The Oracle's Message (14 page)

By the time Annja emerged from the hot shower in her cabana, she felt almost human again. As far as she could tell, her wound from Hsusia was already almost fully healed. That was odd. Annja had been injured many times in the past, and while her recuperation time might have been less than normal, it was still necessary. Yet here she’d almost been run through with a spear and she seemed to be healing at an extraordinary rate.

No need for Dr. Tiko, she decided after checking herself in the mirror. She redressed the wound with a fresh bandage and then got ready for dinner.

To say she didn’t have any regrets about the Jiao and her experiences there would have been wrong. Annja was keenly aware that Hsusia had died for no good reason. If the oracle or the pearl or whatever it was hadn’t led them to believe it was some sort of all-powerful object, then Hsusia and her people might still be alive right now.

But the act of Heinkel when he dropped the pearl from its basin had clearly caused massive destruction in the underwater city. And Annja didn’t think there’d be any chance of coming back from that.

She thought about how Spier had volunteered to stay behind. It was admirable, she supposed. But it didn’t completely make sense. Annja had known plenty of cancer patients before and none of them exhibited the level of vitality that Spier had. Was it possible that he was really that close to death? Or had he simply said that to get Annja to leave him behind?

With a few blush strokes and some eyeliner, she felt ready for a much-needed meal. Outside, the weather seemed to be getting angry. More dark storm clouds roiled in the distance and the seas echoed their counterpart by churning to and fro. Annja could see the resort’s boats jostling over by the dock.

But there seemed to be a few missing.

Putting it out of her mind, she considered grabbing an umbrella from her cabana for the walk to the main pavilion. But she decided against it. It wasn’t raining just yet.

The walkway felt firm under her feet, unlike the ground in the underwater city. She shivered. How would she even go about telling anyone about their adventure there? Who would ever believe her?

She could lead an expedition to excavate the reef, of course, but what was the point. As Annja had seen many times, some of the secrets in the world were better left as secrets.

Besides, she liked the idea of knowing that the Jiao would remain protected in their final resting place. She had no doubt that the earthquakes would have reduced the city to rubble and allowed the ocean to flood it.

She shuddered at the thought. Nothing could be worse than being trapped without any way to escape.

As she approached the dining pavilion, she spotted Roux sitting alone at a table. He glanced up as she approached.

“You’re looking quite fetching this evening,” he said with a smile.

“Such an antiquated term,” Annja said. “But a nice one, nonetheless. Thank you, Roux.”

“You’re welcome.”

Annja sat across from him and ordered a glass of wine when the bartender swung by. She looked at Roux and smiled. “Still thinking about where we were a few hours ago?”

He shrugged and helped himself to a sip of his whiskey. “I don’t know. I’ve been around many, many years and have seen quite a bit in that time. That was something else, however. I’m glad you were there with me.”

“Likewise,” Annja said. “It always amazes me how a little danger can turn enemies into allies and vice versa. You never know who you’ll have to trust with your survival, right?”

“Well said. Hans certainly seems to have taken a liking to you,” Roux said.

Annja smiled. “Has he now?”

“Of course, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. I can see it in the way you look at each other. Dare I suggest that wedding bells might toll in your future?”

Annja waved him off. “Stop it, Roux. You’re being silly. Hans is a nice diversion right now. I’m not much for serious relationships. How could I be, what with the sword and all?”

Roux shrugged. “I don’t know. But the responsibility of carrying that blade shouldn’t mean you have to sacrifice your happiness.”

“That’s kind of you to say, but I don’t know if it works that way.”

“No?”

Annja sighed. “I wonder what I would do if I were ever free of it. If I could ever go back to being normal. And what would happen the first time I got into trouble and went looking to pull the sword out, only to have nothing in my hands when I expected it to be there.”

“You’re presuming that you’d get into trouble again,” Roux said. “Maybe that’s being a bit harsh on yourself.”

“Hardly,” Annja said. “I know myself, if no one else. I know where my life has taken me to this point and I know what I’m liable to be involved with in the future.”

“Do you?”

“Sure. Chaos.”

Roux smirked and looked up. “Here comes your wine.”

Annja accepted the glass and raised it to Roux. “Well, here’s to us being a couple of survivors.”

“And unlikely allies sometimes,” Roux said.

“And that,” Annja said. She took a sip of her wine and sighed as she set the glass down on the table.

Roux glanced at his watch. “I do wish the boys would hurry up and get here. I’m afraid I’m absolutely starving and that buffet looks utterly astounding.”

Annja glanced at the walkway but saw no signs of Hans or anyone else. She frowned. They’d agreed to meet for dinner. So where were they?

“Let’s wait five more minutes, and if they don’t show up, I’m getting some food. I’m famished,” she said.

“Deal,” Roux said. He leaned back in his chair. “So, what will you do with Hans? Kiss him goodbye when this is all over? How do you see it playing out? I’m curious.”

“You’re nosy,” Annja said. “And to be honest, I haven’t really given it a lot of thought. We’ve got a few days left here and I intend to use that time to do what I came here to do initially—relax.”

Roux smiled. “Nothing wrong with that. I myself will be leaving tomorrow morning, I expect.”

“Really? So soon?”

He shrugged. “Well, there’s really not much left for me here now, is there? The pearl is still buried underwater and I don’t think there’s much chance of getting it out now with all that coral lying atop it.”

“Plus, there’s the whole radiation thing.”

“Indeed,” Roux said. “How fascinating, though. What are the chances of something like that occurring naturally?”

“I have no idea,” Annja said.

“Nor do I,” Roux said. “But I intend to find out. It’s a shame there wasn’t some way to test it and find out exactly how old it is. I imagine that would tell us an awful lot about life on prehistoric earth.”

“So you believe that there were other races before us?”

Roux nodded. “Most definitely. And I’d be willing to bet that they were rather advanced in several areas of mathematics and science. Perhaps not as advanced as we are today, but a good deal more advanced than just sitting about in caves somewhere in France.”

Annja leaned back. “I’ve never given it much thought, to be honest. I mean, I’ve been fascinated by ancient peoples for so long. But I’ve always looked at them as having a finite length of time to peer back into. The thought that there was a whole other history to earth prior to some sort of apocalypse and that we know nothing about it is incredible to me.”

“And yet, you’ve been exposed to the proof of its existence.” Roux finished his whiskey. “That ought to be rattling a few of your preconceived notions about, eh?”

Annja shrugged. “The sword already took care of a lot of that.”

Roux laughed. “I’ll bet.”

“I’ll have to give it a lot of thought. And I wonder why we haven’t found more evidence of this prehistory before now?”

“Perhaps the apocalypse that we speak of was so total that it simply erased the evidence. Turned the earth into a blank canvas, so to speak.”

Annja nodded. “It must have. But what could have caused such a level of destruction?”

Roux fiddled with his empty glass. “I don’t know. Perhaps some sort of nuclear Armageddon? I mean, we’ve just seen evidence that it occurred naturally in some form. Perhaps the people who populated the earth before us had learned to harness it?”

“Weaponize it, too?”

“It’s possible.”

“And that might mean they somehow lost control of it at some point. And it unleashed hell.”

Roux sighed. “Ah, but for the curiosity of man, the universe might be a safe and peaceful place.”

“And boring,” Annja said. She looked at her watch. “That’s five minutes gone now. I’m hungry.”

Roux frowned. “And I’m curious.” He stood and smiled at Annja. “I’ll be back shortly.”

Annja wandered over to the buffet. She grabbed a plate and started piling the food on. Tonight, they had several varieties of fresh fish, sushi, Filipino noodle dishes, more flank steak and a fresh
lechón.

Annja grabbed a little bit of everything. She smiled to herself. Got to keep my strength up, don’t I?

She saw Roux having a rather animated conversation with the desk clerk. What’s he doing now?

Finally, she saw his shoulder droop in acceptance and he nodded several times before thanking the man. Looking rather dejected, he came walking back across the food pavilion.

“You all right?”

Roux pointed at their table. “Finish getting your food and then come sit with me, all right?”

“Sure.”

She watched Roux walk away and then turned back to finish filling up her plate. She felt like she could single-handedly polish off everything they had available.

A flash of lightning followed by a crack of thunder split the sky overhead and then buckets of rain started pouring down.

I guess I should have brought that umbrella, she thought with a grin. Oh, well, maybe Hans will let me take refuge in his cabana later. The thought of it made her happy.

Annja walked back to the table she shared with Roux. He laughed at the amount of food on the plate.

“You eating for two already?”

“Oh, hush,” she said as she sat down. “What’s with you, anyway? I saw you speaking with the desk clerk. You don’t look too happy.”

Roux had a fresh whiskey and sat there nursing it. “Well, there’s nothing that can be done about it now, anyway. The weather has certainly seen to that. This storm’s going to be with us for some time apparently.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I made some inquiries at the main desk.”

“About what?”

“About leaving, of course.”

Annja bit into her steak and shrugged. “I thought you said you were leaving tomorrow?”

“I was,” Roux said. “But I asked if there was any way possible that I might be able to leave tonight.”

“Why would you want to do a thing like that? It’s pouring rain out and you’ll be traveling in terrible weather.”

“I’d want to leave,” Roux said, “for the same reason you’ll want to leave.”

“Who said I wanted to leave?”

Roux smiled. “I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Annja.”

Annja stopped eating. “Dammit, Roux, if you’ve got something to say, just spit it out, would you?”

“All right,” Roux said. “Hans is gone. Along with Gottlieb and Mueller.”

“What do you mean they’re gone? They’re meeting us for dinner any moment now.”

Roux shook his head. “No. They’re not. It seems our German friends checked out immediately after we got back. And as far as anyone seems to know, they’re already heading back to wherever they came from.”

The last thing Annja wanted to do was make this particular phone call. The problem was, she had nowhere else to turn. Hans and his team had vanished and Annja had no clue where they might have disappeared to. Germany was a reasonable assumption, but Annja needed to be sure.

Roux stood nearby. “We don’t even know what they’re up to.”

“But they’re up to something,” Annja said. She’d managed to quell most of the rage she felt at Hans for deceiving her. But she was still angry. And annoyed enough to want to figure out exactly what the hell was going on.

“This guy can do it?” Roux asked.

“If he can’t, no one can,” Annja said. “The problem is, he’s got a big crush on me. It gets a little awkward sometimes.”

“Awkward? How? Do I need to excuse myself if you two are going to engage in a little telecommunications dalliance?”

“Don’t be gross,” Annja said. She made the call and waited for the phone on the other end to ring. It took several tries before he finally picked up.

“Hi, Annja.”

She sighed. “How did you know it was me?”

“I hacked your email the other day. Saw you were going over to the Philippines. Besides, I don’t get many international calls unless it’s you.”

“You hacked my email?”

“I’m kidding. Seriously. I wouldn’t invade your privacy like that. At least, not unless I had access to some mini-high-def cameras that I could implant in your shower.”

“You’re making me regret calling,” Annja said. “Seriously. Tone down the creepiness, okay?”

“What can I do you for?”

Annja sighed. George was one of the most talented hackers she knew. He’d gotten his start busting into places like NORAD and the Pentagon. When the government found out what he could do, they decided it would be better to pay to have him on their side than against them wreaking havoc.

“I need to know where a few friends of mine went. They’ve disappeared.”

“Maybe you were rude to them.”

“That’s not it, George. They were here in the Philippines and now they’ve taken off for someplace else. Presumably home to Germany, but I can’t be sure.”

“Were they German?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, feed me their names and I’ll see what I can do.”

Annja paused. “That might be a problem.”

“How so?”

Annja ran a hand over her forehead. “I don’t have their last names.”

“Any of them?” George paused. “I can only work miracles in so many ways, Annja. I need at least some basic information if I’m going to turn dead ends into fruitful leads.”

“Almost poetic,” Annja said. “I don’t have any of the names of the guys who are traveling right now. But I do have one last name of a man they came in with. Could that help?”

“I don’t know. I might be able to trace the arrival data and then work from there. What’s the name?”

“Spier. First name Joachim.” She spelled it out for him.

She heard the clacking of keys and George started to hum bad show tunes as he usually did when he worked. After a few seconds he started whistling, which Annja knew meant that he might have something.

“Okay, hang on…”

Annja held the phone. Next to her Roux rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He’d managed to polish off several glasses of whiskey and Annja wondered if he might be drunk. She shook her head. Only my life, she thought. A drunk six-hundred-year-old man on one side and a perpetually horny geek hacker on the other. No wonder she’d been so attracted to Hans. He was the most normal man she’d come across lately.

At least until he deserted her.

“What have you got, George?”

“Joachim Spier. Flew from Frankfurt to Delhi and then on to Manila. Traveled with four men: Heinkel Guttiger, Gottlieb Schwarzwalder, Hans Schmidt, and Karl Mueller. Those names sound right?”

“Yes, they do. Can you work back and see any departing information on where Hans, Gottlieb and Mueller went?”

“I’m assuming they booked round trip tickets…hang on.”

Annja heard more keys clacking as George worked his magic. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“What is?”

“Seems your boys didn’t head back to Germany, after all.”

“Where did they go?”

“Hang on, it’s coming up. Lessee…Manila to Osaka, then on to Minneapolis. From there, they are booked to fly into Logan International Airport in Boston.”

“Boston? Why would they be going there?”

“Search me, babe. I can’t divine that kind of information. But I can tell you that they are currently on a layover in Osaka. You want me to have security pull them and hold them in custody for you?”

Annja frowned. “You can do that?”

“Technically? Yep. But it’s usually done at the behest of my esteemed employers, not on an individual basis. You’d owe me really big if I did that.”

Annja shuddered. “I don’t want that kind of debt on my shoulders, George.”

“Gee, make it sound less pleasant, why don’t you.”

Annja sighed. “George, don’t be like that. But seriously, I don’t need them pulled off the plane. Not yet, anyway.”

“Who are these guys?”

“I don’t really know,” Annja said. “I got mixed up with them over here and we went diving a few times. One of them is supposedly ex-German special operations.”

“Really?” George sounded interested even more now. “Tell me more.”

“He saw action in Afghanistan. I did some Google searches but couldn’t find out anything.”

She heard George snort. “Google. Please. You civilians think it’s the be-all-end-all of searching. That’s like comparing a tricycle with a Ferrari. It’s almost damned near insulting.”

“We don’t all have access to the same stuff you do, George. Us civilians have to make do with what we can get our hands on.”

“Oh, I know. Trust me. I was out there before. I know what it’s like. But it sure is a lot nicer being here where the real information is.”

Annja took a breath. “So, prove it.”

“Prove what?”

“Prove how nice it is. Dig me up something on Hans and tell me why he’s in such a hurry to get to Boston.”

George paused on the phone. “Why would I do a thing like that?”

“Because you happen to be completely and totally crazy for me.”

Roux stifled a laugh and Annja had to shoo him away. On the other end of the line, George didn’t say anything for a moment.

“You still there?”

George cleared his throat. “If I do this for you, I’m going to expect something in return.”

“Don’t be crass, George. It’s not charming.”

“I’m not being crass. I just want a little compensation.”

Annja sighed. “Fine, how much?”

“You insult me,” George said. “I’ve got more money than I know what to do with right now. I don’t do this for the money.”

“All right—what, then?” But she had an idea of what was coming.

“Dinner. Just you and me. For real this time. No more standing me up like the last time.”

“George, there really was an emergency. I wasn’t lying.”

“I don’t want to get back into that whole mess. Just promise me that we’ll go out for a nice dinner. Anywhere you want.”

“In Washington?”

George sighed. “No,
anywhere
you want. Anywhere. Any city, any country. I don’t care. It’s on me. I’ve got all this cash in the bank and no one to spend it on. I eat microwavable meals while I work. It’d be good for me to get out and enjoy a real meal for a change. And the fact that you’re so incredibly beautiful wouldn’t hurt, either.”

“Well, thank you.”

“I mean it,” George said. “I’ll be happy to dig up every little juicy tidbit on this guy and, in exchange, you agree to let me take you out for a fabulous meal.” He paused. “Look, Annja, I’m not under any illusions here. I know I’m not your type of guy. I don’t expect you to fall madly in love with me. But I would like the honor of taking you out for a proper meal.”

Annja smiled in spite of herself. “You know what, George? I think you may have just convinced me to give you a shot.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Sweet. I’ll call you back as soon as I have something.”

“Thanks.” Annja hung up the phone and looked up at Roux. “He’ll get to work digging up stuff.”

“And you’re going to voluntarily carbonate his hormones. How utterly altruistic of you.”

Annja sighed. “He’s not that bad.”

“I’ll bet you a thousand dollars he lives in his mother’s basement,” Roux said. “And eats cheese puffs for breakfast.”

Annja smirked. “You owe me a grand. He’s got a high-rise condo on the Potomac.”

“Really?”

Annja shrugged. “We’ll call it even at five hundred. I think he does eat cheese puffs for breakfast.”

Roux nodded. “Fair enough. How’d you find this guy?”

“He found me while I was working a story on black helicopters and conspiracy theories about Area 51.”

“Not exactly your usual fare for that television show of yours.”

Annja nodded. “I know. The producers wanted a show to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the supposed Roswell Incident. I started poking around and George found me after I sent a few emails to some supposed authorities on the matter.”

“And the course of true love has run smooth ever since.” Roux licked his lips. “How touching.”

“Oh, be quiet already. George is a valuable contact. God knows why Hans and the rest of them took off like that. I don’t suppose you have anything to add to the conversation?”

Roux shrugged. “I don’t know, to be honest. I’m standing here thinking to myself what would make them leave without saying goodbye? What would make them simply drop everything and basically run away? I mean, Hans seemed genuinely smitten by you. Unless it was all an act.”

Annja frowned. “I’ve considered that, as well.”

“I realize it’s not a nice thing to have to consider, but given the reality we currently face…”

Annja nodded. “Yeah, he may have been playing me. I know. But to what end? Why?”

“Perhaps we have to go back and reexamine why they were here in the first place.”

“You mean the pearl?”

Roux nodded. “They traveled here to obtain it, didn’t they? So did they know more about it than we did? Was there more to their quest than they led us to believe?”

“Anything’s possible,” Annja said. “I just wish I knew what was improbable so I could eliminate the chaff and figure this out.”

“I think we’ll find out before too long,” Roux said.

“You do?”

He smiled. “Oh, yes, I’m an eternal optimist. Didn’t I ever tell you that?”

“Uh, no.”

He nodded and looked into his empty whiskey glass. “Oh, yes, I find it’s much more compelling to be an optimist, especially when you’ve been dealt a particularly bad hand of cards.”

“If you say so,” Annja said.

The phone rang and she picked it up. “Hello?”

“Annja?”

“Yeah, George, what’s up?”

“Annja, where the hell did you find these guys?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

George sighed. “It means get ready for me to lay some really heavy shit on you.”