He pulled a pistol out of his belt. Then he screwed a suppressor to the end and pressed the long barrel to the top of her head.
Annie strained against the ropes holding her to the chair. She could feel the twine cut into her wrists and ankles. The knots were too tight. She couldn't even move them a centimeter. These men knew what they were doing.
"If you have no information, then there's no use in keeping you around, is there?" Jack said. He felt the trigger tense against his finger. He also let her see the pressure on his trigger finger's skin.
"I don't care anymore," she said. "You're going to kill me anyway. Might as well get it over with so I don't have to hear your redundant questions anymore."
She's gotten braver; I'll give her that, Jack thought.
He also knew he wasn't to kill her, not yet at least. They needed information to solve the riddle of the cube. Annie was the closest thing to an expert they had. If she couldn't help, it didn't mean she was useless. Having a hostage was always a good leverage point to use in case of an emergency.
"I don't want to kill you, Annie," a voice said from the doorway.
Her eyes shifted to the man in the suit she'd seen before.
"I want to let you go," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I'll have to send you far away from here. You'll leave your job, your home, all of it. You can be put on a nice little island somewhere. I have property all over the world. All I need you to do is help me understand what these things mean."
He held out the stone cube and stepped farther into the room.
Holmes put a hand on Jack's shoulder and pulled him away. Playing the role of an angel of mercy was a new strategy. Holmes figured they'd tried everything. Maybe it would work. If not, they'd lost nothing but a little time.
"This side here," he said, pointing to the paw print, "we know it's a wallaby. But wallabies are all over the country in many places. As best as we can figure, this cube is telling a story."
"What story?" she asked, full of resentment.
"We believe the story is the place we're to go next in our search. Our problem is we don't know what this other side means. We need your help, Annie. If you help us, I will make sure you are put somewhere safe where I will never bother you again. Imagine the warm sun on your face, the sand between your toes. You've worked hard enough your whole life. You deserve a retirement like that. Don't you?"
Annie wasn't stupid. This guy was up to something. He'd gone from threatening to overly flattering bribery in no time flat. That meant they were getting really desperate. Maybe desperate enough to let her go if she helped them. If she could help them.
She stared at the letters on the stone. "I already told your lackey here, I don't know what those letters mean."
"I know, Annie. I know. But try to think about this in terms of the story that's being told. There is a place where wallabies live. And it relates to these letters."
She shook her head. "You don't understand. You don't have enough information."
"What do you mean?" Jack said. He'd set the pistol on a nearby table.
"I mean you two blokes are trying to do the equation without all the information. Can't be done. There's something you're not telling me, something that is key to understanding your little code."
The two men looked at each other with a questioning glance. Then they turned back to her.
"Like what?" Holmes said.
If she could have shrugged she would have. "I don't know. You tell me. What is another element to your search that you haven't mentioned? Where are some places you've gone, things you've seen there, unique physical features of the land, anything like that?"
Jack thought about her point for a moment while Holmes looked to him for answers.
"The areas we visited are all different," he said after a few seconds of thought.
Figuring out things of this nature wasn't necessarily Annie's strong suit. Her type-A personality was geared more toward what most of her career entailed — collecting information, storing information, and documenting things. Often, her job required a high level of organization and detail. Maybe her attention to detail could help her with this puzzle and get her out of this mess.
"What did you see at these places?" she asked.
Jack shrugged. "I don't know. There were big rocks, like Uluru and Kata Tjuta."
That was less than helpful. Annie started getting the distinct impression that this Jack character was more muscle than brains.
"Bring me a laptop," she said, surprising herself with how commanding her tone was. "I need to look at every location you've been to so far."
The two men froze for a moment, uncertain as to what to do. Holmes wasn't accustomed to taking orders. He looked over his shoulder at the man by the door and gave him a nod. "Get one of the laptops out of the office down the hall." He twisted back around and glared at Annie. "You'd better not be wasting our time."
She honestly didn't care if she was wasting their time or not. If so, that would be a happy side effect. But if she could actually figure out the solution to their problem, maybe Annie would have a bargaining chip.
"You'll need to untie me," she said to Jack.
Jack turned to Holmes for confirmation.
"Do it," the boss said.
Jack took a knife out of his pocket, flipped it open in an almost threatening manner, and then made quick work of the ropes he'd so diligently tied.
Annie felt the circulation pump back into her fingers and toes. She hadn't realized the blood had been mostly cut off from her extremities.
The door guard returned with a black laptop in one hand. He set it down on the table and then returned to his post. Holmes flipped the screen up, and the monitor flickered on.
Annie stood up and moved her chair over to the computer.
As she eased into the seat once more, Holmes gave her a warning. "You know that if you try anything stupid, like sending an email — even if it's just one letter — we will kill you right now."
She nodded. "Sending an email like that won't get me to the beach you promised," Annie said as coolly as possible.
Inside, her nerves had returned. The funny thing about giving people hope is that it takes away all anxiety. Knowing there might be an escape from a dreadful future can be a calming thing. Now, she felt a glimmer of hope return. It was a mere crack of light shining through a dark wall, but it was there. And it caused her fingers to tremble as she typed away at the keyboard.
"Where was the first place you visited?" she asked.
"It's a place near a small town called Milbrodale. There's a cave there with rock art. Baiame Cave." Jack's voice was deep and cold.
She typed in a few words and then hit the search button.
The search results appeared in only a few seconds. Images sat atop the top URLs for the given keyword phrases. Most of them were pictures of the cave drawings.
Annie clicked on one of the images and then scrolled through to a some of the others. Her eyes scanned the monitor, making sure she was getting everything.
"Where was the second place?" she asked.
"Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park," Jack responded.
She typed in the name of the park and waited. Repeating the process, she looked through some of the images and stopped at one that featured rock art. "Hmm," she said. "That's interesting."
"What's interesting?" Holmes asked.
"Before you slapped me," she said to Jack, "you mentioned you went to three places. What was the third?" Annie didn't try to hide the contempt in her voice.
"Watarrka National Park, a place called Kings Canyon."