CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Since they were all together and time was short, they stopped halfway up a dark back alley. Even before he recovered, Bodie spoke up regarding Alessandro. “We’re not leaving him behind.”
“We have very little time,” Jemma said, leaning against a grimy wall. “They’ll take him somewhere to interrogate him.”
“Sorry, Jem,” Cross said. “It’s not like that in real life. They will interrogate him in the van and then…”
He broke off, unwilling to finish in front of Lucie.
“How can we find them?” the history expert asked.
“How did they find us?” Cassidy asked, scowling with pain.
Heidi tested her ribcage tenderly. “I already sent a local team after the van, so don’t worry. They have full agency capabilities.” She flinched as she moved. “Satellite. CCTV coverage. They’ll find the van and grab Alessandro back.”
“Tell ’em to be careful,” Bodie cautioned. “Those guys redefined ‘good.’”
“They were better than the norm,” Cassidy said. “Beyond special ops? At least, that’s what I’m hoping. If they’re training them that well these days it’s time to friggin’ retire.”
“Not a lot’s known about the Chinese Special Forces and their training methods, but these men would have been trained to an incredibly high standard by the faction controlling them,” Heidi said, still cringing. “Sorry I was taken out so quickly.”
Bodie stared at her and then laughed. It was crazily funny to hear their CIA boss apologizing for being thrown against a window. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Happens to the best of us.”
Gunn had slithered to the ground the moment they stopped. Jemma had already checked and found a large swelling on the top of his head. The team required medical attention and somewhere safe to lick their wounds. “Gunn and I,” she said, “aren’t cut out for this. Heidi, we’re helping as you insist we do, but we’re not friggin’ warriors.”
Heidi nodded in silence, accepting the rebuke.
“I hope you called an agency Uber too,” Gunn said, “’cause I don’t think I can walk another step.”
Bodie listened to the noise that pervaded the city, chiefly sirens at that moment. It went without saying that Heidi would have called for an extraction. It was just a matter of waiting. He thought once more of the Chinese and the Moroccans.
“Quick patch-up,” he said. “And then back at it.”
Only deep groans met his words.
“C’mon,” he cajoled them. “The doc’s only gonna tell you to keep moving, don’t let those aches stiffen up too much.”
“Says our resident expert,” Cross mumbled, still largely uncommunicative.
A black van came around the corner, stopped, and picked them up. Ten minutes later they were back inside their hotel rooms, taking turns being thoroughly checked over. The questions the doctor faced in each room were typical — Bodie asking how the rest of the team was, Gunn wanting a second opinion, Jemma clamming up completely, and Cassidy asking if he’d like to go dancing.
Later, they reconvened in Heidi’s room.
“Alessandro?” Bodie asked first.
Heidi was seated at a table, sheets of paper scattered across its surface, folders in a large pile, a hot coffee mug steaming, and a bar of chocolate half eaten. “They never found the van, but they did find a badly beaten body. Must have left him for dead. He’s in surgery right now.”
Bodie closed his eyes as Lucie’s face tightened, the neat exterior she presented to the world threatening to crack. Bodie saw her fists clench around the glass she held before she spoke softly.
“Will he be okay?”
“Too early to tell,” Heidi admitted. “But they’re hopeful.”
“How did the Moroccans find us?” Gunn asked from over by the window. “I get the Chinese. Unlimited resources. Only a few people like Alessandro in the whole world. But how did they find us?”
Heidi cut in. “I can confirm that four other ancient-language experts were abducted and tortured today.”
“And for what?” Jemma whispered. “‘Go to the temple of Poseidon in the mountains of Atlantis.’ Really?”
Cross cleared his throat. “We should also look at saving Yasmine. She can’t be with the Bratva of her own free will, right? Not the Yasmine I knew. Those guys won’t let her go easy.”
Cassidy glared. “Are you kidding? She’s running with them. Leading them now. She’d rather kill you than kiss you, Eli, and I gotta say, I’m feeling the same way right now.”
“Me?” Cross looked over. “Why? What else can I do? I can’t leave it at that. I need… closure.”
Bodie held up a hand, saving that tussle for later. “Right now,” he said, “we’re on the clock. We know at least two other big players are trying to figure this out. Let’s not be last.”
“Figure what out?” Jemma asked, now trying to bind her hair back into its bun and wincing with every stretch of a muscle. “There’s nothing to figure. Not forgetting the fact that both these players just kicked our collective ass. Do we really wanna face them again?”
“She’s right,” Gunn said. “Maybe you should call SEAL Team Delta or something.”
Heidi regarded the room. “That’s it? You’re backing out? One rough thrashing and you’re all quivering like babies? Where’s your spine, people?”
“Hey,” Cassidy growled. “We don’t deserve that, and you can’t motivate us with abuse. We don’t play that way.”
Heidi visibly caught hold of her emotions. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. Been a rough day. Look, Danel’s clues have brought us this far. I can’t accept that it’s a dead end.”
Lucie used the desk to rise to her feet and steady herself as the bruises from her struggle to escape the van complained. All eyes turned to her.
“Alessandro wasn’t done,” she told them. “When we were inside the van, just for a few seconds, he whispered something to me. He said, ‘Look at the ancient coordinates on the rose.’ He knew what was going to happen to him and wanted to pass it on. Then Cassidy saved me and he… he was gone.”
“You think he was about to push you out of the door?” Cassidy asked.
“Maybe, I don’t know. But Alessandro was lying across from me and then you were there. He spoke the second you appeared.”
“‘Look at the ancient coordinates on the rose’?” Heidi mused. “I wonder what that means.”
“Well, isn’t it obvious?” Lucie regained a bit of fire in her voice. “Alessandro only saw one object and it was a direction finder, which essentially is the same as coordinates.”
“The compass.” Bodie nodded. “And the rose?”
“Every compass has a rose,” Lucie said. “The diagram that shows north, east, south, and west. You align the rose to go in the direction you need. The compass has far more relevance than we first thought. As it should, I guess, being one of the Four Great Inventions. The others, according to the Chinese, were gunpowder, paper, and printing. Make of that what you will.”
Heidi shuffled through the papers on the table. “So you’re saying there may be a set of coordinates on the compass rose?” She squinted.
Lucie walked across the room to her side. “I certainly hope so.”
Bodie pushed out of his chair, trying not to groan as bruised muscles protested. He found himself shuffling and then leaned over Heidi’s shoulder. “Not the best photo ever taken.”
“You try snapping a good picture,” Jemma complained, “bent over in some billionaire’s weird little trophy room.”
“Good point,” Cassidy said. “And well put.”
Bodie squinted at the photo that Heidi must have printed out and blown up. The compass and the runes were easily recognizable, as were the directional figures and arrows around the compass rose. Whatever letters and symbols lay at the center, though, were blurred and seemed to blend with the arrow lines.