"Just an eternal pessimist. I always operate on the theory that what could go wrong, will go wrong."
"And it did. Were those Dawson's men?"
"Who else? One of them may have been Dawson himself. He's a smart man with a lot of resources. Since he already had my original info in the hard drive, he had a head start. But if we're lucky, Dawson is still stymied about the decoder, and we were just followed."
"I don't think that's lucky. Do you think they saw the message?"
"Hard to say. I threw the rest of the gasoline on it as soon as I saw them, but they could have been watching from the trees."
"They wanted the camera."
"And they wanted us dead. But barring that, they may have wanted the camera to keep us from having the message. Get the camera out of my knapsack and take a look. Unless you'd rather take time to get your breath. We could wait until we get back to the motel."
"No way." Rachel had the camera out of his bag and was flipping through the pictures on the tiny screen. "You can read hieroglyphics. I know the cure portion is probably in code, but can you see anything else that would give us any lead about Natifah's next piece of the puzzle?"
"It's actually fairly easy to read, but I don't know what the hell it means. That will take time and research." Tavak ran his finger over the top edge of the fiery message. "This refers to a stoneworker of some kind, and this indicates that he built great cities."
"That doesn't narrow it down much."
"No, but there's something else there." Tavak tapped the screen with his forefinger. "What does that hieroglyph look like to you?"
Rachel squinted at the image. "I'm not sure. Maybe a dog?"
"It looks a little too squat to be a dog. The Egyptians usually made their dogs tall and thin. Perhaps a pig?"
"A pig that built cities?"
He shrugged. "As I said, we'll need to research."
She was suddenly panicked. "Dammit, what happens if we can't figure out who it is? Or if it's a monument or tomb that hasn't been discovered yet?"
"Then maybe we'll have to discover it ourselves."
She wanted to hit him. "Just like that."
"Just like that. If that's the only way."
"You're nuts. I don't have time to go exploring. Allie doesn't have time."
"Look, you're jumping the gun. I guess I'm not the only one who's a pessimist. I can't promise anything else, but I will manage to figure it out. I have Jonesy on my side." He stared out at the water. "And I have Rachel Kirby. That's a double whammy."
She stared at him for a moment, then looked away. "Don't try to con me, Tavak."
"I wouldn't presume. But I believe it's time that you started to trust me. Think about it. Have I given you reason to doubt me since we came together?"
She shook her head. "Other than being what you are."
"And being what and who I am, do you think I couldn't have slipped away from you and disappeared? It wouldn't have been that much of a challenge."
"I had Norton to use as a threat."
"And?"
She was silent. "You're deranged. You'd probably have enjoyed trying to wriggle out of the noose Norton would tighten around you."
"Perhaps. Then we're back to square one. Haven't I kept my word to you?"
She didn't speak for a moment. "Yes."
"Then trust me. It will be easier for both of us."
He was right. It was difficult to give up the anger and suspicion that she'd felt from the moment she'd realized he was the one who had stolen those cycles. Added to that known criminal act, she had come to realize just what a multifaceted and dangerous man he could be. One moment she was put on guard by some act of violence, and the next she was being swept along by the sheer power of his personality. Yet he had kept his word so far, and it would easier to trust him, at least tentatively. She felt an unexpected rush of relief at the decision. She slowly nodded. "On one condition."
He gazed at her inquiringly.
"You find me the pig that can build cities."
ELEVEN
Dawson hurled the stack of photos at Sorens. "What the hell is this supposed to be?"
Sorens leaned over and picked up the photos from the floor of Dawson's hotel suite. The pictures were all the same: smears of light against dark backgrounds. "I told you they were difficult to make out."
"Difficult? Try impossible."
"We didn't know what Tavak and the Kirby woman were doing. We assumed they were going to take something with them." He made a face. "We weren't prepared for a message written in fire."
"It's your job to be prepared for everything. Why else do I pay you?"
Sorens held up one of the prints. "We can make out a few Egyptian characters on this one. I ran them by your expert, and he thinks it may refer to someone who may have been brought back from the brink of death."
"Brought by the great doctor, Peseshet?"
"That's not clear."
"Not clear to us. I'm sure it's clear to Tavak and Kirby by now, though. I need to know who this is. I have to get a step ahead of Tavak."
Sorens frowned. "It would be risky, but I could take the team back to San Simeon to night. We can pour the oil into the walkway and light it just as easily as Tavak and Kirby did."
"No, not just as easily. The guards will be on alert now."
"They work for the park service. Most of them are unarmed. If any of them get in our way, we can take them out."
"By all means," Dawson said sarcastically. "Why use a scalpel when a chain saw will do the job?"
"I thought you said we had to beat Tavak to the punch."
"I did. But nothing will slow us down faster than focusing even more attention on that temple. All we need is more people joining the chase." Dawson grabbed the photos back. "We may need to take another approach."
"Like what?"
"Mills presented me with an option that might keep us on the fast track. But that means going to him and begging for his help. Dammit, I hate like hell letting him call the shots."
Sorens was relieved to be off the hook. "Here's every picture we took." He handed him a flash drive. "Oh, and I suppose you heard about Medelin."
"Yes. I heard that they had a hard time making the ID. I guess a few thousand volts from a passenger train can do that do to a man."
What an icy son of a bitch. "Then I take it that you're not concerned that he bought it?"
"There might have been a slight possibility that I would have been concerned"—his gaze meeting Sorens's was as cold as his words—"if he hadn't failed me."
* * *
Detective Gonzalez pointed to the computer on his desk in the squad room of police headquarters. "Have you ever seen this?"
Finley looked at the screen. "College Confidential?"
Gonzalez nodded. "It's a social networking Web site for college kids. My niece is on it all the time. Kind of like MySpace or Facebook. There are discussion boards, e-mail directories… and webcam feeds."
Gonzalez clicked on a link which displayed a list of colleges and universities all over the world. He clicked on ARDMORE UNIVERSITY, which revealed another list of locales around campus: PRACTICE FIELD, PHI KAPPA THETA, STUDENT UNION, DIEHL QUADRANGLE, APPALOOSA GRILL. He clicked one of the buttons and revealed a flat, grassy expanse backed by several buildings.