The Venetian Betrayal

He again noticed the trail leading up the stark mountain and the ground conduit. Afternoon heat danced in waves along the rock face. He thought again of Ptolemy’s riddle. Climb the god-built walls. When you reach the attic, gaze into the tawny eye, and dare to find the distant refuge.

God-built walls.

Mountains.

He decided they could not keep hovering.

So he slid off the headset and grabbed his phone.

STEPHANIE WATCHED THE MAN KNEELING ON THE FLOOR SOB UNCONTROLLABLY, as Zovastina counted to three.

“Please, God,” he said. “Don’t kill me.”

The rifle was still pointed at him and Zovastina said, “Tell me what I want to know.”

“Vincenti was right. What he said in the lab. They live in the mountain behind here, up the trail. In a green pool. He has power and lights there. He found them a long time ago.” He was speaking fast, the words blurring together in a frenzy of confession. “He told me everything. I helped him change them. I know how they work.”

“What are they?” she calmly asked.

“Bacteria. Archaea. A unique form of life.”

Stephanie heard a change in tone, as if the man sensed a new ally.

“They eat viruses. Destroy them, but they don’t hurt us. That’s why we did all those clinical trials. To see how they work on your viruses.”

Zovastina seemed to consider what she was hearing. Stephanie heard the reference to Vincenti and wondered if this house belonged to him.

“Lyndsey,” Zovastina said, “you’re talking nonsense. I don’t have time-”

“Vincenti lied to you about the antiagents.”

That interested her.

“You thought there was one for each zoonosis.” Lyndsey shook his head. “Not true. Only one.” He pointed in the opposite direction of the room’s windows, toward the back of the house. “Back there. The bacteria in the green pool. They were the antiagents to every virus we found. He lied to you. Made you think there were many countermeasures. There weren’t. Only one.”

Zovastina pressed the gun barrel harder into Lyndsey’s face. “If Vincenti lied to me. Then so did you.”

Stephanie’s cell phone jingled in her pocket.

Zovastina looked up. “Mr. Malone. Finally.” The gun swung her way. “Answer it.”

Stephanie hesitated.

Zovastina aimed her rifle at Thorvaldsen. “He’s of no use to me, except to get you to answer.”

Stephanie flipped open the phone. Zovastina came close and listened.

“Where are you?” Malone asked.

Zovastina shook her head.

“Not there yet,” Stephanie answered.

“How long?”

“Another half hour. Farther than I thought.”

Zovastina nodded her approval of the lie.

“We’re here,” Malone said. “Looking at one of the biggest damn houses I’ve ever seen, especially out in the middle of nowhere. Place looks deserted. There’s a paved lane, maybe a mile or so, that leads in from the highway. We’re hovering a couple miles behind the place. Can Ely offer any more information? There’s a trail leading up the mountain into a cleft. Should we check that out?”

“Let me ask.”

Zovastina nodded again.

“He says that’s a good idea.”

“We’ll have a look. Call me when you arrive.”

Stephanie clicked off the phone and Zovastina relieved her of it. “Now we’ll see how much Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt really know.”

EIGHTY-THREE

CASSIOPEIA FOUND THREE GUNS IN THE WEAPONS CABINET. SHE knew the make. Makarovs. A little stubbier than a standard-issue military Beretta, but all in all a fairly good weapon.

The helicopter descended and she noticed the ground rising fast out the windows. Malone had been talking to Stephanie on the phone. They were apparently not here yet. She wanted to see Ely. Badly. To know he was all right. She’d grieved for him, but not fully, always doubting, always hoping. Not anymore. She’d been right to continue the quest for the elephant medallions. Right to zero in on Irina Zovastina. Right to kill the men in Venice. Even though she’d been wrong about Viktor, she felt no remorse about his partner. Zovastina, not she, had started this battle.

The copter touched ground and the turbine wound down. The motor’s roar was replaced with an eerie silence. She slid open the compartment door. Malone and Viktor started their exit. The afternoon was dry, the sun welcome, the air warm. She checked her watch-3:25 P.M. This had been a long day, and there was no end in sight. Her only sleep had been a couple of hours on the plane from Venice with Zovastina, but that had been an uneasy slumber.

She handed each man a gun.

Malone tossed his other pistol into the copter and stuffed the gun into his belt. Viktor did the same.

They were maybe one hundred fifty meters behind the house, just beyond the grove of trees. The trail leading up the mountain stretched to their right. Malone bent down and felt the thick electrical conduit that paralleled its course. “Humming. Somebody definitely wants power up there.”

“What’s there?” Viktor asked.

“Maybe what your former boss has been searching for.”

STEPHANIE CHECKED ON HENRIK AS ZOVASTINA ORDERED TWO OF the soldiers down into the lab.

“You all right?” she asked him.

He nodded. “I’ve taken worse.”

But she wondered. He was on the other side of sixty, with a crooked spine, and not in what she thought was the best physical condition.

“You should not listen to these people,” Zovastina said to Ely.

“Why not? You’re the one pointing guns at everyone. Striking old men. Want to try me?”

Zovastina chuckled. “An academician who likes a fight? No, my smart friend. You and I don’t need to battle. I need you helping me.”

“Then stop all this, let them go, and you got it.”

“I wish it were that simple.”

“She’s right. It can’t be that simple,” Thorvaldsen said. “Not when she’s pla

“Don’t mock me,” Zovastina warned.

Thorvaldsen seemed unfazed. “I’ll talk to you however I please.”

Zovastina raised the AK-74.

Ely jumped in front of Thorvaldsen. “If you want that tomb,” he made clear, “lower the gun.”

Stephanie wondered if this despot coveted that ancient treasure enough to be openly challenged in front of one of her men.

“Your usefulness is rapidly declining,” Zovastina made clear.

“That tomb could well be within walking distance of here,” Ely said.

Stephanie admired Ely’s determination. He was dangling a piece of meat to an uncaged lion, hoping an intense hunger overrode the instinctive desire to attack. But he seemed to have read Zovastina perfectly.

She lowered the gun.

The two soldiers returned with a computer mainframe cradled in each of their arms.

“It’s all on there,” Lyndsey said. “The experiments. Data. Methodology of dealing with the archaea. All encrypted. But I can undo that. Only me and Vincenti knew the passwords. He trusted me. Told me everything.”

“There are experts who can unencrypt anything. I don’t need you.”

“But it’ll take others time to duplicate the chemistry that’s needed to deal with the bacteria. Vincenti and I worked on that for the past three years. You don’t have that time. You won’t have the antiagent.”

Stephanie realized that the spineless fool was offering the only collateral he possessed.

Zovastina barked out something in a language Stephanie did not understand and the two men cradling the computers left the room. She then motioned with her gun and told them to follow the men out.

They walked down the hall into the main foyer and headed toward the ground floor rear. Another soldier appeared and Zovastina asked something in what sounded like Russian. The man nodded and pointed at a closed door.