Sam had no words that could make any of it better. He had a million questions about the police, the old man’s body, how she got to Edinburgh, but all that had to wait. For now, he had to calm her down and remind her that she was safe, and he intended to keep her that way.
‘McFadden, you just fucked with the wrong people,’ he thought. Now he had proof that McFadden was indeed behind Aidan’s murder. This also affirmed that McFadden was a member of the Order of the Black Sun after all. Time was running out for his trip to Belgium. He wiped her tears and said, “Dry off, but don’t get dressed yet. I am going to take photographs of your injuries and then you are coming with me to Belgium. I will not lose sight of you for a minute until I have skinned that treacherous motherfucker myself.”
For once, Nina issued no protest. She allowed Sam to take control of things. Not a single doubt crossed her mind that he was her avenger. In her mind, as Sam’s Canon flashed on her secrets, she could still hear Mr. Hemming warn her that she had been marked. Still, she would have saved him all over again, even knowing what swine she was dealing with.
After he had enough evidence, and they were both dressed, he made her a cup of Horlicks to keep her warm before their departure.
“Do you have your passport?” he asked her.
“Aye,” she said, “do you have any painkillers?”
“I am a friend of Dave Purdue,” he answered suavely, “of course I have painkillers.”
Nina could not help but giggle and it was a blessing to Sam’s ears to hear her spirits lift.
On their flight to Brussels, they exchanged vital information, gathered separately during the past week. Sam had to illuminate the facts under which he felt compelled to take up Aidan Glaston’s assignment, so that Nina would understand what needed to be done. He shared with her his own ordeal with George Masters and the doubts he had about Purdue’s possession of the Dire Serpent.
“My God, no wonder you look like death warmed up,” she eventually said. “No offense. I am sure I look like shit too. I certainly feel like shit.”
He ruffled up her thick dark locks and kissed her temple. “No offense taken, love. But yes, you do look like shit.”
She elbowed him carefully, as she always did when he said something cruel in jest, but she could not deal him the full force, of course. Sam chuckled and took her hand. “We have just under two hours to go before we hit Belgium. Relax and take a breather, alright? Those pills I gave you are amazing, you’ll see.”
“You would know what best to drug a girl with,” she teased as her head lolled against the head rest of her seat.
“I do not need drugs. Birds love the long curls and the rugged beard too much,” he bragged, running his fingers slowly down his cheek and jawline. “You are lucky I have a soft spot for you. That is the only reason I still stay single, waiting for you to come to your senses.”
Sam heard no catty comebacks. When he looked at Nina, she was fast asleep, exhausted from the hell she had been through. It was good to see her take some rest, he thought.
“My best lines always fall on deaf ears,” he said, and laid back to catch a few winks.
19
Pandora Unlocks
At Wrichtishousis, things had changed, but not necessarily for the better. Although Purdue was less moody and kinder to his staff, another scourge had craned its neck. The presence of a nuisance in a pair of flats.
“Where is David?” Nurse Hurst asked abruptly when Charles opened the door.
Purdue’s butler was the epitome of composure, and even he had to bite his lip.
“He is in the laboratory, madam, but he is not expecting you,” he answered.
“He will be thrilled to see me,” she said coldly. “If he has reservations about me, let him tell me himself.”
Charles, nonetheless, followed the arrogant nurse down to Purdue’s computer room. The door of the room was ajar, which meant that Purdue was busy, but not off-limits. From wall to wall, black and chrome servers towered, flashing lights blinking like little heartbeats in their polished chests of Perspex and plastic.
“Sir, Nurse Hurst has showed up unannounced. She insists that you wish to see her?” Charles delivered his subdued hostility at an elevated volume.
“Thank you, Charles,” his employer cried over the loud hum of the machines. Purdue was sitting in the far corner of the room, wearing earphones to distract from the noise of the room. He was seated behind a vast desk. Upon it sat four laptops, linked up and wired into another large box. Purdue’s white crown of thick wavy hair perked up from behind the lids of the computers. It was Saturday, and Jane was not there. Much like Lillian and Charles, even Jane had become a little annoyed by the nurse’s constant presence.
The three staff members were of the mind that she was more than Purdue’s caregiver, although they did not know about her interest in science. It looked much more like an interest in a wealthy husband to take her out of widowhood, so that she did not have to clean up people’s waste and deal with death all day. Of course, being the professionals they were, they never accused her in front of Purdue.
“How are you doing, David?” Nurse Hurst asked.
“Quite well, Lilith, thank you,” he smiled. “Come and see.”
She skipped over to his side of the desk and found what he had been using his time for lately. On each screen, the nurse noticed a plethora of number sequences she recognized.
“An equation? But why does it keep changing? What is it for?” she inquired, leaning deliberately close to the billionaire to allow him her scent. Purdue was preoccupied with his programming, but he never neglected a woman’s beguiling.
“I am not quite sure yet, not until this program tells me,” he boasted.
“That is a quite obscure explanation. Do you at least know what it involves?” she pried, trying to make sense of the morphing sequences on the screens.
“This is reputed to have been written by Albert Einstein, somewhere during the First World War, when he was living in Germany, you see,” Purdue elucidated happily. “It was thought to have been destroyed, and well,” he sighed, “since, had become somewhat of a myth in scientific circles.”
“Oh, and you uncovered it,” she nodded, looking very interested. “And what is this?” She pointed to another computer, a more bulky old machine that Purdue had been working on. It was linked to the laptops and the lone server, but the only device he was actively typing on.
“This is where I am busy writing the program to decipher it,” he explained. “It has to constantly re-written according to the data coming from the input source. The algorithm of this device will ultimately help me ascertain the nature of the equation, but, thus far, it looks like another theory of quantum mechanics.”
Frowning heavily, Lilith Hurst studied the third screen for a short while. She looked at Purdue. “That calculation there seems to represent atomic energy. Did you notice?”
“My God, you are precious,” Purdue smiled, his eyes gleaming at her knowledge. “You are quite correct. It keeps yielding information that takes me back to some sort of collision that will generate pure atomic power.”
“Sounds dangerous,” she remarked. “It reminds me of the CERN super-collider and what they are trying to achieve with particle acceleration.”
“I think that was pretty much what Einstein discovered, but, like with the 1905 paper, he thought such knowledge too destructive for fools in military uniforms and suits. That is why he deemed it too perilous for publication,” Purdue related.