Shadow Borne (29 page)

Why the hell indeed,
I mused as I got back into my car. It was disconcerting enough that
I was ‘summoned’ to this meeting at five in the morning—even more
so that the ‘summons’ had come in the form of a tense midnight
phone call just a few short hours ago. I hadn’t slept or even had
coffee yet. It was no wonder I had left my ‘official’ badge key at
home. And it was just like him to not answer his phone, too. John
was the arrogant, pompous type all the way. He probably couldn’t
believe that any of ‘his’ staff would dare to not come running when
he called. Although, I had to admit, calling me his ‘staff’ was
pushing it. Thank God. I was more at home in the field than I would
probably ever be in the office...which was a great cause of concern
for most of the people around me.

I shook my head and vigorously rubbed my
hands together, frowning as I tried to warm them. I wasn’t
anti-social—far from it. I had lots of friends, and a lot of my
time was spent, if not in an office, in a laboratory at least. But
sometimes a person just needed…peace. Quiet and solace.

A sharp crack on the window next to me had
me pivoting in my seat. I’m getting way too jumpy these days, I
thought, disgruntled. I peered through the thick glass and sighed
in relief. It was just one of John’s cronies. I’d seen him around
before but didn’t know what to call him. ‘Jackass in a suit’ came
to mind, but I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t appreciate the
sentiment. I smiled sweetly as he glared at me, feeling grateful
and maybe a bit smug that thoughts were private.

“
Mr. Hanlen sent me to get you.”

“
Great, you almost missed me.” Literally, I would have been
home free and quite possibly in a hot tub in another few minutes.
Warm with coffee and maybe even scented candles. I sighed. “Well,
let’s get this over with,” I muttered, more to myself than my soggy
companion.

He sniffed but said
nothing as we made our way into the building and down several
winding halls that connected to a large dome shaped conference
room. I was having visions of Star Trek as he paused at the door to
slide his badge through yet another scanner.

“
I
don’t believe I caught your name. “

“
Mr. Arlenn.”

“
Do you have a first name, Mr. Arlenn?”

“
Richard.” He swung the heavy steel door open and swiftly
ushered me into the room.

I barely stopped a
laugh from escaping. ‘Dick in a suit.’ Hey, I was close. The
laughter died as I looked around the room. Wow. What was worse than
a dick in a suit? How about an entire room full of them? From the
looks of it, that was exactly what I had just walked into. I was
sixteen all over again for a moment, asking my older sister Megan
what a ‘sausage fest’ was (a super classy phrase that I’d heard
some of my classmates use). I remembered how she had jerked her
thumb towards a table of rambunctious teenage boys across the diner
and replied, “That’s a sausage fest.”

“
Claire?”

“
Oh…yes, sorry. What?” I blinked at John, feeling a little
guilty. I wasn’t normally so waspish. And maybe he didn’t really
deserve it…much.

He frowned with what
looked like concern, but I knew better; more likely, it was
annoyance. I was almost an hour late, Richard was damp, I was
soaking and dripping onto the floor, and his meeting was being held
up.

“
John. What a pleasure.”

“
Yes…would you like some coffee, or perhaps a
towel?”

“
Yes to both, thanks,” I mumbled, starting to feel a twinge of
embarrassment. All eyes were on me, and I was sure I looked a mess.
Worse yet, the mascara I had chosen was not of the waterproof
variety, which wasn’t the smartest choice in the rain, I guessed.
But who knew I would be standing in it for the better part of half
an hour? And besides, I hated waterproof mascara. Why didn’t I just
wear a duct tape bra while I was at it? Or—

“
Thank you.” I graciously accepted the towel from another
unnamed crony and took a seat near the door.

“
Sorry for the interruption,” I tried.

“
Not to worry. Not to worry—”

“
What is this about?” Did I mention John was married to my
sister Megan? ‘Was’ being the operative word. He divorced her five
years ago for greener pastures. That’s a more polite way of saying
‘bimbo in a tight sweater.’ They—Megan and John—never had any
children, and Megan had moved on a long time ago. But I still had a
strict rule to call him by his first name at all times. I wanted to
take a bat to his Mercedes, but Megan—

“
Not sure, but—”

“
Sorry. What did you say?”

Johns green eyes narrowed in irritation.
“Please try and stay with us.” He sniffed.

“
Absolutely. I’m all yours. Now what's so important that I had
to come here?”

“
Now Claire, you’re a respected scientist,” he began to
protest, all charm and grace. Too bad it was all fake.

I waved my hand and shook my head,
attempting to cut through his B.S. “Right. I’m a botanist,
John.”

He cleared his throat. “A good one.”

I raised one eyebrow and set the towel
aside, saying nothing.

“
It’s about your brother,” he began gently.

“
I
haven’t seen him,” I said quickly, jumping forward in my seat.
Probably not a good idea...I was giving too much away. So much for
my poker face; that was definitely not good. Although it wasn’t a
lie—I hadn’t seen him, not in five months, anyways. The last time
had been a cool night, and I had been sworn to secrecy.

Oh Mike, I thought,
of all people to swear to secrecy—why me? Not that he had told me
much of anything...not anything that made sense, at least. But of
all people…I shook my head. Everyone knew that if you needed a
cover, you didn’t use Claire. Rule number one. I may be good at a
lot of things, but lying wasn’t one of them.

I forced myself to breathe normally.
John—and the rest of the room—were regarding me with open
speculation. I forced a nervous laugh.

“
What has Mike gotten into now? He owes you money?” Mike never
owed anyone money—that I knew of. But it sounded good. Normal, I
thought. Or at least it would have if my left eye hadn’t been
twitching. I told you I was a horrible liar. Secrets were just not
my forte. But more than that, my last meeting with my brother still
didn’t set right with me. I had a vague but nagging sense of unease
after Mike had left that I had been pushing to the side for the
last few months. Now that unease was steadily creeping back, full
force.

John didn’t laugh. He just shuffled some
papers and cleared his throat.

“
He really owes you money?” I was surprised. I never figured
Mike for a man who would be in debt—he didn’t live extravagantly.
Didn’t gamble, or drink, or use drugs.

“
No, nothing like that.”

Oh. “So, just spit it out, John. What’s this
about?” I was getting annoyed and leery.

“
Do you know anything about the work your brother had been
doing for us?”

“
No.” My senses were running on high alert now. Mike had been
working for these people? No way. For that matter, why was I? I
guess the answer to that question was simple enough. I was there
first. And I didn’t exactly work for John. I worked in the basement
in labs and pharmaceuticals. John and the rest of his Armani clad
associates were in charge of the day-to-day operations at Lantech
Corporation. The pay was decent, people generally left me alone,
and I didn’t have to be chained to the place twenty-four hours a
day. And like I said, I was there first. No way was I going to be
run off by my sisters’ ex-husband, no matter how much I was
beginning to rethink that decision.

Actually, I had been
mulling over a change of scenery for a while now. A career change
might be nice. Maybe I could be a waitress, or a show girl...they
still had showgirls, right?

I shook my head and pressed my lips together
while I eyed John in silence. The discomfort was ever present, and
I wasn’t about to volunteer any information.

He seemed momentarily deflated, but pressed
on after a moment. “Your brother is an archaeologist.”

“
Yes.”

“
How to say this....” His fingers drummed lightly on the
lacquered tabletop. He appeared to be deep in thought for a moment.
“Seven months ago, Michael contacted me—he was looking for
financial backing for a dig, of sorts.”

“‘
Dig of sorts’?” Now he had my full attention. “What do you
mean, a ‘dig of sorts’?”

“
I’m getting to that. It’s—well, it’s a very interesting story,
I assure you.”

“
I’m sure it is.” I said dryly. “But why would he come to
Lantech for backing?” He hates you. “Why didn’t his organization
fund the dig?” He really hates you. “Or the museum affiliates? Or
any of the other number of foundations he could have approached for
the funding?” Did I mention that he really hates you?

“
Your brother came to me several months ago with documents and
literature that were…unique. He unearthed them in central Africa on
an expedition several years ago.”

I frowned. “Africa. That was five years ago.
But why?”

“
He had his own reasons for holding onto the documents. Your
brother is a business man at heart, Claire.”

It took everything I
had to refrain from giving Dear John a coffee bath. My brother was
a businessman? He would have sooner tarred and feathered himself.
But I didn’t bother telling John this. It wouldn’t have made a
difference anyways, and I was starting to think that now was a
great time to play the strong silent part.

“
The literature was a very interesting story indeed. There was
a tale of an ancient civilization. The documents made up a series
of clues—a map, if you will—to a location in Africa. The potential
monetary value of the expedition was significant.”

I scowled now. “You
mean to tell me that my brother would have...would have...scalped
the findings to the highest bidder to make a quick buck? Are you
kidding me? You, I would believe that of, but Mike?” I picked up my
bag. “I’m done. Do you understand me? I don’t know why you’re
telling me this, but I can’t help you find Mike and I don’t want to
hear anymore. Have a nice day, John, and you better pray that I
don’t turn you in for something like this.” With that, I turned to
go.

“
Now, Claire, you wouldn’t want your brother implicated in
something so…unethical. Not with your brother’s whereabouts and
safety in question at the moment.”

That stopped me. He knew it would, damn
him.

“
Where are the documents? And where is my brother? If you did
anything to him, I will make you sorrier than you already are, you
worm.”

He flushed bright
red now, his temper having sustained all the blows it would from
me, I supposed. Well, too bad, I thought. I was nowhere near done
if anything had happened to Mike.

“
The documents are gone, and so is your brother. I agreed to
fund the expedition, as I’ve said already. We did some checking. He
never made it to Zaire. He hasn’t contacted us since. But he left
some clues behind.”

John held out a box
for me to take. I hesitated a moment before I reluctantly took a
step away from the door and took the package from his outstretched
hand.

The box was full of notebooks. I sat down,
then, and carefully picked up a book, thumbing through the worn
pages. It was full, bordering on overfull, of Mike's less than neat
handwriting. This was odd in itself. Mike actually had very good
penmanship. I kept that to myself as I dug through the box,
locating several folders and rough sketches before I dropped the
items back into the box. I looked up and waited.

“
Mike’s notes. Some of them are in English, the rest are
written in some sort of code. But from what we were able to figure
from those notes and the drawings, along with a small bit of
literature he apparently printed out, we think he found a...realm.
Some sort of—”

“
Alternate universe? You’ve got to be kidding me.” I started to
laugh. “Oh, this is great, just great. You expect me to
believe...lord. Okay, you got me. April fools.” Except it wasn’t
April. Still, I was certainly feeling the fool.

John cleared his
throat and lifted his chin another notch, indignant now. “Yes,
well, it’s there in the notes. I realize how this sounds; we all
realize how this sounds. But, the fact is, your brother took a
considerable amount of money from me and from this organization. He
vanished without a trace, and now we’ve found—”

“
Yeah, by the way, where did you ‘find’ this?”

“
The documents were at his residence.”

“
Nice.” Asshole.

“
It’s all there in black and white, Claire. Science has
speculated the phenomena of separate plains of existence for
centuries. To actually be part of a discovery like this—well, that
would be something spectacular. Surely you can see that, being the
scientist that you are.”

“
Botanist,” I murmured absently as I leafed through the box
again. My head snapped up then. “What are you…oh no, John, no you
don’t. I’m not getting involved in this, whatever ‘this’ even is.
Have you taken up drinking?”

“
How very amusing, Claire. I wouldn’t have involved you in this
if I didn’t have to. Your brother mentions you specifically in his
notes. We think you might be of some assistance to us—and to
him.”