The Guardian (22 page)

When they worked together, it was always a prominent male target. Remy would play the role of the seductress, drawing her prey into the lion’s den. With her looks and charm, she usually had the target eating out of the palm of her hand and promising her the world within two to three days. That would set up the shot. Jonathan would use her to get the target into place. It was always a good thing, because it put him in total control of where the hit would take place. And they had pulled off countless assassinations.

He hadn’t seen or heard from Remy in a while. Last he heard, she was getting out of the business. Too many nightmares. She had enough money to last her a lifetime, and she just wanted to settle down on a tropical beach somewhere. He was actually surprised when she answered the phone. He figured she would’ve been long gone by now.

At the warehouse-looking apartment, he waited for the driver to pull away before he walked over to the big, garagelike door. A small camera mounted in the corner of the doorway hummed as it moved to point directly at him. It stayed there for a few seconds before he heard the buzzing of the lock. He pulled the lever on the door and slid it open, but not before reaching inside his jacket and pulling out his 9mm and chambering a round. After the good Dr. Rhette, better to be safe than sorry.

He stepped inside and pulled the heavy door shut. He heard the
click
as the lock slid back in place. A single bulb hung from a wire in the ceiling, illuminating a long, narrow hallway. He followed it until he came to a solid steel door. As he was about to push the black buzzer that was mounted on the wall, the door opened. Remy stood there, a .357 Magnum pointed directly at his head.

“Nice to see you too, Remy.”

“Let’s have it,” she said. She stood with her free arm extended, palm up, and wiggling her fingers. “Have what?”

“The 9 mill. Habits are hard to break, Jonathan. And you have a bad one of standing on one’s doorstep holding one behind your back.”

“That’s a lot of ‘ones.’” He laughed.

She didn’t. “Now, unless your arm has been grotesquely disfigured in the last two years and is permanently stuck that way, I suggest you take it from behind your back, slowly, and hand me the piece.”

Jonathan smiled a big, toothy smile. “Remy, that’s why I love you. You always know just how to talk to a guy.” Slowly he pulled his arm out from behind his back and let the 9mm dangle from his trigger finger. He extended his arm and handed her the gun.

“Thank you,” she said, palming the weapon. “Come on in.” She turned and walked inside, leaving Jonathan to follow. “So what brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“Actually,” he said, “I was kind of surprised you even answered the phone. I thought you were headed to Tahiti or something.”

“I am. Next month.”

“Why the wait?”

“Had to tie up a few loose ends.”

“For two years? Come on. You can tell me. You were waiting for me to come back and run away with you. Tell the truth.” He gave her a sly grin.

“Jonathan, if you and I were the last two people on this earth, one of us would kill the other. And it would probably be me. Killing you. Now, why are you here?”

Jonathan walked over and sat down on the sofa. He propped his leg up on the coffee table and pointed at it. “I just had to give myself a bullet-ectomy. I sewed it up myself, but I need your brother to look at it and make sure everything’s all right. I think it’ll be fine, but I want to make sure.”

“And why did you have to remove a bullet from your own leg? Getting sloppy?”

“Something like that. And I wasn’t supposed to be doing it myself. Dieter set me up with a cutter that apparently didn’t like me.”

Remy gave a throaty laugh. “I think it’s Dieter who doesn’t like you.”

“Yeah. I figured that out about five minutes after I was there. The doctor tried to kill me.”

“Compliments of Dieter, of course.”

“Of course.”

“So what are you into?”

“Can’t talk about it. But I might have some work for you later down the road. If you’re up to it.” “Who’s the mark?”

“My current boss. Has a thing for good-looking ladies such as yourself. And personally, I don’t like him very much. He pays well. That’s about it.”

“Sorry. I’m retired.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that. Anyway, where’s your brother? He coming over tonight?”

“Nope. Said he didn’t care if you bled out right here in my living room.” She watched as Jonathan rolled his eyes. “But I told him I had a buyer for this place and I didn’t want to have to get the carpets recleaned. So he’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

“Thanks, Remy. Really. I owe you.”

“You want to pay me back? After tomorrow, don’t ever try to find me. I’m gone. For good this time.” “Fair enough. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” She walked down the hall and opened the door to a closet. She pulled out two pillows and a blanket, carried them back to where Jonathan sat, and threw them at him. “Good night. You’re sleeping out here.”

She turned around, walked back down the hall, walked into her bedroom, and closed the door. Jonathan heard her slide the dead bolt into place.

He gave a long sigh and fidgeted around with the pillows. He swatted and punched at them until he had them just right. He pulled the blanket up over his head. It wasn’t that late, but he was exhausted. He figured he’d just go ahead and go to sleep. That’s when he felt the vibrating inside his pocket.

“Hello?” he said, flipping the phone open and pushing the S
END
button.

“She’s in London.”

“Thank you. I’ll be there tomorrow.” He hung up the phone, smiled, and pulled the covers back up over his head.

London. Now there was a town he hadn’t been to in a while.

A
nna got out of the shower with a renewed vigor. She couldn’t explain what happened to her a few minutes ago, but she knew she wasn’t crazy either. Her whole outlook had changed. She had a confidence about what she was doing here. She knew she would just have to take it one step at a time, and eventually, she and Jason would figure out what her grandpa had spent his life trying to achieve. She was actually excited about it.

She got dressed, pulled her hair back in a ponytail, brushed her teeth, and hurried downstairs. She found Jason sitting at the desk in the study. He had a pair of black sweatpants and a long-sleeved T-shirt on and was sipping something from a huge coffee mug.

“Whatcha got there?” she asked.

“Only some of the finest hot chocolate I think I’ve ever tasted.” “Oh yeah? And where did you find that?” “In the pantry. Would you like some?” “I would, thank you.”

Jason leaned back in his chair and pointed toward the kitchen.

“It’s in there. Third shelf down on the left,” he said with a playful smile.

“Gee, thanks!” Anna rolled her eyes and started for the kitchen.

Jason stopped her before she took two steps. “Just kidding! Here.” He reached to his left and produced another mug, which he had hidden behind a picture frame. “I heard you coming down the stairs. I made you one.”

“Thank you,” she said sweetly. “You’re a scholar and a gentleman.” She took the mug from Jason and gave it a taste. “Wow! You weren’t kidding! This is great. What kind is it?”

“Actually, it’s kind of my own recipe.”

“You have a recipe for cocoa?”

“Yep. My mom’s. I just happened to find all of the stuff I needed in there to make it.” “Yeah? Like what?”

“Like cocoa powder, milk, and my secret ingredient, freshly ground cinnamon.”

“Cinnamon. No kidding.” It was more a statement than a question.

“Yup. Cinnamon.”

“Well, tell your mom I said thanks.”

“I will, the next time I see her.” He set down his cup and picked up a small notebook that was sitting in front of him. He waved it at Anna and said, “Do you know what this is?”

“No. I’ve never seen it before. What is it?”

“I have no idea. I was hoping you would know.”

“Well, what’s in it?”

“Just some sketches. Come here. Take a look.” Anna walked around the desk to where Jason was sitting and leaned in over his shoulder. “So what is it? Where did you find it?” “I don’t know what it is, for sure. And I found it in this drawer.”

He pointed to one of three drawers lining the side of the desk. “It was the only thing in any of them. I kind of did some snooping. Hope you don’t mind.”

“No, that’s okay. I don’t mind. I mean, we are supposed to be doing this together, I guess. So what do you think it is?”

Jason turned the sketch around, then around again, trying to get it to make sense. “It’s weird. It’s like it’s some kind of pool.”

“Pool? Like a swimming pool?”

“No. I think it’s some kind of underground pool. Here, look.” He pointed to the shading around what looked like a drawing of a long skinny pool of water. “See how this is all shaded? It’s almost like it’s a rock wall or something. And here, look at these.” He flipped back through some of the earlier pages in the notebook, showing drawings of tunnels. “See? On every page they all have the same starting point. Here.” He pointed to a crude drawing of a building. “Then each one follows the same shaft, until here.” He marked the spot with his index finger. Each tunnel drawing started out exactly alike until it reached the point where his finger rested. “Then, if we look past this point, they all go in different directions. But at the end of the map, so to speak, each one just ends like this.” He pointed to a big question mark that was at the bottom of the page, where the drawing of the tunnel ended. “Then, if we flip through the notebook to the last page that has writing on it, we find this drawing of the pool.”

“That is weird,” Anna said, studying the notebook. She flipped through the pages then handed the notebook back to Jason. “So, what do you think it means. Is it important?”

“You tell me. I barely know what’s going on around here. Remember?”

“Well, obviously my grandpa was trying to find this pool. And we know that he was trying to hide this notebook. So it must be important. I guess we’re going to have to figure it out. Anything else in the desk?”

“Nope. I looked in every drawer. That’s it. Just the notebook.”

“And you said it was in that drawer?”

“Well, not exactly in it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I was sitting here at the desk rubbing my eye, and my contact fell out. I got down on the floor to look, and I noticed that up underneath here,” he said, getting down under the desk, “there’s a seam along the panel.” He pointed.

Anna ran her fingers along the hairline crevice.

“When I pushed on the panel—”

“What? You just thought, ‘Hey, I’ll push this and see what happens?’” she quipped. “You’re just a regular Hardy boy, aren’t you?”

“Funny,” he said. “Anyway, I pushed the panel, and it clicked.” He demonstrated. “And there you go.”

Anna felt inside the small cubby, just big enough for a small book. “So it was hidden?”

“It appears that way.”

“Well, that’s good.” Anna began pacing back and forth, the wheels in her brain churning. “That means it’s important. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have hidden it. We have to find out where that building is and why my grandpa was trying to find that pool.” She walked over and grabbed Jason by the hand to pull him out of the chair. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go look at the scroll.”

Anna and Jason sat in the middle of the floor in the living room directly across from one another. The box and all its contents were strewn about the floor around them. There were loose papers, some with ancient Hebrew and Greek written on them, scattered all over. There were a few journals, some written by Thomas Riley, others written by guardians in the past, stacked off to the side. Several drawings of maps, various buildings, rivers, and artifacts were piled up, off to the other side. And Anna had placed the scroll directly between them. They were all set.

Jason marveled at the size of the tiny scroll, no bigger than Anna’s hand, as she unrolled it and placed it in front of him. A feeling of reverence came over him. At that moment, he felt he was the most privileged person on the planet. He knelt, folded his hands, and began to pray out loud, thanking God for this awesome privilege.

“I’m sorry.” He wiped his eyes and sat back upright. “It’s just that … well, it’s …”

“Don’t apologize, Jason. I think it was cool. I kind of had that same feeling when Vin and I saw it earlier.”

“It’s just that, God gave this thing to John. I mean, I’ve read about this scroll in the Bible a hundred times. And now here it sits, right in front of me! This thing is an actual artifact from scripture!”

“But we can’t show anyone.”

“I know. Still, I can’t help but think what this would do for the world.”

“Or what it would do
to
the world.” “Yeah. It could cause a lot of commotion.” “Did you look at it, Jason?”

“What do you mean? Yeah, I looked at it. It’s right there!” He pointed to the scroll lying open on the floor. “No, I mean, did you
look
at it?”

“Oh, I guess not.” He leaned in to look at the writing that was printed on it. It looked as though it had been written five minutes ago. It showed no signs of its age. “This is incredible,” he said. “This thing should be weathered, faded, wrinkled—anything but look brand-new!”

“I know. It’s pretty amazing. So what do we do now?”

Jason read the translation that Anna handed him of the scroll. He tried to absorb the words as he read. And he spoke them out loud.

He read them again and again, speaking the words out loud each time he read through it. Finally, he looked up at Anna. “Well, I’m absolutely confused. How about you?”

Anna threw her arms up in the air. “I thought you were good at riddles. What do we do now?”

Jason smiled and said, “I am. But this is a tough one. I mean, it’s two thousand years old and no one has cracked it yet. You honestly think we’re going to get it right off the bat?”