The Memory Painter: A Novel (39 page)

He grinned as Layla erupted into her signature laugh when she saw the tiny square.

“Five hundred dollars for such a little thing?” she asked in disbelief. “You’re crazy.”

Bryan shrugged with a smile, inwardly agreeing, but he grew somber as he studied the lines of her face. He worked in silence a long time, bringing her image to life.

Layla sat still, looking serene as she gazed at the city line from the balcony.

“Are you from Cairo?” he asked.

It was as if his simple question had given her permission to talk and she opened up, telling Bryan all about herself as he worked. It seemed that she felt as comfortable with him as he did with her.

An only child, she was born to elderly parents who thought they couldn’t have children. They considered her a blessing from heaven and doted on her, despite the fact that they had little money. Her mother had made jewelry that she sold in the markets, and her father had done construction. But they were both too old to work now, so Layla had given up any dream of going to college and instead found a job to pay the bills. Five hundred dollars would go a long way.

When Bryan had finished, she came over to look at the miniature. “You’re really very good,” she said.

He shrugged and mumbled thanks, giving his work an objective eye. Jan Van Eyck’s gift had served him well, and his signature had never seemed more fitting:
ALC IXH XAN
, “As I can.” He willed himself to believe the words.
As I can. I can. I will remember.

Layla interrupted his thoughts. “Do you have a guide to show you the city? I can show you some sights tomorrow if you like?” She grinned at him. “Help to really earn that money.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he said, though he wouldn’t mind the company. He wanted to get out of this hotel room.

“I don’t mind. And I promised your girlfriend I’d take good care of you,” she admitted, teasing him. “I can’t let her know you stayed cooped up here the whole time.”

“You met Linz?” he asked in surprise.

Layla looked embarrassed. “She was leaving and gave me her card … wanted to know my name. She seems like a very serious person.”

Bryan frowned. Linz gave Layla her card? He knew that meant Layla was somehow important—otherwise Linz wouldn’t have singled her out.

“I’ll pick you up at nine,” she said, moving to the door.

“Are you taking me to the Great Pyramid?” he asked.

“Of course. It’s the first place we’ll go.”

*   *   *

The swarm of vendors selling their wares wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Bryan’s attention was jockeyed from person to person as he tried to push his way through the throng. But the chaos was oddly comforting. It kept him from focusing on the Great Pyramid towering a hundred feet away.

Bryan followed Layla through the crowd with a faith he didn’t understand. All he knew was that he never would have had the courage to come here if it hadn’t been for her.

As they moved forward, they almost got separated. She looked behind her and reached out to grab his hand. He gazed into her eyes and suddenly saw himself as a young girl, running hand-in-hand with her—and in that moment Bryan remembered who she was.

She was Kiya.

His heartbeat began to race, as every memory from that life in Egypt began to return to him like blood circling back to the heart. Bryan’s pulse quickened as his feet kept moving him toward the Great Pyramid, until he stood just a few yards away from it. He closed his eyes and, as his palms made contact with the weathered stones, he remembered it all: the power of this Sleeping Giant, the untold atrocities that had happened here, and the mission that had been given to him.

Bryan felt Hermese expand within him. She had been there all along—a shadow he couldn’t see, a feeling he couldn’t describe, a sense of longing he couldn’t explain.

He opened his eyes and looked up at the pyramid and his heart filled with joy. Every life he had ever lived sounded within him in perfect harmony. His soul was singing.

The Guardian had awoken.

Bryan turned to Layla and saw Kiya’s spirit shining in her. How many times had they played here as children … of course, she should be the one to bring him home.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He nodded, his heart filled with infinite gratitude at the gift life had just given him—all of his memories were now one.

FORTY-SEVEN

Gravestones stretched across the green like a thousand unlit candles. An enormous crowd had gathered to pay their respects to Conrad Jacobs. At a freshly dug grave, a priest performed the burial rites.

Linz stood at the front, with Penelope and Derek at her side. She watched as the coffin was lowered into the ground next to her mother and brother’s grave.

She still couldn’t believe that he was gone. Her mind had already started projecting into the future, imagining when their paths would cross again, knowing with certainty that, one day, they would. If Bryan had remembered his lifetimes without any help from the drug, then Conrad might be able to as well in his next life. He would find them. Linz had to believe it. She had to hope.

Her thoughts turned to Finn, knowing that they too would meet again—at the trial. She had given her statement and then turned the matter over to the police. The court date had not yet been decided. But even after he was convicted for Conrad’s murder, she knew that sitting in a cell for the remainder of his life would not cause him to repent. There was too much malice within him.

Linz stared at the coffin. She didn’t want to watch the undertaker cover it in earth or receive condolences afterward. Ignoring Penelope and Derek’s distressed looks, she walked away and got into the waiting limo. The driver hung up his cell phone and started the car.

She had met her father’s driver on a few occasions over the past few years, whenever she had ridden with Conrad to a function. But all she really knew about him was that he went by the name Vadim and was originally from somewhere in Russia. He had worked for her father the last ten years, and he had always seemed like a bodyguard more than anything else. She caught him looking at her in the rearview mirror—the poor man was probably worried he would lose his job. It only reminded her of how little she knew about her father’s private affairs.

“Where to, Dr. Jacobs?”

“My house for a minute so I can change and then to the office,” she said. She had a long night ahead of her.

Linz planned to return to Egypt as soon as Bryan contacted her, and she had to make sure that the company would run smoothly when she disappeared. Yesterday she had held a board meeting and they had mapped out a forecast for the next six months. As for her research, she had placed Maggie in charge of the lab. She knew her team would keep everything moving forward in her absence.

Tomorrow, she would begin to tackle her father’s belongings—she was already planning to donate his antique collection to several museums.

Her cell phone rang, flashing a number she didn’t recognize. “Hello?”

“Lindsey Jacobs?” an authoritative voice asked.

“Yes.” The man sounded like the police. She had finally grown used to them.

“This is Mitch Tanner from TDC Security. I’ve been instructed to contact you in the event of your father’s passing. First, I’d like to offer my condolences.”

Linz frowned. She had no clue what this call was about. “Thank you.”

“We need to know how you would like to proceed with the warehouses?”

“What warehouses?”

“Your father has three warehouses by the wharf. He didn’t tell you?”

Linz rubbed her forehead. “Why does he have three warehouses?”

“As you’re probably aware, he was an avid collector of relics and artifacts.”

It took Linz a minute to realize that Conrad had amassed a collection so large it required three warehouses. “Mr. Tanner, I appreciate the call, but I’m just leaving the service. I will call you soon to schedule an appointment to tour the buildings. Until then, just keep everything as is.”

Linz listened to his profuse apologies and then signed off. She leaned back and stared out the window, wondering what in the world Conrad had kept there. It was just one more item on the incredible list of things she had to deal with. She didn’t even want to be in Boston, and she was frustrated that she hadn’t heard from Bryan. It had been well over a week since she’d left Egypt—in reality it wasn’t that long, but, to her, it felt like an eternity.

Part of her worried that he would never remember his life there. But she had to believe he would. Her mind went back to the portrait of Ma’at she had seen in Bryan’s studio. He had already painted the ancient seer without even knowing it, and Linz told herself for the thousandth time to be patient. He had waited for her. Now she had to do the same.

The limo pulled up to her condo, and she saw a package sitting against the door. She jumped from the car and ran to it. As she closed the distance, she recognized Bryan’s handwriting.

She ripped open the box and took out the exquisite twelve-by-twelve-inch painting of Hermese standing in her garden in the moonlight, with the Star of Isis—Sirius—shining in the sky.

He had included a note:

I’ll be home soon. I hope you remember where you hid the book.

Linz yelled with joy.

Vadim jumped out of the car. “Dr. Jacobs? Are you all right?”

“Change of plans, Vadim,” she said. “I’ll be staying here.” She wasn’t going anywhere until she had seen Bryan.

*   *   *

Finn’s cell at Suffolk County Jail in Boston was far away from the other inmates. High-profile cases were generally given special treatment. He had been charged with voluntary manslaughter and tucked away there since Conrad’s death, where he would remain until the trial and sentencing.

These circumstances had made Bryan’s visit possible. He had relied upon Bodhidharma’s stealth to maneuver past the security cameras and had used one of Hermese’s techniques to disable the night guard. As Guardian, Hermese had been taught that the Earth was one big spinning magnet, and that magnetite tissues existed throughout the human body but were concentrated in the brain. Modern science had only begun to understand biomagnetism during the past thirty years, with the advent of high-resolution electron microscopy. But with Hermese’s knowledge, passed down from Horus himself, Bryan inherently understood these connections and how to control them. With the touch of his hand, he had taken the guard’s mind from a waking beta state to a delta state in an instant, skyrocketing him past dreamland into a slumbering abyss.

Bryan found Finn’s cell and stood in the shadows, watching him sleep. His thoughts traveled back to Hermese and how she had not been able to protect herself from Seth’s attack. Seth had entered her quarters while she had been bathing, killed her maids, and then bound her before she could use her powers. He had been wearing armor covered with lodestone, a natural magnet that interfered with her abilities. Somehow he had known how to defeat the House of Atum. Bryan wondered who else had led the Apophis and if their spirits were now at rest. To plunge the world into perpetual darkness was soul-crushing karma indeed.

Finn murmured in his sleep. He was dreaming, and his words made Bryan pause—he recognized the life Finn was remembering. Bryan’s enemy had also been his most devoted student once, cutting off his own arm to prove his sincerity. He waited for Huike to wake. Would he remember what Bodhidharma had told him?

Finn seemed to sense his presence and woke up with a start, his eyes wet with tears. He turned to look at Bryan.

Bryan let the silence rest between them for a moment and then swept it away. “You were speaking Chinese,” he said with surprising gentleness. “Have you remembered our time together at Shaolin?”

“
You knew.
” Finn spoke in Chinese. “
You had seen our future and you still forgave me.
”

“
Do you remember what I told you that day?
”

Finn nodded, crying like a lost child.

Bryan recited Bodhidharma’s words to Huike in Chinese. “
One day you will remember this life, your earnestness, your goodness, and you will meet the malevolence that binds your spirit. On that day, let go of the shame of having fallen and allow it to let in the light.
”

“
You can’t offer me such peace. I’ve done too much harm,
” Finn answered as Seth in their ancient tongue.

Bryan pulled a small, wrapped bundle from his bag and slid it across the floor through the bars. “Life always returns what it takes from us.”

Finn looked down at the package with confusion.

“I found Kiya.”

Finn choked down a sob and he dropped to his knees in front of Bryan’s gift, afraid to touch it.

“She’s in Egypt, as vibrant as she was before. This is for you.”

FORTY-EIGHT

Linz stood at the center of her sand garden, staring at her latest attempt to re-create the Brotherhood of Horus’ emblem. It amazed her that she had been unknowingly drawing variations of it for months. Her brain just hadn’t caught up to her mind, and she now understood that they were two very different things.

The doorbell rang. Linz dropped the stick and ran across the garden, demolishing her work and trailing sand everywhere. He was here.

She threw opened the door and they stared at each other, much like they had the first time they had met. The difference was that now they could see past themselves and recognize they were bound by love. It had moved them through time, had been their compass through the brine of life, and guided them against all odds to make their remembering possible. Love had collapsed ten thousand years.

Bryan moved forward to cross the remaining distance that separated them. He took Linz’s hand and kissed it, placing it on his heart. They held each other for a long time.

He finally whispered, “I missed your father’s funeral. I’m sorry.”

“Conrad was Ramses,” she told him. “He was waiting for you to remember.”

“I know.”

Linz pulled away and looked up at him. “How?”