until it was a flat square no more than an inch on each side. A fine pen had written precise lettering, but the ink had run.
“That’s my father’s handwriting,” she said quietly. “Even with the smudges, I recognize it.”
Locke compared it to the notes and saw that she was right. He could make out three letters. B C T. Then a 1 followed by what looked like more numbers that had been rendered illegible by the smeared ink.
“B C T,” Locke said. “The Book of the Cave of Treasures?”
Dilara leaped to her feet with excitement. “This note is telling me where it’s stored! He must have hidden it before he died!”
“And if we can find it, it will lead us to Noah’s Ark.”
“But the note’s ruined,” she said. “We’ll never find it now.”
“Not necessarily. We’ve got some highly sensitive instruments here at the TEC. I’ll have our lab see if they can pick up what it says. In the meantime…”
His cell rang. The display said it was Aiden MacKenna. Locke answered it.
“Aiden, give me good news.”
“Well, I might have something for you,” Aiden said in his Irish burr. “I finally had some time to delve in Sam Watson’s background. He worked for a small drug company named PicoMed Pharmaceuticals. Some kind of think tank. They’ve never produced an FDA-approved drug. I tried to hack into their servers, but it’s completely inaccessible. It smells like a military cover, but the odor is a little off.”
“Why?”
“I backtracked through our military and government databases. No mention of them at all. If they were getting funding from the government, they’ve covered it up well.”
“How does that help us?”
“Their CEO is someone named Charles Folsom. Ever heard of him?”
“No. Should I have?”
“Not really. Just a shot in the dark. Let’s move on to Project Whirlwind. Since we don’t have any idea who funded Oasis, I thought I’d start there. You remember the company behind it?”
“Sure. Juneau Earthworks. So?”
“They folded three months ago.”
“That’s pretty convenient.”
“I thought so too, so I checked their business registration. They were a Delaware S Corporation. The CEO listed: Henry Joseph.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Henry Joseph and Charles Folsom have one interesting thing in common with Rex Hayden’s brother. All of them were heavily involved with the Holy Hydronastic Church.”
“You’re kidding!”
“I did a little digging and found that most of the church’s funding comes from one source. A private corporation called Garrett Pharmaceuticals.”
“As in Sebastian Garrett?”
“You’ve got it. He’s the leader of the church. I saw that Gordian once worked on a contract for Garrett Pharmaceuticals. Did you meet him?”
Locke gritted his teeth. “Unfortunately.”
Several years back, Garrett had hired Gordian on the development of a biological laboratory for his main campus in Seattle. The lab was to be state-of-the-art, and Garrett wanted Gordian’s expertise to vet the containment facilities. It was an important project, so Garrett himself had been heavily involved, and Locke had to work with him closely. The project went well, and Garrett seemed to be impressed with Locke and Gordian.
After the design phase was complete, Gordian’s involvement from that point on was simply to monitor progress during construction, so Locke had moved on to the Whirlwind project. But he still did some work on Garrett’s project, and that’s when the problems started.
Garrett began to bring up the Hydronastic Church to Locke in friendly conversation, talking about how he had conceived of the church while he was at Yale. At first, in the interest of maintaining the contract, Locke politely rebuffed what he saw as recruitment efforts. Garrett invited Locke out to Hawaii, ostensibly to talk about the lab project, but when he got there, Locke was given the hard sell about the church. Garrett railed about how the condition of the environment was appalling and that humanity was a pockmark on the beauty of the earth. His church was the only answer, to bring in the brightest minds in the world who understood the need for a better tomorrow.
Garrett thought Locke was just the type of man they were looking for, and even though he found Garrett charming, Locke also thought the man was a certifiable loon. His disdain for those whom he considered beneath his intellectual capability, including Locke, was apparent, and although Locke agreed with much of what he lamented about the state of the world, Garrett’s rants about the need for profound change bordered on the fanatical. Locke made it very clear that he wanted nothing further to do with what he considered a wacky cult and flew back to Seattle on his own dime.
When he got back and reviewed Garrett’s project, Locke noticed that the construction process was shortcutting permits and flouting the environmental safeguards that Gordian had specified in the design. When Locke brought it up to Garrett, he was immediately fired from the project and told in no uncertain terms that Garrett’s team of lawyers would take Gordian apart if he pursued it further.
Two weeks later, the Whirlwind contract was abruptly canceled. The one-two punch had been a severe blow to Gordian, but at the time, Locke didn’t see any connection. Now it looked like Garrett was behind Whirlwind, which would explain why it was ripped out from under him.
“So Sebastian Garrett is involved in this?” Locke said, dreading what that meant.
“He’s certainly got the billions to pay for Project Whirlwind. And there’s one more interesting tidbit.” It sounded like Aiden was saving the best for last.
“Spill it, Aiden.”
“Sebastian Garrett himself has reserved the biggest suite on the Genesis Dawn for the maiden voyage. He’s supposed to make an appearance at the gala Thursday night.”
“That’s way too many coincidences for me.”
“I thought so too. And I think I know what you’re going to say next. You want to go to the gala.”
“Yes. Get me two tickets. I want to talk to Sebastian myself.”
“And Aiden is right again! Gordian did some key work for the cruise line two years ago, so Miles was able to swing a cabin for you. The tickets are waiting for you at the ship in Miami. Bon voyage!”
Locke flipped the phone closed and looked at Dilara, who glanced up when she heard him finish.
“What?” she asked.
“I think we need to go shopping again. The only problem is, I have no idea where to find an evening gown for you.”
“An evening gown?”
Locke nodded. “Want to go to a party?”
Genesis Dawn
THIRTY-FOUR
Through the open balcony door of the suite in the Genesis Dawn, Locke could hear the faint burble of a cigarette boat cruising past the Dodge Island cruise ship terminal. In the distance, the high rises of Miami were ablaze with lights now that the sun had set. He glanced at his watch. 7:30pm. The gala had already started a half- hour ago. No sense arriving early. Not with the impression he wanted to make.
