Rain pummeled him. He slipped the rifle off his shoulder and looked around. Found the Range Rover. Sealed the lid to the cave and limped over to the vehicle. He opened the passenger’s side front door and lowered his head to speak to someone inside. The driver, Nadia thought. A few seconds later he opened the rear passenger door.
Marko stepped out of the Range Rover.
He was alive. A sense of euphoria swept Nadia. It left her giddy.
He had a bandage on his head. His hands were cuffed in front of him. The man with the rifle took him by the arm and directed him to the front passenger seat. Even put his hand over Marko’s head to make sure he didn’t bump his wound on the way in.
Marko carried himself with a fearlessness that belied his situation. He even stopped to say something to the man with the rifle before climbing in the front seat.
Another pair of men must have followed the two she’d encountered, Nadia thought. Perhaps they’d gone to search the other khatki, or the water source on the opposite side of the Gypsum Giant. They probably had shortwave radios. As soon as they heard shooting they must have come running. From there they took Marko to the car while the other two pursued her.
The thump must have been a warning shot. Followed by a rifle butt to the head.
Marko was alive.
Nadia’s joy was short-lived. Karel. She’d put him out of her mind. The image of his head bursting open flashed before her eyes. His final words rang in her head.
Valentin. He knew the name. There was a connection between Bobby and Valentin. It involved something called the Zaroff Seven.
And one more thing. It was so unbelievable as to be laughable. But Karel hadn’t wavered in his conviction. Not for a moment.
The formula was real.
CHAPTER 45
NADIA WAITED FOR the Range Rover to drive out of sight. After ten more minutes to make sure they didn’t double back, she walked five miles in the rain to the village of Strilkivtsi. Along the way, she sipped water from the bottle in her knapsack and considered her discoveries.
Karel had insisted the formula was real and was contained in the locket. But if it wasn’t on a piece of microfilm inside the compartment where was it? In a steel capsule within the body of the locket? Or was it etched somehow? That sounded more likely. The thought had never occurred to her before because the contents of the locket had proved it was all a ruse. Or so it seemed at the time. But wouldn’t that have been just like her uncle to hide it so well?
Then the painful question dawned on Nadia. Did Bobby know? Had he been lying to her the entire time? And where was the locket? In jail, she suspected, with Bobby’s other personal possessions. He never took it off his neck except to sleep.
Her thoughts turned to her brother. If her pursuers wanted Marko dead, they would have killed him in the Priest’s Grotto. But they didn’t. That meant they had a use for him. Maybe they wanted to see what he knew. More likely they wanted to use him to get to her. Nadia wasn’t sure why but that’s what her instincts told her. Alerting the authorities about his abduction could backfire. Her pursuers could change their minds and decide keeping Marko alive wasn’t worth the risk of being found. If she notified the American embassy in Kyiv they would seek help from the Ukrainian police. They had a less than sterling reputation for integrity.
No. Frightening as it was, Nadia’s optimal course of action was to wait. She had her cell phone. Marko knew her number. Soon she would get a call, and her pursuers would reveal themselves and their motives. Both were tied to Bobby’s past, Ivan Valentin, and his son’s murder. They’d begun following her as soon as she started asking questions about Valentin. She was sure of it. In the meantime, she took small comfort in knowing that Marko could take care of himself.
Nadia paid a seamstress’s son five hundred hryvnia to drive her from Strilkivtsi to Lviv. It was the equivalent of sixty dollars. She listened to her voice mails during the trip. One was from Johnny. There had been a break in the case against Bobby. The witness had changed his story. The victim had been carrying a rifle and a hunting knife. The witness was broke. The rifle and the knife were worth money. The latter had an ivory handle. He’d taken them both for the money. The victim was also carrying a map of Hart Island. Johnny said it was a public cemetery. Nadia vaguely remembered reading an article about the burial of homeless people on an island. It was a place one needed a permit to enter.
They arrived at the Leopolis ten minutes past noon. New York was seven hours behind. That meant it was 5:12 a.m. Too early to call a friend, she thought. Unfortunately she had no choice. She called Paul Obon, bookman and source of knowledge on all things Ukrainian. She indentified herself and apologized for calling so early.
“Who is this?” he said.
“It’s Nadia, Mr. Obon. Nadia Tesla. Your favorite customer.”
He muttered her name under his breath as though making sure he wasn’t dreaming. “Nadia? What time is it?” His voice trailed off. A second later he sounded awake. “What’s wrong? Something must be wrong.”
“No. Nothing’s wrong. But I need your help. It’s urgent.”
“Nothing’s wrong. And yet you’re calling me at home at five fifteen in the morning. Should I be frightened for you?”
Nadia considered her words. “No. You should be frightened for the other guys.”
“Oh. Oh, dear.”
“I need you to put your glasses on and get a pen and paper.”
“If I didn’t have my glasses on, I wouldn’t know what time it was. Hold on.” The bed creaked. A drawer opened and closed. He took a deep breath and exhaled. Not with exasperation but anxiety. Like a man preparing to take on a crucial assignment. “One of the detriments of bachelorhood is the absence of family. Did I ever tell you that? Now, how can I help you?”
“I need you to find out everything you can about something called the Zaroff Seven. It might be a private club or society of some kind. Ivan Valentin was a member, so it’s Russian, for sure. That’s all I know.”
“I’m getting up now. I have some reference books in the store that might be helpful. And my computer is there. I’ll call you back as soon as I have an answer.”
Afterward, still dressed in overalls with open wounds on her hands, Nadia called Johnny. He answered on the first ring.
“You’re awake,” she said.
“Always. You got my message.”
“Incredible news. Why did the witness change his story? Did he give a reason?”
“His conscience, I guess.”
“That’s incredible news.”
“What about your end?”
Nadia told him what happened at the Priest’s Grotto.
“What can I do to help you from here?” Johnny said.
“Keep your phone on. What about Bobby?”
“He said he’d tell me everything. Which should happen today. But he wanted to see Iryna first.”
Nadia thought for a moment. “He said that? That he’d tell you the truth but he wanted to see Iryna first?”
“Our boy’s in love.”
“Yeah. But he sees her all the time. It makes you wonder. The witness recants. He’s going to tell you the truth. But he wants to see her first.”
“Why? What do you think he wanted to talk to her about?”
“What if I told you the locket did possess a formula,” Nadia said. She could hear her voice trembling. “What if I told you it wasn’t inside the main compartment. What if there’s another compartment, or it’s inscribed or something like that.”
“Where did that come from?”