“It wasn’t on your computer last night?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “No.”
Then there is only one place it can be coming from. I am looking at the bloodied glasses sitting on the bureau a few feet away. They are still partially wrapped in the tissue where I left them. I pick them up and walk toward the door.
I don’t get more than three steps when Joselyn says: “It just disappeared.”
I walk toward her.
“It’s back.”
I look at the glasses. I’d love to wash them, but I don’t dare just in case there are prints. Instead I peel off some of the tissue and hold the lenses up to the light. “That’s funny.”
“What?” says Harry.
“It’s window glass,” I tell them. “I don’t see any correction at all.” I look at the heavy tortoiseshell frames and thick temples like two pieces of lumber. When I catch them in the light, I can see that one of the temple pieces is translucent, but the other has something solid inside. “I think I found it. Watch the screen,” I tell them. Keeping my fingers on the tissue, I fold both of the temple pieces closed.
“It disappeared again,” says Harry.
“That’s cute.” I open them again.
“It’s back.” They both speak at once. Joselyn wants to know if she should open it.
“It’s your computer,” I tell her. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“After what we’ve been through this morning, who knows?” she says. She does it anyway.
When it opens, there are two folders inside, one that says
“T Data” and another that says “Notes.” She opens the first one and gets a long list of files. They run for pages.
I put the glasses back on the bureau and stare at the computer screen.
“What in the world is this?” says Joselyn. “Look at the size of some of these. And they’re all execution files. See the exe after the dot?”
“What does that mean?” asks Harry.
“That means they’re program files,” I tell him. “Applications. Software of some kind.”
“Could be malicious for all we know. I’m not going anywhere near that stuff.” Joselyn closes the folder entitled “T Data” and opens the one called “Notes.” Inside is a single file. It is entitled “Intel Notes.” “This should be safe. It’s a Word document.” She opens it.
It is not long; single spaced, it’s a little over a page in length. We start reading.
“What in the hell is Project Thor?” says Harry.
“Something having to do with NASA. He mentions it twice,” I tell him.
“And what’s AHIRST?” says Joselyn.
“I don’t know. It could be code name or maybe an acronym. A government program of some kind.”
“It sounds more like a government agency,” says Harry. “He says he wants the information forwarded to AHIRST immediately. Says it’s urgent.”
We start to concentrate on the stuff about Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula.
“This place called Coba, I know where that is,” I tell them. I’d had a case that took me down into that area some years ago. It is where I first met Herman. “Coba is an ancient Mayan city. Ruins as far as you can see. It’s surrounded by thousands of square miles of nothing but jungle.”
“It sounds as if there’s something there now,” says Harry. “An antenna array and a facility of some kind. From the tenor and tone of these notes, this man seemed to be pretty worried about it.”
“That’s probably why they killed him,” says Joselyn.
“What has Liquida got to do with all of this?” says Harry. “This would be out of his league.”
“Not necessarily. Not if he was hired to tie up loose ends,” I tell him. “Who knows why he killed the man. Maybe he was looking for this. I have to assume that Liquida is headed for Mexico, so that’s where I’m going.”
“Just because of this note?” says Harry.
“At this point it’s the only lead I have, and I’m not giving up. Nothing has changed. The reason I have to find Liquida is still there. If I don’t find him, sooner or later Liquida is going to find me or my daughter, and we’re going to end up like that bundle in the alley. I can’t ask either of you to risk your lives any further. I recommend you go back.”
“Just like that?” says Harry.
“You never wanted to come in the first place,” I tell him.
“Yes, but that’s when you wanted me to come,” says Harry. “Now that you’re telling me to go back, I have a sudden yearning to see Mexico.” Harry, always the contrarian.
“So I guess you and I are going on to Mexico.” I smile at him.
“Not without me, you’re not,” says Joselyn. “And I suggest we put a move on it before Thorpe grounds all three of us right here in Paris.”
Chapter Forty-Three
When the phone rang, it was just after eleven. Sarah knew that only one person would be calling this late at night. “Can we stop it?”
Adin pressed the button on the remote and stopped the DVD, the movie they were watching in the living room of Sarah’s condo.
She leaped across the room and grabbed the phone, but not before it rang one more time. “Hello.”
“Sarah. It’s Dad.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re still in Paris. How is Herman doing?”
“Grouchy as ever,” said Sarah. “When are you coming back? I’m worried about you.”
“Soon. Is Herman awake?”
“I don’t know. I’ll check in a minute. First I want to know, when are you coming back? Is Harry all right?” Sarah had seen enough of the legacy of Herman’s wounds to worry about her father, Harry, and even Joselyn, whom she did not know all that well.
“Harry’s fine.”
“And Jos…?”
“We are all fine. Not to worry.”
Paul was not about to tell Sarah about the body in the alley. That would be enough to make his daughter go ballistic. “I need to talk to Herman.”
“Let me see if he’s awake. Gimme a second.”
Before she could take half a step, Herman hollered from the other room: “I’ll take it in here. And do me a favor, watch who you go callin’ grouchy, girl.”
She laughed, waited for Herman to pick up the phone in the other room, and then hung up the receiver. As Sarah headed back toward the couch and the movie, Adin stood up.
“Your father?”
“Yeah.”
“As long as we’re taking a break, I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” said Adin. “Don’t wait for me. Go ahead and turn it on. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll wait for you.”
Adin slipped quietly down the hall, stepped into the bathroom, and silently closed the door and locked it. He didn’t turn on the light because it would trigger the overhead fan. Instead he stood in the dark and listened. The guest bath and Herman’s room shared a common wall.
“Yeah, I ’member the place,” said Herman. “Ruins in the Mexican jungle on the Yucatan, a ways out of Tulum, as I recall. Yeah, I remember Coba. That’s the place you hired me, right? Sure.”
Silence for a few seconds, then: “It’s been a while since I been down there, but I think I still got some friends
