The Columbus Affair: A Novel

Which supported her, as it had Rocha.

Simon stepped back, keeping the gun ready to deal with anyone who made a move on him. He caught Rowe’s gaze and read what his dark eyes telegraphed. Simon could not shoot all three of them before one of them got to him. But he shook his head and threw him a look that said, Not yet. Neither Rowe nor the other man, Clarke, knew what he’d been privy to. His grandfather had left a specific message. Time to see if it he was interpreting it correctly. The five numbers had led to the sixth, through the astrolabe. But that did not mean the sixth number, which had located this cave on the map, also provided safe passage across. A safety valve could have been built in. Like when different passwords were used for different accounts.

But something told him he was right.

Or at least he hoped so.

His daughter’s life depended on it.

———

ALLE’S LEGS SHOOK WITH FEAR.

She’d been afraid before, but never like this.

Her father called off the five numbers and she worked her way across the shallow pond, toward the far ledge. Rocha had paved the way this far. Now she stood on the stone labeled 19, where Rocha had waited for the sixth number.

Her breathing went shallow.

A good twenty feet of mud was between her and solid ground. She glanced down and counted nineteen stones with numbers affixed to them, another ten or so blank. The twentieth, once labeled 34, was gone, taking Rocha into the mud with it.

Not that his death bothered her.

It was her own that mattered.

“Call out the numbers you see,” her father said.

———

TOM LISTENED AS ALLE PROVIDED A LIST.

As she did, he glanced at Rowe and saw that the Jamaican understood.

Be ready.

Soon.

———

BENE WONDERED IF SAGAN ACTUALLY KNEW THE SIXTH NUMBER. He’d clearly encouraged his daughter to go. But what choice had he been given? Simon would have killed her. Frank Clarke stood beside him, saying nothing. Simon was watching both them and the woman on the lake. If she made it across, Simon would shoot them all. That was a given. He’d know everything at that point.

Then why not act now?

Frank seemed to read his mind.

“Not yet,” the colonel whispered.

———

ALLE’S KNEES SHOOK AND SHE WILLED THEM TO STOP.

Did her father know the way across? Here she was, trusting someone whom she’d spent the last ten years of her life despising. But what did she know? Look how wrong about Zachariah Simon she’d been.

Shame clouded her thoughts, but did nothing to alleviate the terror sweeping through her.

One wrong step and she was dead.

———

TOM GLANCED AT SIMON AND SAID, “JUST SO WE’RE CLEAR. YOU’RE not the Levite. I am.”

“That is not possible,” Simon said to him. “You are not even a Jew. By your own admission.”

He ignored the insult, concentrating instead on Alle’s recitation of numbers. She hadn’t reported a stone with 56 on its face, which was the sixth number the astrolabe had revealed. But she had noted that there were two stones marked 5 and 6 among the nineteen.

And he knew.

That was the fail-safe.

Saki had split the last number into two.

It’s the only thing that made sense and, if nothing else, from everything he’d seen or ever been told, Marc Eden Cross always made sense.

He cast his gaze back across the lake.

“Five and six. Use both of them. I’m assuming you’re going to need them to cross the distance.”

———

“I SEE THEM,” ALLE SAID. “FIVE IS FIRST, THEN SOME BLANKS. SIX is closer to the ledge.”