Page 54 of The Secret of Secrets

For an instant, Faukman was startled these thugs knew the precise page count, until he remembered they had just stolen his editorial copy. Easy bluff. “Dr. Solomon printed no such copy, and you know it.”

The muscular guy sitting on the milk crate stared at him a long moment and then arched his back to stretch, inadvertently revealing a shoulder holster with a startlingly large handgun. Faukman hadn’t seen a move that transparent since fourth grade when he tried to put his arm around Laura Schwartz at the IOKA movie theater. Nonetheless, he got the message.

“You sure you want to play games with me?” Buzzcut asked.

“Hold on,” Laptop interjected, eyeing his screen. “Avatar says he’s telling the truth. He’s unaware that Solomon printed a copy.”

Buzzcut looked surprised. “Interesting. So…Dr. Solomon printed the manuscript behind your back?”

Nice try. Faukman had edited too many police interrogation scenes to fall for the Good Cop–Bad Cop routine—a divide-and-conquer strategy to get him to distrust Katherine. Unfortunately for these clowns, Faukman’s professional career had been built on analyzing story narratives and pointing out inconsistencies. If his captors had said Katherine carefully printed a copy to edit in her hotel room, he might have believed them. But the devil was always in the details, and these guys claimed Katherine had carried the manuscript outside the hotel. Not something she would have done.

“We want to know,” Buzzcut pressed, “why did Katherine print a manuscript? And who did she give it to?”

“To whom did she give it,” Faukman corrected instinctively.

Buzzcut glared. “That’s what I said.”

“No, it isn’t. Can you untie my hands? My arms are numb.”

“Whom did she give it to?”

Faukman shook his head. “Still wrong. I have no idea.”

“He doesn’t know.” Laptop called from the front.

Buzzcut looked flustered. “Has Katherine reached out to you?”

“No.”

“And how about Robert Langdon?”

“No.”

Laptop nodded. “Both true.”

Buzzcut scratched his head, apparently pondering his next line of questioning.

Faukman was shivering more violently now as the cold intensified. “Can you at least turn on the heat?”

“I’m sorry, are you uncomfortable?” Buzzcut reached over the driver’s seat and pressed a button on the dash. But rather than the heater kicking on, the driver’s-side window went down. A blast of cold air swirled through the van. “Better?”

Faukman was starting to believe he might actually be in serious danger tonight.

Through the open window, he again heard the mechanical sounds from outside, louder this time, and he realized what he was hearing—the unmistakable roar of jet engines.

Holy shit…am I on a military base?

Chapter 34

Langdon was relieved to see Sasha Vesna open her eyes. Several minutes had passed since the intense seizure gripped her, and she now appeared to be starting to reorient herself.

“Thank you…” Sasha whispered, looking up at him.

“I’m so sorry,” Langdon said. “I couldn’t find your medication in your purse.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “What I needed…it’s in a hidden pocket. I’m fine.”

Langdon helped her up to a seated position with her back against the pod, and Sasha gently worked her fingers and toes, as if trying to reclaim control of her body. The workspace was dead silent now, the cooling fans and warning beeps having stopped as soon as the EPR process was aborted.