King's Crusade (Seventeen) (30 page)

‘It is,’ he agreed with a small nod. ‘The Crovir R&D Section was involved in its development. We’re testing it out for the company.’

Reznak introduced Jackson to the other scientists. Most seemed to know him on sight and greeted him warmly. As her godfather took Jackson on a tour of the other labs, it became obvious to Alexa that the Harvard professor was not only highly regarded in his own field, but across the broader scientific community.

She listened to their conversations with mounting unease. It was dawning on her that there was still a lot she did not know about the man who had become her lover.

Alexa detected rising impatience in Jackson’s eyes as he hefted the bag containing the artifacts on his shoulder. She suspected Reznak was stalling for a reason, possibly to impress upon the Harvard professor the extent of the expertise available for the undoubtedly daunting task that lay ahead.

They finally headed down a passage to one of the service elevators. Jackson studied the biometric display on the wall next to it curiously; it was different from the others in the facility in that it had an additional integrated digital keypad. The AI acknowledged Reznak’s identity after he entered a long code into it. A beep sounded and the doors opened.

‘Now, this is what I call an elevator,’ said Jackson dully. The interior of the lift was immense and could easily have accommodated a medium-sized truck. ‘Why do you need something this size?’

‘You’ll see soon enough,’ Reznak replied.

They stepped inside. The doors closed behind them, only to open again seconds later on the seventh floor. They exited the metal cage.

Alexa had rarely visited this part of the facility, her work having never required much involvement with the Immortal Culture and History Section. Her eyes narrowed at the same time that Jackson’s breath caught in his throat.

A fifteen-by-twenty-foot foyer stretched out before the lift. It was empty save for the heavily armed guard seated at a desk in front of a trio of security monitors. Thick, bullet-resistant glass formed a floor-to-ceiling wall behind him and extended to the two sides of the lobby. Beyond it was the secret core of Reznak’s research facility.

This lab occupied the length and breadth of the complex. A pair of security doors in the sidewalls opened onto an oval-shaped mezzanine that ran all the way around the periphery of the massive space. It was occupied by an extensive library, with ceiling-high bookcases lining the walls. Secured display tables protecting fragile, ancient manuscripts dotted the gaps between islands of desks and chairs.

Several flights of stairs led to the lower deck of the lab fifteen feet below.

The outer edges of the vast concrete floor were occupied by workstations that formed a half circle to the right and left, the lines of the tables mirroring the curves of the mezzanine above. A group of twenty scientists busied themselves at the plethora of complex equipment and banks of computer monitors that occupied the desks.

Jackson’s gaze never wavered from the center of the lab floor.

There, in the middle of the two-hundred-foot-wide space, lit by half a dozen floodlights, stood the carefully reconstructed second cave that Reznak’s team had discovered in Egypt.

The Harvard professor took several cautious steps forward until he reached the glass wall. ‘That’s—’ He shook his head dazedly, his eyes glazed with wonderment. ‘How?’ he murmured, staring over his shoulder at Reznak.

‘We excavated the whole thing and transported it here,’ said Reznak.

Yonten’s expression grew solemn. ‘Warrior’s mark,’ he said quietly, gazing at the trishula in the floor of the cave.

Alexa glanced at the monk before turning to look at the carving laid bare under the harsh artificial light. The pictures had not done the image justice. Her birthmark tingled on the back of her neck.

The guard manning the security desk nodded at Reznak before buzzing them through the door on the left. Jackson’s steps quickened as he crossed the mezzanine and headed for the nearest stairwell. He descended the steps swiftly and started toward the center of the room.

‘Oh. Professor Jackson! What a pleasure to see you here!’ someone called out in a distinctly British accent. An elderly gentleman with frizzy gray hair and glasses approached them, a white lab coat flapping behind him and a tablet computer in one hand.

Jackson froze. ‘Professor Ingram?’ he said incredulously.

The scientist reached their side and vigorously shook hands with the Harvard professor. ‘I read that last paper of yours in the American Journal of Archaeology. Fascinating stuff,’ said the man, his head bobbing while he spoke. He turned and smiled at Reznak. ‘Is Professor Jackson joining our team?’

‘He’ll be assisting me on some other matters,’ said the Crovir noble smoothly. ‘I wanted him to see the cave.’

‘Oh,’ said the silver-haired professor blankly. Someone shouted his name from the other side of the room. ‘Excuse me,’ he said distractedly. He nodded at the rest of the group and started to walk off. ‘It’s good to see you again, Jackson.’

The Harvard professor stared at the departing figure. He scanned the room slowly before looking at Reznak. ‘How the hell did you get the world’s leading Assyriologist to come work for you? Never mind the other big names in here right now.’

Her godfather smiled. ‘The same way I persuaded you to accept this mission: money.’

Jackson muttered something indistinct under his breath. He suddenly went pale. ‘Wait—
please
don’t tell me he’s an immortal!’ he said in a stunned voice.

Reznak’s grin widened. ‘He isn’t.’

‘Thank God for that,’ said Jackson. ‘The man has been one of my heroes since I was twelve.’ He glanced around again before focusing on the gigantic artifact in the middle of the lab.

From what Alexa recalled of her first conversation with Reznak, it had taken days of meticulous and cautious drilling to remove the cave from its original location within the Egyptian desert mountains. His team had subsequently reassembled the different sections exactly as depicted on the hundred or so photographs pinned to a large board to the left, down to the position and width of the doorway.

A clothes rack held hooded plastic suits with boots and gloves to the left. They donned the unflattering garments before approaching the looming granite walls.

Jackson hesitated on the threshold of the doorway, his blue eyes brimming with emotion. Alexa looked away from his expression and tried to ignore the strange twisting sensation inside her chest.

‘Go ahead,’ said Reznak gently.

Chapter Twenty-Four

J
ackson took a deep breath
and stepped inside the chamber. Yonten followed hesitantly, his normally limpid eyes looking unusually nervous. Alexa was the last one to enter the cave.

They spent a long time simply gazing at the complex pictographs covering the walls and the trishula carved into the floor.

Alexa kept her face expressionless while she studied the stone imprint of her birthmark, laid bare for all to see under the bright lights. The back of her neck felt as if someone had scorched it. She noted Yonten’s anxious glance and wondered whether the monk could see the eerie flames dancing across her skin.

‘Have they completed the translations?’ asked Jackson.

‘Not quite,’ replied Reznak.

‘And these alcoves were really empty?’ The Harvard professor walked toward one of the twin pillars and inspected the hollow compartment inside.

Reznak glanced at Alexa. ‘I haven’t told him,’ she said quietly.

Jackson turned. Before he could phrase the protest that was bubbling up his throat, her godfather sighed and raised a hand.

‘I shall tell you what the alcoves contained—but not here,’ said Reznak quietly. ‘Let’s go.’ He turned and headed for the doorway.

‘Go?’ repeated Jackson in a puzzled tone. ‘Go where?’

Reznak looked over his shoulder. ‘To the eighth floor.’

Instead of heading for the mezzanine level and the lift, he strode across the floor toward a narrow, dimly lit passage in the north wall of the lab. A door guarded by another biometric LCD display stood unobtrusively at the end.

‘There is elevator access to the eighth floor but I prefer to go this way,’ said Reznak in a low voice as he operated the panel. A flight of stairs stood on the other side of the door. ‘Only a handful of people have security clearance to this level of the facility.’

They followed him down the steps and through another security door at the bottom of the concrete staircase. Beyond it lay the north end of a long, curved corridor that spanned the length of the complex.

Halfway down the passage, light spilled out through a twenty-foot-wide glass section in the east wall. Reznak accessed the security display embedded in one of a pair of large, transparent doors in the middle. Eva’s modulated voice sounded through invisible speakers seconds later.

Jackson seemed oblivious to it as he stared at the massive chamber beyond.

‘Welcome to the heart of the facility,’ said Reznak when the doors slid open. The Harvard professor strolled in after him, his gaze spanning the interior of the cool, shadowy space.

Sleek, three-foot-tall flatscreen monitors ran in a semicircle around a large hub in the center of the room. There were three chairs at the workstation. A man sat typing on a keyboard in the middle one.

Different images flashed across the screens. A monitor showed live feeds from the security cameras around Reznak’s estate and inside the research complex; Alexa could see herself and the others in one of them. Another monitor appeared to be working through a complex image-processing program for an archaeological artifact. A third showed a game of chess in progress, with a live Nintendo Mario chase happening in a separate window.

‘I see you’re still trying to beat Eva at chess,’ said Reznak wryly, strolling toward the workstation.

The man in the chair wheeled around. ‘Oh. Hi, Dimitri.’ He looked about twenty-five years old and sported a shock of dark hair and sharp, brown eyes. An exasperated sigh left his lips. ‘I haven’t managed to win a single game against the damn woman yet.’ He blinked in the glow from the monitors as he stared at the figures behind Reznak. A smile lit his face. ‘Alexa, long time no see! Hey, you fancy a game of Gran Turismo? I’m testing the latest software for the company.’

‘I’m afraid not,’ she replied curtly. Her neck still prickled warmly and she curbed the impulse to touch the skin over her birthmark as she gazed at the young man.

Jordan Montague Banks was the immortal genius who had constructed Eva. A graduate of several world-class universities and the holder of a dozen degrees in computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering as well as AI technology, he now oversaw the networks for Reznak’s estate and research facility. His abilities were matched only by the large team of Crovir techs who manned the central security and intelligence systems for the councils. Reznak had recruited the immortal from the Crovir headquarters more than two decades ago, when Banks was a mere ninety years old.

Reznak introduced Jackson and Yonten briefly before glancing at a steel door to the south of the computer lab. ‘Is it all set up?’

Banks nodded. ‘We moved the last of the equipment in there this morning. It’s got everything you wanted, from luminescence dating to isotope analysis.’ He wheeled himself to one of the displays and typed on a keyboard. ‘I’ve freed up this monitor for any digital analysis Professor Jackson may need. Image processing, 3D visualization, mathematical modeling—you name it, he’ll have it. Eva’s also just informed me that she will graciously put aside five percent of her memory and function for the professor’s personal use.’

‘Oh,’ said Jackson. ‘Er, thanks Eva.’ He looked around hesitantly.

‘You’re welcome,’ the AI replied. ‘I have been reading your papers from your first publication twenty-three years ago. I am very much enjoying them. You are one of the brightest minds of the last century.’

Bemusement washed across Jackson’s face. ‘That’s…very kind of you,’ he murmured. He glanced at Reznak. ‘Did you tell her to do that?’

Reznak shook his head. ‘Eva didn’t know you were coming,’ he said in an amused tone. ‘She’s been checking your credentials ever since you inputed your biometrics outside the molecular and nano archaeology lab. She’s quite curious that way.’

Jackson looked at the monitors disconcertedly.

Banks was frowning. ‘Oh really, Eva? What about me?’ he said, staring up into the air. ‘I don’t see you harping on about my genius.’

‘You are, of course, a very clever man, Jordan,’ said Eva. ‘After all, you invented me. As for the genius part, I will only acknowledge that after you beat me at chess.’

While Banks grumbled under his breath about AIs who were too smart for their own good, Eva spoke again. ‘By the way, Dimitri, I am afraid to report that I have still not found any information on the young Asian man accompanying you. He appears not to exist on any biometric or other demographic database in the world.’

Yonten beamed at this piece of news.

‘I wouldn’t worry about it,’ said Reznak with a sigh. ‘He belongs to a very…secret organization. Eva, can you open the primary vault?’

‘Yes,’ said the AI.

Alexa watched Reznak cross the floor to a second steel door to the north of the computer lab. It hissed ajar moments before he reached it. She left Banks at the central hub and followed Jackson and Yonten as they headed after her godfather.

The chamber beyond was similar to the strongroom they had broken into under the Freemasons’ Grand Temple in London. A number of relics lay within glass display cabinets around the walls and under glass boxes scattered across the floor of the vault.

A steel safe took up a quarter of the east wall. Reznak walked up to it and worked the security display swiftly. A soft beep sounded and the heavy metal door swung open.

The safe was divided into sections, one of which was a large liquid nitrogen freezer. Reznak put on a pair of gloves and carefully extracted a metal case from the frigid compartment. He laid it out on a nearby table, unlatched the clasps, and lifted the lid.

The stench of the embalming chemicals had all but faded. Alexa stared at the hearts on display and felt the invisible flames blaze across her nape once more. At the same time, her pulse accelerated. The minuscule hole where Reznak’s scientists had taken a biopsy to study the genetic composition of the organs was barely visible.

Yonten murmured a short prayer and bowed respectfully.

Jackson gave the monk a puzzled look before turning to Reznak. ‘What are we looking at, exactly?’ he asked.

‘You are aware that the tombs stolen by the
Rose Croix
sect quite likely contain the remains of Crovir and Bastian, the original immortals?’ said Reznak, gazing steadily at the Harvard professor.

‘Yes, so you say,’ replied Jackson.

‘These,’ said Reznak, indicating the contents of the metal case, ‘are their hearts. They were inside individual clay pots in the alcoves of the pillars in the second cave, which were positioned exactly beneath what I believe were their respective tombs in the larger cave above.’