Jayden threw his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll be honest with you, Carter. I was hoping we could speed-dial some Russian babe with serious technical skills who would drop through the ceiling in a catsuit and… well, you get the idea.”
“Yeah, I get it.” Carter swilled some more of his beer while his eyes took on a faraway look.
“What is it? You’re warming to the idea, aren’t you? I knew it!” Jayden sounded excited.
“Well no, the hacker thing is too crazy for the reasons I mentioned. But there is someone we can call who might be able to help us.”
“Oh, and who’s that?”
“Maddy.”
Jayden brightened. “Good idea! But, she’s your woman, so I still want my Russian hacker.”
“Tell you what. We find Noah’s Ark, and I’ll see to it that we add a hacker to Omega’s payroll, okay?”
Jayden raised his glass in a toast. “Deal. So does Maddy know where Noah’s Ark is or what?”
“If anyone knows where to look, it’s her. She’ll know all the history behind the searches for it that have already been done, so that should save us some time.”
Dr. Madison Chambers, a professor of archaeology at a major American university, was an on-again, off-again girlfriend for Carter. She had also helped them in the search for Atlantis.
“I’ll send her an email,” Carter said. “But in the meantime, we should check out of our hotel and get to the airport.”
“What for? I thought you said we need to consult Maddy?”
“We do, but that’s more for the micro-details once we’re there. Besides, like you said, it might not be all that hard to hack into our emails here — not than many servers in this little town, right? And I’d have to use an Internet café since I don’t have my laptop or phone with me. We don’t want to be tracked like that.”
“Okay, I get it. So what’s up?”
“I know a little bit about Noah’s Ark myself. I’ve always been interested in the stories of expeditions that went looking for it in real life. I did a little research of my own before we left for the Titanic, just to brush up on it…”
“And?”
“And one of the most well-known hunting grounds for the ark is Mt. Ararat, Turkey.”
Jayden stared at him over his now ignored plate of seafood. “So we’re going to Turkey just based on that?”
“Yeah. Leaving today, hopefully. Let’s get to the airport.”
Jayden still didn’t look convinced. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. First of all, almost all of the places reputed to possibly be the final resting place of Noah’s Ark are on that continent, so we might as well get over there. And second, hanging around here for much longer is probably not advisable since I think one of those dudes who walked in with that group not too long ago has been scoping us out. Don’t turn around. Act normal.”
Jayden’s eyes widened as he remained facing toward Carter. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. I think we need to make a little bit of a show here of you walking up to the bar. Complain that the server is taking too long for our next round. Order a shot and ask for the check and a cab ride to our hotel. Give them the name of some other hotel, and say the name loudly. Then when we get in the cab, we’ll have the driver take us to the airport.”
“Did I mention I love this job? Good thing we visited the embassy this morning for temporary passports.”
“Good and bad. Good, obviously, in that it allows to travel, but bad in that it’s an easy place to keep tabs on.”
“Here we go.” Jayden nodded, took a deep breath while looking at Carter, and then he slammed a fist on the table loud enough to make the plates and silverware clatter.
“Damn, how long does it take to get a beer around this hellhole!”
Carter played along, raising his arms in an exaggerated gesture of rhetorical uncertainty, while Jayden stood up and shoved his chair backwards, tipping it over onto the concrete floor. “If you want something done right, man…” He swiped his not-quite-empty beer mug from the table and staggered over toward the bar, chugging down the remaining beer dregs as he went. The group of men who had drawn their attention all turned to look at him, as did their server from four tables over.
“Hey, hey what’s the problem, Sir?” the bartender, a man pushing sixty with a bald dome and gray hair on the sides, asked from behind his drink station. “Rachel?” He called over to the server and she apologized to the young couple at her current table before hurrying toward the bar. The bartender finished pouring a mixed drink for another customer already seated at the bar and then waked over to Jayden, who pulled a barstool out of the way to stand there. He plunked his empty mug on the bar.
“Ridiculous! Just get me a shot, would you, and cash us the hell out! We’ll head somewhere that knows how to sling drinks.” Inwardly, Jayden intensely disliked playing the part of a boisterous, drunken lout, since he was aware of the reputation American tourists had in many foreign countries, but he placed mission success ahead of all else.
The bartender frowned at him in disgust. “Sir, I don’t understand the problem. First of all, you’re seated at a table, not the bar, and you were served drinks.” The server arrived and bounced her concerned gaze between Jayden and the bartender. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you wanted another round already,” she offered.
“Never mind, it’s too late now. This place killed my buzz,” Jayden growled, tossing some bills on the bar top. “Where’s that shot? Maybe you have some whiskey worth a damn in this country? And call me a freakin’ cab, can you do that or is it too much to ask of a drinking establishment?” The stunned employees could only gawk at the wild-eyed Jayden in disbelief, and he took advantage of the silence to step up his act a notch. He raised his voice to a full-on yell.
“Are you deaf or something? I said, CALL US A CAB! WATERSTONE HOTEL — RIGHT NOW! And where’s my stupid shot?”
The bartender’s eyes narrowed and he turned to the server. “Give me their ticket and I’ll handle this, dear. See to your tables.” She nodded and handed him a piece of paper. He promptly picked up a phone and placed a call.
“Yeah, Robby, listen, we need a cab over here as soon as you can. Heads up: guy is pretty drunk, kind of an asshole, but he only wants to go to the Waterstone. Yeah, let me know.” He hung up and turned to Jayden. “Your cab’s on the way pal. But here’s the deaclass="underline" you want that shot? You drink it right here and then you and your buddy get out of my bar right now. Wait for your cab on the street, and never come back. Do we have a deal?”
Jayden felt terrible inside but kept up the act. He made a mental note to make it up to them somehow whenever he could. He met the man’s steely gaze with one of his own. “You got it, pal. Serve it up.”
The bartender poured Jayden a shot of what he recognized as the cheap, house whiskey and plopped it down in front of him. “Better hold your liquor, buddy. Around here it doesn’t take much to draw the attention of the Mounties. You might not like our bar, but I guarantee you it beats spending the rest of your vacation in the clink.”
Meanwhile, Carter was making a show of wolfing down the rest of his meal and drink while surreptitiously keeping an eye on the party of men seated a few tables away. He noted that they followed Jayden’s confrontation with interest, and watched two of them confer in hushed tones after the name of the hotel was announced.
At the bar, Jayden threw his head back and poured the entire shot of whiskey into his mouth by dumping the glass held at arm’s length over his head. He tossed the shot glass to the bartender, who stepped back and caught it before promptly pointing to the door. “Out of here now before I call the police! Your cab is on the way.” Then he looked over to Carter. “I’d get your buddy out of here right now, pal, if I were you.”