"I'm sure she loved that."
"She didn't. Not coming from me anyway."
"I worked out my system on the plane," Rachel said. "I'll need about four hours with our team this afternoon. Did you get the money?"
"Sixty thousand dollars in cash. Your sister really didn't want to hand it over. I'm pretty sure she thought we had you tied up someplace, making you ask her for the money at gunpoint."
"I need to interject something here," Tavak said. "Are we really staying at Bally's?"
Rachel nodded. "Yes. Is that a problem?"
"Not the Bellagio? Not the Venetian?"
"Mr. Tavak, we're just a poor, underfunded university research project," Rachel said sarcastically. "Bally's will be fine."
"Okay, it's probably best that you keep a low profile anyway." He paused. "Since you're going to try and break the bank at Demanski's casino."
Rachel stiffened. "Who says I'm trying to do that?"
"You didn't have to say it. I saw you on the plane with your charts and graphs, juggling Hans Felder's papers on rules theory." He tilted his head. "Do you really think you've cracked Demanski's software packages?"
"Only one way to find out."
Tavak shook his head. "There's another way, a better way. And if it blows up in your face, I'm the only one who gets hurt."
Rachel interchanged a look with Simon. "Oh, I do like the sound of that."
Tavak smiled. "I knew you would."
"So what do you have in mind, Tavak?"
"I'll lay it out for you. But I need you to trust me." He saw her expression and chuckled. "I didn't say this was going to be painless. Live with it, Rachel."
EIGHT
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
Charles Dawson sipped his mint julep as he gazed around the tree-lined courtyard of Mills Pharmaceuticals. He savored the irony of a health-care corporation plying its guests with alcohol. His host, CEO Theodore Mills, had insisted that he join him in sipping a mint julep in the afternoon sun.
Mills smiled. "Tasty, ain't it?"
"Refreshing." Dawson tried to hide his impatience with the forced Southern charm. Between the ridiculous drink, the Princeton-educated Mills using the word "ain't," and the receptionist's calling Dawson "honey," he was about to gag.
"This really hits the spot," Mills said in an accent that seemed to be getting thicker by the moment. "I might have to get me another one."
Dawson wondered if this bullshit came naturally or if some high-priced image consultant had crafted it for the company. Either way, it appeared to be working. To the general public, Mills Pharmaceuticals had protected its reputation as The Company That Cares.
He knew better.
"I shouldn't be here," Dawson said. "I've already given you my Egypt report. That should be enough."
"Tavak appears to be troublesome."
"Nothing I can't handle."
"Where is he now?"
"He's left Egypt. He's on his way to Las Vegas."
"Really? Why on earth?"
"I have no idea. But I have a man watching his every move."
Mills nodded. "You seem to be moving forward. I appreciate that you don't put this stuff in writing. Plausible deniability and all that."
"Understood. In any case, the operation was a success."
"I'd say it was a partial success. I don't have the tablet. But you got what you needed from the tomb?"
"Yes. We're not quite sure what it means yet, but we're working on it. Once we crack it, we can move on to the next step."
"The question being, is there really a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow?"
"Difficult to say. I guess we won't really know until you get Peseshet's cure into your labs."
"True." He looked down into his mint julep. "When my old friend Jamerson sent me that partial formula, I was very excited. I was even more excited when my lab chief came back with the report. Missing pieces but the possibilities were incredible. I knew then that I was the only one meant to have this discovery. I was the one who could handle it with the care it deserved."
"And if it takes you a few decades to evaluate the cure and keep its existence hidden from the world, that's all the better, isn't it?"
Mills flinched. "That wasn't necessary."
"Of all the pharmaceutical companies in the world, yours is the one that stands to lose most if this cure comes to light. But you've set up a research lab devoted solely to the mere possibility of this cure being genuine. You expect me to believe that you're devoting all these resources to bring out a product that could actually ruin you?"
"That's none of your concern, Dawson."
"Of course it's not. But don't try to play the part of the great philanthropist with me. I know better." It had felt good to pierce the bastard's grandiose vision of himself, but it was time to back off. "Besides, don't you think you're jumping the gun? Natifah's information is scanty at best."
"But you're going to get me more information, aren't you? All the information I'll need." Mills sipped his julep. "I know you're going to come through for me. I regard my judgment as excellent, and the moment I met you I realized I could put this project in your hands." He paused. "And I forgive you for killing my old friend Jamerson. I'm sure it was an accident. You wouldn't have killed him just to make sure he wouldn't spread word of our mastaba wall to anyone else."
"He'd already hired Tavak." Dawson stared down into his drink. "You told me to persuade Jamerson to fire him. He wouldn't be persuaded. So share the guilt, Mills."
"No, I hired you to shoulder the guilt. It's the nature of our agreement. You do the dirty work. I remain clean as snow."
"Snow isn't clean anymore. It's tainted by the environment."
"I'll not be implicated." The Southern accent was suddenly gone, and clipped steel appeared. "You're very clever, and I can see you trying to insinuate yourself into this project at a high level. But you're a hired man, and that's all you'll ever be."
Dawson kept any hint of anger from his face. The son of a bitch was trying to humiliate him, treating him as if he was an inferior, like he was a yapping hound at his heels. "I know better than to take more than I'm given. Particularly when you've given so generously." He sipped the julep. "Is that why you asked me to come here?"
"I have good instincts, and I sensed a troubling aggressiveness beginning to manifest itself in you."
"You'll need that aggression if we're going to find that tablet before Tavak does."
"I have no problem with you being aggressive toward Tavak as long as it's handled discreetly. Just don't think you can turn that aggression loose on me."
"I wouldn't be that foolish." Dawson smiled. "But I do expect a bonus if I manage to escalate the recovery of that tablet. Is that too aggressive for you?"
Mills chuckled. "I never mind paying for good work. I'm glad you understand I'm the one in control."
Dawson stood up. "The person who was going to hold the reins was never in question. I'll call you when I have more to report."
"Soon," Mills said quietly. "Very soon." He looked down into his drink. "I have the means to help you, but that would be very expensive for me. Since I've already paid you a great deal of money, I see no reason why I should have to do that. Do your job, Dawson."