“But we have the manuscript now,” Lea said.
Maroni laughed and shook his head. “Zito had the entire thing photographed and emailed to Kruger. That’s why he took off without a real fight on the island. Now all ne needs is the translator.”
“Name.”
“They found a man named Dr Henk Kloos. He’s some kind of world-famous expert. I have told you all I know, and put the rest of my life in constant danger in the process.”
“That’s your lookout,” Hawke said. “You should be more particular about who you work for.”
Maroni gave Hawke a weary glance. “I’m still getting full immunity from prosecution, right?”
“Don’t ask me, mate,” Hawke said. “That’s Jansen’s department.”
“Talking of which,” Reaper said, “we should get out of here before he returns, non?”
Lexi Zhang stood beside her friends outside the two-way mirror and watched Hawke interrogate the young Italian man. Ryan was now walking in circles around them as they spoke. He looked different to her now. The nerd had become a man, she supposed, but then nothing was ever as it looked. She knew there would be more to Ryan’s transformation than met the eye.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the vibration of her phone. Someone was ringing her.
She fumbled it out of her pocket and saw it was her mother calling. She raised it to her hear and moved a few steps away from the group. “Yes, Mama?”
“Xiaoli? This is your mother. I have very bad news…”
Lexi’s eyes narrowed with confusion. Her mother rarely phoned. When they spoke it was when she called her parents back in their Beijing apartment. “Is everything all right?”
“No… no, it’s not, Xiaoli…” her mother sighed. “It’s so good to hear your voice after all this time.”
Lexi swallowed and lowered her voice to a whisper. It was instinctive; no one standing around her would have been able to follow a conversation in Mandarin. “What’s happened?”
“It’s your father.”
Lexi gasped and felt her heart speed up. “Ba? What’s the matter with him?”
“He’s very sick, Xiaoli… very ill.”
Lexi struggled to hear her mother’s voice over the sound of the blood pumping in her ears, and her head started to spin. She had dreaded the day this phone call would come, flying out of the darkness like some vampire bat ready to wrap its leathery wings around her face and smother her until she couldn’t even breathe. “Ba?” she repeated dumbly.
“I’m so sorry, Xiaoli,” her mother said. Her voice was weak and frightened. She sounded lost and scared. “If you want to see him — if you want to talk to him again, then you must come home at once.”
Lexi breathed deeply and turned to her friends in the ECHO team. They were all captivated by the scene unfolding in the interrogation suite where Hawke was grilling the Italian under the cold, greasy strip light.
If you want to talk to him again
She knew what that meant. Her father was on the edge, dying but still in this world. He was in that terrible place between life and death and her mother was trying to tell her that he wouldn’t stay they for long. It was now or never, and she knew she couldn’t live with never.
She turned away from her friends and stared at the corner of the corridor. The blankness of it brought some weird comfort as she processed her mother’s terrible words. They had hacked inside her like an ice pick, but she had already made her decision. The mission was critical, but ECHO was capable of doing it without her. On the other hand, her mother needed her now more than ever. She had to go back.
“I’m coming, Mama.”
“You are a good girl, Xiaoli.”
Lexi bit her lip and cut the call. She slipped the phone back in her pocket, sighed and closed her eyes. She started to make plans to fly home to China but her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of men shouting at the other end of the corridor.
It was Piet Jansen and he was with two armed security guards.
“Out of my way!” he boomed. “There was no call from my boss. Who’s behind this?” The Dutch Europol agent raced over to the two-way mirror and gasped in horror when he saw the carnage inside the interrogation room. Before he could speak, the door opened and Hawke stepped out. Lea, Ryan and Reaper were right behind him.
“Ah, Mr Jansen — the prisoner’s all yours,” Hawke said, and then leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “You might want to rethink using De Jong as an official lawyer — the man’s as drunk as a Russian sailor.”
Jansen scowled at Hawke, but the Englishman’s conscience was clear. Thanks to the interrogation they now knew what they had suspected all along: not only was Giancarlo Zito working for someone else but that person was none other than Dirk Kruger.
Jansen and the Dutch authorities could worry about Marco Maroni later on, and as for De Jong — that was nothing a couple of headache tablets wouldn’t sort out. He was already focussing on tracking the South African arms dealer down. They all had a desire to see Kruger caught and brought to justice, but Hawke could see from Ryan’s eyes that he wanted more.
“So what now?” Lea said.
Hawke’s reply was immediate. “We need to speak with this Dr Kloos, and fast.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
After they parked up a hired Suburban in the city center, Dr Kloos was not hard to find. He worked out of an office in the Centrum district not far from the city’s main railway station, and when he came to the door he was already expecting them.
“I thought you said there were eight of you?” he asked.
“One of our colleagues was called away to China,” Lea said. “Family emergency.”
Kloos studied their faces, stepped back and ushered them inside. “I was surprised when I got your phone call, Miss Donovan,” he said, showing them into his office and offering some seats. “Very pleasantly surprised, in fact — but also concerned.”
“We understand. Learning about how these men need you to translate the manuscript must have been unsettling,” Lea said.
Kloos looked at her with watery eyes. He was a tired man, but he looked like something had breathed new life to him. “Indeed. When I saw the museum in Boston had put the Book of Gold up on their website I could hardly believe it. I have spent my life researching this subject. Now you tell me that this Kruger has worked with a man named Giancarlo Zito to steal it, but that they had unknowingly snatched only parts one and two.”
“Correct.”
He sighed and rubbed his face. “Then they kidnapped you to obtain the other part?”
“Correct again.”
“This is a worrying development. The symbols etched into the full manuscript are a treasure trail leading to something of legendary historical importance and power. If these men are as dangerous as you say, then what they seek will only make them even more so.”
“Then we share your concerns, Dr Kloos,” Lea said. “We managed to get the Book of Gold back, but we know Zito scanned the entire thing. For all we know they’ve found another translator and they’re already well on their way to finding what they’re serching for.”
Kloos looked at her and gave a mischievous smile. “I wouldn’t be sure about that, Miss Donovan.”
The team fixed their eyes on the doddery old professor. Each of them felt the same wave of hope. “What do you mean by that?” Scarlet said.
Kloos smiled. “Kruger and Zito only have nine-tenths of the story.”
“What do you mean?” Hawke asked him.
He closed his eyes as he considered a response; the old man’s chiming clock gently marked the passing of their lives with a solemn ticking sound. “Wait here.”