the Emerald Tablet from the Willard Hotel. The device would indicate
Fear now trumped by rage, Edie shoved herself upright, strode across the room and snatched the container of kimchi off the desk. Opening it, she smashed the magnetic strip into the fiery cabbage concoction, her nostrils twitching from the sudden burst of cayenne pepper. She then headed over to the window; a benefit of being on the third floor, the window actually opened.
For nearly five minutes, she stood at the ready, container in hand. A white pickup truck stopped for a red light directly beneath the window. The rap music blaring from the truck’s sound system meant—
Taking aim, Edie tossed the food carton.
The driver didn’t hear the thump in the truck bed when the kimchi plopped all over ribbed cargo space.
Mission accomplished, she walked over and grabbed the discarded cell phone off the floor. She set it on the nightstand. Rage a clarifying antidote for fear, she began to devise a plan of action.
Not having a weapon was most definitely a handicap.
Edie mirthlessly smiled.
The devil may have demanded a dance, but she would pick the tune.
CHAPTER 87
Consciousness returned piecemeal, bogged down with an excruciating pain centered in his mutilated left hand.
An impossible command, the very act of pulling air into his lungs an agonizing labor.
Not entirely certain of his whereabouts, Caedmon glanced around the windowless room. As if on cue, the steel door on the far side of the room swung on a rusty hinge.
A stylishly attired man with a battered face entered the room. “My stoic Englishman has finally opened his beautiful blue eyes. I trust that you’re enjoying yourself.” Smiling, he fixed his gaze on Caedmon’s bloodied and mangled hand.
As though a bucket of ice water had just been tossed on his head, Caedmon instantly revived.
“A jolly good time was had by all,” he snarled, glaring at the sadistic bastard. Hatred the only weapon in his arsenal.
“And to think the night is still young.”
Caedmon inwardly groaned. Mystics, the chronically obsessed, and serial killers all shared a common trait — insomnia, the ability to function on little more than a cat nap.
Saviour Panos seated himself at the table. “We have much in common, you and I.”
“We breathe the same air — that’s all that we have in common.”
“A cunning man, even now, face bashed, hand broken, you are trying to figure out a way to disarm—” He broke off in midstream and glanced at the mobile clipped to his waist, the device emitting a muffled
Smirking, Panos took the call. “Perfect timing! My sleeping beauty has just aroused.”
Caedmon felt the sting of tears. Edie was no match for a monster like Saviour Panos.
A few seconds into the call, Panos’s mocking expression morphed into one of thunderous rage.
Jabbing his finger against the mobile, he disconnected the call. “That bitch!”
Hearing the rage in the other man’s voice, Caedmon suffered a bum-clenching burst of panic.
CHAPTER 88
What was that from? She couldn’t remember, literary quotations Caedmon’s specialty. Didn’t matter. Probably popped into her head because the exchange with Saviour Panos would soon take place, Edie waiting in a Cimmerian chamber. A woe-is-me kind of place to be sure.
She’d devised a simple plan for the exchange — use the Emerald Tablet like a Trojan horse to entice the enemy into dropping his guard. Why overpower when you can outwit? Better to slay the dragon without breaking a sweat or raising a battleax. Kill or be killed. What else could she do? You can’t negotiate with a monster. Besides, the alternative was unthinkable.
Then there was the bigger picture: If Rico Suave got a hold of the Emerald Tablet, she feared he would sell it to the highest bidder. A ruthless despot. A maniacal madman. And if Rico actually had the encryption key to unlock the Genesis code, the despot or madman could
“ ‘Abandon all hope ye who enter here,’ ” she muttered. In Atlantis, they didn’t even live to tell the tale.
Benjamin Franklin had been right: Leave creation to the Almighty. Mortal man was ill equipped to handle such heady power.
Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply and visualized
Edie derisively snorted. Who the hell was she kidding? She was petrified. Her heart was pounding in her throat, the sound echoing in her ears. Non sequiturs
Her cheap Timex emitted a tinny beep-beep. Edie pushed the metal nubbin to turn off the alarm. The show was scheduled to start in ten minutes.
Unable to see in the inky darkness, she gingerly moved her right hand. Butting up against the camping lantern, she switched it on. The fluorescent bulb cast a surreal white light on the Templars’ subterranean sanctuary.
Scrambling to her feet, Edie took one last look at the Emerald Tablet she’d earlier placed in the niche behind