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Drake looked at her, then at Henriksen, wanting the bastard to know that they had beaten hi theabout

"Secrets," he said, s to blow your s you never would have expected"

Henriksen lifted his chin, sneering "Soerous Sometimes it’s safer for the secrets"

Drake s to buy hi to pay hiant bastard who thought he was king of the world He’d had people ht he was too special to have to follow rules or share his discoveries with the world

Sully took Jada’s hand and led her along the corridor, headed for the stairs that went up into the labyrinth Drake hung back a lanced at Melissa and s stays a secret forever"

He didn’t want to turn his back on Henriksen, but he figured if the guy was going to paint the walls with his blood, he’d have done it already Still, it was all he could do not to run for the stairs, knowing those icy, soulless eyes were behind hiht I’m just also not stupid

Fifteen minutes later they were outside

Fouracross the desert, wondering how long it would take the authorities to get out to the dig once someone radioed them

Three hours later they were on a boat racing north on the Nile, headed for Port Said in hopes of finding a ship’s captain willing to run them northwest across the Mediterranean to Santorini There would be ferry service, but a ferry would have other stops and et them there, and they didn’t have a moment to spare They had a head start on Henriksen, but that wasn’t likely to last very long Henriksen hadunder his real naht not hold up under real scrutiny

They did have a few things in their favor, however Welch had given them their destination before he’d been abducted and maybe killed--more blood spilled over this secret--and since Hilary and her tea for, they would come to their revelations more slowly Also, Hilary and her staff would be occupied with the police, trying to figure out who had taken Welch and trying to get him back

They would beat Henriksen to the third labyrinth, Drake decided They had to

As for Welch’s abduction, Drake, Jada, and Sully avoided that subject as much as possible, partly because they knew the police would assu the scene hadn’t helped their case, but there had been no other choice Now they were ar the way, Drake figured, he had taken a wrong turn He pro to find another line of work So his head in a lion’snice and quiet None of the perils of racing around the world with Victor Sullivan If they could just get to Santorini and off the island again without anyone else dying, he would consider himself lucky

But when it came to his adventures with Sully, he couldn’t fool hiood kind

13

Santorini was unlike any other place in the world The towns overlooking the caldera were built into the caves and folds of the cliffs left behind when the volcano at the heart of ancient Thera exploded The blue do pools that dotted the cliff towns and the water of the caldera Drake reckoned there e of Oia alone, all of the around the inner wall of an island that was part of the ri volcano Some of the beaches had black sand--volcanic sand--and the beauty of the caldera somehow allowed the people to tell themselves that the sea would never erupt with lava and flaht Drake knew that, and though Santorini had a beauty and serenity greater than ale peace with potentially imminent destruction that fascinated hiht, and the warone down Drake and Jada walked side by side along the alleys and stairways overlooking the caldera, surrounded by bars and restaurants and shops Many of the shops were closed on a Sunday night in October, but some remained open, and they wandered and -shopped, so about their lives and soreat deal in just over twenty-four hours In Port Said they had found a marina where captains offered their boats for day trips It was an expensive proposition and even more costly when they explained that they wanted the captain to take the the return trip The weathered Egyptian captainhih to break theed hands

They had slept fairly cos considered, and arrived at Santorini in enius--or luck, Drake allowed--that they had checked out of the Auberge du Lac and brought their duffels with the their clean and dirty clothes They had left the Volvo abandoned in Port Said, but once they took the cable car up frory as they were, they had shopped first October nights could get chilly on the islands, so Sully and Drake each picked up sweaters, and Jada purchased a stylish leather jacket

Or, rather, Drake purchased thees of clothes for each of theotten on the way to Montreal, but he couldn’t exactly use his own, and he had to conserve the significant a from his adventure in Ecuador He promised himself that when this was all over, he’d pay the store back; he’d even kept the receipt Drake ular basis--that came with the territory in his line of work--but he drew the line at ripping people off

They’d gone into the first decent hotel they’d found in the village of Oia, pretended not to be twitchy about the exorbitant prices, and booked a suite so they could all be locked up behind the saht In the summer they would never have found a vacancy so easily, but in October rooh demand

Dinner had followed, and now Sully was back at the hotel, trying to figure out the best way to get the Even if they paid so for ancientIn the dark, Drake figured they’d just walk off a cliff and that would be the end of the whole business

Now he and Jada were drifting into one of their coain They were on the downhill side of a rise in the cliffside village, on a path a the shops and bars and eateries There were stretches of path and then a few steps and another longer walk and a few more steps, which was as close to flat as this part of the island got The s pipe tobacco reached them, and Jada inhaled and sed "When I was little, ive it up?"

"No When I got to high school, I told him it was pretentious and embarrassed ave it up for ave him pleasure and some kind of peace of mind, and I--"

She couldn’t finish the sentence, her voice quavering Her eyes filled with tears, but Jada see them A moment later she brushed at her eyes, but her cheeks were dry

"What happened to your parents?" she asked "Uncle Vic would never tellher

"I was curious," she admitted "But don’t flatter yourself"