Tavak pulled next to the tractor-trailer, stopped, and climbed out. There was no sound except for the wind blowing against the hangar's corrugated tin roof and walls.
"Where is everybody?" Rachel said.
Demanski pointed outside the hangar to four parked cars, one of which was the gold Camry they had been following. "Unless you think the drivers of all those cars are now in the air, there's someone still around."
Tavak stiffened, his head lifting. "It's too damn quiet." He whirled back toward the Escalade. "Everyone get back in the car."
"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that, Tavak."
They spun around to see a lean, fiftyish man step out from behind the tractor-trailer. He was pointing an AK-47 at them. "Dawson said that you'd track Wiley down. You work quickly. We just managed to whisk him away in time."
"You were waiting for us. You knew we were tailing Wiley. Who are you?"
"Les Kilcher. We're not strangers." He smiled. "We ran into each other recently on Big Obukhovsky Bridge."
"You're the one who heisted my exhibit?" Demanski asked.
"I certainly did. I did a bang-up job. Literally. I'd do the same here, but I have my orders. Dawson wants to handle it himself." Kilcher spoke over his shoulder to one of the two men who had just come from behind the trailer. "Weitz, keep an eye on them while I dial Dawson. He said we had to exercise extreme care with Tavak."
"Yes, sir," Weitz said, raising his automatic weapon. "No problem."
"Dawson?" Kilcher spoke into the phone. "I have Tavak, Demanski, and the Kirby sisters. Yes, all secure." He put the phone on speaker. "He wants to have a few words with you before turning you over to me."
"Actually, I'm sorry not to be there." Dawson's voice came loud, clear, and full of malice from the phone. "But I'm on my way to meet Wiley and, in the end, money is always more important than revenge."
"This whole thing was just to draw us out?" Tavak asked.
"Not quite. I've just learned to make the most of my opportunities. Each time I've confronted you in the past, Tavak, I made the mistake of not giving you enough credit. You're quite a clever man, so I merely asked myself what I would do if I were in your position, watching that precious artifact airlifted out of your grasp."
"And?"
"I knew you were aware of the only two men I would be likely to consult in this matter. My first thought was to find someone else, but then I realized it was a great opportunity."
"Because you knew we would be watching Dr. Wiley," Rachel said.
"And Scott Collier in Cambridge, where I know your friends have already made contact." Dawson paused. "Poor Ben Leonard. Out of the kettle into the fire. He should really have learned his lesson in that tomb. He must be very loyal to you, Tavak. In another fifteen minutes I'll make a call and tell my men that he's to give you final proof of that loyalty."
Tavak tensed. "Why? You already have us. It's stupid to act without reason. It's the sign of an amateur."
"But I have the discretion to act however I please." He added maliciously, "Don't I? You guessed that I'd choose Dr. Wiley. His linguistic specialty tipped the scales for you, yes?"
Tavak didn't answer.
"I'll take that as an affirmative response. And you would be quite right. Dr. Wiley is on his way to the mastaba wall now, enjoying what I've been told is his first trip ever aboard a private jet."
"Then Dr. Collier in Cambridge has nothing to do with it. Whatever you have planned there, call it off. There's no reason for it."
"You keep harping on logic and reason. Yes, there's no reason for it. Like there was no reason for you to humiliate me in Bolivia?"
"You humiliated yourself the day you signed on to do the pharmaceutical companies' dirty work. And you've been humiliating yourself ever since." Tavak stopped and tried to control himself. "I'm the one you want, Dawson. Let them go. Take their phones, disable the car. By the time they could get help, you'd be long gone."
"And so would you, Tavak."
"Yes."
"That's all very noble, but you know there's no way I could do that. Three witnesses, and your blood on my hands?" He chuckled. "It would be ironic if you were the one to put me away for the rest of my life… by dying."
"Then what's with the monologue?" Tavak said. "Why not just shoot us?"
"My employer is rather squeamish. He's a fan of the convenient accident, but that's rather difficult to pull off with four victims. Particularly such well-known people as your friends. So were going to have to strive to give him what he wants. Goodbye, Tavak. I'm only sorry I couldn't see you buy it. Kilcher, go ahead with it." Dawson hung up.
Kilcher nodded to Weitz, who ran to the Escalade, climbed in, and started it up. He backed the vehicle up a steel loading ramp and into the bed of the tractor-trailer.
Kilcher gestured with his gun. "Take their weapons and phones, Hannigan."
The man, Hannigan, to whom Kilcher had spoken couldn't be over twenty but was wearing a holstered knife and also carrying an AK-47. Hannigan patted down each of the captives. He took phones from each, plus a knife and handgun from Tavak.
"Don't worry," Kilcher said. "You'll be re united with your items soon enough. Now into the trailer. All of you."
Tavak didn't move. "What's the plan, Kilcher?"
"It will be apparent soon enough," Kilcher said. "Climb in. Of course, if you don't follow Dawson's instructions, I'd be just as happy to shoot you. I'm a professional. I don't run risks when I can just move on to another job that doesn't have all those damn restrictions. Your choice."
What the hell could they do? Rachel thought. She glanced at Tavak, instinctively trying to tap into that confidence and ingenuity to which she had become accustomed.
She didn't like what she saw.
Tavak appeared resigned. Defeated.
"Tavak?"
He started toward the truck. He said curtly, "Just do what Kilcher says."
They walked up the loading ramp and stood in front of the Escalade. The last thing they saw as the trailer doors swung shut was Kilcher's unsmiling face.
Large chains rattled outside as the doors were secured.
Rachel glanced around. Light spilled from the ventilated sides of the trailer. "What is this?"
"It was made to transport cattle," Demanski said. "Which, at the moment, happens to be us."
The truck started up. It rolled out of the hangar and pulled onto the highway.
"You know Dawson," Rachel said to Tavak. "What is he doing with us?"
"No idea. All I know is that we couldn't do anything back there under Kilcher's guns. We need to find a way out of here right now. Before Dawson makes that call to Cambridge. Fifteen minutes. Shit." Tavak jumped on top of the Escalade and pounded his fists on the roof of the trailer. He glanced down to Demanski and pointed to the trailer's side vents. "Help me with this."
The two men slid their fingers through the vents and pulled, but the steel framework didn't budge.
"Dammit!" Demanski struck the trailer's side with the heel of his hand.
After a few minutes more of struggling with the vents, Tavak went still. "We're slowing down."
Everyone listened as the tractor-trailer downshifted. Gravel kicked from the tires.
Rachel peered through the thin vent slits. "We're off the highway. It's a gravel road. Whatever they're going to do, it's going to happen soon."