SIX MONTHS LATER
CLOVIS, NEW MEXICO
Rachel climbed to the top of the hill and gazed out at the hundreds of acres below. It was almost sunset, and the late-afternoon rays fell on the earth like a benediction. Dear God, it was beautiful. Every time she came here, she went away renewed and full of hope.
"You look like a high priestess about to offer alms."
Tavak.
She stiffened but didn't turn around. "It's about time you showed up. It's been months. I thought you'd disappeared from the face of the earth."
"I had a few things to do." He joined her on the crest of the hill. "And I knew you were going to hit the ground running the minute you left Cairo."
"I did." Rachel turned to look at him. His tan was deeper, but his eyes held the same alert intelligence to which she'd become accustomed. He wore khakis and a white shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and he appeared a little thinner. Lord, she had missed him. "You're lucky I didn't try to cheat you out of your share of Peseshet's cure."
He smiled. "I wasn't worried. I knew where to find you." He gazed down at the valley below, at the rows of ivylike plants adorned with dangling clusters of berries. "No wonder you were looking like a high priestess. Is this Peseshet's magic? It's very pretty."
She shook her head. "No, it's not. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
He smiled. "I stand corrected."
"And it will be even more beautiful when we find one that actually works." Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "And we will."
"I don't doubt it." He glanced back at the Dowd Agricultural Research Center, a sprawling one-story facility surrounded by farmland. "Is that your pride and joy?"
"This is only one of a half a dozen labs racing to synthesize the active ingredient of lyiathe. It's a plant that's been extinct for centuries, but it was a key ingredient of Peseshet's cure."
"How close are you?"
"Those plants down there are distant cousins of lyiathe. Future generations will be even closer. We're almost there."
"How long?"
"Six months. A year. It can't happen soon enough."
There had been considerable skepticism in the scientific community, but most naysayers were silenced when GLD Foundation researchers used Peseshet's technique to demonstrate the beginnings of nervous-system regeneration in small mammals. With the missing ingredient, it appeared, the regeneration would continue until the damaged sections were repaired completely.
"I'm very happy for you," Tavak said quietly.
"Did you hear about Simon?"
He nodded. "I made sure I wasn't completely out of touch. I know it must have hit you hard."
"Yes, it did." Simon's betrayal and death had stunned her. There had been so few people she would have trusted with her life's work, but Simon was one. She missed his brilliance, his wit, and the humor he used to break the tension when she didn't think she could spend another minute in the lab.
She hated that those years of fond memories had been poisoned by his horrible final act. Both NSA Deputy Director Robert Pierce and Ted Mills were now awaiting trial for murder, and as angry as she was at them for hijacking her network for their own purposes, she despised them more for luring Simon down that dark path.
"How is Allie doing? When I called Val and asked where you were, she thought Allie might be with you."
She shook her head. "She's with Demanski in Nevada. They're touring the new hydroagricultural lab that he's set up. The researchers there may be even further along than this place. They're estimating four months."
Tavak chuckled. "Most guys woo women with candy and flowers. Demanski built an entire research facility that may save her life."
"What can I say? He's a master of the grand gesture." She paused. "Why did you disappear? What was so damn important that you couldn't even wait to talk to me?"
Tavak's smile faded. "I had to arrange for Ben's funeral." He looked down at the valley. "And I had to make sure Nuri was going to be all right. I've been walking away from people I care about all my life. I thought it was time I stopped."
"But you walked away from me."
"I thought I'd give you a chance to decide if you wanted me in your life. I haven't given you much choice since I sent you that e-mail from the tomb."
"And what if I'd decided to cross you off my list?"
He tilted his head. "Have you?"
"Dammit, you left me without a word. And now you say it was some kind of test?"
"I was being noble." He grinned. "But then I got over it. So here I am like a bad penny."
"Great description."
"I thought it over, and bad pennies aren't all that bad. I may not be the most stable man in the world, but I'll spend the rest of my life teaching you to hear the music. You need someone like me."
"And do you need someone like me?" she asked unevenly.
He reached over and touched her cheek with gossamer gentleness. "Oh, yes."
She felt a melting deep within her. "It's not at all sensible. We're completely different."
He nodded. "And there will be times when you're working so hard you'll forget I'm alive, and I'll have to jar you back into my world."
"And I know you. You'll probably wander away somewhere and let me worry myself into a nervous breakdown."
"Probably. But I'll always come back. And when you need me, I'll be there." He smiled. "Think about it." He stepped back. "I want to go down to the valley and get a closer look. Do you want to go with me?"
She shook her head. "I like looking at it from up here."
"Okay." He reached into his duffel and handed her a cloth-wrapped object. "I brought you a present. It's the Peseshet letter to her students. I had it engraved on granite. I thought you'd want it to last at least another five thousand years."
She watched him move down the hill. He seemed bathed in golden light, the only vital, moving entity in the sea of plants. Yet he was casting a giant shadow before him as he had dominated and foreshadowed every moment of her life since she had met him.
She looked down at the gray granite tablet he had given her. Peseshet's message to her students delivered with the wondrous cure that ironically caused so many of their violent deaths.
My loyal and treasured students, I bestow upon you my greatest gift. You have made a solemn pledge to heal the sick, bring them hope, and give them many years of health and happiness. Your skills are a great power, and you now have a responsibility, a sacred duty, toward your fellow citizens. There are those who might wield such power as one might wield a weapon, granting life only in exchange for great riches or influence. But our calling is a nobler one, and I grant you this gift so that all people, regardless of station or personal allegiances, may benefit from our knowledge and enjoy long and fruitful lives.
Spread your knowledge far and wide, my sisters, and the citizens of the world will celebrate our skill, compassion, and boundless spirit through the ages.
Rachel smiled as the sun dipped farther into the horizon, casting dark shadows that made the plants appear like a rolling sea that went on forever. "Soon, Lady Peseshet," she said softly. "Very soon."