Page 16 (1/2)
THIRTY-TWO
WASHINGTON, DC
9:00 PM
STEPHANIE LED CASSIOPEIA THROUGH THE QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD For the past few hours they’d stayed hidden in the suburbs She’d made one call to Billet headquarters from a pay phone at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and learned that there had been no contact from Malone Not so from the White House Larry Daley’s office had called three tiet back to hi, she knew But let Daley wonder if the next time he saw her jovial face, it would be live on CNN That fear should be enough, for now, to keep the deputy national security adviser in check Heather Dixon and the Israelis, though, were another ?" Cassiopeia asked
"To deal with a problehborhood was heavy with beaux arts architecture that had been fashionable, she realized, with the nineteenth-century industrialists who’d first populated the tree-lined avenues Colonial row houses and cobblestoned walks only added to the wealthy ht air
"I’ents," Cassiopeia said "I like to knohat I’ into"
"You can leave whenever you want"
"Nice try You’re not getting rid ofquestions You quiz Thorvaldsen like this?"
"Why don’t you like him? In France you stayed at his throat"
"Look where I am, Cassiopeia Cotton’s in a mess My own people want me dead The Israelis and Saudis are both after me You think it’s wise I like anyone?"
"That’s not an answer to my question"
No, it wasn’t But she couldn’t voice the truth That through his association with her late husband, Thorvaldsen had coths and weaknesses, and near him she felt vulnerable
"Let’s just say that he and I are far too well acquainted with each other"
"Henrik’s worried about you That’s why he asked me to come He sensed trouble"
"And I appreciate that But it doesn’t mean I have to like him"
She spotted the house, another of the s, a portico, and a hts burned only in the downstairs s She scanned the street
Still quiet
"Follow me"
ALFRED HERMANN RARELY SLEPT HE’D CONDITIONED HIS o to operate on less than three hours’ rest
He was not old enough to have personally experienced World War II, though he harbored vivid childhood h the streets of Vienna In the decades after, he’d actively battled the Soviets and challenged their puppet regimes that had dos and hadthe past fifty years the farown tenfold, and much of that success could be traced to the Order of the Golden Fleece To be intiroup frorandfather had never enjoyed But to be in charge-that provided even greater benefits
His tenure, though, was cohter would inherit everything And the thought was not co True, she was like him in some ways Bold and determined, and she appreciated the past and coveted, with an enthusiasm similar to his own, that e But she reht never be cohter who, like hiarete, after histhe model of the Library of Alexandria
"Can we find it?" she quietly asked
He stepped close "I believe Doray eyes "Sabre is not to be trusted No American should be"
They’d had this discussion before "I trust no one"
"Not even rinned They’d had this discussion before, too "Not even you"
"Sabre has too ive him difficult tasks You can’t do that and expect him to work as we see fit"
"He’s a probleenuity and all that-you just don’t know it"
"He’s a willful man He needs purpose We provide that to hioals"
"I’ve sensed more from him lately He tries hard to mask his ambition, but it’s there You just have to pay attention"
He thought he’d taunt her "Perhaps you’re attracted to him?"
She scoffed at his question "That’ll never happen In fact, I’ll fire hione"
He wondered about her assumption that she would inherit all that he owned "There’s no guarantee you’ll be Blue Chair That selection isthe Chairs"
"I’ll be in the Circle I assure you It’s a simple step from there to where you are"
But he wasn’t so sure He knew of her contacts with the other four Chairs He’d actually encouraged thee, volume, and scope Financial institutions he controlled were heavily entangled withthree of the Chairs Never would any of them want others to know of that vulnerability, and the price of his silence had always been their loyalty He’d hter’s attempts had been feeble So a word of caution was in order "Once I’one, it’s true, Dominick will have to deal with you, as you ith him But don’t be so quick Men like hiht find the but feared, as always, that her ears reht and, in her youth, she’d seee had not matured that early proland, and was completed in Austria, her business experience honed in the boardrooms of his many corporations
But the reports fro
"What would you do if you found the library?" she asked
He concealed his amusement She apparently did not want to discuss Sabre or herself anyhts are there"
"I heard you speaking yesterday about those Tell me more"
"Ah, the Piri Reis Map, fro on about that I didn’t know you were listening"
"I always listen"
He grinned at the observation They both kneasn’t so
"I was telling the chancellor of how the azelle hide by a Turkish admiral as once a pirate Full of incredible detail The South Aators hadn’t yet charted that region The Antarctic continent is also shown, long before being coated with ice Only recently, using ground radar, have we been able to determine that shoreline’s contour Yet the 1513 representation is as good as ours On the face of the rapher noted that he used charts drawn in the days of Alexander, Lord of the Two Horns Can you iators visited Antarctica thousands of years ago, before the ice accumulated, and recorded what they saw"
Hermann’s mind swirled hat else may have been lost froy, and otten or nition Do you know of Des were made of a finite number of discrete particles Today we call thee their existence and formulate the atomic theory He wrote seventy books-we know that from other references-yet not one has survived And centuries passed before other
"Alypt’s history Gone Galen, the great Roman healer? He wrote five hundred treatises on ht that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe But Copernicus, who lived seventeen centuries later, is the man history credits with that revelation"
He thought of raphers Archirammar Callimachus the poet Thales, the first philosopher
All their ideas gone
"It’s always been the sa eradicated once power is attained History has proven that over and over"
"So what is it Israel fears?" she asked
He knew she’d eventually work him around to that subject
"Perhaps it’sthe world is difficult"
"But it can be done Men-" He paused "-and women have done it for centuries And violence has not always brought about the es Often it’s been ed na Carta The Aovern their lives by those words Society has been altered by them It’s not so much the wars as the treaties that follow that truly alter the course of history The Marshall Plan changed the world more expressly than World War II itself Words are indeed the true weapons of ed my question," she said in a playful tone, one that re-dead wife
"What is it Israel fears?" he repeated
"Why won’t you tell me?"
"Perhaps I don’t know"
"I doubt it"
He considered telling her everything But he hadn’t survived by being foolish Loose talk had been the downfall of more than one successful man
"Let’s simply say that the truth is always difficult to accept For people, for cultures, even for nations"
STEPHANIE LED THE WAY INTO THE REAR YARD AND WAS STARTLED by its manicured appearance Flowers abounded Colorful asters, waxbells, goldenrod, pansies, and stones dotted rought-iron furniture, uided Cassiopeia to the thick trunk of a tall arden
She checked her watch: 9:43 PM
She’d brought theer and curiosity, but the next step here she irrefutably crossed the line
"Get that air pistol ready," she whispered
Her cohort slid a dart down the barrel "I hope you note my blind obedience to this foolishness"
She considered the nextinto the house was certainly an option Cassiopeia possessed the requisite skills But si on the door would work, too She actually liked that approach Their course, though, was instantly set when the rear door opened and a black for a shallow colonnade The talla bathrobe tied at the waist, his feet sheathed in slippers that scraped off the terrace
She un, then at the form
Cassiopeia aimed and fired
A soft pop, then a swish accoht
Its tip found the man, who cried out as his hand reached for his shoulder He seeasped as he collapsed
Stephanie raced over "Stuff works fast"
"That’s the idea Who is this?"