sister out of the high-rise prison.

“How are you? Did he hurt you?” Rebecca asked, keeping her voice steady.

“No. Why would he?” Amy said, features contorted and confused. She seemed to be thinking of the recent past. “The bus ride was long and scary.” She stopped and emitted a nervous laugh. “The lightning was striking all around the bus. And then we got stuck on the expressway.” She let go of Rebecca and wagged her head, as if to dislodge the memory. “Awful. We hardly moved a foot a minute. But eventually, we got going, and we made it.”

Rebecca studied Amy and let her concern show. “How did you get here, hon?”

“Jonas met me,” Amy said with an audible gulp. Lenore started to pace and tried to interject, but Raven shut her down with a withering glance. Rebecca inhaled and held her breath. Amy continued, “Well, he said he was Jonas and would take me to your place.” She twisted her foot around on the plush carpeting, plucking at the ends of her chestnut hair. “But this isn’t your apartment, is it?”

Rebecca wheeled on Lenore, who now tried to fade into flocked wallpaper.

“How long has she been here?”

Lenore pouted. “This isn’t my doing, you know.”

“Answer.”

“Okay, okay ... she’s been here about forty-five minutes ... an hour, maybe. Hard to tell. He just sat her down and left. I have no idea when he’s coming back.”

“Sharif didn’t talk to you about this at all?” Jonas asked, hands balled at his sides.

“Why would he? He never talks to me about anything.” Lenore had a wide, astonished expression. “You guys think he actually plans things with me?”

Rebecca, Jonas and Raven exchanged baffled glances. Rebecca was the first to break the agitated silence.

“Doesn’t he live here with you?” she asked.

Lenore raised her over-plucked eyebrows heavenward and began to emit a low, but unmistakable, chuckle. The four stood gaping as she giggled, then let out open-mouthed laughter. When she sank to the floor on the verge of hysteria, Raven pulled her up by the arm to bring her back to planet Earth.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Lenore said, still emitting laughs between phrases, wiping tears from her eyes. “He bought this swanky condo and settled me here. But do I ever see him? Are you kidding?”

Rebecca noticed Raven tossing a disbelieving expression her way and jumped into the conversation. “But, Sharif told me you two were married so that ...” Lenore began laughing again, and Rebecca spoke. “He could enter the U.S ...”

Lenore, unable to talk, grabbed her abdomen and simply nodded her head. Raven pushed her down into a chair and coaxed long breaths from the small dancer. Lenore followed instructions and calmed down. Without warning, her voice came back.

“It’s true. He did that. I have the marriage license to prove it. But if you think there was any ...” Raven gave her a severe glance. “Well, it was never consummated. And he sure doesn’t live here. He appears here now and then to pick things up or drop shit off.” She nodded at Amy, as if she were one of those “things.” “I don’t know what the hell is going on.

“He talks about being from The Other Side, whatever that means. And he keeps saying the Stargate is closing, so his comings and goings are getting more frequent.”

Rebecca, Jonas and Raven all exchanged glances. Only Rebecca had an inkling of what Sharif could be talking about.

Amy looked around, confused by Lenore’s babbling. “Didn’t you want me here?”

“This isn’t Jonas’ apartment, Amy. That’s where we were expecting you.”

Jonas introduced himself and shook Amy’s hand. “I’m Jonas, Amy. Big mixup at the train station,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you first.”

“That man said he was your friend.” Amy said to Rebecca. Rebecca shook her head, troubled. “Gather your things, Amy, we are going to get out of here while we can.” Lenore made no move to stop them. Amy picked up a heavy backpack, but Jonas swooped over to take it off her hands. They moved toward the front door when an image appeared in the mirror.

Amy took in a short breath of air. “No.”

Sharif stood at the entrance to one of the bedrooms, smiling that ever-present smirk. “I think the host will insist you stay.” Lenore too froze in place at this magic trick. If there was a second entrance into the apartment, even she appeared to know nothing of it.

“I was just waiting for your dear Amy up until Jonas got there,” Sharif said, pacing toward them bit by bit. His voice became icy, less friendly. “Since he didn’t show up, I thought this would be the safest place for her.”

“That’s not true,” Amy piped up. “He said he was Jonas.”

Rebecca crossed her arms, hot anger driving her bodily movements, nerves dancing on her skin.

“When were you planning to call me?” She whirled from Amy to face Sharif.

“With all the cell phones not working?” he asked, his voice smooth. Too smooth.

“If you haven’t noticed, it’s stopped raining. The weather is fine now. Still, I got no phone call.”

Rebecca noticed the spell that Sharif wove every time she saw him had disappeared. She felt no attraction to him at all. His brutishness stood out like never before.

“Another thing I found out about you, Cadmus,” Jonas said, stepping up to the Egyptian. “No one by your name checks out in Alexandria. Or in the Cadmus family tree. I even tried phoning. They don’t know you. You aren’t who you say you are.”

Rebecca demanded, “Who are you really?”

His response was rapid. He grabbed Rebecca and Amy by their necks and shoved them into the bedroom from which he had emerged. Jonas rushed to intervene but was too late. Sharif slammed and locked the door.
It locks from the outside? How has he engineered that? And why?
Rebecca heard him telling Jonas and Raven that they would leave or he would call security. It had happened so fast, there was no time to think of an alternate plan. Jonas must have tried to punch Sharif, because Rebecca heard a loud and violent struggle and then a scuffle in the hallway. The door shut with a loud retort. Jonas must have been locked out. With any luck, he’d head straight for the police with Raven.

#

Rebecca began to feel that familiar lightheadedness here in the worst possible of places. Sharif ’s designer colors — sienna red, muted cinnamon, mustard yellow — blended into one kaleidoscopic dreamscape. One look out of the high-rise window and she began to feel she was suspended in midair. Amy looked up at her and Rebecca could offer nothing in response.

“How did you know I was coming here?” Amy yelled through the door, indignant at the ruse Sharif pulled on her.

“You have a blog, yes?” He was speaking close to the door jamb.

“Oh, no.”

“Yes, I’m afraid you kids forget that anyone can read those things. I simply entered an alert for your name, and the blog came up with all your daily rants and plans.”

Rebecca focused hard to avoid blanking out. More than anything, she wanted to be out in the void she knew so well. But she had to stay with reality. Amy gave away her trip without a thought to foul play. It still didn’t make it right for Sharif to intrude.

But she drifted now. She imagined she heard Sharif pouring a glass of wine and speaking to Lenore, but really he addressed Rebecca.

“We can call Randy with a fake injury,” he said. “Or if she doesn’t agree, we can create a real one.”

Rebecca felt her eyes pop wide open as she came awake.
What kind of monster is he? He’d actually hurt me? This is the guy who says he’s in love with me?

She tried to argue with him and thought she was speaking, but the door was in the way.

“When we searched the Internet for you, all we could find were some vague stories about gun-running and cocaine shipments,” she said, in a haze. “Is that what you’re doing here in the U.S.? And what about me? What the hell do you want with me?”

“I told you,” he said. “I want to bring you back to Alexandria and make you a world-famous star.”

No, they weren’t talking. Amy was staring at her as if she were mad. Rebecca realized she must be mumbling to herself.

Then she did hear Sharif, loud and clear, bellowing through the door, “You will have tomorrow night. The dance critic from the New York Times, Christina Spitzer, will be coming to review the show. So you’ll get your New York notice. I wouldn’t worry about that. So, get some sleep, girls.”

Woozy or not, Rebecca was damned if she was going to stay the night in Sharif ’s domain. She needed to be at her home with Amy. She looked at the opulent bedroom with a canopy bed next to a balcony that seemed to step off into the stars. Off to the back, a lavish bathroom invited them. Amy began to let tears wash down her cheeks. Rebecca could do nothing to assuage her trauma.

“We’ll get help,” Rebecca said. “Jonas will know what to do.” But before she could do any more, she took another look at the stars outside, the world collapsed, and she fell onto the bed. “If only I wasn’t feeling so groggy.” She rolled over to look at Amy, who trembled as if she were about to collapse, too. Rebecca tried to say more, to apologize for not defeating the beast Sharif, but all strength had left her.

Then the curtain fell, and she hovered in a black hole in space.

Around a glowing fire in a farmer’s field, Neferet sat with a few priests she could trust, three of Kamose’s spies, three soldiers and the army captain. They had been there since Ra departed from the sky, all struggling to come up with a plan to retrieve Deena and arrest Zayem.

“He’s been seen with foreigners, even before the Heb Sed festival,” a spy, a slight boy from the village, said. “We followed him at night and saw he bedded down over there,” he pointed across the Nile toward the western bank.

“Near the tombs?” Neferet said, feeling a chill. On the other side of the Nile lay the Valley of the Kings and tomb after tomb of mummies and gold. “There’s no one there but the Ba, the spirits — and thieves.”

“It seems to be the company he likes to keep,” the captain said. He held his mouth in grim line and traced patterns on the ground with a stick.

“The foreigners were Hyksos,” the young snoop continued. “He’d sleep out there and spend the days with them sneaking around the city of Wast. He followed you a lot,” he said to Neferet. Then, overcome with his too familiar speech, he ended his report with a series of red-faced, low bows. Neferet favored him with a tolerant smile and signaled that he may stop.

“Conspiring with the enemy. Great behavior for a prince,” Neferet said, considering the boy’s information.
And with the enemies of my beloved.
Distracted, she studied the captain’s drawings and realized they weren’t just idle pictures on the ground. They comprised a battle plan. “What are you contemplating, my captain?”

He grunted and sat back on his heels. “The major tombs are up here,” he indicated with a stick. “They camped down here. It’s desolate, and the jackals can be vicious, so I’m not sure how far from the Great River Zayem dared to go. It’s likely he nestled right here, “ he indicated a little valley next to the southernmost tomb, which men still hollowed out each day. “That’s likely where he is now.”

“With Deena?” Neferet asked, eyes blurring a bit with tears.

“Yes, especially if he has a captive, he’s going to stay close to a populated area away from the wild animals, even if the people in question are tomb workers or robbers.”

Neferet thought of the danger Deena was in and asked the boy if there were any Hittites in Zayem’s motley group of renegades. He shook his head. So, Deena, who could only spoke the tongue of Kemet in limited fashion, suffered mute and powerless in this company of foreigners. Who knows how they were treating her right now? Certainly, Zayem would not be protecting her honor.