“Their schedule has changed. We need to hurry,” Meryem said.
“What do you mean their schedule has changed?”
“Think, Michael. They have the triggers.”
“But they don’t have the focusing array,” I said.
“No, not yet. But soon.”
“Why do you say soon?”
“Because I heard them. When you were under the ground. They think they know where it is.”
“Where?”
“I did not hear this.”
I looked at Meryem, her deep, dark eyes liquid in the match light. She took my hand in hers. For the first time, I could tell that she was afraid.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
Meryem looked at me.
“They say they are close to finding the focusing array, Michael. They are going to use it to destroy many, many people.”
Chapter 38
I didn’t know whether Meryem was right. I wasn’t sure I believed that they were close to finding the focusing array. Not because I doubted her, but because I knew what a master player Kate was. She could easily manufacture a tidbit like that for Meryem to hear. And the part about murdering many, many people? It would be Kate’s idea of motivating me. The woman was ruthless. So while I didn’t doubt for a second that the Green Dragons would blow up New York or whatever other metropolis behooved them, I didn’t want to fall for the bait either. I wanted to keep my mind clear.
So I waited in the dark, allowing my eyes to fall closed. Meryem did the same. She may have been worried, but she was a pro. She knew that there was nothing we could do for the time being. All in all, I expected that it was going to be a long night. And it was. But not in the way I thought. Because I couldn’t have been dozing for more than twenty minutes, before the hatch opened and the muzzle of a machine gun was pointed at the side of my head. Not to shoot me, but to wake me.
To reach me with the gun, the guard had to hunch down low. I recognized him as one of the guys who had captured us back at the mosque. His front tooth was chipped and he was off balance, extending the weapon just beyond his comfort range. His finger wasn’t resting on the trigger either, but just behind it. True, he probably could have gotten his finger to where it needed to be, but it wasn’t there yet.
I didn’t seize the opportunity because I didn’t see the upside. At that point the situation wasn’t life or death. It was still cat and mouse. Kate obviously still wanted something from me, or she wouldn’t be pulling me back out of the hole. And I wanted something from her too — I wanted to know how far she’d gotten. Not the theatrical version, but the reality. I judged that the better move was to play along.
I got up, sending Meryem a look that I hoped told her to stay calm. The guard covered me as I rose. Then a second guard took over at the hatch. The first guard led me back up the rear stairs to the salon. I started to think about how I could play the situation to my favor. The boat was sailing west, but it was still the middle of the night and we were a long way from anything, the world as black as ink except for a billion twinkling stars.
I entered the salon to see Kate standing at the front of the space where the big windows raked forward. Faruk leaned at the bar, poring over the triggers. It was my first decent look at what we’d found. Each trigger consisted of an arrangement of cams and gears that would make a watchmaker proud. They were held together in what looked like titanium frames, about three feet long. There were thin metal caps on one end of the frames and fatter metal caps on the other, bundles of wire emerging from them. By virtue of the port in one of the thin metal caps, it looked as if the triggers daisy-chained together, forming one long device.
“Sit down, Michael,” Kate said.
Faruk laid the trigger back down and retreated down the corridor to the rear of the vessel. The guard remained at the door.
“I’ve been cramped into a ball since you dumped me down that hole. Hard to sleep that way. I’d prefer to lie down.”
“We need to talk,” Kate said.
“Well, if you’re not going to let me sleep, then get me a coffee,” I said. “And a sandwich. Make it a club.”
Kate nodded to the guard and he spoke into his collar mike in Turkish. I guess he doubled as the waiter.
“Now please,” Kate said. “Sit down!”
I stepped across the salon and took a seat on the far leather couch. It was firm and cool, the thick cream-colored leather fragrant with its factory scent. There was a matching ottoman on the floor and I put my feet up on it. Might as well be comfortable.
“Thank you for leading us to the triggers.”
“I’d say it was my pleasure, but it wasn’t.”
“I can see that you don’t trust me, Michael, and I can’t say I blame you. But I’ve been thinking about our dinner,” Kate said.
“So have I,” I replied. “That’s what made me hungry.”
“I feel I owe you an explanation,” she said.
“Let’s be clear. We don’t owe each other anything, Kate. You don’t owe me and I don’t owe you. Not a damn thing!”
“There’s something I haven’t been telling you, Michael.”
I laughed. “Is that supposed to surprise me?”
“There’s something I haven’t been telling you about your father.”
I stared her down. I wasn’t in the mood for more games.
“Stop playing me, Kate.”
“We had an affair,” she said.
“What are you going on about?” I said.
“Your father and I,” Kate said. “We had an affair.”
I had heard her correctly, so there was no point in asking her to repeat herself. I had also completely lost my appetite.
Chapter 39
It didn’t take long for my sandwich to arrive. A second soldier carried it over from the corridor behind me. Lightly toasted sesame bread with grilled-chicken, lettuce and tomato, cut into four triangles, each speared with a fancy toothpick and topped with a pickle. There was a coffee too, with cream and sugar on the side. But I had no desire to eat or drink anymore. Not after what I had heard.
“It started not long after we met, on the job, in China,” Kate said. “At first it was casual. Just two people who worked closely together letting off stress. Enjoying the moment. But it grew. We…shared something. But I didn’t want to be a home wrecker, Michael. I knew your father was happily married. So I ended it.”
I thought about what Kate had said. Thought about my dad. Thought about my time with her.
“I don’t believe you,” I said.
Kate smiled. “Your father is an attractive man, Michael. He’s fit, experienced, smart. Is it so hard to believe that he’d be attractive to a younger woman?”
“No,” I said.
“Then what is it you don’t believe?”
“You,” I said.
“Why not?”
“The timing. It’s convenient isn’t it, Kate? To tell me about this now. To tell me when you want something from me.”
“It’s the truth, Michael.”
“Really?”
“He called me his Camden Star.”
I felt my stomach knot up a little, but betrayed no emotion. At least I tried not to.
“When I asked him why, he said it was something about the time he’d spent in Camden Town. In London. It’s where I was born you know. I don’t know what he meant by it exactly.”
I didn’t now what he meant by it either. I took a bite of my sandwich. The chicken was flavorful. Slightly spicy. I liked it. I liked it almost as much as I hated the image in my mind’s eye of Kate and my dad.