Kismet grinned. “Everything was so crazy — lights were flashing, the world was ending — I just said the first thing that popped into my head.”
His expression became more serious. “I needed to keep you busy for a while, somewhere I could find you when I was ready, when I finally had something to bargain with.”
“And you have it now?”
Kismet didn’t answer immediately, but looked past him as Higgins and Elisabeth stepped past the pillars at the edge of the courtyard, the latter holding her semi-automatic pistol aimed at Kismet. “Well, well, the gang’s all here.”
“Where is it?” Hauser pressed, jerking Annie’s arm again.
Kismet gave a deep sigh. “You know, I’ve been looking for you for a really long time. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, you really messed up my life.”
To Annie’s surprise, Hauser laughed. “You were never meant for normal things, Kismet.”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about. You seem to know all about me, and I know…well, nothing about me.”
The one-eyed man shook his head ruefully. “And you never will.”
“Not even if I give you what you want? The Seed of the Tree of Life?”
“Not even for that. It is important to us, but not that important. And in the end, we will have it anyway. The question you should be asking is: how much is it worth to you?” He shook Annie meaningfully.
Kismet’s eyes flitted to hers, and then to Higgins, before coming back to Hauser. “I figured you’d say something like that. Fine. Let her go and I’ll give it to you.”
“You first. Where is it?”
Kismet shrugged then took something from his back pocket and held it out on his open palm. It was a small heart-shaped silver box. He flipped it open and tilted it down to show the contents. Annie saw what looked like a large unshelled almond or maybe the stone from a peach. A faint blue light seemed to be oozing from the tiny pores that perforated its outer surface. Then Kismet snapped the lid shut on it.
“That’s a fake. You aren’t stupid enough to bring it here.”
Kismet ducked his head in feigned embarrassment. “That’s mean.”
“Where was it?” Despite the intensity of her captors hold, Annie turned in surprise, not because of the question, but rather the person who had asked it: her father.
“It’s quite a story really. You see, four hundred and fifty years ago, when Hernando Fontaneda found the Fountain of Youth, he wasn’t alone. He had with him several companions, including freed slaves who signed on as mercenaries. Fontaneda wrote that most of them died during the search. Only a few survived long enough to reach the Fountain, and only he survived to return to civilization. Turns out, that wasn’t exactly true. There was one other. You’ve already met him, Al. In fact, you saved his life back in Charleston.”
“Joe?”
Kismet nodded. “King and Fontaneda didn’t dare share their secret within anyone else. There was no telling what might happen if they did. They tried to integrate themselves into the colonies in the New World; Fontaneda established himself as a wealthy gentleman, and King was his slave. There were some hiccups at first; they nearly got caught in Saint Augustine, and had to completely start over. Over the next three hundred years they managed to work out a system that allowed them to live among the rest of us poor fragile mortals for a while without attracting too much attention. The Fountain regenerates — regenerated rather, but then after a while, the natural aging process resumes. They would stay in one place for twenty or thirty years, and then pop back down to Florida, take a sip, and start all over again somewhere else with a new name. Fortunato, Fortune, Fontaine, and always accompanied by his faithful manservant Joseph.”
“The Spaniard hated slavery,” Higgins countered. “He was an Abolitionist.”
Kismet nodded. “It was a different world. They had to stay close to the Fountain, so it was necessary to live a lie. Fontaneda never mistreated King, or if he did, it was just for appearance’s sake. I think his decision to help fugitive slaves was, in part, to soothe his sense of guilt about the situation. They were equal sharers in the secret of the Fountain’s existence, but Fontaneda lived the good life, while King was relegated to the slave house.
“Then the world changed. The Civil War ended slavery and they could no longer maintain the old lie. And King wasn’t under Fontaneda’s thumb anymore. Not that things were much better for King, but he was finally able to stop pretending to be a slave.
“He married and started a family. Not his first of course. Both men had married, fathered children, and then watched them grow old and die, never daring to reveal their secret or use it to save their loved ones. But that had always been Fontaneda’s decision. Now that King was a free man, he could do as he pleased. His wife died in childbirth — no chance to save her — but King vowed that he would not lose his daughter, Candace, I believe you met her, Elisabeth, though I doubt you’d recognize her now.”
The actress glowered but said nothing.
“Fontaneda tried to prevent King, and when that failed, he decided to take the Seed for himself — he’d figured out its importance long before that — and reveal the existence of the cavern to the world through the United Nations. I’m not sure if he meant it to be an act of altruism, or just a way to put King in his place one final time. In the end, King got the last laugh. They fought and King killed Fontaneda in self-defense — well, he says it was self-defense. Remember that strange mark on the map? Like a scar? King cut out Fontaneda’s heart, just to make sure he wouldn’t get back up again.”
Annie shuddered a little at the mental image. It was hard to reconcile Kismet’s description of King with the youthful man they had met in the Charleston cemetery, and even harder to picture Joe cold-bloodedly murdering a man and desecrating his corpse.
“How do you know all this?” asked Hauser, evidently curious in spite of himself.
“King told me the whole story, right after he and Candace pulled me out of that cave. I had figured out a lot of the ‘what’ already; King just supplied the ‘why.’” Kismet now focused his stare like a laser on the one-eyed man. “And of course, he gave me the Seed.”
“Because you asked so nicely?” Hauser scoffed.
“Because I threatened to expose their secret. When we showed up, asking about the Fountain, they knew the jig was finally up. They just wanted a chance to start over one last time, so after we left, they headed down to Florida ahead of us, used a back door — which would have been really nice to know about ahead of time — and took the Seed. Lucky for me, they decided to hang around a while longer to see how it all played out, and were there to rescue me.”
Hauser shook his head. “How nice for you. What an entertaining story. And you expect me to believe that’s really the Seed? That you just brought it here, knowing that I could just take it from you.”
“You could try. But really, why make it so difficult?” He waggled the heart-shaped box. “You want it, I want her.”
“No!” protested Annie. “Nick, you can't give it to him. You've no idea what he'll do with it.”
“I know exactly what he has planned.” He glanced at Hauser then at Higgins. “What he always does. He’ll hide it away forever. I can live with that. But I promise you this, you won’t get a thing if you don’t let her go. It’s that simple.”
“I’ll make it even simpler,” Hauser threatened. He held up his semi-automatic. “I’ll just kill you and take it.”
“Not a good idea. For starters, while I’m holding this, I’m not sure it’s possible to kill me. I can feel it working on me right now. Hell, my fingernails have grown while I’ve been standing here.”
Annie thought his hair and beard looked like they’d grown as well.