seemed so easy. We merely needed to salvage the reliquary and load it safely into her pick-up truck.
Now, she was dead. We were in possession of a potentially dangerous artifact. And someone—a mysterious woman—was after it.
I glanced at other bodies. Sooner or later, someone would come looking for them. And something told me I didn’t want to be anywhere near the area when that happened.
We walked back to Beverly. As we drew close, she stowed some items in her bag. I recognized one of them. It was her mass spectrometer, which she used to analyze material samples. Normally, one needed large, expensive machines to perform mass spectrometry. But one of her colleagues had produced a handheld version last year. Since then, he’d upgraded it with several firmware updates.
I nodded at her bag. “Testing skin samples?”
“Soil samples, actually,” she replied.
“Find anything interesting?”
“Not yet.”
“Are you ready?” Graham glanced at the horizon. “We’ve got a long drive to Jerusalem.”
My mental scales tipped back and forth as I thought about our next move. On one hand, the reliquary was safe and I intended to keep it that way. The smart move was to head for Jerusalem, to turn it over to some of Lila’s colleagues. Let the Israeli authorities deal with the bodies and the airplane wreckage.
But something stopped me. Maybe it was what Lila had told me. Maybe it was the questions surrounding the reliquary. Maybe it was the desire to know more about the plane, about why Lila had feared it so much. Or maybe it was something else altogether, something I couldn’t even fathom.
I turned west. “We’ve got a stop to make.”
Graham followed my gaze. “No one could’ve survived that crash.”
“I’m not interested in survivors.” In the distance, a thin column of dark green smoke rose into the green-tinted night. “I’m interested in answers.”
Chapter 16
“Your presence here is a waste of time.” Simona Wolcott’s tone turned frosty. “The model is fine. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“So, you’ve told me. Repeatedly.” Alan Briggs sat back in a stiff, leather-wrapped seat. “Regardless, I’m not leaving until I’ve checked every last aspect of it.”
Simona stared hard at the scientist. Briggs held the gaze without flinching. His presence annoyed her to no end. For months, she’d been able to operate her facility with zero oversight. But now, that had changed. And that meant one thing.
The Separative was growing uneasy.
At first glance, Briggs looked like a stereotypical nerd, albeit not one of the smart ones. He was in his mid-forties, but looked younger than that. His black hair was thick and uncombed. He wore spectacles and ill-fitting, wrinkled clothes.
Simona suspected that Briggs had received more than his fair share of tormenting over the years. It had hardened and focused the man, turning him into an icy-veined scientist and later, one of the world’s foremost modeling experts. Even so, she could see Briggs was deeply uncertain about himself. He craved outside validation. But since few people respected him outright, he tried to inspire fear instead.
But for all his shortcomings, or perhaps because of them, Briggs was a diligent researcher with a penchant for sniffing out problems. He was the kind of guy who’d ask too many questions and dig too deeply.
In short, he was the worst possible visitor at the worst possible moment.
Simona leaned over her sleek aluminum desk. “Fine,” she replied with an exaggerated sigh. “What do you need?”
“Your model is far too complicated for an ordinary inspection. I need a detailed breakdown of its structure.”
“I’ll ask Tessie to give you the necessary documents.”
Briggs crossed his legs. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else?” She folded her smooth hands on top of the desk’s lacquered white surface. “I’d love to chat, but I’ve got a busy day ahead of me.”
“I also need to inspect
Now, she was dead. We were in possession of a potentially dangerous artifact. And someone—a mysterious woman—was after it.
I glanced at other bodies. Sooner or later, someone would come looking for them. And something told me I didn’t want to be anywhere near the area when that happened.
We walked back to Beverly. As we drew close, she stowed some items in her bag. I recognized one of them. It was her mass spectrometer, which she used to analyze material samples. Normally, one needed large, expensive machines to perform mass spectrometry. But one of her colleagues had produced a handheld version last year. Since then, he’d upgraded it with several firmware updates.
I nodded at her bag. “Testing skin samples?”
“Soil samples, actually,” she replied.
“Find anything interesting?”
“Not yet.”
“Are you ready?” Graham glanced at the horizon. “We’ve got a long drive to Jerusalem.”
My mental scales tipped back and forth as I thought about our next move. On one hand, the reliquary was safe and I intended to keep it that way. The smart move was to head for Jerusalem, to turn it over to some of Lila’s colleagues. Let the Israeli authorities deal with the bodies and the airplane wreckage.
But something stopped me. Maybe it was what Lila had told me. Maybe it was the questions surrounding the reliquary. Maybe it was the desire to know more about the plane, about why Lila had feared it so much. Or maybe it was something else altogether, something I couldn’t even fathom.
I turned west. “We’ve got a stop to make.”
Graham followed my gaze. “No one could’ve survived that crash.”
“I’m not interested in survivors.” In the distance, a thin column of dark green smoke rose into the green-tinted night. “I’m interested in answers.”
Chapter 16
“Your presence here is a waste of time.” Simona Wolcott’s tone turned frosty. “The model is fine. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“So, you’ve told me. Repeatedly.” Alan Briggs sat back in a stiff, leather-wrapped seat. “Regardless, I’m not leaving until I’ve checked every last aspect of it.”
Simona stared hard at the scientist. Briggs held the gaze without flinching. His presence annoyed her to no end. For months, she’d been able to operate her facility with zero oversight. But now, that had changed. And that meant one thing.
The Separative was growing uneasy.
At first glance, Briggs looked like a stereotypical nerd, albeit not one of the smart ones. He was in his mid-forties, but looked younger than that. His black hair was thick and uncombed. He wore spectacles and ill-fitting, wrinkled clothes.
Simona suspected that Briggs had received more than his fair share of tormenting over the years. It had hardened and focused the man, turning him into an icy-veined scientist and later, one of the world’s foremost modeling experts. Even so, she could see Briggs was deeply uncertain about himself. He craved outside validation. But since few people respected him outright, he tried to inspire fear instead.
But for all his shortcomings, or perhaps because of them, Briggs was a diligent researcher with a penchant for sniffing out problems. He was the kind of guy who’d ask too many questions and dig too deeply.
In short, he was the worst possible visitor at the worst possible moment.
Simona leaned over her sleek aluminum desk. “Fine,” she replied with an exaggerated sigh. “What do you need?”
“Your model is far too complicated for an ordinary inspection. I need a detailed breakdown of its structure.”
“I’ll ask Tessie to give you the necessary documents.”
Briggs crossed his legs. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else?” She folded her smooth hands on top of the desk’s lacquered white surface. “I’d love to chat, but I’ve got a busy day ahead of me.”
“I also need to inspect
Similar Books
