"S'all right," she said. She struggled for breath. "Knocked the wind out of me."
Ronnie helped her up. She pulled the box with the Codex from her jacket. The round had punched through the book and been stopped by the armor underneath.
"Nick," Lamont said.
"I'm okay. Jesus, I love this armor."
Ronnie bent over one of the dead men. "Guess theirs wasn't as good as ours." He picked up one of their guns. "Russian. PP-19. Good weapon."
"Not good enough," Lamont said. "What are Russians doing here?"
"Same as us."
"This one is still alive." Ronnie knelt next to one of the prone figures. The man's eyes fluttered and opened. Blood ran from his mouth. Ronnie knew he wasn't getting up again. So did the man on the floor.
"Fuck your mother," he said in Russian. Then he was gone.
"Definitely Russians," Lamont said.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Elizabeth sat in Stephanie's office drinking coffee and thinking about people trying to kill her. She'd dressed all in black today. Black silk blouse, black suit, black shoes. It suited her mood. The only touch of color was a silver pin in the shape of a swan over her left breast, set with tiny diamonds.
Nine in the morning, and she was already on her fourth cup. Her stress levels were somewhere in the stratosphere.
Stephanie's desk had three large monitors and built in keyboards linking to the bank of Crays downstairs. A bobble doll of Elvis Presley was stuck on top of the monitor in the middle. A framed travel poster of Venice hung on one wall.
A large corkboard over the console was pinned with notes to herself and pictures of friends and family. A vase with fresh flowers was placed between two of the monitors. On the right wall was a realistic photo picture of a window looking out over an ocean scene and a sunny day.
"No clues?" Stephanie asked her. "Nothing to indicate who sent them?"
"No. My guess is AEON."
There were no long term physical effects from the bomb. She'd been partially deaf for a day. Her face bore several cuts from flying bits of the windshield. She had bruised ribs where she'd been thrown against the door. Apart from that, her body was fine.
The attack replayed itself in her mind. The car lifting into the air and crashing down onto it's side. The impact. The noise as it scraped along the pavement. The pistol recoiling in her hands as she shot at the faceless riders, the explosions. The scene was etched into her thoughts forever. She thought of her guards, one dead, one on life support.
She'd sent a plane to Portugal. The team was on the way back with the Codex.
"There was no ID on the men they killed in Mafra?" Stephanie reached out and tapped Elvis with her finger. He wobbled and bobbled.
"No, but they had Russian weapons. One of them died speaking Russian."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing important. They were after the Codex. It's just good luck we got there first."
"Bad luck for them." Stephanie tapped Elvis. He bobbled.
"They killed the museum guards. That wasn't necessary. I don't have any sympathy. The Portuguese are trying to figure out what happened, but I don't think they'll get anywhere."
"AEON would explain a Russian connection."
Elizabeth nodded in agreement. "This is getting messy. I wonder what's in that Codex? It has to be important to send in a team like that."
"What do you think they're trying to do?"
"Foxworth is up to something. He's made a serious effort to eliminate us."
"But why? All he's done is get us involved."
"I thought at first he might be trying to get even for Texas, but it's gone way beyond that. Or perhaps that's all it is."
"Going after you was a mistake."
"No," she said. "Failing was a mistake."
Elizabeth's voice was quiet and controlled, her green eyes an unusually dark color. Stephanie had no doubt that Foxworth had just made the biggest mistake of his life.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The Codex lay on Elizabeth's desk. There was a hole in the middle from the bullet. The bark pages were faded and brittle. The corners were chewed away by insects. There were tiny holes everywhere. The pages were long and narrow and covered with faded pictures and the strange shapes of Mayan glyphs. To Nick the writing looked like drawings of pieces of popcorn, with a helping of squiggles, pictures and rows of dots.
"You can read this?" he asked Selena.
She brushed a hand across her forehead. Her violet eyes shone with excitement. This was her element, ancient languages and writing that made the Times crossword puzzle look simple.
"Some of it. This example is unique. It has elements of early Mayan and Toltec mixed together. I'd guess it's from around 500 or 600 CE. It's going to take me a while to figure it all out, but I can do it."
"Can you make sense of what you see so far?" Elizabeth asked.
"Some of it. I don't know why AEON would want it The first page is part of a construction record. Perhaps an inventory."
She pointed at a vertical row of glyphs and dots. "This is a list of building materials. The dots are numbers, how many units of stone, that kind of thing. I think some pages may be missing. Usually the first page praises the king and dates the record by his rule, glorifies his achievements. Like the Egyptian obelisks."
"How long will it take you to translate?" Elizabeth asked.
"I'm not sure. Mayan is one of the most documented of all the ancient languages but early variants like this aren't well understood. I'll need Steph to help me. I'll compare this with known texts and look for similarities and speed it up with the computers."
"Like you did with the Minoan."
"Exactly."
"Then you'd better get started."
"Come on, Selena." Stephanie stood. "Let's go talk to Freddy."
Nick watched them leave. "Steph acts like those computers were people."
"Just don't say anything bad about them when she's around," Elizabeth said. "They're like a family to her." She picked up her pen. "Any ideas about Portugal?"
"Only a question. Why the Russians?" Nick said. "I don't think they were regular forces or Spetsnaz. Their armor was inferior. They were careless. Special Ops people wouldn't have done what they did. Besides, their uniforms had a red patch on them I'd never seen before."
"I think Ogorov sent them."
"AEON?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense. The question is whether or not this is sanctioned by the Federation government."
"You think the Kremlin would cooperate with AEON? Foxworth?"
"No, but we need to find out exactly what we're up against. It makes a big difference if we're taking on the Federation."
"How are you going to find out?" Ronnie said.
"The old fashioned way. Ask. I think it's time for me to reach out and touch someone."
Part Two
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
General Alexei Ivanovich Vysotsky ran Department S, one of eight specialized departments within the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. Department S included the Special Operations Group called Zaslon, a group that did not officially exist.
Foreign Minister Ogorov had been playing SVR and FSB against each other and Alexei was determined to find out why. The Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti handled all internal security. The struggle for power between internal and foreign security dated back to when they had been directorates of the old KGB. Now they were separate organizations. The rivalry was worse than ever.
Ever since Vysotsky had found a way to eliminate the criminal Gelashvili, FSB had been in what the Americans called a snit. Vysotsky loved American slang. It was almost as good as Russian slang, except for the insults. No foreigner would ever match the essence or subtlety of the Russian insult.