“Hey, can the chatter!” Maddie cut in abruptly. “You still haven’t said what it is!”
Faye gave her companion a reproachful look. “Let them tell it in their own way, Maddie.”
“Do you know how many minutes of actual sleep I got last night?” the operations director countered. “Notice I didn’t say hours.”
There was a pause on the other end as the receiver shifted to another person. “Nice going, chief. Now they’re too scared to talk to you at all.” The voice was Erik’s.
“Then you tell me and keep it simple,” Maddie demanded.
“It’s a bee. A solid gold bee maybe three or four inches big.”
“A bee,” Faye repeated contemplatively. “The bee was one of the most sacred symbols of the Minoan goddess.”
“Where did you find it?” Maddie asked. Now that her curiosity was satisfied, her anger seemed to abate.
“That was all Griffin’s doing,” Erik conceded. “Better let him tell it but don’t yell at him, OK?”
“I won’t.” Maddie actually smiled. “Scout’s honor. Put him back on the line.”
The scrivener cleared his throat. “Yes, well, Cassie deserves some of the credit. If she hadn’t pointed me in the right direction after reading Stefan’s artifact.”
Faye smiled knowingly. “Synchronicity,” she whispered.
Griffin was still talking. “I came to realize the connection between the pentagram and Sirius.” He then regaled them with an explanation of the star’s heliacal rising and the shadow cast across the calendar stones.
“Very clever of you, my dear.” Faye leaned forward to address the speaker box.
“We couldn’t have found the right spot without Fred,” Cassie chirped up again.
“Who’s Fred?” Maddie asked. “Is he one of ours? Do I have to cover his expenses too?”
“He works for Aydin Ozgur, the Anatolian trove keeper,” the pythia explained. “We sort of borrowed him to guide us up the mountain.”
“Is he there with you?” Faye asked.
“He’s right here.” The scraping sound indicated that Cassie was passing the receiver to someone else. There was a long silence. In the background, they could hear her urging Fred on. “Say something! Don’t be shy.”
“H…hello?” A hesitant voice emerged.
“It seems we owe you a debt of gratitude.” Faye addressed him. “Without your help, our hapless trio might still be searching in vain.”
A brief pause. Fred swallowed hard. “Am I addressing the memory guardian?” he asked in a timid voice.
Faye smiled encouragingly even though he couldn’t see it. “My dear young man, there’s no need to stand on ceremony. My name is Faye, and you have my sincere thanks for the part you played in this retrieval.”
“Y… y… you’re w... w... welcome.” Fred stammered. Apparently, the glare of the spotlight was too bright for his eyes because the receiver was being passed on to someone else. This time it was Griffin’s voice which emerged.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much time to rest on our laurels,” he cautioned.
“Damn straight you don’t,” Maddie commented. “Last I heard, Daniel and Hunt were getting ready to move on to Istanbul.”
There was an expressive sigh before Griffin spoke again. “Then it’s as I feared. We may only have days to make the substitution.”
“What do you need from us, dear?’ Faye asked.
“We have to get an exact copy of the artifact made. It will have to match down to the last detail, and then we’ll need to bury it in the box where we found the original. If we’re very lucky, the Nephilim won’t realize it’s a fake. If we’re even luckier, we’ll be out of the country before they stumble across it at all.”
“That’s gonna take some doing,” Maddie muttered, half to herself.
“I don’t get it.” The voice was Cassie’s, and she seemed to be carrying on a conversation offline with Griffin. “If you think those symbols on the bee are the clues to the next relic, why not just change some of them to throw the Nephilim off the trail.”
The two at headquarters could now hear Griffin’s muffled voice answering Cassie. “Because we actually want them to find the trail of breadcrumbs we’re leaving for them. It’s far riskier to give them false information that will misdirect them. It might cause them to cast a wider net. Might, in fact, lead them straight to the Arkana.”
“Oh,” the pythia replied simply. “I didn’t think of that.” Another pause and then Cassie spoke again. “But you’ve got to admit giving them accurate intel might mean that they get to the second artifact before we do.”
“Then we’ll just have to make damn sure that doesn’t happen.” The terse voice was Erik’s.
Griffin took control of the receiver once more and spoke directly to Faye and Maddie. “Can you locate someone at the Anatolian trove who has the necessary metal-working skills? We won’t have time to fly someone into the country from the Central Catalog.”
“Don’t worry, dear. Maddie and I will make arrangements immediately to get you the assistance you need.”
After another round of congratulations, the call was terminated.
The two women at headquarters looked at one another in silence for several seconds.
Maddie raised her eyebrows. “Tick tock,” she said archly.
“Tick tock indeed,” echoed Faye pensively.
Chapter 30 – Unmentionables
Zach prowled the house moodily for at least half an hour after his Gamma and her early morning visitor left. At that point, his stomach began to rumble, so he made himself some breakfast. He ate a bowl of cereal distractedly while he mulled a thought over in his mind.
Something was off. Of that much he was sure. The crazy lady with the frizzy hair was a smoker. He could smell cigarettes on her clothes. He doubted she could manage one lap around the block if her life depended on it. He didn’t buy the idea that she’d been out for an early morning run. The story didn’t wash. Then there was the first time he’d met her. Gamma said she’d come over to borrow a cup of sugar. For what? A neighborhood watch birthday cake?
He finished his cereal and rinsed the bowl in the sink. Then he wandered into the living room and
