Lea smiled, but her mind was in no place for jokes. She knew they were being given the scenic route so they got a good idea of just how powerful their host really was. She peered out the windows and saw they were above water.
At the far end of the lounge was another room, which opened onto what looked like a very expensive boardroom. Lea had seen something similar when she’d watched a documentary on Air Force One, only this was much bigger and more luxuriously appointed.
“Wait here,” said the giant, and left the room.
Moments later they were called into a private office. The far wall was lined with tropical fish tanks under-lit by a blue neon light which made the place look like an upmarket strip club. Behind the desk was an enormous tapestry. It was an image of an Egyptian god, but which one, Lea didn’t recognize.
“You know who that is?” she asked.
Karlsson shook his head. “Nope. Went through college on a football scholarship then joined the Navy. You’re asking the wrong guy, honey.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not. You don’t know who it is either.”
It was beautiful, but there was something sinister about it — something out of place with the modern world.
“Ah — I see you are admiring the greatest god of them all — Osiris!”
The heavy Russian accent left no need for an introduction, but they got one anyway. They turned to see a tall, lean man with greying hair and three long scars running down the right side of his face. Maxim Vetrov.
“Welcome to my little airplane — I hope you like it!”
“Not really, and the service sucks.”
“Don’t be too hard on Kosma,” Vetrov said, his voice dripping with insincerity. “Here he is out of his milieu. He was hired because he can break a man’s neck with his bare hands, not for his interpersonal skills.”
“How very reassuring,” Lea said, staring at his face.
“Oh, this?” Vetrov said, pointing at the three thick scars. “Attacked by a bear when I was a young man hunting in the woods. I’m not bitter. It taught me to respect nature, plus, the bear’s head is on the wall of my Moscow apartment.”
He stared at them both for a long time, but particularly at Lea. “You know, I was just reading about you, Miss Donovan.”
“Interesting?”
“Not until the last chapter.”
“And what’s so fascinating about the last chapter?”
“You die, of course. That time is rapidly approaching.”
“You know nothing about me or my life, weirdo.”
He laughed. “You see, back in the good old days no one ever really left the KGB. Take me for example. I was a leading light at the academy, destined for great things, until perestroika and glasnost put me out of a job. But once a KGB man, always a KGB man, for better or worse — you make friends, you know?”
“It’s hard to imagine you just chilling out with your buddies,” Lea said. “Just you, some cold ones, a crocodile pit and a private, customized airbus.”
“This?” Vetrov waved a casual hand at the aircraft. “This is nothing, just a trinket, bought by the proceeds of my many corporations. The real wealth I have yet to attain…” He narrowed his eyes and fixed them on her. It felt like they were burning a hole in her. He began to laugh quietly, a sort of fiendish, suppressed chuckle. “You know of what I speak, no?”
“Well…”
“Don’t be coy, Miss Donovan. As I said, I was just reading all about you. Your little trips all over America, Europe and China during which you just happened to be at the right place and the right time whenever the elixir of life was mentioned, you were always there… You were there when Zaugg tried to claim it for himself, and you were there when Sheng tried to take it for himself…but…”
“Just spit it out, Vetrov,” Karlsson said.
“But now,” Vetrov continued, never taking his eyes off Lea and ignoring Karlsson, “but now… this time you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is why the last chapter of your story is so interesting, because it is here that you and your friends finally meet your end, and I fulfil my destiny.”
“That remains to be seen,” Karlsson said, louder this time and stepping forward.
Vetrov nodded and gave the former SEAL the most cursory of glances. Kosma stepped forward and gripped the American by the shoulder before dragging him back a few yards.
“We have been tormented by the terrible bounds of mortality since the dawn of our species. For millennia, desperate kings and emperors sought to attain eternal life by any means at their considerable disposal, but all their attempts were in vain — pathetic alchemies that usually ended in their premature deaths… the irony!”
Lea sighed. “Not this again…”
“You heard this before then?” Karlsson said.
“You could say that…”
Vetrov was undeterred. “It was one of these grand failures that led to the theft of the Map of Immortality from Poseidon’s tomb — when the Chinese Emperor Qin failed to achieve eternal life by consuming the lingzhi mushroom in a ridiculous concoction developed by his priests and doctors! After that was the mercury, and then his death — all because he couldn’t translate the map…”
“This is madness, Vetrov!” Lea shouted, the cable ties cutting into her wrists.
“Wrong again. Madness is drinking mercury because you have mistranslated a reference to the ancient Egyptians consuming white drops or liquid gold! That is madness.”
Lea watched a crazed look creep into Vetrov’s eyes as his mind ran away with all the possibilities of harnessing the source of eternal life.
“Can you imagine what it would be like to live forever? The ancients knew the power we are talking about… they knew how to transport their souls to the Elysian Fields — the Sekhet-Aaru, or heavenly paradise fields where the mighty Osiris rules for all eternity.”
“And you’re going to challenge him?”
“Of course not! No one challenges the mighty Osiris, but Osiris rules in the reed fields of paradise, Miss Donovan — not here on earth. This is my kingdom…Imagine the knowledge and power I will accumulate, imagine the strength of my armies. Think about the things I will see in the far future, when you are no more than long-forgotten dust.”
“In your dreams,” Lea said angrily, but she was starting to feel nervous.
“A dream for me, but a nightmare for you — as you will discover when you are sacrificed to the gods… Did you know that if you are to reach Sekhet-Aaru, your soul must weigh exactly the same as the feather from the head-dress of the great Ma’at, the goddess of truth and beauty?”
“Fascinating,” Lea said.
“But no way does she weigh that,” Karlsson drawled. “You should have seen what she had for lunch.”
A look of dark rage crossed Vetrov’s face. “Silence! The deities will not be mocked, and that includes me!”
“Talk about an ego problem.”
Vetrov calmed down and joined his hands as if in prayer. “Do you think, Miss Donovan, that your soul weighs more or less than that feather?”
“I wouldn’t know how much anyone’s soul weighs,” Lea replied in disgust. “You can’t weigh a soul.”
“Not true… the ancient Egyptians found a way. They weighed the hearts of the recently deceased. Perhaps, I will weigh your heart against Ma’at’s ostrich feather to see if your soul can enter the reed fields?”
“This guy is totally crackers,” Karlsson whispered.
Vetrov stared hard at her. “Well, what do you think about that?”
“You’re not there yet, Vetrov.”
“We’ll see about that,” Vetrov said, and turned to Kosma. “Bring me Mazzarro. It’s time for him to share his research with us.”