The Babel Codex by Alex Archer Page A

sugar.
    Burris fell into step with Annja when she got under way again.
    “I’m not afraid of ex-wives. I’ve got six. But my fourth one has a new, young attorney who thinks he’s in love with her and that she’s the most wonderful woman he’s ever seen, and that he’s gonna win her over raising my alimony payments. He doesn’t know her like I know her. By the time he does, he’s gonna lose half of everything he has. She’s great at getting around prenups.”
    Annja couldn’t believe it. “You came to Ethiopia to get away from your ex-wife’s lawyer boyfriend.”
    “Not the boyfriend. The boyfriend I could handle. It’s the boyfriend’s dad. Winston Churchill McArthur Patton IV is a force to be reckoned with. Hollywood studios break out in hives when he goes after them.”
    “Surely Patton the father would have better things to do than come after you.”
    “You’d think, wouldn’t you?” Burris looked glum. “It’s a nest of snakes, I tell you. So when Doogie—”
    “Doug.”
    “When he called, asked me about doing a piece on Chasing History’s Monsters , I thought, Why not? He sounded like a fanboy, and I needed to get out of town. Promised me Kristie Chatham—gave me you.”
    “It doesn’t occur to you that telling me that might be hurtful or disrespectful?”
    “Think how hurt I am. I figured the way Kristie falls out of her clothes, I had a shot. But you?” Burris shook his head.
    “I’m glad we’re clear about that.” Annja stopped at another vendor and picked up a serving of fatira , a pancake filled with egg and drizzled with honey. She ate it with gusto.
    “So what’s our next move?”
    “We’re going to get you a cab, since you’re not interested in breakfast.”
    “I am interested in breakfast, but I want something edible. Something American. Preferably with avocado.” Burris blew out a theatrical sigh. “And I’m sticking with you. I own half of that brick.”
    Annja thought of ditching Burris then and there. Getting away from him would be child’s play. But then he’d be in the city alone and untended. “It would be better if you left.”
    “Not leaving.”
    “You’re an idiot.”
    “I’m an idiot with half ownership in a brick that’s gonna take me to a thing that will let me speak to the world .”
    Annja wanted more than anything to punch him. But that would be about the time Bhalla or his men found them.
    She flagged down a cab for both of them at the corner.

Chapter Twelve
    “It isn’t as big as I thought it would be.” Burris gazed around in open wonder at the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East as he and Annja got out of the taxi into a courtyard.
    Church buildings built of white stone lined the courtyard on three sides. The main building was four stories tall and wide with a red stone roof. The two smaller buildings on either side across the courtyard from each other shone in the early-morning sun. The church sat well away from the city on the flat plains, but she could see the blue-tinted peaks of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the distance.
    Annja stared at Burris as she finished paying the driver. He hadn’t even reached for his wallet. “You see this place...one of the most famous in history, founded by the Apostle Saint Peter. It still uses the Syriac, an Aramaic dialect spoken by Jesus and the Apostles, as its official language, and the Apostles preached here after they were driven out of Jerusalem. It’s a church that served in the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople and Ephesus that created the Nicene Creed, confirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit and declared Mary’s title as Mother of God. And that’s all you have—it’s not as big as you thought?”
    Frowning, Burris looked around the stone courtyard leading up to the church. “Did you read that from a plaque?”
    “It’s magnificent , a symbol of so many events that shaped the world.”
    “I shape parts of the world, too.”
    Annja found herself at a loss