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“Looking, looking. Okay, the Topkapi was the palace for the sultans of Turkey until the Ottoman Empire abandoned it in the mid-nineteenth century. It was turned into a museum in 1924 and opened to the public. It’s reputed to have layers upon layers of security, all guarded by the Turkish military. The staff has been in the Holy Relics area of the museum since the seventies, which is even more highly guarded. So if Kitsune really did steal it, she is really good.”
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Kitsune,” Nicholas said, “it’s to never underestimate her. I have a feeling I know how she did it, given her tactics at the Met.”
“She got hired as a guard?” Lia said.
“Yes.”
Ben said, “Well, whatever she did, it was amazing, given the legendary Topkapi security.”
Adam said, “No doubt in my mind now, I want to marry her.”
Ben laughed. “You haven’t had the joy of meeting her before, Adam. We have. She’s a master of disguise, and she’s perfectly willing and able to stick to a role for a long time. She’s focused, single-minded when she’s on a job. I agree with Lia, she infiltrated the museum staff, probably as a guard.”
Mike said, “She’s not a shock-and-awe kind of thief. She’d have studied the Topkapi as she would a puzzle. She doesn’t give up. And that’s why she’s the best of the best.”
“And still free,” Nicholas added.
Adam said, “So who hired her?”
“I have some ideas about that.” Nicholas glanced at his watch. “We have seven hours left before we land in Venice. Take half an hour to think, then we’ll brief. Then everyone needs to sleep. We don’t know what we’re walking into, and if we’re going to be operational for a few days, rest is paramount now. So get moving. Thanks, Ben. If you want, you can take a nap, too.”
Ben sighed. “I’ve always wanted to go to Venice.”
CHAPTER TEN
Mysore Base Camp
Gobi Desert
When Cassandra and Ajax arrived in the Gobi, the dig had halted. Their team was watching for them, standing in a row like a group of household servants, so excited they could barely contain themselves.
Their site lead, Dr. Vincent Gregory, rushed to open the car door. He practically pulled Cassandra out.
“We have good news. We didn’t want to tell you in the air. And we stopped the moment we saw it. We have to hurry, there’s a storm coming, but you must see this.”
Cassandra’s heart began to pound. When she and Ajax were nearly nineteen years old, their mother’s last transmission had come in from this exact location, her voice crackling across the cell phone lines, her words not understandable, but her face, her beautiful face, glowing. They heard her say something about a storm bearing down. Then, nothing more for the next decade. When they’d gotten to the site after the horrendous storm had subsided, the dig had been swallowed by the desert, then under hundreds of feet of sand. The Genesis Group had been trying to uncover the site ever since.
The western edge of the dig was roped off. The skies in the distance were red with the oncoming storm. But there was sun for now, and when they grew closer, Cassandra could see something flashing.
“Is that—”
Vincent Gregory was grinning from ear to ear. “The moment we saw gold, we stopped and marked it off. There’s something big down there. The scanners show a rectangular structure. It’s the right size.”
So long, so long—could it be real? She whispered, “The Ark?”
Gregory handed her a brush.
She dropped to her knees and heard it: bees, hundreds of bees, buzzing there from beneath the dirt. She brushed gently and uncovered a curved edge of gold. The bees buzzed louder. She continued to brush, even more gently.
Ajax dropped to his knees beside her. “It’s a wing,” he whispered. “It’s a cherubim’s wing.”
She looked up. “Don’t you hear that, the bees?”
Gregory said, “Hear what?”
Ajax lightly touched the wing. “It feels warm and it’s sending the warmth into me.”
She continued to brush off the remaining sand. “Ajax, it’s buzzing loudly now.”
