“It’ll be fine,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
Lucie assumed her best schoolteacher expression. “The ladder isn’t fixed. There’s no safety gate. The spindles around the upper floor are too thin and its twelve feet high. Don’t just assume it’ll be fine.”
“We’ll be okay, Lucie,” he said, knowing her fear had nothing to do with unfixed ladders or lack of a safety gate. “We will.”
“I’m new,” she said. “I know that. You guys have been running together since Y2K didn’t happen, but I was brought in for Atlantis. You changed my life.”
“We’re not quite that old,” Bodie said gently. “And I hear what you’re saying.”
Lucie fixed him with a withering glare. “Do you?”
“Yeah, I do. You’re hardly to blame for our past difficulties. We dragged you into this.” He had urged her to stay behind, though; and she knew it. “But I think you enjoy the life we lead. I think it suits you.”
Lucie looked a little embarrassed. “Yes, well, I still don’t like the look of those spindles.” She stared studiously upward, not meeting their gazes.
Bodie turned his attention back to Giselle. He could hear the rain battering the walls of the French woman’s home and assaulting the windows like gunfire. The sound reminded him that he was still wet and hungry.
But first...
“We have a contact who can set up the ghostlines,” he told her. “Sorry, we’re counting our pennies here and that should also mean you can finish faster.”
Giselle nodded, already tapping away at her superlative computer set up. Bodie turned to Yasmine. “You sure Miki is up for this?”
“I am. She’s with us,” Yasmine said.
Bodie thought it an odd comment. Miki worked for Interpol, on the tech desk. She was one of their top computer technicians. Yasmine and Miki had hit it off after sharing beers in the aftermath of a tough, clandestine mission where Miki’s specialized computer skills had saved Yasmine’s life. But setting up the so-called ghostlines was a criminal offence.
“She doesn’t have to do it,” Jemma said, as if reading Bodie’s mind which, in truth, she probably had. They’d been working side by side for that long. “We can ask Giselle to do it. Why would Miki risk her freedom for us?”
“She’s never even met us,” Cassidy added.
“Long story,” Yasmine said. “I’ll explain another time.”
Bodie accepted it with a short nod. “Call her now then.” Feeling much drier, he walked across to the kitchen and opened cupboards. A wave of fatigue hit him. It was late, and they’d been on the run for twenty-four hours. They hadn’t rested, eaten or drunk anything but rainwater. Bodie sat down and felt a hand fall across his shoulder.
“Take it easy, boss,” Cassidy said. “I’ll make the coffee.”
Ten minutes later he was holding a hot, full mug and smelling bacon. Brown and red sauce was on the table along with a loaf of bread. Bodie’s mind wandered and, now that he’d stopped to rest, the great white elephant standing in the corner of his brain emerged.
Leaving Heidi behind had been an impossible decision. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. First, they didn’t want to risk her career, or her ending up in prison if they were caught. Second, she had a daughter. Their relationship might be flawed but prison would most assuredly end it for good. Third and most important, from Bodie’s experiences of the CIA he was sure the Agency would have used Heidi’s daughter and ex-husband against her. At some point, days or months or a year from now, a communication would have been made regarding Heidi’s daughter—a threatening message offering a terrible ultimatum.
As she worked at the grill, Cassidy was trying to sing Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen. Her toneless voice prompted Jemma to turn on the TV. When she did so, Bodie looked up to see both night and day reports coming from a certain place in southern England.
“Are they releasing information yet?” Yasmine asked.
Bodie held up a hand. The reporter was smiling into the camera, the green and tree-covered hillfort that was Cadbury Castle at his back. Blue and white police tape could be seen fluttering and several police cars were parked around.
“We don’t know what happened here last night,” the man said. “But a statement by the police chief is forthcoming and the police presence here is tremendous. We’ll be back soon.”
The picture cut to a commercial break. Bodie sighed and thanked Cassidy for the plateful of bacon she handed him. He prepared a sandwich, thinking of how inspiring it had felt to find King Arthur’s tomb and the Holy Grail. Nothing else in his life had ever come close, not even Atlantis; but then, he supposed, the underwater kingdom hadn’t exactly been accessible. Maybe next year.
Those thoughts led him to think of Gunn and how they had lost the shy, introverted man just a week or so ago. Even that hadn’t sunk in yet. Not properly. Bodie felt his blood pressure rise as other issues came up—the Forever Gang whom he’d promised to contact again soon. The ongoing excavations of Atlantis, to which they’d been invited several times. The startling and terrible re-emergence of the Illuminati and the Hoods at Cadbury Castle. Why were they there? What evils did they have planned? Hopefully, that new development would keep Heidi and Pang busy.
Bodie ate, the food helping to energize him. Halfway through his second sandwich he realized he was about to fall asleep eating, sitting upright, and he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol.
“I will work through the night.” Giselle was watching them from her corner. “You should all sleep.”
It didn’t occur to Bodie that they should set a night watch. He was too bone tired. At some point in your life, you had
