A tremendous blast shook the car. All three of them ducked instinctively. Grant mashed the pedal to the floor, throwing a plume of gravel behind him. In the rearview mirror he saw a cloud of black smoke that was already being dissipated by the pouring rain. The sound of the explosion would have been heard for miles, but no one would be able to tell where it came from. It might even be mistaken for a crack of thunder, though lightning storms were rare in the Pacific Northwest.
Grant kept driving. There was no reason to stop and go back to the truck. The only thing they’d see was tiny pieces. He wouldn’t be surprised if the whole truck had been blown into the water.
“What the hell is wrong with you, you maniac!” the woman shouted.
“Good,” the voice said. “You’re still alive.”
“Your concern is touching,” Tyler said.
“Do you think that explosion would have been big enough to sink the ferry? Be honest.”
“Yes. What’s your point?”
“So, Locke, if that’s what I was willing to do to a boat full of innocent people, imagine what I’m willing to do to your father.”
TEN
T yler looked at Grant and saw the same flash of alarm on his face that he felt in his gut.
“What does that mean?” Stacy said.
“Now to your mission-” Orr continued.
Tyler hung up. He had to warn his father, but the certainty in the caller’s voice made him fear that he was already too late.
He found his dad’s number and called. The phone was answered on the second ring.
“Dad, it’s Tyler-”
“Nope,” Orr said. “I thought you’d be calling, so I had my colleagues forward his phone to mine.”
Tyler gripped the phone so hard that he nearly crushed it. “If you hurt my father in any way, my mission will be to hunt you down and drain the life out of you one drop at a time.”
“Yes, you’re upset, but I’m not going to harm him unless you decide not to help me. Or if you call the FBI.”
“Do you have any idea who you’ve kidnapped?”
“Of course I do, because I’m not a grade-A moron. Major General Sherman Locke is newly retired and looking for work, so he’s not going to be missed right away by anyone but you.”
Tyler thought about that and knew he was right. If Sherman had still been in the Air Force, the Pentagon would have contacted the FBI within hours of his disappearance, not least because he was a military officer with access to top-secret information. But out of the military he was just another civilian who was free to do as he pleased. If he took off without telling anyone where he was going, that was his business.
“How do I know he’s all right?” Tyler asked.
“He’s unavailable to talk at the moment because he’s being taken to a secure location, but when he’s safe and sound, I’ll send you verification that he’s fine.”
“What do you want?”
“First, put the phone back on speaker. Stacy should hear this, too.”
Tyler switched it on. “Go ahead.”
“I did what you asked, you bastard!” Stacy yelled. “Now you hold up your end of the bargain!”
“I’m not letting your sister go just yet,” Orr said.
Tyler and Grant looked at each other in confusion, then at Stacy.
“Sister?” Tyler said.
“Good. Stacy followed her instructions and didn’t tell you about Carol. For that, Stacy’s sister will get to keep all her fingers.”
“No! You let her go!”
“Not so fast,” Orr said. “Now that you’ve passed your test, I have a mission for you.”
“What mission?” Tyler asked.
“I want you to find the location of the Midas Touch for me.”
Tyler wasn’t sure what Orr meant. “Is that the code word for something?”
“No code word. No metaphor. No brand name. I mean the actual Midas Touch that can turn objects to gold.”
Grant snorted in disbelief. Tyler could only gape. That was about the last thing he would have guessed Orr was going to say. Tyler thought the kidnapping was going to be about paying a ransom or maybe even using his top-secret clearance to gain access to government files.
But the Midas Touch? It was ridiculous. Everyone knew it was a myth about the corrupting power of greed. King Midas was given the wondrous ability to turn anything he touched into gold, which he initially thought was a blessing. But when his feast of celebration became inedible at his touch, Midas realized that this talent was a curse. He begged the gods to rid him of it, and they did, but not before he accidentally turned his own daughter into gold.
“Say that again,” Tyler said.
“You heard me right,” Orr said. “The Midas Touch. The two of you are going to find it, or your father and Stacy’s sister are dead. If you find it, I’ll make a trade with you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly. I promise you that the Midas Touch does in fact exist.”
“Okay,” Tyler said slowly. He was already wondering how he could give the impression of going along with this wild-goose chase while figuring out how to find his father.
“I’ve seen it for myself, and I can prove it to you.”
“If you’ve seen it, why do you need us to find it?”
“That’s a story better told in person. Meet me at 1 p.m. outside the southwest corner of Safeco Field and I’ll tell it to you. Just you and Stacy. No police and no Westfield, or both your father and her sister are gone.”
The Viper’s clock read 10:10. There had to be a ferry back to Seattle before noon.
“We’ll be there,” Tyler said. He hung up and closed his eyes, trying to absorb the news of his father’s abduction. He concentrated on breathing, because it felt as if he’d had the wind knocked out of him.
They were all quiet for a moment until Grant broke the silence.
“By the way, I’m Grant Westfield,” he said. “I’ll be your chauffeur back to the ferry today.”
He held his hand out to Stacy, who gave it a firm shake. “Stacy Benedict.”
“Yeah, you’re from Chasing the Past. I didn’t recognize you at first.”
“Thanks for picking us up.”
“Anything for Tyler. But would you mind telling me why some lunatic just blew up a truck you were driving?”
Tyler explained about the puzzle to deactivate the bomb, that it was some kind of test to prove to Orr that they could carry out his insane quest.
“And how did he know my name?” Grant said. “Who is this guy?”
“You met him once. His name is Jordan Orr.”
“Wait a minute. The guy who hired you to build the geolabe?”
Tyler nodded. “And I’m guessing Stacy knows him, too.”
“Only since this morning,” she said. “I was in town for a fund-raiser, and I get a call that my sister, Carol, was kidnapped. All he told me was to get on the ferry and not to tell you about her or he would hurt her.”
Tyler dug his fingernails into his palms until the knuckles were white. He’d never been angrier in his life than he was at that moment. If he had known about Stacy’s kidnapped sister, he might have been able to warn his father in time. Tyler wanted to yell and scream and pound his fists against the dashboard. But it was Orr he wanted to throttle, not Stacy. She was as much a pawn in this as he was.
Tyler shook his head and took a deep breath until the moment passed.
