Knock. Norton had said Tavak was guarded, and she didn't want to surprise them and possibly get shot.
The small, dark man who opened the door beamed at her. "You are Miss Kirby, yes? I am Nuri. That is John Tavak at the table. We have been waiting for you." He flung the door wide. "He has been very impatient. Such ingratitude. I give him food, I play chess with him, I tell him interesting stories about my family, and still he wants to leave me."
"Your family obviously numbers more than a small city," Tavak said. "After you went to the second generation you lost me." He stood up and inclined his head. "I couldn't be happier to see you, Rachel Kirby."
High impact, she had thought when she had seen his photo. But seeing Tavak in person, she realized that description had been an understatement. His eyes were electric blue in his tanned face, and the aura that surrounded him was also electric. He was dressed in a white shirt, dusty brown boots, and jeans, and that tall, muscular body possessed a sort of tough elegance.
"Don't be happy." She slammed the door behind her. "Because I'm not in the least happy to see you, Tavak. You're a thief and a sneak and the worst kind of criminal. I'd like to cut your throat."
He smiled. "But then I wouldn't be any use to you at all." He drew out a chair for her. "Won't you sit down? Nuri, could we get a glass of wine for the lady?"
"Certainly." Nuri got another glass from the cabinet. "My uncle grew the grapes for this wine. Did I tell you that, Tavak?"
He made a face. "Many times." He took the chessboard from the table and set it on the bed. "And about his wife who divorced him and his daughter he sent to the Sorbonne and is going to change the world."
"She will, you know." Nuri poured wine into the glass and set it on the table. "She's very smart. She only needs a chance. Sit down. Sit down. Would you like some fruit?"
"No," Rachel said impatiently. "I don't want wine. I don't want fruit. I want to talk to Tavak alone. Will you wait outside?"
"That's discourteous," Tavak said. "Nuri is our host."
Nuri chuckled. "That is true." He patted the gun in his holster. "I must protect you from her. She seems very fierce."
"Get out," she said through bared teeth.
Nuri's smile didn't waver, but he started for the door. "As you wish. I have orders to obey you without question. Be gentle with him. He owes me money from that last chess game."
She watched the door shut behind him before she turned back to Tavak. "Talk to me."
"Where shall I start? Oh yes, I'm eternally grateful for you being so prompt in meeting my need. It was close. Very close."
"I don't want your gratitude. You know why I came. I had to find out if you were telling the truth about that tablet or just making up a story to manipulate my emotions." She paused. "I don't like being manipulated, Tavak. It makes me want to be ugly. And I can be very ugly."
He chuckled. "So I've heard. The stories about you are definitely scary."
"They didn't intimidate you enough to keep you from hacking into Jonesy."
"No one else had the power I needed so I decided to brave the dragon."
"Were you telling the truth about this Peseshet and the cure she discovered? Regeneration of the central nervous system?"
"Absolutely. As far as I know. I won't know for certain until I actually find the tablet." He paused. "Or tablets. I'll be satisfied with one cure, but it would be a bonanza if we found others. As I told you, her prime focus wasn't cellular regeneration."
"But that's my prime focus, my only focus."
"I realize that," he said quietly. "But this is something that could have a profound impact for millions of people across the entire spectrum of nervous system diseases. I'm talking Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Huntington's… not to mention the fact that it might enable paraplegics to walk again."
"Pardon me if I don't get too excited, but over the years I've learned to adopt a wait-and-see attitude toward any kind of miracle cure."
"I'm sure you've already transmitted that little teaser I sent you to your Dr. Carson for an opinion. What did he say?"
"You can guess what he said."
He nodded. "Otherwise, you'd be much too practical to go off on a wild-goose chase like this. And how is your sister?"
"None of your business." Her hands clenched at her sides. "Now how can I get my hands on that tablet so that I can see for myself whether or not it's a piece of crap?"
"That's the question." He sat down at the table and gestured to the chair across from him. "And it's not one I can answer to your satisfaction in a few sentences. You can stand there and glare at me, but it's not going to make explanations go any faster. Why don't you sit down and have a glass of Nuri's wine? It's not bad."
She didn't move.
He lifted his glass to his lips. "I know that standing over me is supposed to give you a psychological advantage, but it won't work. Because you don't need an advantage. I pay my debts."
"You couldn't pay for all the cycles you've stolen from my projects."
"You never know. I told you that from the beginning I was planning on sharing information if I found the tablet."
"And I'm supposed to believe that?"
"Probably not." He leaned back and stretched his legs before him. "Just thought I'd put it on the record."
"Give me answers. I could have you thrown in jail. Norton with the NSA didn't like having you infiltrate Jonesy. All it would take is a word from me, and they'd—"
"NSA? I was wondering who you used to spring me. The CIA was amazingly lackluster in their questioning. Norton asked a favor, and they sent in the cavalry." He tilted his head, thinking about it. "He moved fast. Does he always jump when you snap your fingers?"
"You'll know if I don't find out what you know about that tablet."
"You're tense." He pushed the glass Nuri had poured for her a few inches. "The wine will relax you. I promise that I won't think it's a victory that we're drinking together."
She stared at him in frustration. He was totally relaxed, totally casual in his confidence. Threats had not fazed him at all. Go at it from another direction. She sat down, her back arrow straight in the chair. "What do you want? What can I give you?"
He studied her. "You'd give me anything, the whole damn world, wouldn't you? You shouldn't be so transparent, Rachel."
"There comes a time when putting up barriers doesn't matter any longer." She stared him in the eye. "And yes, name it. If I don't have it, I'll get it for you."
"You do like to pamper a man, don't you?" His gaze wandered to the bandage on her temple. "You're hurt. What happened?"
"That doesn't matter. What can I pay you? If you don't have the tablet, you must have an idea where it is. Dammit, you've used up enough of Jonesy's cycles to remap the human genome about five times over."
"Information can only take you so far. After that, it's analysis and working out the puzzle." He sipped his wine. "You know that, Rachel."
"Yes. Give me the information, and I'll do the rest."
"That's just what I'd expect from you." He added, "And from Peseshet. Did I tell you how much you're alike? I've been working so close to both of you in the last months that I feel as if I know you."
"You don't know me."
"You're wrong. I think I know the basics, and I'm looking forward to finding out the rest." He held up his hand as she started to speak. "I know. Information. Okay, here goes. I told you that Peseshet was the overseer of an institute of female doctors at about 2500 B.C. All knowledge of her existence was lost until her son's tomb was unearthed in 1929. Even that gave us only her name and profession. Nothing else was known about her until recently."