No Living Soul Read online

It was perfect technique, which I had come to expect from Slash. Yep, I was lucky to have a guy with perfect technique.

  When I snapped out of my reverie, I noticed Slash was gone and there were shouts coming from the apartment. As instructed, Zizi and I started stomping our feet and banging on the wall in the hallway.

  There was another shout, a couple of loud crashes, and then silence. It was over in less than thirty seconds.

  I peeked around the corner of the door and saw Elvis and Arthur cuffed and gagged in chairs in the living room. They were blessedly alive. Zizi pushed me inside and followed. She closed the door behind her as best she could, given the doorjamb was now broken.

  “People are looking out into the hallway,” she whispered.

  Slash came out of the bedroom, tucking his gun into the back of his pants. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him unharmed.

  That relief faded when I saw his face was grim. “We’ve got trouble. The guy took one look at me and hightailed it for the bedroom, locking the door. Before I could break through, he’d gone through the window and down the fire escape. I didn’t dare shoot—too many people—and he got away with the laptop.”

  Slash knelt behind the chairs and cut through the plastic cuffs on Arthur and Elvis with a knife while I removed their cloth gags.

  “Look out!” Elvis shouted.

  A guy dressed in a policeman’s uniform burst into the apartment, his gun out.

  Slash angled himself in front of us as the policeman shouted something in Arabic at us. Although we didn’t understand the words, we got the message. We straightened slowly, our hands raised.

  “Iisqat bunduqia!”

  Zizi, who’d been standing behind the door, suddenly appeared behind the guy and poked him in the back with...a cane. He froze, unsure of the threat and most likely surprised the voice was female. Regardless, his eyes remained locked on Slash, the biggest threat in the room. I could almost hear him thinking. He had no idea what she held in her hand, but if he turned to fire at her or take a look, Slash would be on him instantly. It put him in a difficult situation.

  “Nnafeal dhlk alan.” I had no idea what she was saying, but Zizi’s voice was cold and calm. No doubt about it, the woman had guts.

  The policeman came to his decision and dropped the gun. Slash retrieved it, then with one hard movement, chopped at his neck. As the policeman dropped to the floor, I wondered at the science of where to place the blow and how hard to apply force to ensure unconsciousness, but I couldn’t let myself dwell on that, seeing as how our current situation was still rather precarious. I also wondered about the advisability of giving him an extra whack with the gun, just to make sure he stayed down.

  Slash saw my look. “Don’t worry, he’ll sleep for a bit.”

  Zizi, who’d stood frozen as the action unfolded, suddenly dropped the cane and held a hand to her heart. “There. I did my part.”

  Slash took a few more steps and put a hand on her shoulder. “You did, indeed. Thank you, Zizi. We owe you a great debt.” He wedged a chair against the door to hold it shut for the time being so we weren’t surprised by anyone else, then turned to face Arthur and Elvis.

  Arthur coughed. “For the love of all that’s good. Zizi, my dear, you were magnificent. I had no idea you were so capable. All of you. I should have trusted you from the beginning.”

  “You think?” Elvis glared at his father.

  Arthur sighed, rubbing the top of his head. “However, I’m sorry to report that not only do they now have the laptop—they also have the endospores. They found them in my pocket.”

  Jeez. Things had gone from bad to worse, except at least we had Arthur and Elvis back and alive. To me that was worth a thousand vials of endospores, even if that was an emotional and not a scientific response.

  For a moment, we just stood there, trying to figure things out. The rescue had been successful, but we’d failed to secure the laptop. I wasn’t sure what to do next.

  Slash glanced at the apartment door. “We’ve got to get out of here before anyone else returns. Let’s go through the window and down the fire escape like he did. It will give us more anonymity than walking out through the hallway.”

  No one argued. Slash put a hand under Arthur’s elbow, helping him out of the chair while I gave Elvis a hand. As we shuffled toward the bedroom, Slash quickly rooted through a couple of backpacks left by the kidnappers, but came up empty.

  “No identifying information,” he said.

  I shrugged, not that I was surprised.

  Slash checked that the area was safe before climbing out the window first. One by one, he helped us out. I was the last to climb down. Slash insisted we walk a few blocks before he managed to hail two cabs. I wondered how it was possible that whenever he or Zizi wanted a cab, they had only to lift their hands once and one magically appeared. Whenever I needed a cab, there wasn’t one in the same half of the city. In fact, I was pretty sure I couldn’t attract one like he did even if I were willing to run naked and shouting through the streets.

  Life just wasn’t fair.

  Slash put Arthur and Zizi in one and climbed in the front. Elvis and I took the second cab.

  We were silent during the cab ride. When we finally entered our suite at the Marriott, Gwen rushed to greet us. Well, technically she greeted Elvis. With a squeal, she threw her arms around his neck.

  “Oh, thank goodness. You’re okay. You’re really okay.”

  He hugged her back. “I’m fine. Just have a bruise on my left cheek and a couple on my ribs where the guys hit me. Not too hard, thankfully. I’m glad you’re safe, too. Did they hurt you?”

  “No. They just tied me up and left. Slash, Lexi and Zizi released me.”

  “You’re sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine. Really.”

  For a moment they stood there, embracing in silence. I looked away. Arthur leaned against the table, looking old and strangely frail. The kidnapping had certainly been an ordeal for him.

  I pointed to a chair. “Why don’t you sit down, Mr. Zimmerman.”

  He nodded and sat. Elvis released Gwen and walked over to stand in front his father. For a moment he just stood there in silence. Then he held out a hand.

  “Thank you for saving my life.”

  Arthur looked up. “What?”

  “I said thank you. You gave them the password to save me. You didn’t have to do that. I didn’t expect you to do that.”

  Arthur studied his son and then took his hand. “You’re welcome.”

  They shook and Elvis turned to face me. “I assume you had a GPS locator on the laptop.”

  “Yep.”

  Slash clapped a hand on my shoulder. “She also had the foresight to plant a back door so we could monitor audio and visual.”

  Elvis looked at me with pride. “Good work, Lexi.”

  My cheeks may have turned pink. “Aww, it was nothing. Standard operating procedure, that’s all. The real question is what do we do now?”

  I glanced at the laptop Gwen still had running. “They haven’t connected to the network yet. When they do, at least we’ll know where they are.”

  “They’ll be better protected this time,” Slash said. “And if they get a decent computer guy, the first thing he’s going to do is turn off the GPS. So, while we wait for them to reconnect, we’ve got to focus on finding, or at least confirming, if an antidote even exists. If they release the information on the plague, the antidote will be more important than ever.”

  “I understand what’s at stake here,” Gwen said, “but isn’t now the time to finally bring in the police? If these guys are impersonating policemen, the real authorities should know.”

  Slash shook his head. “We can’t risk that. They might indeed be policemen and this could even be government-sanctioned. We can’t
be sure. However, I do agree we’ll need the real police’s help at some point, but not yet.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Elvis asked.

  “First, I need to contact someone at the...office so they can alert the CDC. I’ll use Gwen’s name in the correspondence so they know I’m backing this up with at least some expertise. I can’t hold off on this any longer. They need to be aware of this potential threat.”

  “Will the CDC take this threat seriously?” I asked.

  “They will if I connect my name to it.”

  “But they won’t have the endospores to test,” Gwen said. “How will they prepare themselves?”

  “I don’t know. But we’re giving them a head start anyway. I think we can all agree the threat is real and potentially imminent. The fact that the request for their review comes from me should be enough to get them started.”

  Slash held out his phone. “Right now we need Arthur to look at the photos of the chariots we took and let us know where the antidote might be located. We don’t have any more time for games or secrecy. Which chariot has the artifact with the antidote, Mr. Zimmerman?”

  Zizi dug in her bag. “Here’s the online list of all the chariots currently on display.” She swiped her phone to the document and then handed it to Slash. Something about this moment seemed significant, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Yet.

  “Lexi?” Slash said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  I blinked and reached into my purse, pulling out my phone. “I can save us time.” I held it up. “I think I’ve already found it.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Everyone turned to me in surprise except for Arthur. He simply held out a hand for my phone.

  “Show me,” he commanded.

  I opened my phone, pressed my finger to the button and swiped until I found the photo. I magnified it so the part I wanted him to see was clearly visible before handing it over. He took the phone and eagerly examined the photo.

  “Yes.” His eyes lit up. “This is it. Excellent work, Lexi. I was right to trust you.”

  Elvis marched over and stood between us. He stood with his hands on his hips, his glasses half-perched on his nose. But his eyes were blazing with anger. “Just what the hell is going on?”

  I looked meaningfully at Arthur. “Am I permitted to speak freely?”

  Arthur didn’t answer. Elvis stared at the both of us, his left eye starting to twitch. That seemed to happen when he was furious. He reached out and snatched my phone from Arthur’s hand.

  “I asked you a question.” His eyes narrowed at his father. “Why does Lexi have to get permission from you to speak freely?”

  Arthur sighed and then dipped his head at me. “Fine. Go ahead and tell him.”

  I steeled myself as I turned to Elvis. “Your father gave me some information, Elvis, but he made me promise not to share it with anyone. When I went to the museum, he told me to look for a pole with ornate carvings on the chariot. He said that’s what I should pay attention to, so that’s what I did. All of the chariots I saw had matching poles except for this one. On this particular chariot, one pole was plain and the other pole had a bunch of intricate carvings on it. I only had a partial view of the pole because of the way the chariot is arranged in the exhibit, but this one was different. Really different.”

  Elvis whirled on his father. “Why didn’t you share this with all of us? With me? Why did you swear her to secrecy?”

  “Because she was going to the museum and the less people who know the details of my find, the better.”

  You don’t even trust me.” Elvis’s cheeks were flushed with anger. “I’m your son, dammit.”

  “I do trust you, Elvis. I sent you and your brother the spores, didn’t I?”

  Elvis looked at his father in disbelief. “You don’t even care that you could have killed us. Did you ever even consider what might have happened if the package had broken open en route?”

  “Don’t be so dramatic.” Arthur waved a hand. “Great science always embodies some risk. It’s not like I could get the spores tested locally and have someone ask me where I got it.”

  Elvis threw up his hands. “Listen to yourself. Your great discovery is basically a new way to kill thousands, perhaps millions, of people. And now it is in the hands of some jihadists who won’t have any hesitation to use it.”

  “You can’t blame that on me,” Arthur insisted. “You were the ones who led them to me.”

  “Stop. Please.” My head and heart hurt. “We have to figure this out.”

  Without a word Slash strode across the room and took my phone from Elvis. He examined the picture, magnifying it so he could see the carvings better.

  “Are you confirming this is the artifact, Arthur?” Slash’s voice was cool. He was pissed, too. Not that I blamed him. Arthur was playing games, moving us around like chess pieces on a board. Slash didn’t like it one bit and neither did I.

  “Yes. I am confirming that. That pole connected from the base of the chariot to the horse’s harness is the artifact from which I extracted the plague endospores.”

  Slash studied the picture again. After a moment, he raised his eyes and met mine. “It’s the chariot from the last exhibit you were examining. The one when we were in the room together. Right?”

  I swallowed. I could see it in his eyes. He was hurt, maybe even angry, I hadn’t told him what Arthur had revealed to me. That moment in the museum when we were alone would have been the perfect opportunity to bring him up to speed. But I hadn’t. Originally I’d gone along with Arthur’s insistence on secrecy because we were desperate for information. Perhaps that had been a mistake. It’s just that things had moved so quickly after we’d left the museum, I hadn’t had time to weigh the consequences of that promise. But I’d given my word to Arthur, so I’d kept it.

  The words stuck in my throat, so I just nodded.

  Slash turned away from me, but not before I saw the expression on his face. Betrayal and hurt. Arthur had now effectively driven a wedge between all of us. That guy was some piece of work.

  Zizi moved next to Slash. There wasn’t even a nanoinch between the two of them. “Show me the artifact, Slash.”

  Slash angled my phone so she could see the photo.

  “That’s it?” Her eyes were alight with excitement. “That chariot pole? That’s where you found the plague endospores, Arthur?”

  “Yes.” He motioned to my phone. “Take another look, Zizi. Do you see the end of the pole that’s connected to the horse’s reins? That’s where I extracted the spores. The pole is hollow and apparently compartmentalized. The cavity from which I extracted the spores was quite small.”

  I glanced at Elvis, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. In fact, he’d moved to another part of the suite, as far away from me as possible. He walked back and forth, his hands clasped behind his back. I felt sick. It hadn’t occurred to me that Elvis, too, might feel hurt by my promise to his father. But clearly he was.

  I pressed a hand to my forehead. This is exactly why I sucked at relationships of all kinds. There were too many hidden variables I didn’t know how to calculate in advance, so I couldn’t figure out the potential cost or the risk. Things needed to be black and white for me. The gray was a nebulous, scary place.

  This situation was getting worse by the minute.

  Slash leaned back against the table and crossed his arms across his chest. His demeanor was one of frustration. “Now is the time to tell us everything, Arthur. No more games. Lives are at stake. What exactly do you know about that pole?”

  Arthur hesitated, looking around the room at us. Elvis turned around and faced his father, his expression upset and hurt. I had no idea of all the thoughts—good and bad—that were running through his head.

  Zizi stood next to Slash waiting for Arthur’s answer. T
hey looked good together. Two impossibly beautiful people certain to turn heads wherever they went. She tucked her arm into his, her eyes brimming with excitement. I forced myself to look away.

  Arthur sighed. “I guess I have no choice at this point than to tell you.” He looked directly at me even though I hadn’t been the one to ask the question. “I believe I have found the staff of Moses.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Holy burning bush.

  “Moses?” Disbelief coursed through me. “As in the Ten Commandments guy?”

  “Yes. That guy. Moses’s staff. The Rod of God. Call it whatever you’d like.”

  “The same staff that parted the Red Sea?” I asked. “Made water from stone? Blood from water? Wood to snake? That Rod of God?”

  Slash glanced over at me in surprise.

  “What?” I lifted my hands. “I’ve read the Bible.”

  “The staff, according to Jewish legend, was created at the beginning of the world, on the sixth day,” Arthur continued. “It’s said the power of the staff is endless. Moses used it when he brought the plagues on Egypt to force the pharaoh to let the Jewish people leave their bondage in Egypt. Later it was used by Moses to work more miracles and even smite the armies of the enemies of the Jews. It’s not clear, but some biblical scholars believe after Moses died, his brother Aaron took possession of the staff. Aaron then left the staff to the family of David, who supposedly carried it with him along with his sling when he slew Goliath.”

  I was having a hard time wrapping my head around this one. “Okay, is it just me or is this mindboggling stuff?”

  “Totally mindboggling,” Gwen agreed. Her blue eyes were wide.

  “In fact, it could be the most significant find of the past thousand years.” Arthur sat back in his chair. “Add to that, the staff may have powers we can’t even comprehend. Now I hope you understand why I’ve been so secretive.”

  “Are we talking Ark of the Covenant powers or something else?” Gwen asked.

  “I have no idea. But one thing I’m sure of—this find is extraordinary. You can understand why I’ve been reluctant to bring others in.”