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Ajax only shook his head. Cassandra touched his billowing sleeve. “If Grandfather refuses to give you the formula, I know the thief will be able to open the vault. And then”—she snapped his fingers—“then we will finish things. Both she and her husband will feed the fishes. Isn’t that what the Mafia dons say?”
He said, “In the movies, anyway. Lilith told me stories about the Fox, how she was one of the best art thieves in the world. If you needed to steal a Rembrandt from a museum or a private collection, she’d do it. Actually, she could steal anything, Lilith said.”
Cassandra hugged him, shouted to the skies, “Soon this Fox will be as dead as Lilith. Ajax, look around you, it’s only us in the empty sea—miles and miles of empty sea. Absolutely nothing in sight. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing there.” She threw back her head and laughed, and Captain Ramos looked over at her, wondering what the joke was. Whatever she was laughing about, though, he didn’t want to know. He was thankful he didn’t have to see these two very often, there was something about the two of them that made his blood run cold. He saw the señorita lean back against her brother. He clamped down on his cigar and turned all his attention back to the heaving seas.
Cassandra said to Ajax, in a dreamy voice, “When I was a child I remember Grandfather telling Mother he kept part of his formula in his vault. And I remember Mother thanking him. And I wondered, Why? For what? I asked him several times but he’d always shake his head, pat me on my head, and tell me to be patient.” She snorted. “We’ve been more than patient. You and I are thirty our next birthday. Soon, Ajax, we’ll know if Mother left anything in the vault. I’m hoping she did, with all my heart, something for me, just for me.”
“But what could it be? Certainly not treasure. Maybe papers on our great-grandfather’s theories about Atlantis being in the Bermuda Triangle? He used this boat, you know, to explore this area.” He shrugged and wrapped his arms around her when the boat dove from the top of a wave into a trough. He said against her cheek, “As you said, he would never tell you. I asked, too, of course, but he never told me anything, either.”
“You know he always hated our father, hated that we carried his blood. I think he decided a long time ago not to trust us.” She shouted into the wind, “You were right, old man! And now the end is coming for you.”
She looked over at the box that held the cherubim’s wing and her mother’s map, both covered with a tarp and secured. “Maybe we won’t need the thief—the Fox—to open the vault, maybe we can trade the cherubim’s wing for the combination. You think Grandfather will agree?”
She didn’t wait for him to answer. “Do you know what I’m hoping, Ajax? That there’ll be proof in his vault that Mother is somehow still alive.” Just saying the words aloud made her heart begin to pound faster. “That makes sense, doesn’t it? Mother alive, somewhere, in hiding, with the Ark?”
“What, and the old man never told us? Could he distrust us that much?”
She turned and smiled up at her brother. “If he does distrust us that much, he certainly deserves to have us kill him. I can’t wait to prove the old man right.”
“We’re nearly there,” Old Ramos shouted over the wind. “I’m calling in.” The transmitter hissed and barked. Ramos said, “This is Atlantis to Base One. We’re approaching on the southerly route.”
A British voice came back through the radio. “Roger, Atlantis, Base One confirming. Bear ten degrees to your northeast, we’ll have the field down and ready for you in five.”
Ramos turned the wheel a fraction to the right, moving the boat into position, and be
gan to slow.
The sky ahead was clear and empty. There was nothing in front of them but water.
Absolutely nothing.
Then suddenly there it was—massive, rising out of the sea—the island. It always thrilled Cassandra to see it, magic, absolute magic, that’s what they’d believed as children, and on the island dwelled the Wizard of Oz. Soon they would take his place. They would be the wizards. And they would have absolute power.
Old Ramos shook his head. “I never get used to it. One minute, blue air and endless empty sea, then the next, a massive dormant volcano reaches into the sky, is in front of you.”
And it was beautiful, this island of theirs, covered in green jungle. It was their home, the heart of the Genesis Group, their greatest secret.
Soon, it would be their island. There would be no one to tell them what to do ever again.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Nicholas was putting together the gear they’d need when Adam said, “What is this? Wait, wait—” And he began banging his palm against the side of his laptop.
Nicholas was at his side in an instant. “What is it?”
“Kitsune’s tracker just went down. Caput. Nothing. I had her, it’s been a great signal, nice and strong, and then it disappeared.”
Nicholas looked down at Adam’s laptop. “How many hours has it been since we gave it to her? Could it have expired?”
Adam looked at his watch. “We’re at seventy hours and ten minutes since she ingested the tracker. We should have at least another two hours.”
“Are they that accurate?”
“In testing, yes. If anything, the signal will linger on for another two to three hours after the planned seventy-two. I’ve never seen one stop early.”
Louisa hovered over Adam. “Guys, she’s been through a lot. Her adrenaline levels are probably through the roof, maybe that made her system metabolize the tracker faster than normal.”
Adam chewed his lip. “It’s a good theory, but the tracker shouldn’t be affected by her body chemistry. The designer made allowances—Wait, give me a minute. I want to look at something. I’m playing with an idea of why right now.”
